More on Diamond Minimum Increase

Following up the story on Diamond Comic Distributors raising its minimum order level:

SLG Publisher Dan Vado shares his thoughts.

[these changes] will have a chilling effect on the business as we know it. … most small press comics (and by that I mean floppies) do not meet that benchmark. I think if the average reader knew how lousy some of our sales were they would be stunned. … The number of people living hand-to-mouth in this business, from paycheck to paycheck, having to work two and three jobs is stunning and always has been.

Tom Spurgeon talks to some noted independent publishers for their reactions.

So does Heidi, but her correspondents are off the record and thus more pessimistic.

Christopher Butcher prophesies doom, calling the change “essentially the beginning of the end for the Direct Market.” He also does some interesting math:

Do you know what it costs to be a direct market retailer? $600 minimum order each month. A cost between 4 and 10 times less than what it costs to be a publisher, apparently.



One comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *