Diamond changes and the importance of promotion

In a recent Ninth Art column, John Fellows talks about Warren Ellis's new Engine forum. It's an interesting read overall, but this bit in particular got my attention:

I'm a firm believer that if I haven't heard of your work, it's not because I'm not doing my job, it's because you're not doing yours. It's too off-hand to say that good comics speak for themselves, but it's unlikely that anyone is going to get discovered just because they've got an Engine account.

Forgetting the "discovered" part of that for a minute (unless I'm skimming through Ellis's forum too quickly, it seems as if many people are making their own comics now, rather than just hoping to be discovered), Fellows makes a fabulous point--it's not the consumer's fault that they've not heard of a creator's comic.

Now, I've posted before about how much I hate "hype." I should say that I don't hate promotion. It paid my bills for about three years (sort of, as I tend to always have more bills than income, primarily because I'm an irresponsible idjit), and good promotion is an invaluable tool. "Hype" is just promotion without soul or conscience. It's someone telling people his/her comic will be guaranteed to be the most talked about comic of the year. But promotion... promotion is reminding people that something's been missing from their buying habits, and it's something they should rectify soon.

I think this is fresh in my head because of the public and private discussions regarding the new Diamond terms. Initially, my gut reaction was for doom and gloom, but the more I think about it, the more the whole thing makes sense to me. I'm not going to weigh in on whether or not Diamond is a monopoly, a servant of the devil or an essential tool for the survival of comics--as someone who just wants to buy and read comics for enjoyment, it really doesn't matter what it is, provided I get the comics I want when I want to get them. However, I do think that people need to think about how to promote their work better.

In the linked story from Newsarama, someone posted the following:

My point is, it's all right for Diamond to insist that small publishers continue to promote their own work, even after they've made it past the catalogue's benchmark - but for the small publisher, that's a lot of work, work that takes time away from actually making comics. They may not be able to afford it.

How much does it cost to promote a comic, I wonder? Perhaps a more knowledgeable source (Matt Maxwell? Larry Young, with handy ISBN numbers?) can weigh in on that. From my perspective, at least, perhaps creators can't afford not to promote.

Have I mentioned lately that I love Damon Hurd's work, and Damon as a person? He's easily one of the nicest, most talented guys in comics today. In the big Diamond terms thread at the Engine, he had some comments and questions for the others:

I started out by self-publishing my first book, my uncle jeff, and it did well and all of my work since (including the 2nd printing of my uncle jeff) has been published by alternative comics.

Rick Smith and i then decided this year to self-publish our bi-monthly series temporary and we did so with mixed success.

What i'm wondering is, if diamond is saying you need to make $600 on a book or we won't distribute it, is that really so harsh?

I mean we decided to stop self-publishing temporary once our orders hit the 700 mark with issue #4. 700 copies of our $2.95 book equals $826, which is above the 40% benchmark, but too low for us to continue. especially considering the print costs are $1400 (including fees and shipping) and we spend roughly $300 in promotion for each issue.

Why would a self-publisher really want to keep losing roughly $1000 on every issue they put out?

I'm sad to see Temporary go--it was a nice, quirky book that I'm now regretting I hadn't reviewed yet. I know Damon and Rick sent review copies out, and sent press releases out, and all that, but it seems like Temporary didn't catch on the way some of their other work has. And they're decision, while unfortunate, makes sense and displays both business acumen and maturity. But it makes me wonder, is promoting just to the comics press itself enough?

It's not like promotion outside the comics internet guarantees success, true. Over at the Engine again, Joshua Hale Fialkov started a thread on his Elk's Run (a book, I admit, I haven't read yet, but I'm looking forward to the "bumper edition" to catch up with it, as enough people whose judgment I trust have said kind things about it) with these opening paragraphs:

So, I do this little book called Elk's Run. It was self-published through my company Hoarse and Buggy Productions, but it's recently moved over to Speakeasy Comics. The book's been praised in Entertainment Weekly, Wizard, Variety, and by such luminaries as our gracious host, as well as Brian MIchael Bendis, Brian K. Vaughan, Phil Hester, Stuart Moore, and a bunch of other folk.

So. With all that great press why move the book to a different publisher?

Cause nobody reads it. Our numbers were laughably low on the first three issues, so we picked up and moved on over to Speakeasy, who're re-releasing a 'bumper edition' of the first three issues, featuring a cover by Darwyn Cooke and an introduction by Steve Niles. That was in last month's previews, but, we've had DIamond keep orders open, so if you want a copy, you can still pre-order (info's in my sig).

Even with the positive review in a highly circulating entertainment magazine like Entertainment Weekly, Fialkov couldn't move enough copies to make self-publishing remain a viable option in today's direct market comics scene. But, hey, that Entertainment Weekly review made for great shelf-takers and PR copy, and I'd put money that at least a few people picked up Elk's Run based on that.

The thing is, at the very least, these guys are trying to get their books out there. They're doing more than just hitting up message boards, or having other people hit up message boards, or just trying to sell their books through solicit text.

Perhaps they've been hampered by the direct market system, which makes it more difficult for casual shoppers or those without access to a good comics shop. I'd love to say bookstores are the obvious answer, but at present, I'm still seeing two things: large manga sections (and a big fucking "hooray!" for that), but I'm also seeing very few non-superhero comics mixed in with all the capes and tights, which doesn't bode well for cartoonists and creators not going through Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly, Top Shelf or Pantheon. I know my bookstores aren't city bookstores, which tend to stock more variety in terms of comics, but I'd guess that what's true of bookstores in my region might also be true smaller towns and cities in the US.

However, just because the direct market (and, as it's main provider of funny books, Diamond Comics) isn't as strong or as widespread as some hope it could be doesn't mean that people should stop trying to build buzz for their books. As I was driving home Friday, I caught the tail end of the rebroadcast of Talk of the Nation on NPR (this story, to be specific). It reminded me that, as "mainstream media" goes, NPR is the one place that one bumps into comics news and discussion (ok, so searching NPR's archives for "comic books" yields only 197 results, and some of them aren't talking about comics, but that's a good deal more than you'd find elsewhere, and targeted to intelligent, literate listeners). So, while I was daydreaming on my commute, I thought, "hey, if I was publishing my own comic, or was going through a publisher, I'd take one of those review copies I'd be sending to bloggers and web sites, and I'd send it to Terry Gross for Fresh Air or someone else at NPR, depending on what my book would be." It wouldn't cost anymore than sending a review copy to any other source, but wouldn't "as talked about on Fresh Air make some pretty good ad copy?

I'm hoping that creators will find ways at working through these new Diamond terms, and that the ones adversely effected by the change are the shitty, shitty comics that give independent and small press comics a bad name. At the very least, I'm thinking that people will not only realize that promotion is something they need to invest in if they plan to have a successful comic. If they're just doing comics for the joy of craft, then the sales aren't as much of an issue (and guys like Shawn Hoke and other fans like us will still be seeking those things out anyway).