From: jcowling@ophelia.UVic.CA (Scowling Jim Cowling)
Subject:  Indie Distribution Discounts (Was Re: Jack Kirby ripped off?)
Organization: University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 92 08:09:04 GMT

Previously, John LaRocque stated that distributors are at fault for not giving
discounts or some such thing on indies.

It should be noted that the publisher of the book decides what discount she is
willing to sell the book to the distributor for.  DC and Marvel sell their
books to the major distributors at 60% off of cover.  The distributors then
decide on what discount they will give to the retailers.  This discount is based
on dollars ordered per month, and works out to be up to 57.5% off of cover.
The larger retailers get 57.5% off, and the smallest get 40% off.  Whatever's
left over is profit for the distributor (the shop I manage gets 53% off).

Now, This same general schedule applies on all discount levels.  Dave Sim
offers a 60% discount to distributors as well.  Let's look at some other
discounts:

DC, Marvel		60% discount	(average of 50% to retailers)
Fantagraphics		50% discount	(average of 40% to retailers)
	- Love and Rockets, Eightball, etc.
Antarctic		55% discount	(average of 45% to retailers)
	- Albedo, Furrlough, etc.
Caliber			60% discount	(average of 50% to retailers)
	- Deadworld, etc.
Dark Horse		55-60% discount, depending on title
Eclipse			45-55% discount, depending on title
Cartoon Books		55% discount	(average of 45% to retailers)
	- Bone
Image Comics		55% discount	(average of 45% to retailers)

The smallest publishers (many of the one-title wonders) offer 35%-50% discounts
to distributors.  The number who offer 60% discounts I could count on the
fingers of one hand.

So it boils down to this:  the independent titles, for the most part, are
unwilling to offer market-level discounts to the distributors (and, by trickle-
down, to the retailers).  Also consider that indie titles are generally harder
to sell to impulse shoppers (which account for 70% of comic purchases) and
far, far more difficult to sell as back issues.

THIS is why your local shop will only give you half the discount on the indie
books.  The fault lies primarily with the publisher. The retailer and
distributor make less money by selling indies.  If all indie publishers gave 
a 60% discount like Aardvark does, I guarantee that their sales would increase
phenomenally.

Don't blame the distributors.  Don't blame the retailers.  Bill Willingham
said it best:  "I am not your art-******".

From the point of a businessman, I don't know why a retailer gives ANY kind of
discount for indies.  Indies are not bought by speculators, nor (typically)
by impulse shoppers.  Most indies are purchased by people who are expressly
searching for indies.  Hence, they will buy them no matter the price.  If
they buy them no matter the price, why discount at all?  Stores don't need to
be nearly as price-competitive selling indie books as mainstream titles.

(side note:  the reason why Lobo goes into the 'toilet' display and Cerebus
 doesn't is because the 'toilet' is a Lobo display, not a Cerebus display.
 He certainly wouldn't display Lobo in his Cerebus display (if he's one of 
 the rare retailers who plans to get one of those cool display racks Dave's
 been planning.)

Next point.  Diamond and Capital City carry just about everything.  Everything.
Bone, Hepcats, Lethargic, etc etc etc.  They carry them.  They make them 
available to retailers.  If your local retailer says that he can't get a certain
title, then he's either lying (in which case, go to another retailer) or 
he's not dealing with a decent distributor (in which case, he's not providing
you with adequate service, and, again, go to another retailer, and don't look
back).  The distributors make them available.  Capital City even promotes
them half-decently!  They make promo material available to retailers, free
of charge!  IT IS NOT THE DISTRIBUTOR'S FAULT.  

What else?  Lemme see.  Indies are the most-listed items on cancellation lists.
Why?  Because many, many indie publishers can't get their books out on time.
If the publisher can't get a book out on time, then (personally) I as a retailer
am not particularly interested in the product.  My interest in the product
must be limited to the interest that the publisher has in the product.

In your next point you say something about new retailers being told "that only
Marvel sells and don't bother with the rest of that shit".  Oh, freaking
spare me.  I've NEVER seen such an attitude displayed in the distribution
world.  More like "Order to sell out".  Again, Capital City leads the way 
with their "Best of the Rest" column.  

Now I'll argue the flip side.  Reatilers should, and MUST, push independent
titles.  Doing so by discounting is a Bad Idea.  In my store, I never pick a
Big Five title as the "Pick of the Week".  All non-Big Five titles get at least
three weeks on the shelf (well, most of them -- but many Big Fives don't
get more than a single week on the shelf before I drop them into the bins.  
Sure, space is limited.  But people will look through the bins for X-Men; they
would pass over indies if I dropped them in the bins).  Two very simple
suggestions which cost no money and will bump indie sales tremendously (oh, and
if you read the weekly list I post, we get in 95% of the indie books I list,
although typically in quantities of 3-5 copies, but it's a hell of a lot better
than 95% of the stores in North America.  And we're not a big store.  We sell
maybe 50 copies of X-Men a month...).

Businesses can make money on indies.  But they can't make a lot of money, and,
sorry to say, it's the PUBLISHER's fault, not the distributor's.


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Scowling Jim Cowling
Professional Evil Person
Creative Writing Department, University of Victoria (opinions disassociated)

"That's fooking blasphemy!"

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Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc