Coronavirus knocks out direct market - Diamond stops deliveries

[Godlike13]

Even if DC and Marvel wanted to pull out of the direct market they would have to do it carefully. Seriously just think of the headlines in this day in age if they pulled support or moved away from them right now.

[cranger]

1. 'Their customers' = the comic shops
2. They were paid for stuff releasing this week already. Three months ago.
This appears to be another reason why the current 'pre-order three full months worth of comics unseen' has to go.

Sorry if I am misreading, but are you saying retailers paid Diamond already for the books in the warehouse? Because most retailers do not pay until books are shipped, although they have different periods. New accounts might have to pay in advance but there are way more accounts that pay weeks later, so there could be quite a few outstanding invoices from March or even earlier.

[Lee Stone]

Even if DC and Marvel wanted to pull out of the direct market they would have to do it carefully. Seriously just think of the headlines in this day in age if they pulled support or moved away from them right now.

They should've been thinking about that a long time ago.
Like shortly after the move to the direct market.

They should never have allowed the whole industry to go only to 'specialty shops'.

They should've been working to find a format and price that would work for grocery vendors to get them back into the public.
But they never bothered.

I imagine four quarterly anthologies, about the size of a Dell or Penny Puzzle Book, full of new content: Batman Family, Superman Family, Wonder Woman and Friends, and Justice League.
If the same size as the puzzle books, and the same price, and kept to a quarterly shipping (extending shelf time per issue and requiring less space), it could've been deemed acceptable by the vendors.

[Lee Stone]

Sorry if I am misreading, but are you saying retailers paid Diamond already for the books in the warehouse? Because most retailers do not pay until books are shipped, although they have different periods. New accounts might have to pay in advance but there are way more accounts that pay weeks later, so there could be quite a few outstanding invoices from March or even earlier.

I may be mistaken because I ordered through DCBS for the last year or two before I stopped buying print.
They required you to pay upfront when pre-ordering, so I assumed they paid then, too.
I'm sorry if I was wrong.
Will delete my previous post.

[_Feely_]

Reading comics on my 55inch curve is honestly a magical experience.

[Midnight_v]

I mean... I can enjoy digital books... I never did get rid of DCStreaming app like an idiot, but regardless of my personally having a big screen to read books on or a more convenient tablet or phone.
Whatever happens after covid-19 its going to be some big and dare I say "Unpredictable" changes to the way comics are made, distributed and enjoyed.

I think many people have their head in the sand about how not only the comic industry but very likely the world is about to change in some significant ways. I mean the "Ripples" of this thing around the world are bigger than just the comics industry even if thats the lens were discussing it through. The fact that comics shops were "struggling" to varying degrees before all this happened means that its going to be hard to come back.

It would be foolish to think diamonds monopoly is going to come back and the companies would make the same mistakes... but Marvel didn't put out any digital product today, did they?

So there's a push pull going on there. I feel that theres some heads in the sand about what has to happen next, but like someone above says, were're not prophets.
I would like to turn and look over at the CDC guy that said:

"Hundreds of thousands are going to get this disease.. *ahem* No I mean to say Millions are going to get this disease "hundreds of thousands are going to die""

So... I'm thiking... I work a job that is considered essential, and see things from a ground level perspective and no one knows have far this is going to extend to.

I was vehemently against going digital... then... Slowly, because I'm in the crowd that didn't like the directions of many curent era books I tapered myself away, and started picking up a book here and there.
Things spoken highly of and reviewed well by people I respect... but the days of me going to pull a sub every week it was just habit?

But how much better would things be right now if EVERYONE was on digital with digital subscriptions and the damn quarantine hit.

As much as I LOVE and care for mom an pop comic shops... and as much as I get deride people as "Selfish" for WANTING people to lose their lively hoods... blockbuster is gone, gamestop is out the door. . .

Video killed the radio star. and its a good thing. in a way that things should end.

Digital might force a more meritocratic narrative of sales, and therefore whats made. Idk, but I hope so.

[Ascended]

So... I'm thiking... I work a job that is considered essential, and see things from a ground level perspective and no one knows have far this is going to extend to.

Whatever it is you do for a living, thank you for doing it. Somebody better be sending you a cape, because anyone working an essential job right now is a hero as far as I'm concerned.

[Midnight_v]

Whatever it is you do for a living, thank you for doing it. Somebody better be sending you a cape, because anyone working an essential job right now is a hero as far as I'm concerned.

Bruh * Blush* If I'm honest at work this threa\t doesn't feel too different from everything else... I'm actuality so much more worried for the people OUT of a job. Thats why I'm like... What happens to these poor people pushed out
what happens to the economy after this. There is going to be rebuilding no matter what.

[captchuck]

It seems to me that at the point print comics start shipping to stores again, comic dealers will want to stock the same number of books that they would normally get per week. If there are 2 months of digital books out there before stores start the first week, the print product would not catch up to the digital, unless digital stopped for 2 months to let them catch up.

[Ascended]

Bruh * Blush* If I'm honest at work this threa\t doesn't feel too different from everything else... I'm actuality so much more worried for the people OUT of a job. Thats why I'm like... What happens to these poor people pushed out
what happens to the economy after this. There is going to be rebuilding no matter what.

Yeah, it's gonna be....I don't even know what it's gonna be. Nothing I ever learned in college about economics or business prepared me for anything like this. I don't think it's gonna be catastrophic, not unless it lasts a lot longer than I'm expecting it to, but it's definitely going to have a deep impact and consequences I can't even begin to guess at. And I really feel for the people who are already out of work, too. I struggled through the last recession and that is not a fun place to spend your time.

Still, I'm sitting back in my house with my family and the wife's new "work office" (ie; living room), only leaving the house once a week to grab pick-up/to go groceries, and you brave/foolish bastards are out dealing with it every day. Much respect. Get yourself that cape, man!

It seems to me that at the point print comics start shipping to stores again, comic dealers will want to stock the same number of books that they would normally get per week. If there are 2 months of digital books out there before stores start the first week, the print product would not catch up to the digital, unless digital stopped for 2 months to let them catch up.

If digital is a little ahead, is that really a problem? Retailers will bitch and moan, but they're trying to stay afloat in a dying market so of course they're going to complain about anything that might snag customers away. But if digital came out a little early, *would* that actually steal that many customers? We've had same-day digital for almost a decade now, and it doesn't seem to have had that big an impact on direct market sales. As DC themselves said, these are different audiences; serving one doesn't necessarily under-serve the other. Would print readers really abandon floppies just so they can get their book a couple weeks early? Some would I'm sure, but generally I don't think they would.

[ohfellow]

It seems to me that at the point print comics start shipping to stores again, comic dealers will want to stock the same number of books that they would normally get per week. If there are 2 months of digital books out there before stores start the first week, the print product would not catch up to the digital, unless digital stopped for 2 months to let them catch up.

Some comic shops have already been buying very few shelf copies of most titles, and zero for many smaller titles if no one requested them. They order what their savers/subscribers have standing orders for. Or for special orders placed using Previews. They take some chances on a few others.

My LCS is sometimes burned by savers never picking up their books. But I think that's rare.

Most of the big online retailers charge credit cards at an order deadline - for April books, that was at the end of February. One online retailer has stopped taking new orders, but is processing any already submitted, and billing credit cards for them. dcbs has moved the March order deadline (for May books) up to April 3, giving people time to still cancel, but for orders already placed, I believe credit cards will be charged soon.

I know of one online retailer who charges for pre-orders only when they ship. However, even those orders are considered locked and non-cancellable, and the buyer responsible for their purchases, at Final Order Cutoff, even if cards aren't charged until later.

So - a lot of business is locked in. And I think people with pull lists will still want their printed copies.

Since publishers are making comics fully refundable going back to mid-March and for at least several months going forward, the risks are mitigated. Stores will be returning unsold copies.

The bigger problem is if the stores can survive long enough for all of this to matter.

[Black Manta]

Man, I'd hate to lose comic books. I don't like reading on kindle. If they do go all digital could people print them on their own?

[kjn]

Man, I'd hate to lose comic books. I don't like reading on kindle. If they do go all digital could people print them on their own?

Print won't disappear anytime soon. There are very good and valid reasons why many readers prefer to read stuff on paper, whether it's books or comics, just as there are good and valid reasons why many readers prefer to read stuff on screen. And some are both.

Rather, it's the way that floppies are distributed and made in the USA that is in trouble, due to being a niche market that fails to gain new readers in any regular way.

When looking at the market for comic magazines here in Sweden, where we still have a functional mass-market distribution of comics together with other magazines, they also look very different to US ones. Thicker, usually in an anthology format, and much more suited for picking up a single issue due to the way the stories are structured.

[ERON]

I feel badly for owners and employees of mom-and-pop comic shops, which includes some close friends of mine, but the direct market has been an albatross around the comic industry's neck for decades now, and if this pandemic forces the industry to adapt and change to stay alive, I think it's for the best in the long run.

[Noodle]

If digital is a little ahead, is that really a problem? Retailers will bitch and moan, but they're trying to stay afloat in a dying market so of course they're going to complain about anything that might snag customers away. But if digital came out a little early, *would* that actually steal that many customers? We've had same-day digital for almost a decade now, and it doesn't seem to have had that big an impact on direct market sales. As DC themselves said, these are different audiences; serving one doesn't necessarily under-serve the other. Would print readers really abandon floppies just so they can get their book a couple weeks early? Some would I'm sure, but generally I don't think they would.

One word: Spoilers.

Unless print readers abandon all comic websites and social media, every single book would be spoiled for them.