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I wish I were the not-a-monopoly of something. Then I could totally mess with people by withholding information that is pretty straightforward, too. Turns out comics do have to have UPCs on them, which makes sense now that I think about it because an ISSN is a number that identifies an entire series, not the individual issues, and thus not appropriate for tracking stock.
The UPC requirement means that publishers who do not already GS1 membership have to pay $750 to get a vendor ID number and start putting those barcodes on comics! (Seems they can be put on the front or back cover... actually the letter doesn't specify that it does have to be on the cover, but we'll assume that's the best place for it.) Trade paperbacks and graphic novels have to have ISBNs, which are $275 for ten. Now, let's all sit back and watch the small publishers fall. Anyone care to adapt the R.E.M. lyrics to fit this grim occasion?
-JdG
Comments
Except for the corporate comics, for which Diamond and the DM are designed, a combination of online serialization and GN-sized collections is becoming the better approach. That at least cuts back the number of codes needed for people still serializing in floppies. The market is changing and Darwin always wins.
You're absolutely right that the market is changing. So few indie publishers do floppy collections anymore. It was still the way things were done when I started out in the business, six years ago, and now it's rare. The direct market simply does not support individual issues of most independent comics.
I just crunched some numbers for the Diamond sales this year for 10 of our graphic novels/trades and trades, and I found it very interesting. 48% of sales were to the direct market and 50% were to the book market (the other 2% was mostly to libraries). There were more copies reordered from the book market. The DM focuses on what is new a lot of time, but the book market is a place where more sustainable presence can be fostered, it seems.
So the direct market is still very important to comics publishers, but it can by no means viewed as more important than the book market.
Err, I meant "floppy issues."