Mark Waid discusses the hard math/difficult economics of print comics

[Wood]

Waid is nothing if not candid. A lot of what he's saying won't be new news to anyone that is (or knows) an independent creator, but to hear it from Waid, with real numbers attached, will go a long way toward exposing this reality to a broader audience. It also looks like he's got some heavyweights chiming in on the comments section.

http://markwaid.com/?p=759

[lugaru]

Control + P...

Just what I needed for my lunch break.

[David]

Control + P...

Go green.

[VinceB]

Loved Peter B. Gillis's bicycle store analogy. 

[RickV]

A lot of this is pretty common knowledge but it is nice to have it in a well put together concise readable place that can be easily linked to.  

I may not agree with his not-comic digital things but Mark Waid talks the straight talk.

[Robert]

Great article. 

I don't like looking at the numbers and find it very sobering to read articles about the shrinking number of retailers, but whenever Mr. Waid speaks, I must listen.

[David]

Chuck Beckum Austen!!

 

[lugaru]

Go green.

Funny you say that, I put it on my fire, but as a text file (I cannot get wireless in this building so I need to copy files onto it). 

And yeah, holy crap, great article.

It is part of why I hope digital becomes super succesful... just so the 5k print run dudes can make a good living. I think the comics industry should be lucrative just like every other one, and an extra $1 profit per issue would really help.

[InspectorSpacetime]

how is readability any different than reading list and reader feature in safari? just wondering.

[David]

how is readability any different than reading list and reader feature in safari? just wondering.

Like Read It Later or InstaPaper you have the ability to read it 'offline' and sans graphics or ads.  I've used all three, I prefer Readability.

Where it differs from the Reader option in Safari is that I have to have the iPad in front of me to read that version of the site.  With Readability I can email the URL to myself or use a Firefox plugin.  I can then read the page on my devices or the browser.

~~~~~~

The article's great, but I'm really enjoying the comments.

[Planck length]

love this comment by chuck Austin

"I’ve also published digitally, both novels and comics and when you take out the printing costs I’ve made more money just going through Amazon than I ever made publishing independently through Diamond. Add in Nook and Sony reader and I might actually make a decent profit over time rather than just dinner money every week for my wife and I. Better still I keep making money, and sales gradually increase over time. There is no limited shelf-life."

[evaD]

No surprises there, sadly. Well written, though. It's strange to think that Diamond is killing itself. It's also strange to think that there might not have been any lawsuits to break up that monopoly. Any one know if there were?

[Wood]

No surprises there, sadly. Well written, though. It's strange to think that Diamond is killing itself. It's also strange to think that there might not have been any lawsuits to break up that monopoly. Any one know if there were?

Diamond is a legal monopoly.  There's a bit of a misconception that all monopolies are illegal. That's not true. Monopolies are only illegal when they enact business practices that are anti-competitive. Diamond never did that. In fact, they basically lucked into their monopoly status after Marvel screwed up their own distribution network and decided to join DC at Diamond on an exclusive basis.

[Dave Faust]

Big props to Waid for name-checking Prattville, Alabama in the article (I know he grew up around that area). I had a really fucked up weekend in Prattville and woke up here.

[evaD]

Diamond is a legal monopoly.  There's a bit of a misconception that all monopolies are illegal. That's not true. Monopolies are only illegal when they enact business practices that are anti-competitive. Diamond never did that. In fact, they basically lucked into their monopoly status after Marvel screwed up their own distribution network and decided to join DC at Diamond on an exclusive basis.

Interesting. And a little weird. Are their current practices anti-competitive? I had heard rumors that they pressured retailers for exclusivity at some point. Anyway, thanks for answering my question. I didn't know that about the legality of monopolies.

[GrimlocksPS]

Heres a retailer response to Waids article. Nice counter point. http://www.savagecritic.com/retailing/about-waids-print-math/

[David]

Heres a retailer response to Waids article. Nice counter point.

Pete, aka commenter number 8, is the type of Internet personality I really dislike.

#irony

[GrimlocksPS]

Pete, aka commenter number 8, is the type of Internet personality I really dislike.

#irony

I hadn't noticed the comments but I agree.

It's nice to see its not as doom and gloom as Waid makes out. Diamond is what it is.

Hibb linked to this too. http://brianwood.tumblr.com/post/20531019467/the-retailer-is-the-customer

[evaD]

Pete, aka commenter number 8, is the type of Internet personality I really dislike.

#irony

Yeah, not sure what that comment had to do with anything.

The article was a great response though. It's nice to hear some positives, and he (Hibbs) really had some good ones.

[JasonF]

I didn't read Waid's article as gloom and doom, though it certainly could be read that way.  Rather, it was a frank analysis of the limitations of the direct market and, perhaps more importantly, an analysis of where the $3 I spend on a comic goes -- i.e. why 99 cents is a perfectly appropriate price point for a digital comic.