Comments on: The Future of Publishing: Selling More Expensive Books to Fewer People?

By: Johanna

Johanna — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 15:44:40 +0000

Great point, Bill. You’re right, that this is more properly seen as a bonus… until the company begins depending on that revenue, as we’re beginning to see with variant cover comic editions.

By: Bill Williams

Bill Williams — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 14:26:05 +0000

One of this things discovered during the current digital boom is that different people want to experience comics in different formats and those additional transactions do not cannibalize existing sales. These different channels serves different kinds of fans. As a guy with 60 longboxes, I can see the charms of reading comics on a digital reader.

You could look at the collector’s editions as one more way to cash in on a 20+ year old property or as fan service depending on your end of the tranaction. At three or four projects a month, I think the risk has to lie with the publishers who could choke on books if they over-estimate demand. Today, there are comic books from 1969 on the best selling list over at comiXology. With those digital versions, there is little more than the pay to the production staff involved. But those high end print versions have to generate big printing bills.

The sales numbers on the artist editions have to be telling IDW something for them to move forward with this.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 12:16:49 +0000

If I was to spend that much money on a signed book, I’d already be familiar with the content and have read the story. I’d want to keep the expensive version nice.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 03:03:30 +0000

So do you believe that these titles will just be purchased by collectors who never crack them open, and have no appreciation for comics and the stories they can tell. It kinda reminds me of a Star Trek DS9 episode, season 1. Quark is trying to sell some artifacts from the Delta Quad. Vash is explaining their significance and all of the buyers are bored. Quark jumps in and says, “look its rare and from far away, come on bid,” and the bidding starts.