Comments on: Free Comic Book Day Links & Limits

By: Free Comic Book Day 2009 » Comics Worth Reading

Free Comic Book Day 2009 » Comics Worth Reading — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:52:46 +0000

[...] some thoughts on how to run a good event, and I’ve pondered what makes for a good giveaway [...]

By: Johanna

Johanna — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:20:35 +0000

That’s great, that you’ve found a system that works for your store. Thanks for sharing.

By: Gabriel

Gabriel — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:48:19 +0000

We’ve been making a big event of FCBD for seven years now at DreamStrands. We order a bare minimum 10 copies of every book on the list and hundreds of copies of the more popular titles.
The first year we tried the “no limit/steer the customers towards material they might like” approach, but ran out of books very early. For the next six years, we’ve imposed a 6-title limit. It works GREAT! Six seems to be a magic number where folks can pick up the titles they know they’ll like as well as try a couple of new things. It also lets the kids get a good variety. No one ever walks away disappointed or empty-handed even later in the day. Plus, we always have just enough books left over (usually one small box) to give away throughout the next few months at other events or just to random kids/customers who visit the shop.
Just Thought I’d throw my 2-cents in as a shopowner.

By: Dan Grendell

Dan Grendell — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:49:22 +0000

Johanna,

This year, at any given time, it wasn’t unusual to have four different families with children in front of us making their choices at the same time. Given that we had two employees stationed at the FCBD tables (the rest actually running the store or helping at the artist signing), that still means that those two were already pushed to answer everybody’s questions, help them find books they would like, and make sure people were getting age-appropriate material. A standardized limit was easily made part of our welcome to each newcomer and helped give more time for other questions. Generally, though, if someone asked for more, or was having trouble deciding, we allowed them to take a few more (that’s the playing it fast and loose part)- we’re comics retailers, not gestapo.

I’m certainly not saying it’s the only way to do it. We have found, though, that having a limit but making exceptions to it easily helps ensure that there are enough comics for everyone, and keeps most people happy.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:58:55 +0000

Dan, I agree that it’s good to make people think about their choices — but that can be done without limits. One year when I helped give them out, we simply asked people what they were interested in and steered them that way. If they asked about specific numbers (”how many can I have?”), we’d make a joke like “oh, a reasonable amount” to steer them away from taking all but without being too restrictive.

Mike, thanks for providing that background.

By: Tim O'Shea

Tim O'Shea — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:16:28 +0000

And can I just add that I contacted (as the author of that Newsarama post) and thanked both Mike and Randy for adding some substance to the discussion while also disagreeing in a civil manner within the comments.

By: Mikester

Mikester — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:14:14 +0000

Johanna – The discussion in my comments section started in the comments for this Newsarama post, where both Randy and I discussed our positions and strategies re: FCBD book distribution. There was a little friction at first, but I’d like to think we’d come to a mutual understanding and an agreement to respectfully disagree.

I wasn’t even intending to discuss the limits thing…my primary concern was about comic shops putting any kind of effort into making FCBD an event. I’d just like more shops to put a real effort into making the day something special. Once more shops do that, then we can quibble about how many books are given out!

By: Dan Grendell

Dan Grendell — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:42:57 +0000

As someone who works at Randy’s store, I can tell you that the main reason we limit customers to three (and we aren’t particularly hard-nosed about it; if someone has a kid at home, they can grab for them too, etc.) isn’t just money. It’s because experience has shown that if we don’t, most people simply grab one of each without looking, and after an hour half the titles are gone, with the rest disappearing short hours afterward. If we want anyone who doesn’t show up before noon to have a chance at having a choice at all or even having comics to take, we can either limit their options numerically or order large numbers of every FCBD title. The latter is sadly simply financially unfeasible, so we do the former, and play things fast and loose.

My question is, which is worse? Limiting new readers to a few choices, or not having choices at all when they come in, which is what happened the year we didn’t have limits?