Yes, comicsfans, once again Rick has overextended himself. Surprise surprise.
Well, not actually...just mentally. Trying to keep too many plates spinning, too many balls in the air, too many metaphors mixing, too many ideas and schemes in my head at the same time. That's perhaps the good thing about spending more time planning things than actually executing them: by exhausting myself with the run-through, I can talk myself out of a potentially expensive misstep.
Basically I'm talking about things I need to do, and things I want to do, and how to distinguish between them. Sometimes it gets a little difficult. I think everyone struggles with this problem to some extent.
Here's what I need to do:
1. Print The Human Cannonball #6 (due out this month).
2. Get ready for SPACE (Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo).
3. Help Joe edit Bone Boy #4 for April release.
Wow...just three things?! Okay, here's what I want to do:
1. Get money.
2. Get more money.
3. Scheme to get more money.
4. Beg people for money.
5. Fall apart in despair, shaking my fist at heaven on top of a mountain in a lightning storm, at the lack of money.
6. Worry about money.
Wow...sorry. Think I stuck my finger on the problem. And not just my problem - the problem that's plagued all comic book companies since the last gangster decided dat funnybook racket's a mug's game, youse guys.
As a comic book creator and self-publisher, you have two basic concerns, financially (at least in our case):
1. The cost of printing versus sales returns
2. The health of the comics retail business/enthusiasm of retail owners.
The first one's pretty simple: costs will always go up. No getting around it. We're thankful to have found a great POD service (Greko Printing's Comix Wellspring), but in terms of simple cost, it's still very expensive. That's just the way it goes. You want to print comics? You'll have to pay.
The second one is where most of the frustration lies. There's such a thing as Diminishing Returns on retailer enthusiasm: at first they're all like, "Cool! Awesome! Local! Great!" and buy your stuff. And then...well, they start getting this look in their eye whenever you show up with the new issue.
Now, this is perfectly reasonable: unless your stuff sells like the proverbial hotcakes, they have to weigh the benefit of giving you shelfspace versus your prices. Business is business. I love the fact that retailers are willing to help out a local boy, and that they're at least sympathetic to my cause, but eventually they have to look at the bottom line. And let me tell you, I'd rather be given the bum-rush than to have them buy my stuff out of pity. I'm a businessman too.
Another, more apocalyptic problem with retailers is the sheer volatility of the comic book business. In the late eighties, during the great Comic-Book Bubble, stores were popping up all over. Then, in blitheringly predictable Econ 101 fashion, the bubble burst, taking 90% of the small shops with them. Then the Great Recession happened: take half of that. They rallied with the new Marvel movies, but that's not going to last very long, and most comics were moving to digital format anyway; I predict we're going to be seeing at least a 10-20% fall-off in the next ten years. So now we're left with the wreckage of an old-school retail system based on print and customer loyalty, in an age when there's a dearth of either. There's still a cachet to having your work carried in stores, but cachet doesn't necessarily translate into cash.
One thing about Blind Alley Comics is that we're on the fringe, and therefore not attached to the pulpy center of comics-industry economics - even our stories are quite outside the mainstream. But insulation from the boom-and-bust cycle is a "negative" benefit; in other words, not-losing doesn't magically translate into gain. I'm wracking my brains for a way to find that "in", that means by which to establish ourselves as a legitimate, earning publisher.
Meh. We'll just move to digital.
Anyway, enough of my rambling and raving and complaining. Quit kvetching, relax for a bit. Everything will work out, somehow, eventually. And yes, I'd like to give a shout-out to all those retailers who've helped me out: Monica at Everybody Reads (Lansing), Heather at The Record Lounge (East Lansing), Dan at Red Fox Comics (Lansing), Liz at Vault of Midnight (Ann Arbor). You guys are great, and if there's any way we can help you out, let us know.
Rick Out!
Well, not actually...just mentally. Trying to keep too many plates spinning, too many balls in the air, too many metaphors mixing, too many ideas and schemes in my head at the same time. That's perhaps the good thing about spending more time planning things than actually executing them: by exhausting myself with the run-through, I can talk myself out of a potentially expensive misstep.
Basically I'm talking about things I need to do, and things I want to do, and how to distinguish between them. Sometimes it gets a little difficult. I think everyone struggles with this problem to some extent.
Here's what I need to do:
1. Print The Human Cannonball #6 (due out this month).
2. Get ready for SPACE (Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo).
3. Help Joe edit Bone Boy #4 for April release.
Wow...just three things?! Okay, here's what I want to do:
1. Get money.
2. Get more money.
3. Scheme to get more money.
4. Beg people for money.
5. Fall apart in despair, shaking my fist at heaven on top of a mountain in a lightning storm, at the lack of money.
6. Worry about money.
Wow...sorry. Think I stuck my finger on the problem. And not just my problem - the problem that's plagued all comic book companies since the last gangster decided dat funnybook racket's a mug's game, youse guys.
As a comic book creator and self-publisher, you have two basic concerns, financially (at least in our case):
1. The cost of printing versus sales returns
2. The health of the comics retail business/enthusiasm of retail owners.
The first one's pretty simple: costs will always go up. No getting around it. We're thankful to have found a great POD service (Greko Printing's Comix Wellspring), but in terms of simple cost, it's still very expensive. That's just the way it goes. You want to print comics? You'll have to pay.
The second one is where most of the frustration lies. There's such a thing as Diminishing Returns on retailer enthusiasm: at first they're all like, "Cool! Awesome! Local! Great!" and buy your stuff. And then...well, they start getting this look in their eye whenever you show up with the new issue.
Now, this is perfectly reasonable: unless your stuff sells like the proverbial hotcakes, they have to weigh the benefit of giving you shelfspace versus your prices. Business is business. I love the fact that retailers are willing to help out a local boy, and that they're at least sympathetic to my cause, but eventually they have to look at the bottom line. And let me tell you, I'd rather be given the bum-rush than to have them buy my stuff out of pity. I'm a businessman too.
Another, more apocalyptic problem with retailers is the sheer volatility of the comic book business. In the late eighties, during the great Comic-Book Bubble, stores were popping up all over. Then, in blitheringly predictable Econ 101 fashion, the bubble burst, taking 90% of the small shops with them. Then the Great Recession happened: take half of that. They rallied with the new Marvel movies, but that's not going to last very long, and most comics were moving to digital format anyway; I predict we're going to be seeing at least a 10-20% fall-off in the next ten years. So now we're left with the wreckage of an old-school retail system based on print and customer loyalty, in an age when there's a dearth of either. There's still a cachet to having your work carried in stores, but cachet doesn't necessarily translate into cash.
One thing about Blind Alley Comics is that we're on the fringe, and therefore not attached to the pulpy center of comics-industry economics - even our stories are quite outside the mainstream. But insulation from the boom-and-bust cycle is a "negative" benefit; in other words, not-losing doesn't magically translate into gain. I'm wracking my brains for a way to find that "in", that means by which to establish ourselves as a legitimate, earning publisher.
Meh. We'll just move to digital.
Anyway, enough of my rambling and raving and complaining. Quit kvetching, relax for a bit. Everything will work out, somehow, eventually. And yes, I'd like to give a shout-out to all those retailers who've helped me out: Monica at Everybody Reads (Lansing), Heather at The Record Lounge (East Lansing), Dan at Red Fox Comics (Lansing), Liz at Vault of Midnight (Ann Arbor). You guys are great, and if there's any way we can help you out, let us know.
Rick Out!
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