STORMWATCH'S AMAZON ACTIVISM

[MattBrady]

by Chris Arrant

In the wake of the recent cancellations of Wildcats Version 3.0 and StormWatch: Team Achilles, fans of the both series have been looking for away to appeal to DC/Wildstorm in order to save the books, if at all possible. From online petitions to letter-writing campaigns to editors at DC & Wildstorm, the motivated readers of these titles have been trying to change the minds of those in charge.

A rather unique way that readers have found is made possible by an apparent slip-up at Amazon.com. Despite the cancellation of the single issues and upcoming collected editions, this listing on Amazon.com has the 3rd collection of StormWatch: Team Achilles available for pre-order. Series writer Micah Wright told Newsarama that the cancellation of the third trade was his first hint that the series may be in trouble.

Word quickly spread across internet forums including Mark MIllar's MillarWorld and Micah Wright's Forum at Delphi. While attempts to reach Wildstorm editor Alex Sinclair have so far been unsuccessful, Newsarama did manage to talk with Micah Wright about the cancellation, and this interesting wrinkle.

NEWSARAMA: When do you become first aware of the cancellation, and how did you find out about the Amazon error?

MICAH WRIGHT: Wildstorm called to let me know that the third trade had been suspended from the printing schedule. The concern was that the first two trades weren't selling with a high enough "velocity" to justify printing another trade. I was devastated... I felt that those issues, #12-#19 were the best story arc of the book so far. For the first time on the book, a single storyline was all drawn, inked and colored by the same art team, resulting in a fantastic story which was really meant to be read all in one sitting. It would have been a great book and having it suspended indefinitely was depressing on an artistic level. On a business level, though, I completely understood... most stores aren't carrying the monthly issues, so why would they carry the more expensive trades? Still, I felt that if only people could buy the book they would enjoy it.

When the monthly book was cancelled a week later, I noticed that a lot of online readers were saying things like "I've never even heard of this book... is it really as good as people here are saying?" That's a bit depressing to hear... that someone's never seen a copy of the book on the shelves of their Local Comic Store? Interestingly, another group of people expressed disappointment because they were following the book exclusively in trades. A third group of people were saying "Damn, I've been seeing the new art team online and I was waiting on that third trade to jump onto the series."

I've talked a lot online about lessons learned from this series... one of them is this: no nine-part story arcs while the book is still young. People whose store didn't carry early issues can't find the first part of the story so they wait for the trade. In this case, that huge wait for a jumping-on point helped kill the book.

Even worse, we had a solid fanbase of 12,000 people who were buying the book every month, in and out, rain or shine. Then the Coup D'Etat came out and we sold 30,000 copies. Suddenly a lot of people wanted to jump onto the book after they read the Coup D'Etat, but when they went to their store the next month, the store hadn't ordered extra copies of #20 or #21, and didn't have any copies of the two trades in stock, so they were out of luck. A lot of those people were wrote me saying that they were waiting for the 3rd trade to jump on with the series.

Then someone wrote me and said "hey, I noticed that the book is still being solicited on Amazon.com" and I thought that was kinda funny. I posted a note to that effect on my website and someone said "you should tell everyone... it's a lot more effective than signing some petition." I figured "what can it hurt?" So I told everyone and encouraged them to tell anyone they could.

NRAMA: What do you think of the overwhelming support you've received from fans willing to put their money down to pre-order the cancelled third collection from Amazon?
MW: It's amazing. I'm really moved... like I said, we had a solid fanbase of 12,000 monthly readers who would talk up the book online, but there seemed to be this massive gap between them and the type of people who were reading the book only in trades. I think we were mostly selling trades to book collectors and monthly issues to people who collect books monthly... a lot of people have told me that they don't buy a trade if they already own the issues and I completely understand that... you've got to give someone a value-added reason to buy a trade of a book which they already own. Think of it as DVD extras... it's a nice bonus and it might make someone who already owns the videotape of the movie to trade up. When the book was cancelled, though, that gap between those two gaps shrank to nothing... suddenly the trade collectors wouldn't be getting any more trades and the monthly collectors wouldn't be getting any more monthly issues. People went bananas and the Internet exploded with "how can we save this book?" threads. When this was presented, it was an easy way for people to register their support. They ordered the book like crazy from Amazon.com.

Then word of mouth started to spread... people who hadn't read any of the series were like "what's everyone talking about?" People who have never read any Team Achilles ordered the book in order to see what the excitement was all about, or to send a message to DC that there is support for Mature Readers titles.

I fell off my chair yesterday when I checked it three hours after I posted theURL.

The book was up to #2471. Then later in the day, 1273. I never thought we'd break 1000. Then we hit 959. 669. Hellboy was #505. No way I can pass up Hellboy, not with a movie out. Two hours later, we're at #332. I told Alex Sinclair, my Editor on the book that if it broke 200, I'd buy him a nice lunch and if we made to the top 100, we were going to Vegas. I went to bed thinking that I was safe at 212. I woke up and it was at #162. Now I'm terrified that I'm going to have to fly Alex to Vegas for girls and gambling!

Actually, come to think of it, that doesn't sound so bad... GO BUY MORE! I want an excuse to fly to Vegas!

NRAMA: Do you think it will make a difference in the eyes of DC/Wildstorm?

MW: I sure hope so... I know that Amazon.com is less than 10% of DC's sales, but this kind of online activism has got to mean something to them... after all, we're now the #1 selling comic or illustration book on the web. Amazon.com carries over 10,000,000 items... the fact that any comic book can reach #162 is a good sign for the future of our industry as a whole and says a lot about the untapped marketing potential that the internet holds.

[csGuy]

You know, I really hope there's a reversal of decision on these 2 books but I feel like we'd need a "Waid off FF" style newsarama take down for that to happen.

[camax]

What an excellent idea. Kudos to the fans who were intelligent enough to go the Amazon route and try to save two more worthy series'.

NEGATION!

[sjs1970]

I don't mean to rain on this guy's parade but at amazon.com, they do not charge for preorders. Isn't it more likely that a few people ordered hundreds of copies of this book, knowing it would not be published and therefore they would never be charged? There is also no charge for cancelling ordered items as long as they haven't entered the shipping cycle. I think that it would be unwise to judge demand based on amazon orders, unless they were paid for up front, which is not their policy. Any thoughts? Sorry for your book's cancellation.
Steve

[passiveslacker]

Nevermind my pre-order question has been answered. Its good to know they will take my money when it ships.

I had these issues before but they were destroyed after my room was mysteriously flooded after I moved out and went to college.

[MicroZone]

as of 12:15 EST it's Amazon ranking is 2,773

Despite my general distate for the author's often immature & petty remarks, he hasn't been the whining twat that other creators can be when their books get axed do to low sales.

And I'm kinda curious is these Amazon orders will push DC to change it's mind and print this after all, so I'm going to drop $14 and put it on pre-order.

[doom]

you dont get charged until it ships

[Cartoon Jay]

VERY interesting.

[passiveslacker]

Where do you check the sales status of a book? I want to see what number this one is selling at.

[meverat]

yep. your credit card doesn't get charged until it is shipped. I won't be doing this since i alraedy own the singles. is there a wildcats trade solicited as well?

but you could easily pre-order 10 copies and then cancel them all once it's solicited. it's a faulty system because of this artificial inflation of interest. i guess the only way to know is to see how many copies the trade actually does sell once it's shipped and not by pre-orders alone. dc should make the trade though i think.

[Ryan Twombly]

Ya know, this is a huge event in the whole monthlies vs. trades debate. I started getting Stormwatch: Team Achilles and the rest of the Eye of the Storm line because of Coup d'Etat, and because Wildstorm's been sending out free overships to retailers. It is a decent book, and the latest story arc is unbelievably gutsy. I probably wouldn't continue as a reader because of the mature content (which, to be fair, is not as heavy handed as it could be, and not nearly so gratuitous as the MAX line), but as a learning experience, I think it's brilliant. Here's hoping the Amazon blitz succeeds, and the whole industry figures out how to dole out a proper mix of floppies and trades to meet the needs of the modern comics fan.

Oh, and I respect the heck out of Micah for his defense of American Power in the initial post-mortem interview. Supporting another's right to voice a contrary political view? It's downright revolutionary!

[sythspawn]

Damn! I did notice the pre-order for Volume 3 via a link from Micah's website, but I didn't order it at the time. HOWEVER, I did go and order the first 2 trades, since I think once they are sold out, there won't be any further printings.

Even if all this Amazon activity doesn't save the book from cancellation, I HOPE that the rest of the series could get collected into trades.

[MattBrady]

Originally posted by csGuy
You know, I really hope there's a reversal of decision on these 2 books but I feel like we'd need a "Waid off FF" style newsarama take down for that to happen.

Please, no.

MattB

[Vyper]

Originally posted by camax
What an excellent idea. Kudos to the fans who were intelligent enough to go the Amazon route and try to save two more worthy series'.

NEGATION!

AMEN! I have no desire to get bogged down in the old "oversaturated by X" debate about the comic book market, but it is always disheartening to see a great-but-underrated book get the axe.

-----------
"I shall personally lead my Lord's Lawbringers to Elysia." - Evinlea, Negation War Part 2 May 5, 2004
Free Preview of Neg War#2

[DaFalcon]

Hmn, well the current Amazon.com rank is 2,773 ... I just pre-ordered a copy -- though I've never read the series, my interest has been sparked. If it ships, I will be happy to have it. If it does not get printed... well, then I'll have an extra $13 with which to try something else.

Alan

[drifter13x]

Very cool. I think Wildcats 3.0 and Stormwatch are some of the smartest superhero fiction going on today. I hope this helps the people at DC/Wildstorm realize they're passing on a couple of winners here.

[FIG]

Heres a hint to Wildstorm......Get Jason Pearson to draw the stories for either Wildcats or Stormwatch. If the excellent Global Frequency #11 isn't any indication how awesome of an artist Jason still is, then his covers should be.

[BriGuy]

I wouldn't exactly call this an error on Amazon's part, the fact that the listing is still there. Amazon still has listings for the Deathmask trade and Metallix trade for Future Comics (I'm talking the trades, not the digests, the trades were cancelled months ago). Amazon just doesn't pull down items that quickly.

The counter to the "preordering is a poor gauge" argument is, then order the 1st and/or 2nd trade. To be honest, this would probably be more effective than preordering the unreleased 3rd, anyway. Afterall, Micah, himself, said the reason the 3rd was cancelled was because there was not enough demand for the first 2, so if you increase the demand on the first 2 it'll increase the chances of the 3rd coming out. Plus, DC/Wildstorm will be getting the money for these since the books are out and the orders will be processed immediately. So when Amazon exhausts its supply of Vol. 1 they'll have to place another order to DC and DC will see that there's some demand for the book. As of last night Amazon only had one copy of Vol. 1 left with more on the way, so it looks like this has already happened to a degree. Amazon has already placed a new order for Vol. 1, now what needs to be done is make them place another order for Vol 2 and make them make as many orders for the two trades as possible. This will be much more effective then simply ordering Vol 3 because not only are you showing your support of the book , but you're also making DC/Wildstorm money and nothing's gonna make them listen more than that.

(edited to add links to the other trades)

Volume 1: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg.../-/1401201032/

Volume 2: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg.../-/1401201237/

And it looks like Amazon is running a deal where you can get both Vol 1 and 2 for $24 a savings of over $10. And if you spend at least $25 you get free shipping, so find something for a dollar and save on shipping too!

[meverat]

very good point in the above post. everybody should order the first 2 wildcats trades. personally i don't care if stormwatch goes (i was about to drop it anyway) but wildcats deserves to live on.

[Cray_ws]

I urge everyone to spread the news around, Both Wildcats & STormWatch:TA are worth saving.

Which do you want....more interesting books or more pretty variant covers of Superman and X-Men?

I also Urge Retailers to order these Canceled Wildstorm books anyway simply out of protest. Show your strength of unity and support books that help this industry grow and do not up your orders on the variants.

[AlexLothos]

Wow... this rules! I hope DC takes notice of all this!

[clerk976]

I ordered. I just think it sucks that the second WildCATS trade just came out so we can't place orders for a thrid WildCATS book as well. Considering I read WildCATS but not TA, I'd hate to see just the latter get saved.

Did someone say variant covers on Superman?

[csGuy]

I think it's definately better to place orders on v.1 and v.2 of both series since they are immediate sales. To show that you have enough faith in a series even after it's been cancelled should be a pretty strong message. I'm putting in my order for the first 2 wildcats trades right after this.

[BriGuy]

Originally posted by clerk976
I ordered. I just think it sucks that the second WildCATS trade just came out so we can't place orders for that book as well.

Why can't you place orders for the second Wildcats 3.0 trade? It's available on Amazon and ships in 24 hours. Are you referring to preordering the 3rd trade? No big deal, just order the 1st and/or 2nd, that'll help the Wildcats cause more than preordering Volume 3.

[Sambo253]

Everyday I check Newsarama, I have a hint of hope that one of the headlines is "Wildstorm Changes its mind, Wildcats 3.0 Uncancelled" EVERY DAY, and luckily this story came up. I haven't read Stormwatch and I'm honestly just concerend about Wildcats, but I'm thinking of buying the first two Stormwatch Trades, if it might help. We'll see.

Go buy the first two Wildcats trades though.