We've talked about this before but the list for next week's comics brings scheduling to my mind again. Out of five Hulk-related titles, four of them come out next week. Three of the four books with "Avengers" in the title also come out next week.
That just seems so sloppy to me. If I were a retailer (still a dream of mine), I'd want the related titles spread out over the month. This, to my way of thinking, would encourage someone interested in--for example--the Hulk titles to come in every week instead of just once a month. OK. They might come in once a month anyway but that depends on their level of Hulk-addiction.
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I actually see this the other way. If I'm a publisher, and I know that people are coming into the store for the main Hulk on one week, I want to make sure that my other Hulk titles are available that same week in order to encourage impulse purchases.
Impulse purchases are why I'd want them in seperate weeks. They come in for their Hulk fix and hopefully pick up something else at the same time. Not just one week but every week.
Right. But a Hulk fan is more likely to impulse buy another Hulk book than they are something completely different like Nova or Iron Fist. I get why fans on a budget want the books spread out evenly. And I can even understand why some retailers would want books spread out evenly. But I don't think it matters that much for a publisher and is maybe even beneficial for them to do it the opposite way.
And it isn't just Marvel. Look at the manga companies. They tend to drop all of their titles at the same time, too. Tokyopop shipped every single one of their books in the last week of August. And Viz shipped half of their books in one week (Aug. 12). If someone is coming into the store for a specific manga title, they're much more likely to buy something extra that week than they are to come back the next week for something different.
Paul O'Brien of X-Axis complains about this all the time, too. I disagree with him. I don't think it's sloppy scheduling. It happens so often with Marvel (and even with their kiddie and all-ages line), that it looks intentional to me.
I think I agree with Chris more than Cav, but I see what you're both saying. Here's how it breaks down for me:
If the readership for all Hulk titles, say, are exactly the same — that is, if pretty much everyone who's buying Hulk is also buying Incredible Hulk is also buying Son of Hulk is also buying...um...Incredible Hercules? That's "Hulk family", right? — then it completely makes sense to spread those books out.
But that's not what we're facing. What we have instead is a huge disparity: The last issue of Hulk sold around 72k copies; Skaar and Hercules have been doing numbers in the mid-to-high 20ks (Skaar got a bit under a 10k bump to the low 30s when it added "Son of Hulk" to its title). So obviously, the latter two aren't posting the numbers that the former is. And when that's the case, if you're trying to jump-start them with an impulse buy, you have to figure that your most likely buyers are those that are already buying a Hulk title (well, I don't actually think that's a safe assumption re. Incredible Hercules, but work with me, here). So the target for impulse buys, generally speaking, is the 45k (or more, since there's probably not 100% overlap) readers who buy one book and not the other, not the 25k (or less) who already buy both.
And then there's the Incredible Hulk #600 factor. That issue moved 92k units — more than any of the three titles moved previously. At this point, Marvel is hoping most of those 92k readers will come back...but the question becomes, come back to which title? #600 picked up from Hulk #12, so maybe they'll come to Hulk #13. But Incredible Hulk #601 continues the numbering, so maybe they'll come to that. If Hulk #13 and Incredible Hulk #601 came out on different weeks, you run the risk of a Hulk fan picking up whichever one came first and concluding that that's the story he's going to follow, thus leaving the other book with one less reader.
On weeks when a bunch of one "family" of titles ships, the sales in my store on every other title from that company lags behind. When a buyer looks at the shelf, and they see 5 new issues of Avengers titles, and they're an Avengers fan, they do the math ("I'm spending almost $20 on Avengers this week!") and skip buying Captain Britain or Incredible Hercules or Agents of Atlas that week. The next week (assuming they are a weekly shopper), they are paying attention primarily to the new comics for that week, not the previous week, and those "skipped" books drop off of their radar.
95% of all of my "off the shelf" sales of new comics come in the first 6 days of the comics release. If I haven't sold a significant percentage of the shelf copies of a title in that first week, the order for the next issue gets cut. When the next issue comes in, there are fewer copies on the shelf available to be purchased. If, as is often the case, that month a smaller title comes out on another "family"-dominated week, the sales on the smaller title suffer again, and it gets cut again. What ends up happening is that eventually, the title gets ordered as "Subscribers +1" or "Subs only", and most of the chances for that smaller title to pick up a new reader are lost for good.
From my experience communicating with other retailers around the country, out of the estimated 3500 comic stores, most of them (estimating 80-85%) order in a similar fashion. There are few stores that can afford to stock heavily on lower-tier titles.
Another phenomenon I've observed in my store is that my customers are much more likely to drop one or more of a "family" of books on a week when multiple issues ship than on a week that just one title ships. ("Man, I get a lot of Avengers books. Can you take Mighty off my list?") They're also more likely to drop unrelated titles when a bunch of one "family" they buy comes out. ("Dude, my total is over $50 this week, I need to cut back some.) Most people don't use a budget at all to help them understand where their money goes. They don't pay attention to the fact that one week they may spend $50 and the next 2 they may spend $15 and average it out. they just look at the week they're in right now.
I have yet to hear from a retailer that thinks it's a good idea to have all of a "family" on the same week.
DC (usually...) doesn't do this. We usually get one Batman book per week, one Superman book, and one Green Lantern book.
For smaller publishers like IDW or Boom! and the manga companies that may be printing their books in China, sometimes having multiple related books in one week is unavoidable due to the logistics of shipping. They're printing a dozen comics at once, and it's cheaper to ship them all at once.
Is it intentional from Marvel? You bet it is. The entire time I've been open the chorus of retailers begging Marvel to stop mass-shipping on one week each month has grown and grown, and Marvel keeps telling us, "Oh, we'll fixt it, trust us." and nothing has changed. The reason (I surmise) is that Marvel doesn't care if retailers sell their comics, they only care that retailers buy them. To Marvel, because they do not take returns on anything, stores are the end-customer. We ordered X# of items, and they send them to us. That's the whole reason behind Marvels ever-growing number of variant covers, to get retailers to order more comics. Marvel knows that we're not going to sell the 25 extra copies of Ms. Marvel we need to order to get that Norman Rockwell variant cover, and they don't care, as long as retailers order them.
"You've got the brain of a four-year-old boy, and I'll bet he was glad to get rid of it." -Groucho Marx
Check out theSecret Headquarters(my store) website! It's a pretty lame website, but I did it myself, so tough noogies
Listen toWOXY.com, it's the future of rock-n-roll!
I don't really disagree with anything said on this thread so far, but I have two things to add.
1) I've never know anyone who plans his trip the LCS based on which week his "family" of titles ships. OTOH, I've know plenty of people who people who go once a week, or once a month, or once whenever they can fit it into their schedule.
2) What cheeses me off is Marvel's tendancy to dump all of its high end product (Masterworks, etc.) in a single week. If something has been solicited for July release (let us say), you can bet you sweet bippy it'll ship the last week of July if not the first week of August. That's what happened with Sub-Mariner Masterworks Vol. 3 and Young Allies Masterworks Vol. 1. I buy more comics than most of you, and there's $65 (after my discount) in a single week before I even look at a single periodical title! Here we are with one Wednesday left in the month and I have yet to see my most anticipated Marvel Masterworks release of the year (Joe Maneely's Black Knight and Jack Kirby's Yellow Claw) which was solicited to ship "in August."
Another phenomenon I've observed in my store is that my customers are much more likely to drop one or more of a "family" of books on a week when multiple issues ship than on a week that just one title ships. ("Man, I get a lot of Avengers books. Can you take Mighty off my list?") They're also more likely to drop unrelated titles when a bunch of one "family" they buy comes out. ("Dude, my total is over $50 this week, I need to cut back some.) Most people don't use a budget at all to help them understand where their money goes. They don't pay attention to the fact that one week they may spend $50 and the next 2 they may spend $15 and average it out. they just look at the week they're in right now.
That's an interesting point, Dags. As someone who does work from a budget, and has for a long time — and who can't really imagine not working from a budget when buying comics being a workable option — I didn't think of that particular perspective. But, yeah, I can see the immediacy factor being in play.
There are some interesting economic models at play here, that's for sure...
Nice to have some retailer's perspective, Dagwan. If Marvel's real agenda is what you think it is, that's deeply cynical. No wonder you don't think of them as a valued business partner.
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And it isn't just Marvel. Look at the manga companies. They tend to drop all of their titles at the same time, too. Tokyopop shipped every single one of their books in the last week of August. And Viz shipped half of their books in one week (Aug. 12). If someone is coming into the store for a specific manga title, they're much more likely to buy something extra that week than they are to come back the next week for something different.
Paul O'Brien of X-Axis complains about this all the time, too. I disagree with him. I don't think it's sloppy scheduling. It happens so often with Marvel (and even with their kiddie and all-ages line), that it looks intentional to me.
If the readership for all Hulk titles, say, are exactly the same — that is, if pretty much everyone who's buying Hulk is also buying Incredible Hulk is also buying Son of Hulk is also buying...um...Incredible Hercules? That's "Hulk family", right? — then it completely makes sense to spread those books out.
But that's not what we're facing. What we have instead is a huge disparity: The last issue of Hulk sold around 72k copies; Skaar and Hercules have been doing numbers in the mid-to-high 20ks (Skaar got a bit under a 10k bump to the low 30s when it added "Son of Hulk" to its title). So obviously, the latter two aren't posting the numbers that the former is. And when that's the case, if you're trying to jump-start them with an impulse buy, you have to figure that your most likely buyers are those that are already buying a Hulk title (well, I don't actually think that's a safe assumption re. Incredible Hercules, but work with me, here). So the target for impulse buys, generally speaking, is the 45k (or more, since there's probably not 100% overlap) readers who buy one book and not the other, not the 25k (or less) who already buy both.
And then there's the Incredible Hulk #600 factor. That issue moved 92k units — more than any of the three titles moved previously. At this point, Marvel is hoping most of those 92k readers will come back...but the question becomes, come back to which title? #600 picked up from Hulk #12, so maybe they'll come to Hulk #13. But Incredible Hulk #601 continues the numbering, so maybe they'll come to that. If Hulk #13 and Incredible Hulk #601 came out on different weeks, you run the risk of a Hulk fan picking up whichever one came first and concluding that that's the story he's going to follow, thus leaving the other book with one less reader.
On weeks when a bunch of one "family" of titles ships, the sales in my store on every other title from that company lags behind. When a buyer looks at the shelf, and they see 5 new issues of Avengers titles, and they're an Avengers fan, they do the math ("I'm spending almost $20 on Avengers this week!") and skip buying Captain Britain or Incredible Hercules or Agents of Atlas that week. The next week (assuming they are a weekly shopper), they are paying attention primarily to the new comics for that week, not the previous week, and those "skipped" books drop off of their radar.
95% of all of my "off the shelf" sales of new comics come in the first 6 days of the comics release. If I haven't sold a significant percentage of the shelf copies of a title in that first week, the order for the next issue gets cut. When the next issue comes in, there are fewer copies on the shelf available to be purchased. If, as is often the case, that month a smaller title comes out on another "family"-dominated week, the sales on the smaller title suffer again, and it gets cut again. What ends up happening is that eventually, the title gets ordered as "Subscribers +1" or "Subs only", and most of the chances for that smaller title to pick up a new reader are lost for good.
From my experience communicating with other retailers around the country, out of the estimated 3500 comic stores, most of them (estimating 80-85%) order in a similar fashion. There are few stores that can afford to stock heavily on lower-tier titles.
Another phenomenon I've observed in my store is that my customers are much more likely to drop one or more of a "family" of books on a week when multiple issues ship than on a week that just one title ships. ("Man, I get a lot of Avengers books. Can you take Mighty off my list?") They're also more likely to drop unrelated titles when a bunch of one "family" they buy comes out. ("Dude, my total is over $50 this week, I need to cut back some.) Most people don't use a budget at all to help them understand where their money goes. They don't pay attention to the fact that one week they may spend $50 and the next 2 they may spend $15 and average it out. they just look at the week they're in right now.
I have yet to hear from a retailer that thinks it's a good idea to have all of a "family" on the same week.
DC (usually...) doesn't do this. We usually get one Batman book per week, one Superman book, and one Green Lantern book.
For smaller publishers like IDW or Boom! and the manga companies that may be printing their books in China, sometimes having multiple related books in one week is unavoidable due to the logistics of shipping. They're printing a dozen comics at once, and it's cheaper to ship them all at once.
Is it intentional from Marvel? You bet it is. The entire time I've been open the chorus of retailers begging Marvel to stop mass-shipping on one week each month has grown and grown, and Marvel keeps telling us, "Oh, we'll fixt it, trust us." and nothing has changed. The reason (I surmise) is that Marvel doesn't care if retailers sell their comics, they only care that retailers buy them. To Marvel, because they do not take returns on anything, stores are the end-customer. We ordered X# of items, and they send them to us. That's the whole reason behind Marvels ever-growing number of variant covers, to get retailers to order more comics. Marvel knows that we're not going to sell the 25 extra copies of Ms. Marvel we need to order to get that Norman Rockwell variant cover, and they don't care, as long as retailers order them.
"You've got the brain of a four-year-old boy, and I'll bet he was glad to get rid of it." -Groucho Marx
Check out the Secret Headquarters (my store) website! It's a pretty lame website, but I did it myself, so tough noogies
Listen to WOXY.com, it's the future of rock-n-roll!
1) I've never know anyone who plans his trip the LCS based on which week his "family" of titles ships. OTOH, I've know plenty of people who people who go once a week, or once a month, or once whenever they can fit it into their schedule.
2) What cheeses me off is Marvel's tendancy to dump all of its high end product (Masterworks, etc.) in a single week. If something has been solicited for July release (let us say), you can bet you sweet bippy it'll ship the last week of July if not the first week of August. That's what happened with Sub-Mariner Masterworks Vol. 3 and Young Allies Masterworks Vol. 1. I buy more comics than most of you, and there's $65 (after my discount) in a single week before I even look at a single periodical title! Here we are with one Wednesday left in the month and I have yet to see my most anticipated Marvel Masterworks release of the year (Joe Maneely's Black Knight and Jack Kirby's Yellow Claw) which was solicited to ship "in August."
That's an interesting point, Dags. As someone who does work from a budget, and has for a long time — and who can't really imagine not working from a budget when buying comics being a workable option — I didn't think of that particular perspective. But, yeah, I can see the immediacy factor being in play.
There are some interesting economic models at play here, that's for sure...