By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 6/9/2016
If you’re ready to take a breather from the comic book culture wars, a couple of articles this week examined various vital aspects of comic book sales. CBNC pointed out what we’ve been saying here on and on for years, with the succinctly titled Comic books buck trend as print and digital sales flourish, and they […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 3/25/2015
A Kickstarter is a little like having a baby in only 31 days, You put all your efforts into the birth, but then what happens to the baby? Well now we’ll get to see the kids grow up and go to school. Kickstarter is enabling creators to showcase more of what happens to projects after the initial funding ends with a new “Spotlight” feature that launches today. All creators with funded projects will now be able to manage the page to present a view of their work, with huge graphics, an inviting look, an attractive new timeline feature that can share the creator’s story at a glance, and links that can go anywhere—so buy buttons and links to ongoing projects can be added.
And for those who like to see how the project got made, the original Kickstarter page will still be archived in a tab called “Story.”
Since Kickstarter ages are often top search results, this is a good way to promote the finished project and later developments and direct buyers to a place to purchase related projects.
For instance here’s how the old pages looked:
And how they’ll look now:
As you can see it’s a huge improvement and a perfect showcase for further interaction and sales. For comics people where Kickstarter pages are already a hub of activity, this can effectively become a storefront. Kickstarter has a very creator-oriented philosophy and this is a strong indication of how they’re implementing that going forward.
And here’s a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7KLTEWL8S4
More than half of people working in the industry think sales of e-books will overtake those of their printed counterparts by the end of this decade.
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Great insights. Last night on my commute home, the guy in front of me was reading Hellboy via ComiXology , the guy next to me had a JLA HC collection/GN, and I had was reading a digital comic but had a floppy with me too.
As one of the old time commentators, I think you are absolutely right about the sustainability of the old, accepted notion of a comic (especially those outdated attempts to recapture the old X-men or Teen Titans heydays with teams of youthful superheroes)
However, I don’t fret for the medium. As we are seeing with people like Noelle Stephenson, there are markets outside standard comics that seem to be doing just fine.
Instead of dollar amounts, I wish the first chart was physical units. As cover prices have gone up, that will increase dollar amount even if the units shipped is stagnant.
I’m also not surprised that TPB appear to be stagnant. Most Diamond accounts are DM stores. Most DM stores sell singles. Only a small subset of customers will buy a trade if they have the singles, and others will get it if they can’t get back issues. Most TPB prices are no cheaper than buying all the back issues which can often be found on the shelf at my local shop. If I want a TPB, it’s also cheaper to them online from Indigo, Amazon etc instead of paying full cover price (or marked up US as many Canadian shops are doing now) at my local shop. I am also guaranteed to get a new copy and not one that has been thumbed through by customers.
Meanwhile, the Walking Dead has relaunched how many times? Oh right, none.
Imagine that – if you put out consistently good material, sales will remain consistent as well.
Make mine Image.
I think one of the reasons paper comics still sell is because people spend so much time staring a computer screen. They do it for work, they do it with their phones to distract themselves. etc..
At some point you (and your eyes) want a break and physical book is a good way to do it.