Coronavirus knocks out direct market - Diamond stops deliveries

[Ascended]

In my idea, all books would be part of 1 in 12 different lines of digital books, each line becoming its own 100-page floppy when printed.

Ah okay, I got ya.

That may very well work, and be a better option than doing weekly digital at 5-ish pages, or maybe daily digital at a single page. I'm not too up on webcomics and their structure so I have no idea what the best approach would be.

The only upside to my idea that I see (having given very little thought to this at the moment) is that doing it "my" way supports the direct market a little more for a little longer, as it wouldn't disrupt the usual release schedule. I'm all about getting away from the direct market, but DC doesn't have a viable replacement yet. Shifting to 100 page giants right now would be a bigger risk, while there's a little more forgiveness in my approach, which might give DC the time they need to get a solid grip on the new distributions.

But webcomics are very much outside my area of expertise (more than the rest of this is, even) so I really don't know.

[DragonPiece]

so obviously there is no competion, but all of DC's new digital first comics are in the top 5 on Comixology right now. This was a really smart move by DC.

[superduperman]

so obviously there is no competion, but all of DC's new digital first comics are in the top 5 on Comixology right now. This was a really smart move by DC.

B-B-BUT THEY'RE GOING OUT OF BUSINESS!!!!!111111oneoneone.

[Frontier]

so obviously there is no competion, but all of DC's new digital first comics are in the top 5 on Comixology right now. This was a really smart move by DC.

Right now digital is the smartest option for comics at the moment and DC/WB made the right call capitalizing on it.

[HandofPrometheus]

I remember when Injustice 2 was constantly in the top of bestsellers even beating out regular comics series from both Marvel and DC.

Right now digital is the smartest option for comics at the moment and DC/WB made the right call capitalizing on it.

They should've did so from the start. I don't know what they were waiting for.

[Frontier]

They should've did so from the start. I don't know what they were waiting for.

No one could have foreseen how long the Pandemic would go and what the right move going forward without the comic book stores should be in my opinion.

[shaboo]

I remember when Injustice 2 was constantly in the top of bestsellers even beating out regular comics series from both Marvel and DC.



They should've did so from the start. I don't know what they were waiting for.

Perhaps they're afraid that people who are turning to digital comics now will never return to printed books.

[Vampire Savior]

Perhaps they're afraid that people who are turning to digital comics now will never return to printed books.

Only a dinosaur would view that as something to be afraid of.

[skyvolt2000]

Perhaps they're afraid that people who are turning to digital comics now will never return to printed books.

If someone at Dc is thinking like that-they need to go ahead and retire or resign.

There are folks who do BOTH formats.

Right now something needs to be out to keep folks working.

Even if you lost some folks-you still have a big enough pool to get more folks with trades.

[Factor]

Agreed. DC's real problem would be if readers abandoned comics altogether.
Shifting to digital is only bad for comic shops, not the publishers.

[Noodle]

Agreed. DC's real problem would be if readers abandoned comics altogether.
Shifting to digital is only bad for comic shops, not the publishers.

You just explained why it could be bad for publishers.

From the numbers that are available, digital only makes up a small fraction of comic sales. You would have to bank on the majority of print readers transition to digital, or hope that enough new people join via changes to digital (cheaper, etc) to offset those non-digital readers. That's a pretty big gamble. If either of those don't play out, you've just lost the bulk of your profit.

[Digifiend]

Are those 99 cent/pence digital issues selling well? If they are, then that right there is the reason normal floppies don't - they're four times the price!

[iron chimp]

Give your money to the richest man in the world rather than buy from a local shop in the community.... worst idea ever.

Shops will be open again soon enough and im most people have a backlog or things that deserve a re-read.

[Factor]

You just explained why it could be bad for publishers.

From the numbers that are available, digital only makes up a small fraction of comic sales. You would have to bank on the majority of print readers transition to digital, or hope that enough new people join via changes to digital (cheaper, etc) to offset those non-digital readers. That's a pretty big gamble. If either of those don't play out, you've just lost the bulk of your profit.

I don't think you understood my comment. I was talking about a hypothetical scenario where all print readers just switched to digital, without abandoning comics. How that wouldn't be bad for the publishers, only for local comic shops.
That's obviously a fantasy scenario meant to illustrate that what truly matter for publishers is that they can reach a clientele, no matter what channel that clientele prefers.

[9th.]

Digital and reasonably priced? Sounds like a complete no brainer right now