DIAMOND CHANGES THRESHOLDS

[MattBrady]

As was made public roughly a week and a half ago, Diamond has implemented a cutoff amount to its benchmark threshold for comics it will continue to carry in its Previews catalog. The move will, utlimately, work to remove unprofitable books from the main pipeline supplying the Direct Market.

Currently, Diamond’s benchmark for comics and trades listed in their respective section in Previews stands at $1500 wholesale per purchase order issued to the publisher. The new cutoff threshold will be 40% of that, or $600 wholesale.

That is, Diamond requires that anything listed as a comic or trade garner a purchase order that the distributor would then issue to the publisher for at least $1500 per issue or trade. Given the 60% discount Diamond (generally) receives, $1500 wholesale translates roughly into $3750 retail. The change in the benchmark, however, has yet to be reflected in Diamond's submission guidelines for creators and publishers looking to solicit their projects through Diamond:

Comics: Diamond’s benchmark for comic books solicited through Previews is $2,500 retail. Generally, we give comics series from three to five issues to reach that benchmark. If the series sells below $2,500 but exhibits a trend towards growth, we may continue carrying it. However, if we do not feel that a specific product will reach the benchmark, we reserve the right to discontinue carrying it.

While the number is incorrect, the theme was confirmed by e-mail notices from various Diamond brand managers to their accounts which noted, Diamond has, in the past, processed all purchase orders regardless of the total value once the item had been listed in Previews.

The change in Diamond’s policy now sets a new limit of 40% of the benchmark, or $600 wholesale. That is, if orders made by retailers through Previews are less than $600 (wholesale, $1500 retail, roughly 500 copies of a book with a $2.95 cover price) will not have a purchase order placed by Diamond. In short, if a creator is not making $600 on an issue of a book offered through Diamond, the distributor may elect to cancel any orders placed, and no longer offer it.

The new guideline will apply both to new items, while items being offered again, such as backlist titles, will see a change in their terms with their threshold being related to the item's initial order.

Going by estimated total orders for August books, every title within the Top 300 for the month would have made the cutoff easily, as the #300 title, Zorro #3 by NBM/Papercutz saw an estimated 2,100 copies ship to retailers. The book carries a $2.95 cover price.

As explained in e-mails sent to accounts, Diamond representatives stated that the move was made, essentially, because any item ordered in quantities below the benchmark result in a net loss for Diamond.

“The Diamond new sales benchmark is just that, a benchmark,” Jim Kuhoric, Purchasing Manager, Comics Division told Newsarama. “It's not really hard and fast rule that we use to cut out products but is more of an internal indicator of a break even point for the cost of listing a product in the catalog - that includes hard printing costs and internal labor involved with soliciting, editing, processing, and distributing said SKUs. In the past we listed good items that we knew would not make the benchmark and will continue to do so in the future. We've always made these decisions based off of a number of things including editorial potential, professionalism of the product & package, and the marketing presence the vendor has. Some of our best self-marketers have started grass roots audiences for their books that turned them into big hits over the long run. In the end the small press publisher really is their own biggest asset with regard to developing a market for their product - much more so than the Previews listing. Their sweat equity of working cons, meeting retailers, and getting their books in front of fans is what makes them ultimately successful.”

Since the news of Diamond’s change in policy came to light on several message boards, many creators and small publishers expressed their concern that the new policy would allow Diamond to list an item for sale, take orders, and then cancel orders if they do not meet the criteria. Although, to be fair, there is a strong current of retailers and others supportive of Diamond taking this step, with some expressing to Newsarama that now, Diamond doesn’t have to subsidize the distribution of products it does not make money on.

While examinations of the extremes have been the norm for many online pundits, Kuhoric said that the truth for Diamond is somewhere in the middle: “The process is not that black and white. We are really just looking at a point below the benchmark as a starting place to analyze where a series sales potential is going. For example, if there is a new comic that sold less than 40% of the benchmark that the Diamond Brand Manager feels has the editorial strength and polish to eventually find a market, we fill the orders and continue to offer it through the catalog. Diamond will contact the affected vendors and discuss the best ways to increase their exposure and get the books out to more consumers – in a way we will be helping to develop the niche for the product in the industry with the publisher. The flip side of the coin is that if we have an item that has had opportunities to take off and the publisher has no additional plans to market their book effectively we may decide to end the offerings at that time.”

Or, as proponents of the idea have said, the move will force smaller publishers and independent self-publishers out of a marketing plan that amounts to nothing other than “list it in Previews.”

As many have gathered to voice their concerns at various boards (Warren Ellis’ The Engine being chief among the public locations for discussing it), the change will force the question of whether or not to publish at all on some. Additionally, it may very well create situations where a retailer is confident enough that he/she can sell x number of copies of a new title and places an order; however, Diamond Brand Managers, after seeing a less than 40% order, are not confident the title will sell across the market, and cancel the title through Diamond. Though Diamond may have instituted the change in its guidelines, at the end of the day it will the economics of supply and demand that rule the day. Creators and publishers will now have to make sure there is enough demand to facilitate a threshold supply.

As Kuhoric explained it, the new threshold level came as a result of the distributor wishing to strengthen the offerings it runs in the pages of Previews. “Our goal is to provide the most complete listing of sellable new product offerings to the retailers every month allowing them to market these products to their customers,” Kuhoric said. “To accomplish that we have to be sure that items we list have enough sales potential to appeal to a significant number of retailers. The overall cost of distributing each new item Diamond solicits has a hard cost to it, and while all of our customers and vendors rely on Diamond to service their accounts and pay on time, we also have to make sure we make money on the majority of the products we distribute.

“We have been evaluating threshold points for sometime internally here, weighing the dollars and units sold on items below the benchmark at different levels. The benchmark has always existed as a target goal for each new solicitation and has only increased $500 in the last decade to the current $1500 level. We have always quoted the goal of making the minimum benchmark as our target when selecting items to be listed in Previews. There is the assumption that the potential to reach that goal exists before we run it in the catalog. The threshold is just measuring what items are currently under 40% of the target benchmark as a place to begin evaluating the situation.”

So far, Kuhoric said, the overall impact of the analysis with the new threshold in place has been fairly minor. That is, to date, only a handful of comics and trades came in under the new threshold of 40%.

“Most of the items that were solicited in Previews were evaluated against the benchmark before they were listed and decided that they have some potential to find an audience in the industry,” he said. “In essence we’re taking the items that were selected to be listed in Previews and comparing them to the actual retailer orders that came in for them. The ones that sold less than 40% of the benchmark we re-evaluate and confirm with the publisher on the status and their future plans for promoting the work before canceling the orders. This month, there were 26 regular comics and 5 trades under the threshold evaluation – all of which were kept open and filled – that is, none were cancelled. We looked at a total of 31 comic and trade items out of 730 non-premiere comic offerings for the month of August. That’s around 4% of the total non-premiere comic solicitations for the month.”

Additionally, for smaller publishers, and those without exclusive distribution contracts with Diamond (those with exclusive contracts are exempt from the new threshold), there are other distribution channels, such as Last Gasp, FM International and Cold Cut. However, there are issues that make a whole cloth switch problematic, chief among them the fact that, in a super-hero oriented Direct Market, nowhere near a majority of retailers order from or even know about Last Gasp, FMI and Cold Cut.

Straddling the line, and going with every distributor available also has its problems as most small press and indy titles are print to order, with printing done after orders are placed. Modest orders from Last Gasp, FMI and Cold Cut, and then failing to make the 40% threshold at Diamond (meaning zero copies ordered from Diamond) could easily result in a number of copies ordered from the other three won’t pay for the printing costs. In that sense, Diamond's change requires small publishers to either accept a level of risk and capitalize their efforts until they can crack Diamond, or find other options of getting their comic to the admittedly small audience, and shoulder more of the burden.

Kuhoric stressed that the threshold isn’t a hard and fast rule or a new black and white policy, but rather, is a new place to begin internal evaluation of a comic’s performance, and quality will win the day. As he explained it, comics whose quality is evident will, in most cases, continue to be offered by Diamond, even if they cannot meet the 40% threshold.

“We take into consideration many factors before deciding whether or not to take any action on a specific under performing item,” Kuhoric added. “There are many exceptions and all are made on the basis of extenuating circumstances, pending promotions, or strong editorial that needs to find an audience in the market. The threshold was developed as a way to target items significantly below our benchmark for further analysis and consideration before continuing to issue additional orders on severe under performing sales. It’s really just an analysis point for us to try to do a better job of putting the best items into the catalog each month.

“That said, historically, there have been a number of titles that have performed below the threshold and were identified as having enough potential that they were unaffected by the designation,” Kuhoric continued. “Our Brand Managers are working hard with the publishers to find potential sales opportunities and to introduce the products to their niche audiences. As with Bone many years ago, there are a few strong editorial comics that are below benchmark right now that we will continue to not only list but to push. We want strong comics to develop and find an audience in the marketplace.

“At the end of the day, we’re hoping that by analyzing the trends with our lowest performing comics that we can cut back on some of the products that are not finding a niche in an effort to strengthen the catalog, retailers, and the overall market. Diamond benefits from a strong and healthy marketplace where retailers continue to order the full line of comics with confidence that they will sell if put on their shelves next to their premiere selections. There are a lot of really great items listed in the Comics Section that have yet to find major audiences and we hope this will be a factor in helping them to develop.”

Finally, Kuhoric's view on the change in regards to the market as a whole - “We believe the market will be strengthened by evaluation of the quality of products we list through analysis of the sales benchmark,” he added. “If retailers can read Previews and feel confident in the products we continue to list they should be able to better ration out their available dollars for new comics. That should translate into better sales on the items we do offer making more opportunities for everyone involved.”

[Edit - total retail value changed to reflect actual retail value of Diamond's 60% discount].

[Not From Around]

This is the most informative article on this business that I've seen yet. It looks like Diamond is not just going to automatically scrap everything that doesn't reach a set number, as people had feared.

It costs Diamond something to handle each comic they carry. If an order falls below a certain threshold, they will not make their money back. In essence, they are subsidizing any comics that they carry that fall below the threshold. It looks like they will continue to do this for titles they consider deserving. No doubt there will be some disagreement over their definition of "deserving," but if they're essentially subsidizing fledgling titles then they have the right to decide which those will be. If they were really a heartless money machine they'd slash everthing that isn't paying its way and be done with it--and they'd probably have done it a long time ago.

[Rich Johnston]

Originally posted by Not From Around
This is the most informative article on this business that I've seen yet. It looks like Diamond is not just going to automatically scrap everything that doesn't reach a set number, as people had feared.

Except it appears to have quite the error. Newsarama is stating that the benchmark has changed, that it's still $2500, as it has been for a while, reflected by the Diamond website copy which it quotes. But that copy hasn't been updated alongside the new guidelines.

Newsarama states that the new wholesale benchmark is $1500, at 60% discount to Diamond, that's $2500. That's bad maths. The publisher doesn't supply to Diamond at 60% of the cover price, but at 40% - the DISCOUNT is 60%.

$1500 wholesale, at 60% discount to Diamond works out more like $3750. Which is quite an increase.

EDIT: This was the original copy:

That is, Diamond requires that anything listed as a comic or trade garner a purchase order that the distributor would then issue to the publisher for at least $1500 per issue or trade. Given the 60% discount Diamond (generally) receives, $1500 wholesale translates roughly into $2500 retail, which has been the standard benchmark Diamond has applied to new titles for years, and is stated plainly in their submission guidelines for creators and publishers looking to solicit their projects through Diamond:

[Paladin]

Great article Matt.

[Strike]

Fascinating. Took me a while to wrap my head around it, but I think I've got it now.

Originally posted by Not From Around
This is the most informative article on this business that I've seen yet. It looks like Diamond is not just going to automatically scrap everything that doesn't reach a set number, as people had feared.

It costs Diamond something to handle each comic they carry. If an order falls below a certain threshold, they will not make their money back. In essence, they are subsidizing any comics that they carry that fall below the threshold. It looks like they will continue to do this for titles they consider deserving. No doubt there will be some disagreement over their definition of "deserving," but if they're essentially subsidizing fledgling titles then they have the right to decide which those will be. If they were really a heartless money machine they'd slash everthing that isn't paying its way and be done with it--and they'd probably have done it a long time ago.

On the other hand, Diamond can afford to be 'sympathetic'. They have a monopoly. They essentially control the entire Direct Market. The have to subsidize or they lose in the long run. But it's clear they're not going to go out of their way to help out small publishers any more. The little guys are on their own.

[ManofTheAtom]

So as long as a comic with a 2.95 cover price sells 501 copies, it won't be canceled from Previews?

[MattBrady]

Originally posted by Strike
But it's clear they're not going to go out of their way to help out small publishers any more. The little guys are on their own.

"“Most of the items that were solicited in Previews were evaluated against the benchmark before they were listed and decided that they have some potential to find an audience in the industry,” he said. “In essence we’re taking the items that were selected to be listed in Previews and comparing them to the actual retailer orders that came in for them. The ones that sold less than 40% of the benchmark we re-evaluate and confirm with the publisher on the status and their future plans for promoting the work before canceling the orders. This month, there were 26 regular comics and 5 trades under the threshold evaluation – all of which were kept open and filled – that is, none were cancelled."

I don't get your conclusion in light of that quote. Can you explain a little more?

and...

Originally posted by ManofTheAtom
So as long as a comic with a 2.95 cover price sells 501 copies, it won't be canceled from Previews?

Are you purposely not reading large chunks of the aritlce?

MattB

[wishlish]

Originally posted by Rich Johnston
Except it appears to have quite the error. Newsarama is stating that the benchmark has changed, that it's still $2500, as it has been for a while, reflected by the Diamond website copy which it quotes. But that copy hasn't been updated alongside the new guidelines.

Newsarama states that the new wholesale benchmark is $1500, at 60% discount to Diamond, that's $2500. That's bad maths. The publisher doesn't supply to Diamond at 60% of the cover price, but at 40% - the DISCOUNT is 60%.

$1500 wholesale, at 60% discount to Diamond works out more like $3750. Which is quite an increase.

Rich, I think you're reading the language too carefully. 60% of $2500 is $1500. It's really a 40% discount- the item is discounted at 40%- but they're calling it a 60% discount- the item is sold at 60% of cover price. For your number to be correct, Diamond would only be taking in 40% of the purchase price, which is much lower than I ever recalling it being.

EDIT: I'm wrong, Rich is right.

[Rich Johnston]

Originally posted by wishlish
Rich, I think you're reading the language too carefully. 60% of $2500 is $1500. It's really a 40% discount- the item is discounted at 40%- but they're calling it a 60% discount- the item is sold at 60% of cover price. For your number to be correct, Diamond would only be taking in 40% of the purchase price, which is much lower than I ever recalling it being.

No, it really is a 60% discount. Publishers sell to Diamond at about 40% of cover price. Diamond sells to retailers at anything from 55 to 70% of cover price, depending on amount ordered.

A $2.95 comic is sold to Diamond at about $1.20. This will differ from publisher to publisher and deal to deal, but these are the standards.

[MattBrady]

Originally posted by Rich Johnston
No, it really is a 60% discount. Publishers sell to Diamond at about 40% of cover price. Diamond sells to retailers at anything from 55 to 70% of cover price, depending on amount ordered.

Right - that passage was from an earlier draft. It's been adjusted.

MattB

[wishlish]

I see now, Rich. Thanks for pointing it out.

[Strike]

Originally posted by MattBrady
"“Most of the items that were solicited in Previews were evaluated against the benchmark before they were listed and decided that they have some potential to find an audience in the industry,” he said. “In essence we’re taking the items that were selected to be listed in Previews and comparing them to the actual retailer orders that came in for them. The ones that sold less than 40% of the benchmark we re-evaluate and confirm with the publisher on the status and their future plans for promoting the work before canceling the orders. This month, there were 26 regular comics and 5 trades under the threshold evaluation – all of which were kept open and filled – that is, none were cancelled."

I don't get your conclusion in light of that quote. Can you explain a little more?

MattB

I get it from this paragraph.

While examinations of the extremes have been the norm for many online pundits, Kuhoric said that the truth for Diamond is somewhere in the middle: “The process is not that black and white. We are really just looking at a point below the benchmark as a starting place to analyze where a series sales potential is going. For example, if there is a new comic that sold less than 40% of the benchmark that the Diamond Brand Manager feels has the editorial strength and polish to eventually find a market, we fill the orders and continue to offer it through the catalog. Diamond will contact the affected vendors and discuss the best ways to increase their exposure and get the books out to more consumers – in a way we will be helping to develop the niche for the product in the industry with the publisher. The flip side of the coin is that if we have an item that has had opportunities to take off and the publisher has no additional plans to market their book effectively we may decide to end the offerings at that time.”

It doesn't take a marketing guru to realise that marketing and promoting your own work is HARD. It's probably harder than creating the comics in the first place. I've heard of many writers and artists, after going into the publishing business for themselves, complain about how hard it is, and how they no longer have time to write or draw their comics.

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.


Ah, hell. I'm not trying to be a Diamond basher. They do at least seem to giving small publishers a chance, rather than just ignoring them totally. It's just that the article seems slightly favourably slanted, and I'm picking holes.

[wishlish]

I'm sympathetic to Diamond a bit here- fuel costs are rising drastically, and that's gotta cut a bit into their margins.

Having said that, is it time to retire the Diamond Previews paper catalog as the sole mechanism for advertising what's coming out? Why can't a PDF version or HTML version be released? The electronic dissemination of the solicitations would help everyone, right?

[Bill Myers]

As someone who is working on creating a comic for self-publication, I found this article of great interest. Although I am a bit confused by one aspect of Diamond's new policy. Specifically, I understand that the "threshold" is the minimum order in dollars for a comic or trade, beneath which Diamond may choose not to distribute that comic or trade. Since the threshold is a percentage of the "benchmark," however, what happens if a title consistently meets or exceeds the threshold while falling short of the benchmark? Will Diamond eventually decline to distribute that title?

Aside from that one question, I think Diamond's new policy makes sense, at least in the abstract. Diamond is a business, and as such is entitled to avoid carrying products which will not be profitable for them. Moreover, I think Diamond is within its rights to place a greater onus on publishers to market their products. Granted, from what I've read about publishing a small-press comic book, it's a grueling, back-breaking task with far more casualties than successes. But no one is putting a gun to anyone's head to try it, and nowhere is it written that anything in this world has to be easy.

Besides, as an aspiring self-publisher I'm looking into alternative channels for distribution (print-on-demand and the Web, for example). My point being that even if one finds the traditional channel of using Diamond to get to retailers closed to them, it doesn't preclude being able to find an audience some other way.

One thing that does concern me, though, is Diamond's virtual monopoly over comics distribution. I would think that any evaluation of a comic's long-term potential would have to include a subjective analysis (in other words, you can't just feed the comic into a computer and hear that computer, in its best "Star Trek computer voice," tell you whether or not it has the potential to become profitable). I think Diamond's retailer review process for rejected comics and trades sounds great in the abstract, but not being a part of this business right now, I have no idea how well it works in practice. I'm just wondering if there isn't a risk of comics with real market potential being effectively barred from the market on the basis of the biases of a relatively small number of people. To wit: Jerry Seinfeld has stated in interviews that NBC's initial market testing indicated that "Seinfeld" would likely be a royal bomb. Fortunately for NBC, someone at the network nevertheless gave the show the green light. Can you imagine if NBC had decided to pass on that show, though? And imagine further if NBC had been the only major network in existence? Instead of becoming a monster hit, the show could have ended up stillborn.

(And I'm not saying this means Diamond is evil, nor am I saying they don't have a right to implement the policy discussed in this article. I simply thought it was something worth discussing.)

[Comic-Reader]

I buy three titles from AC Comics: "Men of Mystery," "Best of the West," and "America's Greatest Comics." All of these titles are black and white reprints of Golden and Silver Age stuff.

Given that AC never cracks the top 300 with any of their titles, I wonder if they will meet Diamond's new threshold. It would be a shame to see these titles disappear. On the other hand, they already retail for $6.95 each. I don't think they'd be able to increase their price again just to meet the new cutoff.

At the $3750 retail threshold, each title would have to sell about 540 copies. Unfortunately sales figures for AC titles aren't available.

[wishlish]

Originally posted by Bill Myers
One thing that does concern me, though, is Diamond's virtual monopoly over comics distribution.

I think we all agree that Diamond's monopoly is a big concern. The problem is, what do we do now?

The monopoly's now in its tenth year, if memory serves me correctly. In that time, no entrepeneur has been able to create a company that Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, et al would be willing to use instead of Diamond. Certainly Cold Cut and the smaller "indy" companies seem to do a fine job, but none of them seem to be good enough to sway the business away from Diamond. And even if, say, Marvel, decided to distribute comics to more than one distributor, what then? To handle that business, a company would have to expend lots of capital to build a distributor network, with no recourse if Marvel eventually changed its mind.

For the Diamond monopoly to be broken, someone would have to be willing to expend tons of capital for small margins and lots of risk. That doesn't sound like a likely scenario to me.

[Rich Johnston]

Originally posted by MattBrady
Right - that passage was from an earlier draft. It's been adjusted.

MattB

The tone of the original piece did come across as "nothing has changed, business as usual". There are some significant changes with the new policy, not just to the cutoff point. The increased benchmark is something quite significant in Diamond's operation. I feel an LITG piece coming on.

[Strike]

Originally posted by wishlish
I think we all agree that Diamond's monopoly is a big concern. The problem is, what do we do now?

The monopoly's now in its tenth year, if memory serves me correctly. In that time, no entrepeneur has been able to create a company that Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, et al would be willing to use instead of Diamond. Certainly Cold Cut and the smaller "indy" companies seem to do a fine job, but none of them seem to be good enough to sway the business away from Diamond. And even if, say, Marvel, decided to distribute comics to more than one distributor, what then? To handle that business, a company would have to expend lots of capital to build a distributor network, with no recourse if Marvel eventually changed its mind.

For the Diamond monopoly to be broken, someone would have to be willing to expend tons of capital for small margins and lots of risk. That doesn't sound like a likely scenario to me.

I think what really needs to happen, for the monopoly to be broken is for one of the other distributors to somehow convince all of the other small-press publishers to head on over, en masse.

In that way, Diamond would continue to distribute DC, Marvel, Image and Dark Horse comics, while some other distributor handles all of the indie and small-press comics.


Unfortunately, considering how small the Direct Market pie is, I don't think even Diamond would be able survive on only half a slice.

[wishlish]

Originally posted by Strike
I think what really needs to happen, for the monopoly to be broken is for one of the other distributors to somehow convince all of the other small-press publishers to head on over, en masse.

In that way, Diamond would continue to distribute DC, Marvel, Image and Dark Horse comics, while some other distributor handles all of the indie and small-press comics.


Unfortunately, considering how small the Direct Market pie is, I don't think even Diamond would be able survive on only half a slice.

Even if that did happen, now you'd have TWO monopoly dealers- one for the Big 4, one for everyone else.

And everyone else is a small part of the equation: the next biggest publisher is Tokyopop, at just 3% of dollar share and 1% of unit share. Diamond would be left with 80% of the revenue of the Direct Market and 88% of the volume. If the other company got every other company- except for Gemstone, which is owned by Diamond- you're talking about 18% of the money in the market and 12% of the volume. And this assumes no one breaks ranks on you. Also, this is the RISKIEST piece of the pie. For all the complaints we post here on Marvel and DC's delays, the indy press is a much less reliable group of business to manage.

For a new distributor to emerge, one of the major four would have to move. And when they had the opportunity to do so in the great Distributor Wars of the mid-90s, all played it safe and stuck with Diamond. This was when Capital City was still a viable alternative. I doubt they'd move to an unproven company (even if they could break their Diamond contract).

[Rich Johnston]

One other thing - "This month, there were 26 regular comics and 5 trades under the threshold evaluation – all of which were kept open and filled – that is, none were cancelled."

Well no, because they were solicited under previously agreed terms. To apply new terms to comics solicited under a previous agreement would have been retroactive.

[MattBrady]

Originally posted by Rich Johnston
One other thing - "This month, there were 26 regular comics and 5 trades under the threshold evaluation – all of which were kept open and filled – that is, none were cancelled."

Well no, because they were solicited under previously agreed terms. To apply new terms to comics solicited under a previous agreement would have been retroactive.

Yes, but they fell under both the existing benchmark and the new threshold. By the terms any comic is submitted to Diamond under (quoted above, though the number is outdated), if anything falls under the benchmark, Diamond reserves the right not to carry it. Whether "cancel" was meant in this instance means discontinue carrying it in the future (as the current terms would allow for) or specifically in regards to the new threshold, where it would have been retroactive aside, from my reading and understanding of the terms, Diamond could have cancelled them, regardless of matching them to the new threshold or the current benchmark, but did not.

MattB

[Bill Myers]

Originally posted by wishlish
I think we all agree that Diamond's monopoly is a big concern. The problem is, what do we do now?

Well, that's why I posted. I was interested in what others had to say. Particularly those who have industry experience, which I do not.

Although for my part, the answer to the question "what do we do now?" is to look "outside the box" (much as I hate that tired cliche) for solutions. I'm looking at print-on-demand providers specializing in comics. They make it affordable to print just one copy of my comic at a time if I so choose (although I don't yet know what kind of quality one can expect from them). And at least one print-on-demand provider that I know of will sell your comics for you via their Web site, and will give you discounts for running house ads promoting their printing service. I'm also looking at creating my own Web site.

I have no idea how feasible these or any other alternative to the direct market might be. But in the event that the direct market channel isn't feasible for me, I'd rather try the aforementioned ideas, and any others I can think of, rather than simply give up and talk about what's not possible.

Originally posted by wishlish
For the Diamond monopoly to be broken, someone would have to be willing to expend tons of capital for small margins and lots of risk. That doesn't sound like a likely scenario to me.

Some years ago, I read an essay by Rick Veitch, talking about the possibility that technology would allow UPS, FedEx and others to become distributors in their own right, using computers and the Web to automate a lot of the distribution process. If I recall correctly, the idea would be that these shipping companies could have a Web portal where publishers could list comics and retailers could place orders. Publishers would then send the shipping company their product(s), and the shipper would fulfill individual retailers orders. The software would handle the ordering and billing process. I never heard anything about that since. Does anyone else remember this essay, and if so, what prevented this idea from getting off the ground?

[James Patrick]

Hang on. This article seems to imply that there's some type of reduction in the benchmark of solicitation -- when, actually, there was no benchmark for SOLICITATION before. Only cancelation. Meaning, if your book was accepted and solicited, it was carried, regardless the numbers, and then cancelled if the numbers didn't hold up.

This is actually a NEW policy, not some reduction in the old one, despite how it's being spun. There's a difference between SOLICITATION and CANCELATION.

Maybe it's worded as such in Diamond's terms -- that they don't have to solicit anything with numbers under the 1500 sales and profits benchmark -- but anybody that's dealt with Diamond with small press and independent books knows the difference. They know that Diamond carried books once they were solicited, and didn't cancel them no matter what the numbers.

There are some creepy grey areas here.

[Strike]

Originally posted by Bill Myers
As someone who is working on creating a comic for self-publication, I found this article of great interest. Although I am a bit confused by one aspect of Diamond's new policy. Specifically, I understand that the "threshold" is the minimum order in dollars for a comic or trade, beneath which Diamond may choose not to distribute that comic or trade. Since the threshold is a percentage of the "benchmark," however, what happens if a title consistently meets or exceeds the threshold while falling short of the benchmark? Will Diamond eventually decline to distribute that title?

No one's answered your question yet so I'll try.


The way I understood it, a new comic is given three to six issues to meet Diamond's benchmark (not threshold, benchmark). If you fail to meet that benchmark, your comic is pulled.
If you meet the benchmark, you're safe, but only so long as your orders remain above the threshold. Once you fall below the threshold, Damond will cancel your orders unless you convince them otherwise.

[Bill Myers]

Originally posted by Strike
No one's answered your question yet so I'll try.


The way I understood it, a new comic is given three to six issues to meet Diamond's benchmark (not threshold, benchmark). If you fail to meet that benchmark, your comic is pulled.
If you meet the benchmark, you're safe, but only so long as your orders remain above the threshold. Once you fall below the threshold, Damond will cancel your orders unless you convince them otherwise.

But if I'm reading the article correctly, the threshold (and that's the term used in the article, not one I'm making up) is 40% of the benchmark. So you can theoretically meet or exceed the threshold without meeting the benchmark. See what I mean? So I'm wondering if comics above the threshold but below the benchmark are on some kind of probationary status. I went to Diamond's Web site but didn't find any clarification there (although I'm at work right now and haven't had a lot of time to look -- I may have missed the explanation in my haste).

Matt, it's your article -- am I reading it wrong?