That’s a lot of it. Say a retailer makes $2 profit off a single issue (somewhere around the average for a $3.99 issue). That cost has to account for the share of time it takes a retailer to take in the order, place the order, process into the file and sell the issue. It also has to cover the general costs of the store - utilities, rent, staffing… that $2 only goes so far. It becomes about volume at a certain point. Each different cover costs a certain amount of time as well, so a total number might not even cover the chunk of time it takes to add each ISBN to a system, and to order separate.
And retailers see the biggest chunk of the money from the price of comics too. And if it is that hard for US, think about it going down the line.
Got it, that makes sense. A lot of work for a thin margin versus the higher margins for the trades (and same amount of work to stock) plus you can sell a first volume trade of a series you know is good much easier than trying to get someone on a monthly mid run. I always think it's interesting to see how few deep issue copies are on the shelf for a long-running title. Like it doesn't make a lot of sense to have more than 1-2 shelf copies of the latest issue of Monstress.
Thank you for this encompassing insight, Brandon. I´m a European creator working for US clients, so for decades I was always wondering about that single issue ridiculousness. Albums, TPBs and graphic novels entertain much better, imho.
Since you like wrestling, I wish there would be more pages of the Disciple. It would make for a nice graphic novel mixing wrestling and superheroes. https://globalcomix.com/c/disciple
Is the cash flow issue with single issues that the margins are so thin and you are having to carry a ton of series?
That’s a lot of it. Say a retailer makes $2 profit off a single issue (somewhere around the average for a $3.99 issue). That cost has to account for the share of time it takes a retailer to take in the order, place the order, process into the file and sell the issue. It also has to cover the general costs of the store - utilities, rent, staffing… that $2 only goes so far. It becomes about volume at a certain point. Each different cover costs a certain amount of time as well, so a total number might not even cover the chunk of time it takes to add each ISBN to a system, and to order separate.
And retailers see the biggest chunk of the money from the price of comics too. And if it is that hard for US, think about it going down the line.
Got it, that makes sense. A lot of work for a thin margin versus the higher margins for the trades (and same amount of work to stock) plus you can sell a first volume trade of a series you know is good much easier than trying to get someone on a monthly mid run. I always think it's interesting to see how few deep issue copies are on the shelf for a long-running title. Like it doesn't make a lot of sense to have more than 1-2 shelf copies of the latest issue of Monstress.
Thank you for this encompassing insight, Brandon. I´m a European creator working for US clients, so for decades I was always wondering about that single issue ridiculousness. Albums, TPBs and graphic novels entertain much better, imho.
Since you like wrestling, I wish there would be more pages of the Disciple. It would make for a nice graphic novel mixing wrestling and superheroes. https://globalcomix.com/c/disciple