JEFF SMITH ON SELLING AT CONVENTIONS

[MattBrady]

As an issue, it’s a little over two months old – retailers angry at Jeff Smith for debuting Bone: One Volume at Comic Con International: San Diego in August, before they had their copies in the stores. Reaction from retailers ranged from feelings of anger to betrayal, with several claiming that they would see fewer sales in their own stores due to the 400 copies Smith sold at the con.

When it was announced that One Volume was sold out, and would be allocated, speculation flared up again, with more claims against Smith, claiming that he held back copies that were due to go to stores to sell at the convention. Retailers felt that they had carried the book in their shops for the ten-plus years it took to complete the story, and, now that it was completed, Smith had, by selling these 400 copies before they were available to retailers, turned his back on them – not offering them the chance to take the initial dips from the pot.

Obviously, Smith didn’t feel quite the same. It took some time, given his schedule, but we finally had a chance tot sit down with Smith and get his side of the issue.

Newsarama: First off, obviously, this is nothing new for you - how long have you been selling your products at conventions?

Jeff Smith: I took comics to the very first convention I went to. More to promote the books and get them into people’s hands than to make money. I needed to get the books seen back in those days

NRAMA: What went into the decision to sell the trade at this year’s SDCC? Was there any worry about debuting it there before it was available in stores?

JS: We did discuss it. Vijaya and I even talked it over with our Diamond representative. We all decided it would be best to ship the Bone: One Volume Edition to comic shops at the same time as San Diego, but I still wanted to keep the books hidden until the Wednesday night preview at the convention booth.

NRAMA: Why did you want to debut it at your booth at the show?

JS: It’s simple - we were hopeful that the surprise of seeing the book would get people talking at the show and that would spread.

NRAMA: The reaction was pretty immediate from retailers – what was your initial response when you heard folks were pissed?

JS: Well, obviously, I didn’t want them to be pissed, but I also know the retailers only get riled up if they sense something hot. Don’t forget, Cartoon Books premiers a new Bone collection at Comic-Con almost every year, and no one usually cares. When I heard grumbling, part of me knew we had a hit on our hands.

We sold 400 copies on the spot - at the convention! And now here we are, two months later and we’ve sold fifteen thousand paperbacks and counting. In two months! We can’t keep the thing in stock.

NRAMA: What’s your view of the brouhaha in simplest terms?

JS: In the simplest terms, every book I sell at the show is a book that wasn’t sold by a retailer. That’s a legitimate gripe. Again, we weren’t setting out to undercut our business partners; we were just trying to get people’s attention.

NRAMA: Have you seen any evidence in your orders after the show that it damaged the number of copies that were going to retailers?

JS: No. Initial orders were for 11 thousand. In two months, we’ve had reorders for 4 thousand more, and we’ve been to press three times. All the stores I’ve spoken to have sold out twice, and are waiting for more. And we’ll have more November 24th, by the way.

Everybody seems to be making out pretty well, and a lot of it has to do with the publicity we generated in San Diego, which resulted in reviews on nearly every internet comics site, as well as write ups in Time, Publisher’s Weekly and Entertainment Weekly.

NRAMA: What are the issues at hand here? It seems that there’s the right of the creator to do what they wish with their creation/product, but at the same time, retailers feel almost proprietary about comics in that they supported Bone through the years…

JS: I think they should feel proprietary about Bone. They helped make it succeed. Together, the retailers and Cartoon Books have made a lot of money on Bone - - over and over again - - in various formats for more than a decade. That’s why when Scholastic began scheduling our 2005 national book tour, Vijaya and I said we want to include comic book stores. We love the direct market and we plan to stay a part of it. But we have to do what we have to do. And premiering our new books at shows is what we have to do. For publicity and to underwrite the expenses of the convention.

NRAMA: That said though, how important is convention selling to the smaller press and independent publishers such as yourself?

JS: Very important. An independent cartoonist or a small publisher can’t afford marketing on a scale anything like Marvel or DC. Believe it or not, indy publishers survive on narrower profit margins than comic shop owners. They have to spend their money wisely. They have to bring their book to a place where the whole industry can see it at once. And if you get lucky, like I did, or Top Shelf did with Blankets, or the Flight Crew at Image did with Flight, you can have the Buzz Book of the convention. If it works, then more books will be sold overall by everyone.

NRAMA: Have you personally spoken with any retailers who were so vocal about how you harmed them, and now they can’t trust you?

JS: Vijaya tried to get on the CBIA message board when we heard there was a thread going on, but we never heard back from the administrator. I’ve spoken with a few retailers, and usually when they find out we tried to have the Bone: One Volume in their store at the same time as Comic-Con they are less pissed. I talked with Brian Hibbs the other day, and he’s still a little sore, but reasonable. He got me to admit that the retailers have a real beef, and I got him to admit that he’s sold every copy of the One Volume he’s gotten into the store and has people waiting for more.

NRAMA: Has any resolution been worked out so that you don’t run into this type of problem again?

JS: Not yet, but I think the best thing we can do is keep the lines of communication open.

[Jonathan]

Regardless what the retailers may be saying from a long time comic book reader I can only tip my hat and say what a beautiful thing it is to have the collected volume one Bone.

[Mr Wesley]

Since he mentioned it in the interview, I'd like to hear from the retailers: Were they stuck with extra copies on their shelves, like they complained they would at the time, or have they sold out their copies, like Jeff Smith implied?

[Tinnitus Tim]

I received my copy two months late from my retailer. I am presently reading it and I am enjoying it a lot.

In regards to the availability of the book at the convention, I think 400 copies out of 15 000 is not a big deal. And I agree with the impact of the 'premiere' effect of showing it at the convention.

[tralfaz]

I still cant find this damn book

[Arnout]

We certainly had no problem moving them: 5 copies initial order (that's a lot for something with that price-tag) sold out in under 2 weeks.
I've been trying to get more, but if I understand correctly, there aren't going to be additional printings of the One Volume?

[Hdefined]

I haven't seen any copies of this after its initial store debut, but that's okay because now I've decided to wait for the color volumes.

[Blind Assassin]

We sold right out of them in our store, and people still come in looking for them.

The thing with a lot of customers is, even though you explain the situation to them, and the details of what happened and why we are not able to get any copies, a lot of them give you this 'so what your saying is you don't have it.' look.

Still, a great interview that shed some light on the situation.

thanks.

[Greg T]

Originally posted by Arnout
We certainly had no problem moving them: 5 copies initial order (that's a lot for something with that price-tag) sold out in under 2 weeks.
I've been trying to get more, but if I understand correctly, there aren't going to be additional printings of the One Volume?

Well, in the interview, it states that there will be more in November. Check it out:

NRAMA: Have you seen any evidence in your orders after the show that it damaged the number of copies that were going to retailers?

JS: No. Initial orders were for 11 thousand. In two months, we’ve had reorders for 4 thousand more, and we’ve been to press three times. All the stores I’ve spoken to have sold out twice, and are waiting for more. And we’ll have more November 24th, by the way.

[Kal-el]

I thought the beef retailers had was for the HC version. I thought orders were in from retailers, with no going back to press and many were sold at the Con thus taking sales of a higher ticket item away from retailers. If this is true I can see why they are upset. If retailer has 3 copies pre-sold and orders 3 and gets 1, and those other 2 sold at SDCC, I can see a retailer not supporting them in the future. Can a retailer chime in and clarify?

[dEnny]

Hey Matt, could you ask Jeff about the One Edition now going to a 3rd printing, when he and Cartoon Books solicited it as only going to press ONE time.

I was cool with the 2nd printing to meet orders, but now going to a 3rd is going back on what was solicited and is mainly a Cash Grab!

I stuck up for Smith with the whole ordering debacle and shorting the retailers, I can see how that mistake was made, but now Smith is going back on what he and his company solicited. And that's just flat out being lied too.

dEnny

[CParadise]

As a retailer, I was sore that he did this, but I would be totally over it if after that it was available to retailers. I have been trying to do reorders on this book WEEKLY, and have received a total of TWO copies reordered so far in the months since SD. That is TERRIBLE, not only am I loosing sales (and I am I could sell 3-5 per week easy), but also I have my customers going all around looking for them, Pointlessly of course, as my competition does not have it either, but in the meanwhile, they are shopping elsewhere. I can understand them, they are looking for the copy, but they really should not have to.

And for the last comment about the multiple printings, what do you think he should do, just keep those for the few who got them? A collectable TPB market? seriously? No, he should print a buttload of them and make it available so that the retailers who put him and his book on the map could FINALLY make some money off selling it. Who cares is if it's going to be "WORTH" something. That is the worst thing...

[Jason Galvin]

Screw the softcover collection, I'm still waiting for my hardcover edition.

[blankpoint]

I pre-ordered 8 copies, but was shipped only 2, which sold out on the Wednesday that they came in. 5 more copies came in a month later, and sold out in about a week. I have 10 more copies on order, though I expect sales to slow down soon. The only book in recent history that has done better than this is Endless Nights (though it did quite a bit better). I hope that the November ship date holds, so that I have copies available for Christmas.

I've also had a lot of interest in the regular Bone TPBs, as people who started buying those rush to buy them up before they are taken off the market ahead of the Scholastic printings.

[Stalzer2002]

Good to see the discourse happening on these issues, which I think was the point of Brian's article to begin with. It's been happening quite a bit recently, and we've already seen some concrete action in response to retailer complaints with Marvel's varient system. Happy retailers make for a strong industry.

[Defunkt]

At first I was somewhat reluctant to order a TPB with over 1000 pages! Then the whole "hoopla" with the (pre)orders.
Anyway I did buy the book!

Although I live in The Netherlands I did get my copy and I must say I am very glad that I bought the book! Yeah a lot of pages but the book is surprisingly sturdy.

As for third printings or more , now the dust has settled so to speak Bone really deserves to reach a lot of readers.

You can't blame Smith to "cash" in.
In other words he's not ripping off the readers ..they actually want to read the book. Plus what's wrong to make some money out of a product that's created with sincerity?? It's not like cashing in like Marvel or DC do with some of their titles.
IMHO

[MicroZone]

It took Amazon two months, but they did eventually fill my order. And for barely the cost of a new DVD I had the complete Bone saga in one beautiful little volume. I don't care where people buy this book, but if they still don't own it... they REALLY need to buy it. It's one of the best comics of the last decade.

[vijaya iyer]

I just wanted to respond to the issue of the Bone One Volume Edition being in a 3rd printing. For the record, Cartoon Books solicitation stated the book would be available 'for a limited engagement only', meaning we were not keeping this edition in print indefinitely as we have with other Bone ediitons. We will take the Bone One Volume Edition off the market in June 2005.

As for the hardcover edition - this edition will only be printed once and is limited to 2000 copies. It is now out of stock. Retailers will receive all of their initial orders in early November, but we will not be able to fill any reorders.

[vijaya iyer]

I forgot to mention - I'm the publisher at Cartoon Books!

[dEnny]

Originally posted by CParadise
And for the last comment about the multiple printings, what do you think he should do, just keep those for the few who got them? A collectable TPB market? seriously? No, he should print a buttload of them and make it available so that the retailers who put him and his book on the map could FINALLY make some money off selling it. Who cares is if it's going to be "WORTH" something. That is the worst thing...

Not at all, I thought it was a horrible idea to do only one printing and always thought they should keep this book IN PRINT, amazing price, one of the best series ever, but that was not how they solicited it. I appreciate Vijaya's response and I will be looking at my Previews to see if I was in error. If I'm in the wrong, my apologies to Jeff, Vijaya, and Cartoon Books, but expect another post by me quoting the text.



dEnny

[QCCBob]

Originally posted by vijaya iyer
I just wanted to respond to the issue of the Bone One Volume Edition being in a 3rd printing. For the record, Cartoon Books solicitation stated the book would be available 'for a limited engagement only', meaning we were not keeping this edition in print indefinitely as we have with other Bone ediitons. We will take the Bone One Volume Edition off the market in June 2005.

The June 2004 Previews full page ad on page 247 says "Available for a Limited Time Only" and the solicitation copy on page 248 says "Get it while it lasts! This book will not be kept in print!" TWICE. I really hate it when greed makes people into liars, apparently somewhat intentionally based on this clarification of what they REALLY meant by the hype. I'm not sure how a third printing qualifies for not keeping the book in print.

They screwed retailers by not waiting to set the supposedly limited press run BEFORE we made our orders. I wonder if the 'surprise' at SDCCI was worth it, then again, they made every penny on those 400 copies selling them at retail rather than wholesale and can keep printing more despite the solictiation promise of a limited run.

They screwed us again by our getting allocations initially rather than complete fulfillment on 7/28, the week after SDCCI, because when we didn't get our full order on the supposedly limited edition, people scrambled to get copies elsewhere and, then, we got the rest on 9/9. West coast retailers have a much larger beef on that topic obviously since they had plenty of their potential sales hijacked at SD. Thankfully, we ordered low due to the brisk sales of the trades initially and, based on that, we considered it more as a limited edition collectible than an actual trade paperback. If you got the book expecting a limited edition run/collector's item, don't blame the retailers who were lied to, blame Mr. Smith for making his own solicitation a lie. As for me, I'll think twice about trusting them in the future and supporting his work by taking any more than a minimal risk. Actions such as these need to have consequences.

[dEnny]

Originally posted by Defunkt
You can't blame Smith to "cash" in.
In other words he's not ripping off the readers ..they actually want to read the book. Plus what's wrong to make some money out of a product that's created with sincerity?? It's not like cashing in like Marvel or DC do with some of their titles.
IMHO

How is it ANY different? My problem isn't with keeping the book in print, my problem was (and I will double check per Vijaya's response) that it was a one time only thing, which to me says, ORDER HEAVY, you don't want to run out of this great book for such a great price and if I ran the comic store I help out at I'd have ordered 100 copies (of course it didn't seem to make a difference since Smith messed up the order numbers by not waiting to receive them before going to the printer).

If he wanted it ready in time for SDCC he should have solicited the book early enough that he would have received the orders in time. Great idea, poor execution.

Now, if this is the COMPLETE Bone One Edition...where was issue 13 1/2?

--dEnny

[CParadise]

Originally posted by vijaya iyer
I just wanted to respond to the issue of the Bone One Volume Edition being in a 3rd printing. For the record, Cartoon Books solicitation stated the book would be available 'for a limited engagement only', meaning we were not keeping this edition in print indefinitely as we have with other Bone ediitons. We will take the Bone One Volume Edition off the market in June 2005.

OK, thanks, BUT after all the backtracking and cleverly written EXCUSES, the fact still is:

As of this morning, the book is still not available OR even backorderable from Diamond Comics. I still have only gotten 4 copies total, and had at least 6 of my customers buy it from you in San Diego, now you tell me if you have supported me as I have supported you for 10 years in this business.

All these answers are nothing when the facts are in front of our faces.

[blankpoint]

Originally posted by dEnny
if I ran the comic store I help out at I'd have ordered 100 copies
--dEnny

That's about $2000 that you'd be paying up front for those copies. If this was not in any way limited or allocated, that would be wise ordering in your part, unless you were convinced you could sell those 100 copies within the two-week period it would take to reorder them. There is no need to keep in stock (--> meaning *pay for*) more than the number of copies that you can sell in whatever time it takes you to get more, so that you always have enough to sell to people that want a copy. There is no advantage to having many extra copies in stock, unless you are hovering near the Diamond discount levels, and would lower your cost per item by ordering more.

[Taylor Porter]

From my point of view, this whole debate is ridiculous.

I know that I see it only from the perspective of a comic reader, and that the retailers have a very different perspective. I also know that the retailers are an important part of the industry, and that when they're happy, it's good for everyone.

But all I can see is that Jeff Smith is getting his book out to a lot of people, and that's good for the industry, too. I bet a lot of the people who bought the One Volume at SDCC might not have gone into a comics shop at all. And I don't understand how anyone can complain that there's more than one printing. Calling Cartoon Books greedy liars is just crazy.

Since when did giving readers good comics become bad for the industry?