Rocket Bomber - commentary

[never ask advice from a blogger, as we tend to blog about it]

I don’t get these very often, but the occasional email is certainly worth it:

Sir,

My name is [redacted] and I am the president of [redacted], Ltd., a small [redacted]-based visual and audio entertainment company. I read through the three ways to contact you on your site and opted to take the easiest for all of us. I am seeking information about new comic book sales and noted in one of your posts that you track them. I was hoping you could give me some insight regarding a project we’re considering. Please forgive this inquiry if it is inappropriate but it seemed to touch your stated expertise.

We are planning a series of audio dramas and would like to concurrently release a series of 24 high-quality comic books, (36-42 pages each, average of 2 panels covering 1/6th the page (standard) and one covering 1/3rd (widescreen)). Our intent is to produce some good comics with lasting value to the owners while concurrently widening awareness of our audio series. We are also using both the comic and audio efforts to demonstrate the viability of film proposals based on the same theme. To this end, we aren’t looking to make money on the comics but we also don’t want to loose them either.

I’ve contacted a few of the comic producers and some have offered to create the artwork for the comic panels (digital versions) for an average rate of $500 per page.

Rightly or wrongly, we’ve been led to believe that a fair run for a new comic is 3000-5000 copies at an average price of $3.99 each. By our math, that means that even if we managed to get the distribution and printing services free, we’d at best just break even or would be losing about $8000 per comic released. Naturally, printers and distributors want their pay and cuts and I presume, if comics are like independent films, we’d expect to hand over at least half of the returns to the distributor for his time/advertising expenses. That changes our math to losing up to $16,000 per issue of what would be titled a “successful” comic book.

My gutt feeling is also that these companies see us as something of a money pool from which they can fund or compensate for their other stressed efforts. I can’t prove this but its the impression I get from talking with their editors.

Associates we have in the music industry have told us to go direct to the distributors but since we don’t have any established connections with them, and don’t know the ground rules of the comic business, we aren’t sure if such a thing is feasible or common or even whom to go about contacting other than blind e-mails to the companies.

We can afford to finance the artwork and printing independently if such an option seems more viable. We don’t want to get stuck with an unsellable product due to the hidden conditions of the comic book world.

We’d appreciate any insight you could offer us as we’re sure our understanding must be skewed or we wouldn’t be getting some of the answers we’re getting. Of course, we’d apprecite tips to any connections you may know whom would be interested in such a venture for its own merits rather than merely as an influx of money. Mostly, we’d like to get your opinions and insights to our situation.

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.
[ID info redacted]

##

Oh, where to start…

Dear querent,

I’m not an expert, or a sir, but I can try to help you out anyway.

First: What I track through my site are online sales, like those through Amazon and others, but since I’m not privy to actual sales (I get the data I need by looking at what is publicly posted each day on Amazon et al.) I’m not sure how much I can help on this one.

That said, it seems you are in need of at least one correction, re: comics as cross-promotional vehicles:

Unless the comics are already made, you’re chasing diminishing returns: Sure, you might think comics are just an afterthought, or an add-on, or good exposure, but in fact comics are their own thing — and when done correctly, they require professional writers, artists, and full time editorial support. And you can’t make comics by looking at rates per page, or costs for a print run of 5000 copies (or 10000 copies) as the industry doesn’t work like that.

Comics are still books, stand-alone products with their own writers and artists and audience. If you want to tap that audience, instead of making your own books, you’d be much better served by buying advertising space in existing titles. This will be cheaper, too.

If you want to make comics, that’s great. But I don’t feel you can make ‘comics’ as an appendix to some other project, and I think the math you’ve already done will prove that to you.

Comics are not ads. They’re not marketing. I you’d like to publish a book, comics or otherwise, you’ll be entering a field with which you have no experience. A decade ago, marketing was all about Push — getting the message out on as many platforms as possible. And this was a fine model for the last century, when the only models were broadcast models — a top down approach where your customers are all passive members of an audience. The internet (and even current advertising) has shown that push-marketing doesn’t always work, and that if you’re serious about doing a comic of your property, you need to consider “pull” and “buy-in” on social media platforms.

Unfortunately, “pull” and “buy-in” are not something you can just throw money at — not even if you’re willing to subsidise your own comic book in an attempt to reach this market. People have to like — and want — what you’re selling, and this is a much harder proposition.

I wish you luck. But merely considering a ‘comic’ version of your project and emailing some random blogger isn’t going to get you there.

first and foremost: there is no such thing as a “Coffee Table Book” — sure, I know what you mean and like art (or porn) we all know it when we see it, but I’ll be damned if any publisher cites these as a category or format. It’s a descriptor like Sedan or Compact or ‘family car’ — it can mean a lot of things depending on who is using the term.

##

Rethinking the Box is a collection of ruminations on retail: a unique combination of sober (and sobering) business analysis mixed with drunken, inflammatory personal invective.

Previously:
Study your History. Recognise your Motives. Location, Location, Location. Know your Customer Base, and your Staff. Find your Niche. Consider your Product Lines, Stock Your Shelves, take a second look at What the Customers Want, and then stare again in dismay at the Profit Margins. Try calculating your upper-limit affordable rent and the revenue from inventory (with a side of coffee) and compare your numbers to average industry per-storefront sales.

[yes, the intro gets longer with each post; but the one time I omitted the context all hell broke loose.]

##

In the last column I outlined a strategy for stocking graphic novels. (an expensive strategy but one that corrects for errors and accomodates certain customer behaviours such that at least one copy of a book is always available *and* where it should be on the shelf, so we can sell it. Buy 3 to sell 1, heh, everything old is new again…)

My “Illustrated Empire” is to be more than just a comic shop, though; in the August inventory post I outlined quite a few categories [Art Surveys and Collections, Art Technique, Architecture, Graphic Design, Fashion, Photo Essay, & ‘Coffee Table’ Travel] that are broadly related to each other in as much as each category is primarily made up of large format, full-colour, expensive hardcover books. These things are heavy, printed on glossy clay paper, tend to run into the hundreds of pages in Quarto or Folio editions, or larger, or odd custom trim sizes, and all in all they’re a pain in the ass.

You’ll need custom shelving for these (or at least, not standard book shelves) as a 4-foot run of art books can weigh 300+ pounds and they tend to overhang standard 6-8 deep shelving by at least a third. For those of you who haven’t moved outside of the graphic-novel corner of you local Big Box Books for more than a cup of coffee, let me put it in perspective: those slipcased, over-sized Absolute Editions DC is so proud of? Imagine 150 linear feet of shelving on a wall 30 ft. long in bookcases 7 ft. high, full of nothing but Absolute DC.

It’s heavy. It’s impressive.

It’s the Architecture section at my branch of Big Box Books — and I know my store is atypical; most stores would be lucky to have one or two bookcases while I have ten, and this is just architecture. I’ve a similar run of Art books, and Interior Design, and smaller runs of things like Photography and Graphic Design.

It’s an odd confluence of being within easy driving distance of both Ga. Tech (with their fine College of Architecture) and the Atlanta campus of SCAD, while also located just down the street from a neighborhood full of Coke-stock-beneficiaries who have little to do but redecorate their mansions once a year.

…between them, and the students, and the homeless, on top of the usual slate of both the casual shopping public and die-hard bookstore junkies, it’s an unusual place to work. —but it might also explain some of my odd perceptions of the business & our customer base [posted previously].

Anyway, when I say you can stock 4,000 large-format, high-price-point “coffee table books” and you can make money doing it, I know whereof I speak.

The books themselves are the draw. Some of you may have been wiping drool off your chins already, after reading my description of a ton and a half of Art books alongside a ton and a half of Architecture titles. The problem, of course, is that casual browsing completely destroys the value of the book [even though the book itself is fine, and intact] and the physical weight of the books themselves will wreak havoc on flimsy dust jackets, or even occasionally the binding.

If it’s an $80 art book, and you have a choice between the fresh-out-of-the-box shrink-wrapped copy, and the one that has been knocking around my store for 2 years, the choice is obvious. The problem I run into, as a retailer, is that often this is the same copy: I have one copy. It’s still shrink-wrapped. Customer A wants it, but wants to look at it first. One time in twenty, they find a bookseller and ask, politely, if it’d be OK to unwrap the one copy in the store because, well, it’s an $80 book, right? Only fair to see what $80 buys. (The other 95% of the time a customer tears into the book anyway, and hides the plastic or cellophane behind other books — which means it’s not an unthinking act, as one went to lengths to hide the evidence)

Customer A unwraps the book, flips through it, decides no, not really, and puts the book back on the shelf.

Customer B, finding said “spoiled” copy, then brings it up to the desk and asks, “Hey, this is your last copy but it’s damaged, no really… can I get a discount?”

Customer A was functioning by their own logic, and Customer B certainly thinks their request is only reasonable, given the condition of the book [as noted above, even though the book itself is fine, and intact, and people attempt to return books for full credit that are in worse shape at least once a day] and this type of exchange is one of the reasons I drink heavily.

Since I don’t want to be an alcoholic [from stress; I’m perfectly fine being an alcoholic who drinks to celebrate the pure joy of being alive] obviously I would need to find a new way to merchandise these books.

##

Case 1: Open Shelves.

This is the situation described above. And books sell; it’s not the worse thing in the world. And, while not admitting anything about the performance of my store or revealing proprietary sales data my employer would rather I not post to a blog (sorry, had to say it) if you’ve the right kind of books and the right kind of market, then even with $50+ price points you can manage a turn ratio of 1: one book sold each year per book stocked. At $50 per, that ain’t bad at all.

Open shelving has the benefit of density (three tons of books, noted above) though you’re going to have to take some losses (or the publisher will, if they accept the damaged books back) and you’ll also have to invest quite a bit of payroll into maintenance: These sections are heavily browsed and almost universally, no one puts the book back where they found it. In those rare cases when a customer does reshelve a book it’s always wrong and more often we find a 70lb. stack on a table or bench at least 20 yards away from the section. Now we have to truck 70lb. up to the desk, to figure out where they go, and schlep the same 70lb. back to the section to reshelve them appropriately.

And we do this for each and every ‘coffee table book’ customer. Multiple times. Some customers really suck, you know?

Case 2: Buy 3 to Sell 1

…same logic as my Graphic Novel stocking strategy: one copy is mis-shelved, one’s been opened, but you should still be able to find a sealed copy to sell. You know, until someone unwraps that one too, “Oh, here’s one unwrapped already, but how will I know if the contents inside are the same unless I despoil this copy as well? I mean, that’s only logical.”

Case 3: Curated collections

Instead of stocking everything you can think to order, focus instead on 20, or 50, or 100 really great books. The trick here is picking what your customers will want, so you’ll need an expert on staff (if you’re not an expert yourself) but the main benefit is a much higher turn rate:

You’ve one ‘display’ copy, but 20 or even 50 copies still in the box. Your needy, grasp-y, greasy-fingered customer base can grope and paw the display copy all they want, and if they like it, you hand them the still-pristine copy from the top of the stack. For customers giving books as gifts, this is ideal. Repeat 5 times, and you’ve already done much better than the single copy alone would have done lost in a bookcase with other similar titles.

You don’t even need bookshelves for this — stock ‘em Crate & Barrel style: A fine easel or podium or table-top display, backed by cases of books to be sold.

A curated collection would need to be changed out frequently, so you’ll need to be on good terms with at least one publisher (Taschen and Phaidon spring immediately to mind, though there are others) as you’ll need a willing partner to accept the unsold stacks as returns, and as much advance information as possible to select books that might have sold 20-30 copies to begin with.

Case 4: Behind the Counter

Again, you’ll be looking at just 50-100 titles, but instead of out in the stacks where any hard-up homeless guy can flip through the Photography books because they happen to have nudes in them, you stock your expensive merch behind the registers (or behind some other counter) so they can only be browsed on request. This might save the books from some of the more, intensive, browsers but again limits your available selection from thousands to scant tens — maybe a hundred or so.

And unlike a curated collection, you don’t have duplicates to sell, just one of each.

“Behind the Counter” is the default for most stores, in fact. As a stocking ‘strategy’ it lacks quite a bit of sales potential; this is really more of a just-in-case purchase on the part of the bookstore or comic shop owner. “Oh, I need Absolute Watchmen and Marvel Premiere hardcovers and some Absolute Batman… just in case“

You can write the investment off as ‘decoration’ — yes, these are expensive but some deluxe editions and figures and poly-bagged collectibles and maybe even some DVDs “behind the counter” lend the shop that “Android’s Dungeon” air: we’re serious about this, so serious we stock stuff we know won’t sell. Ever.

OK, let me dial that back a bit: There is nothing wrong with stocking specialty and high-price-point items. It’s commendable. In fact, I plan to do the exact same thing, but in a much higher volume store where, as a percentage of overall sales, not only does it make sense but might even be considered a requirement. (So, in an attempt to forstall comments that I know are coming: yes, your shop does quite well by these, but what of the strip-mall storefront comic shops that are just breaking even on periodical sales: do they need to invest in hardcover Hulk & Batman?)

Case 5: Closed-door Collections

Say you’ve a 20×60 room, bookcases on every wall, a few tables and comfy armchairs set up in the middle. Stack those bookcases with your Art and Artsy titles, and then put a lock on the door. Keys to be held by managers only.

This has the benefits of the Open Shelves model, above, in that you can really pack the books in. 4000 or 5000 different titles, depending on how tall your bookshelves are. You also have a degree of control over access, similar to a behind-the-counter model (though if you let one college student in, there will be 20 there before you can blink). And while this won’t stop the gradual degredation of your stock, by limiting access you might get another year or two out of the books — and even some sales of off-the-shelf, unwrapped copies, as they are still ‘like new’ as opposed to being ragged-looking shadows of their former selves.

And, since customers must ask for access and be granted such by an authority figure (inasmuch as a bookstore manager can invoke that authority) they will be more careful with the books. If a book is just sitting on a shelf that’s one thing; if someone has looked you in the eye and made note of your face before unlocking a door, that’s a completely different interaction.

[long aside:]
Given my past experience, I’m most immediately inspired by the Georgia Tech Architecture Library — it’s a small annex to the main library located in the CoA building, and if you didn’t know it was there, you’d never feel the lack. But for those who know to ask, it’s an invaluable resource, and for those-who-know keeping the library intact and in excellent shape is almost a calling. Books, particularly the over-sized and heavily illustrated volumes, are treated with care. Someone after you will need to look at these same pages, and it is our responsibility to make sure the volume survives for them.

I’d love to capture that same spirit, only, you know, with the add-on that I’d like to sell you that book if you happen to have $100.

Bookstores aren’t libraries. The general public hasn’t caught onto this yet (more the pity for libraries) but eventually the differences will become pronounced enough that the public has to take notice, or they won’t care, or e-books and the related dog-and-pony-circus will make make the point moot, or obscure the issue so that the role of libraries is either forgotten or discounted. And we’ll all be poorer for it.

Don’t mistake me: I’m a bookseller, and more than happy to take your money, and less happy but willing to take on some of the roles of a librarian if it means I can take even more of your money — but I know the function and role of libraries in society, and even if my customers don’t know and feel the loss, I do.

I think we can all see that retailers are not a cultural institution and, at least in Amazon’s case, can actively work against the public interest. (Though who is to say whose interest is served when two major corporations get into a spat over how the dollars are divvied.)

At any rate, I feel the need for an independent, academic repository of books — both informative and entertaining — that has nothing to do with profit motives or sales. We need libraries, or else the soul of our culture is dead.

[and note: Google isn’t going to be that “independent, academic repository” no matter how they try to spin it — but I don’t know what the solution actually is, or is going to be. Just commenting from the sidelines.]
[/long aside]

For my eventual bookstore, I’m leaning more and more toward these closed-door collections, and may have not one but four or five of these reading rooms, differentiated by subject.

So.

• The iPod wasn’t the first MP3[AAC] player. It did everything other players did, just in a fancy case and with the Apple logo.
• The killer app was iTunes. You buy the thing, & then you buy into the website [99 cents, score!], and Apple becomes a segment leader, a market leader, an industry leader (Music industry leader, not their primary market of hardware) and all of a sudden we’re living in Steve Job’s World and we’re not sure how we got here.

You don’t need iTunes to fill an iPod. You can rip CDs, you can buy music elsewhere, you can even pirate music if that is your chosen path. Apple made the right thing (paying for music) also the easy thing… and that has been good for record companies and extremely profitable for Apple. Next:

• The iPhone wasn’t the first smart phone. It did everything other smart phones did, just in a fancy case and with the Apple logo.
• Depending on your point of view, the iPhone didn’t even do things better. But it did everything well enough, and it was pretty, and easy, and easy for first time users to pick up.
• The killer app was the App Store: no, really. Apple didn’t need to figure out everything we might want on a smart phone — I don’t know if a single company, no matter how smart, could have anticipated that. But by opening up the hardware (with caveats, and of course taking a cut from the top of any app sold) Apple—in a small, small way—handed the device back to the user and said, “Hey guys, we think this is cool: show us all the cool things you want to do with it.”
• Apple controls a gate, the App Store, but has otherwise opened up the process to all comers. Given it’s critical mass of users (brought in by Apple fans and others willing to go with a ‘known brand’ as opposed to something new) both the user base and developer base is self-supporting at this point.
• I think the ‘critical mass of users’ is the critical point. Google Android actually has more potential than the iPhone, given that (at least technically) it isn’t tied down to a single company, or type of hardware, or device — but even with the Google brand it’s going to take longer to hit critical mass. Eventually, Google will get there… but they don’t have Steve Jobs and his fanbase to effect a product launch that takes over the whole internet for five days.

Google is on the right track. They may even be smarter than Apple. The ironic twist is that the customer base, no matter how geeky, isn’t smart. We buy into celebrity, and glitz, and glamour, and established brands. It’s so very hard for any new brand to crack this market, no matter how good the product (which is why the manufacturer of new Joojoo tablet grossly, almost criminally underestimated the value of their one-time TechCrunch partner: Hardware is easy. Branding, and Market Awareness, is hard.)

And again: So.

• The new iPad isn’t the first tablet, or netbook; it does everything other tablets and netbooks do, just in a fancy case and with the Apple logo.
• Multi-touch, multi-gesture, “minority report” style interface is fine, and may even be ‘better’, but buttons and alt-keys and various computer mice have done the same thing for years. Not revolutionary, not evolutionary, just another way to access the computer, and while necessary once one eliminates a normal keyboard and mouse/touchpad/pointer— this isn’t the selling point Apple might like it to be.
• My initial impression is that the iPad isn’t a computer, in as much as it doesn’t use MacOS but will instead run it’s own OS, and presumably with it’s own SDK. (If Apple has announced cross-platform support with iPhone apps, I didn’t see that press release — though it would be a great way to bootstrap iPad content and support with absolutely no effort required by Apple, past the software fix.)

• iPod built on a decade of past consumer use: we wanted MP3/Audio Files, we were used to finding them on a computer, we had scads of files already — the iPod merely made them portable, and made carrying around an MP3 player cool.
• iPhone was built on that concept of cool. It’s a geek device, but suddenly you weren’t a geek (per se) if you had one. Market penetration, and the previous success of the iPod, made the iPhone ‘normal’
• Once the ‘geek curb’ is overcome, technology is no longer weird, but required. You can’t be cool without one. Apple overcame this barrier (and it was as much a barrier as the speed of sound to aircraft) but once jets can travel Mach 1 (or phones can read email, access GPS, get local weather, and enable IM) it is less a feat and more a matter of daily fact.

The next iteration is the iPad. As stated, it does everything other tablets and netbooks do, just in a fancy case and with the Apple logo.

But Apple has a way of leveraging these modest moves into established hardware with customer enthusiasm, large user bases, and (more-or-less) open 3rd-party developer involvement that makes their merely incremental improvements on existing hardware seem like revolutions.

And that is Apple’s Mad Genius.

Over at Anime Vice, Gia asked the question — “Do you think that lolicon and shotacon (e.g. hand-drawn materials featuring underage— sometimes VERY underage —characters in sexual situations) should be banned?”

And here’s my response:

So. I can point everyone to my ‘defense of porn’ post, again
http://www.rocketbomber.com/2009/01/10/5by8-29-the-blind-men-and-the-elephant-in-the-room

Unfortunately, I get a lot of mileage out of that link.

Specifically loli and shota porn though? I can’t speak to that. My gut says No.

Make that Hell No, no comics should be banned, ever, ever, unless a real life child was harmed by the artist in the process of creating the work in which case the censorship and/or destruction of that work should be a consequence of conviction for those crimes, along with things like prison and/or some other life-time supervision of the Creep Who Hurt Children.

Art does not hurt children. Drawings of people are not people. Creeps who hurt children will be creeps not matter what we publish, or don’t publish, and the major consideration is not their access to Art but their access to Children.

My head, in opposition to my gut, tells me the issue is more complex than that. And reactions by civilians and the Justified Outrage of the General Public whenever they come across material like this just makes the hobby look bad.

I just want to read books. All kinds of books. Anything that gets in the way of that is bad, in my opinion. We can question the motives of people who produce works that seemingly encourage Bad People to do Bad Things to children (“Think of the children!”) but I firmly believe that in a free society that encourages free speech, free thought, and free expression we cannot question their works as works. If you can prove a crime, with a real victim, then we can revisit the value of the work.

But Books don’t kill people. People who burn Books kill people. You want to ban something “for the common good”?

I find that to be as abhorrent as the worst, least defensible porn.

1. Select a topic carefully. You need something that you know about, and can talk about, but it should also be of interest to somebody else.

2. Frequency. Weekly posts are best. Regularly scheduled weekly posts that go live on time, at the same time and on the same day of the week each week are best. But find a schedule (however infrequent or erratic) and keep to it.

3. Solo or Group? Doesn’t matter so much, but Group podcasts are probably easier. (if you have friends) (you’ll note I record solo)

4. Format. I have a strong opinion: I feel podcasts should be in an accessible format & easily downloaded, not locked into a particular website or podcast host. In fact, I really like MP3.

5. Hardware. You don’t need a fancy mic. Here are some sample clips recorded with stuff I have around the house:

OK, so I do own a fancy mic (a shockmounted Blue Snowball atop a boom mic stand)

But I get about the same audio quality using the voice recording function on my Sansa Clip MP3 player. (The Sansa Clip comes highly recommended, particularly as a mobile solution or for journalists who need an easy way to record interviews.)

And I have the headset (mic and headphone combo) that came with my Rosetta Stone software. This piece of hardware doesn’t play well with my laptop, which I reference in the sound clip below; your mileage may vary.

6. Even an novice can snip long pauses and “ums” out in post-production. It doesn’t have to sound perfect right off the bat.

Tip Seven I snuck in at the end of the Summary: I use a free program called Audacity to record and edit, and also to encode the MP3s.

Summing Up:

Roll Credits:

Please note, future [official] podcasts will not be broken up into clips like this — it’ll be a single long file with appropriate download links and the like alongside the in-browser player. (It’ll look like a normal podcast in other words.) Before I start recording, though, I need to take my own advice: Pick a topic, decide on how frequently to post, and buckle down and do it.

I have a lot of ways to sort and arrange the data that go into the charts, but only a limited amount of time each week. I’m trying to gauge public interest in the various features by allowing you, Dear Reader, to pick your favourites.

Poll Question: Is the Spotlight feature, as presented below, of value to you? Vote by leaving a comment. Please Note: Since I usually receive no comments on blog posts, any one person with an opinion could end up being the deciding vote on how I report this data.

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I did a short series of Spotlight columns back toward the end of 2008 [ADV Manga, Aurora Publishing, Broccoli Books, CMX, Dark Horse, Del Rey, DMP/DMP June/801, Graphic-Sha & Manga University] and while I don’t necessarily feel the need to do quite as much background research and reporting I’ll try to write up at least a short intro for each company and imprint thrust into the Spotlight.

##

Andrews McMeel is the book publishing arm for the Universal Press Syndicate (in fact both are owned by Andrews McMeel Publ., LLC) and in addition to Calvin & Hobbes, Doonesbury, The Boondocks (up until 2006) and The Far Side, they also publish books & calendars based on strips owned by other syndicates (notably Get Fuzzy, Pearls Before Swine, and some but not all of the New Yorker cartoon collections)

Straight to the Source: Andrew McMeel’s website and the “Comics & Humor” category there.

Top 10 Titles, as of 10 January:

164. ↓-2 (162) : Calvin & Hobbes Complete – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2005 [276.4] ::
166. ↑26 (192) : Dilbert 2010 Wall Calendar – Andrews McMeel, Jul 2009 [273.2] ::
293. ↓-73 (220) : Far Side Complete – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2003 [195.2] ::
301. ↓-18 (283) : Dilbert 2010 Day-to-Day Calendar – Andrews McMeel, Jul 2009 [191.7] ::
313. ↓-81 (232) : Dilbert 2.0: 20 Years of Dilbert – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2008 [187.3] ::
320. ↓-76 (244) : Peanuts Celebrating Peanuts: 60 Years – Andrews McMeel, Nov 2009 [183.4] ::
323. ↓-22 (301) : Mutts The Gift of Nothing – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2005 [182.6] ::
335. ↓-50 (285) : Calvin & Hobbes Scientific Progress Goes Boink – Andrews McMeel, Jan 1991 [177.6] ::
355. ↓-49 (306) : Dilbert 14 Years of Loyal Service in a Fabric-Covered Box – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2009 [169.2] ::
378. ↓-53 (325) : Calvin & Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book – Andrews McMeel, Sep 1995 [159.6] ::

These are all sliding off of holiday sales highs; comic strip collections do gangbusters business in December (particularly those big hardcover slipcased sets, which sell for quite a bit less online) not to mention the calendars —

Yes, I know calendars aren’t graphic novels. We could also argue the comic strip collections aren’t graphic novels. But I do know I read almost every Far Side gag panel as part of those old page-a-day calendars and for a significant portion of the fan base, that was just about the only way they read them.

[If it makes you feel better, no calendars will be included in the charts starting with reported rankings for Jan. 17th. It’s interesting to track sales in the lead up to a new year, but at some point it’s really kind of sad and I don’t want these hanging around clogging up the charts into March and April.]

Here’s an incomplete of Andrews McMeel titles (just the ones I’ve tracked as having sold online in the past year)

1121. ↓-266 (855) : Baby Blues My Space – Andrews McMeel, Mar 2009 [30.1] ::
2122. ↑ (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Baby Blues Something Chocolate This Way Comes – Andrews McMeel, Apr 2006 [0.4] ::
. (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Baby Blues This Is Going to Be Tougher Than We Thought – Andrews McMeel, Apr 1991 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 5 Jul 09) : Baby Blues Our Server Is Down – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2005 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 5 Jul 09) : Baby Blues We Are Experiencing Parental Difficulties, Please Stand By – Andrews McMeel, Mar 1995 [0.0] ::

1944. ↑ (last ranked 30 Aug 09) : Boondocks Because I Know You Don’t Read No Newspaper – Andrews McMeel, Aug 2000 [3.2] ::

Please note: most Boondocks collections are published by Three Rivers Press (Random House)

164. ↓-2 (162) : Calvin & Hobbes Complete – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2005 [276.4] ::
335. ↓-50 (285) : Calvin & Hobbes Scientific Progress Goes Boink – Andrews McMeel, Jan 1991 [177.6] ::
378. ↓-53 (325) : Calvin & Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book – Andrews McMeel, Sep 1995 [159.6] ::
413. ↓-53 (360) : Calvin & Hobbes Indispensable Calvin & Hobbes – Andrews McMeel, Jun 1992 [148.7] ::
418. ↓-41 (377) : Calvin & Hobbes It’s a Magical World – Andrews McMeel, Sep 1996 [146.6] ::
419. ↓-33 (386) : Calvin & Hobbes Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons – Andrews McMeel, Jan 1992 [146.2] ::
453. ↓-52 (401) : Calvin & Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book – Andrews McMeel, Jan 1989 [136.3] ::
467. ↓-43 (424) : Calvin & Hobbes Authoritative Calvin & Hobbes – Andrews McMeel, Jan 1990 [131.2] ::
493. ↓-56 (437) : Calvin & Hobbes Something Under the Bed Is Drooling – Andrews McMeel, Jan 1988 [124.5] ::
498. ↓-66 (432) : Calvin & Hobbes Weirdos from Another Planet – Andrews McMeel, Jan 1990 [123.3] ::
519. ↓-47 (472) : Calvin & Hobbes Essential Calvin & Hobbes – Andrews McMeel, Jan 1988 [118.6] ::
522. ↓-247 (275) : Calvin & Hobbes Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat – Andrews McMeel, Sep 1994 [117.9] ::
626. ↓-84 (542) : Calvin & Hobbes There’s Treasure Everywhere – Andrews McMeel, Mar 1996 [90.3] ::
666. ↓-92 (574) : Calvin & Hobbes The Revenge of the Baby-Sat – Andrews McMeel, Jan 1991 [84.7] ::
706. ↑257 (963) : Calvin & Hobbes – Andrews McMeel, Jan 1987 [77.1] ::
731. ↓-101 (630) : Calvin & Hobbes The Days Are Just Packed – Andrews McMeel, Sep 1993 [73.5] ::
789. ↓-107 (682) : Calvin & Hobbes Yukon Ho – Andrews McMeel, Jan 1989 [66.2] ::
2312. ↓-797 (1515) : Calvin & Hobbes Sunday Pages ’85-‘95 – Andrews McMeel, Sep 2001 [0.1] ::

2075. ↑ (last ranked 5 Jul 09) : Close to Home A Million Little Pieces – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2006 [1.1] ::

166. ↑26 (192) : Dilbert 2010 Wall Calendar – Andrews McMeel, Jul 2009 [273.2] ::
301. ↓-18 (283) : Dilbert 2010 Day-to-Day Calendar – Andrews McMeel, Jul 2009 [191.7] ::
313. ↓-81 (232) : Dilbert 2.0: 20 Years of Dilbert – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2008 [187.3] ::
355. ↓-49 (306) : Dilbert 14 Years of Loyal Service in a Fabric-Covered Box – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2009 [169.2] ::
573. ↓-59 (514) : Dilbert Freedom’s Just Another Word for People Finding Out You’re Useless – Andrews McMeel, Apr 2009 [102.6] ::
1001. ↓-184 (817) : Dilbert This Is the Part Where You Pretend to Add Value – Andrews McMeel, May 2008 [41.1] ::
1076. ↑1161 (2237) : Dilbert 2010 Mini Wall Calendar – Andrews McMeel, Jul 2009 [34.2] ::
1975. ↑new (0) : Dilbert Another Day in Cubicle Paradise – Andrews McMeel, Mar 2002 [2.4] ::
2060. ↑ (last ranked 19 Jul 09) : Dilbert Try Rebooting Yourself – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2006 [1.3] ::
. (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Dilbert Words You Don’t Want to Hear During Your Annual Review – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2003 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 28 Jun 09) : Dilbert Cubes & Punishment – Andrews McMeel, Nov 2007 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 5 Jul 09) : Dilbert Bring Me the Head of Willy the Mailboy – Andrews McMeel, Mar 1995 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 5 Jul 09) : Dilbert Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies – Andrews McMeel, Mar 1994 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 19 Jul 09) : Dilbert Casual Day Has Gone Too Far – Andrews McMeel, Feb 2003 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 19 Jul 09) : Dilbert I’m Not Anti-Business, I’m Anti-Idiot – Andrews McMeel, Mar 1998 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 19 Jul 09) : Dilbert It’s Not Funny If I have to Explain It – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2004 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 9 Aug 09) : Dilbert Positive Attitude – Andrews McMeel, Jul 2007 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 30 Aug 09) : Dilbert The Fluorescent Light Glistens Off Your Head – Andrews McMeel, May 2005 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 30 Aug 09) : Dilbert What Would Wally Do – Andrews McMeel, Jun 2006 [0.0] ::

701. ↓-78 (623) : Doonesbury Tee Time in Berzerkistan – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2009 [78.1] ::
2045. ↑ (last ranked 5 Jul 09) : Doonesbury The War Within – Andrews McMeel, Sep 2006 [1.5] ::
2106. ↑ (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Doonesbury The Long Road Home – Andrews McMeel, Jun 2005 [0.6] ::
. (last ranked 16 Aug 09) : Doonesbury Dude: The Big Book of Zonker – Andrews McMeel, Dec 2005 [0.0] ::

. (last ranked 5 Jul 09) : Duplex Bad Habits – Andrews McMeel, Nov 2006 [0.0] ::

. (last ranked 3 May 09) : F Minus: This Can’t Be Legal – Andrews McMeel, Mar 2009 [0.0] ::

293. ↓-73 (220) : Far Side Complete – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2003 [195.2] ::
464. ↓-48 (416) : Far Side Gallery 1 – Andrews McMeel, Oct 1984 [131.9] ::
647. ↓-117 (530) : Far Side Gallery 2 – Andrews McMeel, Oct 1986 [87.0] ::
845. ↓-138 (707) : Far Side Gallery 5 – Andrews McMeel, Sep 1995 [59.8] ::
943. ↓-163 (780) : Far Side Prehistory – Andrews McMeel, Sep 1989 [47.7] ::
961. ↓-212 (749) : Far Side Gallery 3 – Andrews McMeel, Jan 1988 [45.7] ::
996. ↓-246 (750) : Far Side Gallery 4 – Andrews McMeel, Sep 1993 [41.6] ::
1482. ↓-425 (1057) : Far Side Wiener Dog Art – Andrews McMeel, Oct 1990 [11.0] ::
2125. ↓-837 (1288) : Far Side Beyond the Far Side – Andrews McMeel, Jan 1983 [0.3] ::
2271. ↑new (0) : Far Side Valley of the Far Side – Andrews McMeel, Jan 1985 [0.1] ::
2318. ↓-738 (1580) : Far Side The Chickens Are Restless – Andrews McMeel, Oct 1993 [0.1] ::
2539. ↑ (last ranked 5 Jul 09) : Far Side The Curse of Madame C – Andrews McMeel, Oct 1994 [0.1] ::
2561. ↑ (last ranked 9 Aug 09) : Far Side In Search of the Far Side – Andrews McMeel, Jul 1984 [0.1] ::
2614. ↑ (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Far Side Cows of Our Planet – Andrews McMeel, Jun 1992 [0.1] ::
. (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Far Side Last Chapter & Worse – Andrews McMeel, Sep 1996 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 12 Jul 09) : Far Side Unnatural Selections – Andrews McMeel, Oct 1991 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 19 Jul 09) : Far Side It Came from the Far Side – Andrews McMeel, Jul 1986 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 9 Aug 09) : Far Side Observer – Andrews McMeel, Oct 1987 [0.0] ::

2099. ↑ (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : For Better or for Worse Striking a Chord – Andrews McMeel, Mar 2005 [0.7] ::
2273. ↑new (0) : For Better or for Worse It’s the Thought That Counts – Andrews McMeel, Aug 1994 [0.1] ::
2548. ↑ (last ranked 12 Jul 09) : For Better or for Worse The Last Straw – Andrews McMeel, Jan 1985 [0.1] ::
2578. ↑ (last ranked 23 Aug 09) : For Better or for Worse Pushing 40 – Andrews McMeel, Jan 1988 [0.1] ::
. (last ranked 5 Jul 09) : For Better or for Worse Graduation – Andrews McMeel, Aug 2001 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : For Better or for Worse Just A Simple Wedding – Andrews McMeel, Mar 2009 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : For Better or for Worse Never Wink at a Worried Woman – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2005 [0.0] ::

427. ↓-44 (383) : FoxTrot Wrapped-Up – Andrews McMeel, May 2009 [143.8] ::
449. ↓-26 (423) : FoxTrot Math, Science, & Unix Underpants – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2009 [137.7] ::
1988. ↓-203 (1785) : FoxTrot Jam-Packed – Andrews McMeel, Aug 2006 [2.3] ::
2081. ↑ (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : FoxTrot My Hot Dog Went Out, Can I Have Another – Andrews McMeel, Aug 2005 [1.0] ::
. (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : FoxTrot FoxTrotius Maximus – Andrews McMeel, Sep 2004 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 17 May 09) : FoxTrot Death by Field Trip – Andrews McMeel, Apr 2001 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 5 Jul 09) : FoxTrot Beyond a Doubt – Andrews McMeel, Mar 1997 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : FoxTrot Orlando Bloom Has Ruined Everything – Andrews McMeel, Mar 2005 [0.0] ::

. (last ranked 5 Jul 09) : Frazz Live at Bryson Elementary – Andrews McMeel, Sep 2005 [0.0] ::

396. ↑29 (425) : Garfield Make Lunch, Not Landfills: 2010 Garfield “Green” Wall Calendar – Andrews McMeel, Jul 2009 [152.9] ::
814. ↑20 (834) : Garfield 2010 Mini Day-to-Day Calendar – Andrews McMeel, Jul 2009 [63.4] ::
833. ↓-13 (820) : Garfield 2010 Day-to-Day Calendar – Andrews McMeel, Jul 2009 [61.4] ::

Garfield Collections are published by Ballantine Books (Random House)

532. ↓-70 (462) : Get Fuzzy Ignorance Thy Name Is Bucky – Andrews McMeel, Apr 2009 [114.2] ::
1008. ↓-203 (805) : Get Fuzzy The Potpourrific Great Big Grab Bag of Get Fuzzy – Andrews McMeel, Sep 2008 [40.6] ::
1763. ↓-411 (1352) : Get Fuzzy Take Our Cat, Please – Andrews McMeel, Apr 2008 [5.9] ::
2010. ↑ (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Get Fuzzy Loserpalooza – Andrews McMeel, May 2007 [2.0] ::
. (last ranked 12 Jul 09) : Get Fuzzy Groovitude – Andrews McMeel, Sep 2002 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 9 Aug 09) : Get Fuzzy Bucky Katt’s Big Book of Fun – Andrews McMeel, Apr 2004 [0.0] ::

1910. ↓-432 (1478) : Lio: Happiness Is a Squishy Cephalopod – Andrews McMeel, Aug 2007 [3.6] ::

. (last ranked 18 Jan 09) : Manga Clip Art – Andrews McMeel, Apr 2006 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 8 Feb 09) : Manga Clip Art Female Characters – Andrews McMeel, Mar 2009 [0.0] ::

323. ↓-22 (301) : Mutts The Gift of Nothing – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2005 [182.6] ::
1284. ↓-372 (912) : Mutts Stop & Smell the Roses – Andrews McMeel, Mar 2009 [19.4] ::
1932. ↑new (0) : Mutts Cats & Dogs – Andrews McMeel, Oct 1997 [3.3] ::
2284. ↑new (0) : Mutts – Andrews McMeel, Jul 1996 [0.1] ::
. (last ranked 17 May 09) : Mutts Sunday Evenings – Andrews McMeel, Sep 2005 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 2 Aug 09) : Mutts The Best of Mutts – Andrews McMeel, Sep 2007 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Mutts Dog-Eared – Andrews McMeel, Sep 2004 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Mutts Who Let the Cat Out? – Andrews McMeel, Apr 2005 [0.0] ::

488. ↓-3 (485) : Naruto Shippuden 2010 Calendar – Andrews McMeel, Jul 2009 [125.8] ::
. (last ranked 22 Feb 09) : Naruto Wall Calendar 2009 – Andrews McMeel, Jul 2008 [0.0] ::

Naruto, of course, is a Viz Shonen Jump title.

698. ↓-63 (635) : New Yorker Cartoon Collections On the Money: The Economy in Cartoons, 1925-2009 – Andrews McMeel, Sep 2009 [78.5] ::
. (last ranked 28 Jun 09) : New Yorker Cartoon Collections The New Yorker Book of Mom Cartoons – Andrews McMeel, Mar 2008 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 26 Jul 09) : New Yorker Cartoon Collections The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest – Andrews McMeel, Sep 2008 [0.0] ::

. (last ranked 16 Aug 09) : Non Sequitur Sunday Color Treasury – Andrews McMeel, Nov 2005 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Non Sequitur Lucy And Danae: Something Silly This Way Comes – Andrews McMeel, Apr 2005 [0.0] ::

320. ↓-76 (244) : Peanuts Celebrating Peanuts: 60 Years – Andrews McMeel, Nov 2009 [183.4] ::
1729. ↑new (0) : Peanuts Sudoku Comic Digest: 200 Puzzles Plus 50 Classic Peanuts Cartoons – Andrews McMeel, Apr 2008 [6.4] ::
1972. ↑new (0) : Peanuts Around the World in 45 Years: Charlie Brown’s Anniversary Celebration – Andrews McMeel, Nov 1994 [2.5] ::
2319. ↓-737 (1582) : Peanuts Being a Dog Is a Full-Time Job – Andrews McMeel, Apr 1994 [0.1] ::

(At least one person at Universal Press Syndicate probably has an aneurysm each time the Fantagraphics collections are mentioned)

508. ↓-45 (463) : Pearls Before Swine The Saturday Evening Pearls – Andrews McMeel, Mar 2009 [121.4] ::
730. ↓-61 (669) : Pearls Before Swine The Crass Menagerie – Andrews McMeel, Apr 2008 [73.6] ::
902. ↓-132 (770) : Pearls Before Swine Lions & Tigers & Crocs, Oh My! – Andrews McMeel, Sep 2006 [53.0] ::
1048. ↑43 (1091) : Pearls Before Swine Da Brudderhood of Zeeba Zeeba Eata – Andrews McMeel, May 2007 [36.6] ::
1416. ↓-353 (1063) : Pearls Before Swine Sgt. Piggy’s Lonely Hearts Club Comic – Andrews McMeel, Sep 2004 [13.4] ::
1656. ↓-9 (1647) : Pearls Before Swine Pearls Sells Out – Andrews McMeel, Aug 2009 [7.4] ::
2027. ↑ (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Pearls Before Swine The Ratvolution Will Not Be Televised – Andrews McMeel, Mar 2006 [1.7] ::
2112. ↓-482 (1630) : Pearls Before Swine Nighthogs – Andrews McMeel, Mar 2005 [0.4] ::
. (1982) : Pearls Before Swine Macho Macho Animals – Andrews McMeel, Sep 2008 [0.0] ::
. (2514) : Pearls Before Swine BLTs Taste So Darn Good – Andrews McMeel, Mar 2003 [0.0] ::

1052. ↓-90 (962) : Pickles Still Pickled After All These Years – Andrews McMeel, Apr 2004 [36.1] ::
1071. ↓-185 (886) : Pickles Let’s Get Pickled – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2006 [34.6] ::

2263. ↑ (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Rose Is Rose Red Carpet Rose – Andrews McMeel, Apr 2006 [0.2] ::
2587. ↑ (last ranked 30 Aug 09) : Rose Is Rose Running on Alter Ego – Andrews McMeel, Apr 2005 [0.1] ::

2004. ↑ (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Sherman’s Lagoon In Shark Years I’m Dead – Andrews McMeel, Apr 2006 [2.1] ::
2090. ↑new (0) : Sherman’s Lagoon A Day at the Beach – Andrews McMeel, Apr 2005 [0.8] ::
2110. ↑ (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Sherman’s Lagoon Surfer Safari – Andrews McMeel, Aug 2005 [0.5] ::
2289. ↑new (0) : Sherman’s Lagoon 1991 to 2001: Greatest Hits – Andrews McMeel, Aug 2002 [0.1] ::

1992. ↑ (last ranked 30 Aug 09) : The Flying McCoys – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2006 [2.3] ::

2154. ↑ (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Tina’s Groove – Andrews McMeel, Mar 2006 [0.3] ::

2015. ↑ (last ranked 19 Jul 09) : Ziggy A Little Character Goes a Long Way – Andrews McMeel, May 2006 [1.9] ::
2022. ↑ (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Ziggy Ziggy’s Gift – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2005 [1.8] ::

431. ↓-70 (361) : Zits My Bad – Andrews McMeel, Mar 2009 [143.6] ::
1599. ↓-248 (1351) : Zits Alternative Zits – Andrews McMeel, Sep 2007 [8.4] ::
2032. ↑ (last ranked 5 Jul 09) : Zits Are We Out of the Driveway Yet? – Andrews McMeel, Sep 2006 [1.6] ::
2089. ↑ (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Zits Pimp My Lunch – Andrews McMeel, Oct 2005 [0.9] ::
2331. ↓-554 (1777) : Zits Crack of Noon – Andrews McMeel, Mar 2006 [0.1] ::
. (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Zits Humongous Zits – Andrews McMeel, Mar 2000 [0.0] ::
. (last ranked 6 Sep 09) : Zits Busted – Andrews McMeel, Sep 2002 [0.0] ::

##

That’s it for this week’s special feature; comments, questions, concerns?

Rethinking the Box is a collection of ruminations on retail: a unique combination of sober (and sobering) business analysis mixed with drunken, inflammatory personal invective.

Previously:
Study your History. Recognise your Motives. Location, Location, Location. Know your Customer Base, and your Staff. Find your Niche. Consider your Product Lines, take a second look at What the Customers Want, and then stare again in dismay at the Profit Margins. Try calculating your upper-limit affordable rent and the revenue from inventory (with a side of coffee) and compare your numbers to average industry per-storefront sales.

##

And I’m back: for those of us in retail, December starts in late October and doesn’t end on the 26th; it keeps rolling until the last of the holiday clearance is either sold or otherwise disposed of. I’ve been busy.

In the interim, I did find one excellent info-tidbit — National average rents, from Bloomberg

At some point in the near future (February) I’d like to post a rundown of Just The Numbers — anticipated monthly expenses: rent & utilities, payroll, cost of new stock and replenishment of older titles, inventory shrink, and marketing. (…OK, so maybe March. Late March. Maybe May.)

And figuring out anticipated expenses is certainly valid; I’m going to need that number. But even before we open there are other inventory considerations.

Namely, buying inventory.

##

Way back in August I detailed quite a few categories and some anticipated stocking strategies — quick summary:

[a blockquote with significant edits, please ref. the original post]

Art Technique:
500 titles at $20 avg per title = $10,000 of stock. sales of 1/2 volume per annum = contribution to sales of $5000.
—
Art Surveys and Collections:
500 titles at $40 per = $20,000 of stock. 1/2 vol per annum = contrib. of $10,000.
I’d be willing to stretch that to 1000 titles, but I’m not sure 1000 suitable titles are out there.
—
Architecture:
500 titles at $40 per, etc. etc. for the same $10,000 in annual sales.
—
Artists:
1000 titles at $40 per, 1/2 vol per annum = $20,000 in annual sales
—
Graphic Design:
250 titles at $30 per, 1/2 vol per annum = $3750 in yearly sales.
—
Travel:
500 titles. $40 per and a turn of .5 nets another $10,000 in sales.
If the business is worth pursuing, I could see devoting double the space — particularly if the turn rate is much closer to (or exceeds) one.
—
Fashion:
Say 250 vols @ $30 per, at 1/2 vol per annum, $3750 in annual sales
—
Photography:
250 volumes, at $40 each, and a turn rate of .5, for a contribution of $5000 to annual sales.
—
Periodicals (non-‘comic’)
From Wired to Shonen Jump, from Otaku USA to Yen+, from Wizard (so long as they still publish) to Playstation the Magazine, there are a number of periodicals that are worth stocking that have nothing to do with DC and Marvel.
I can find room for 100 of these titles in my store, I’m sure. It’d be a magazine rack about 12 feet long, with nine shelves. No matter how many of each title I stock, assuming I could sell just one of each every month, at $4 per these shelves would generate $4800 in sales. Obviously, we’d be looking to sell more than one copy of SJ and ¥+ each month.
—
Periodicals (comics)
I’d be tempted to just match the magazines, but let’s say we double them: 200 titles at $3 at one copy (average, per title stocked) per month = $7200 a year, gross.
That’s as much gray-matter as I feel like spending on the floppies, actually. I’m sure I could find 50 titles a week in Previews; I don’t know that it matters which 50 I’d pick. One presents the comics to the customer base; either customers request something else (which will change the order next month) or they buy what you’ve got. There’s a learning curve out there and I hope I have enough cash reserves (or other sales) that I can afford to teach myself this business.
But as stated, it’s not about chasing or appeasing the Wednesday crowd; there’s the LCS for that, after all. Just a good mix of generally well-known subjects and perenials (Simpsons, Archie, Spider-Man, Batman, + whatever Hollywood is making a movie of) and I know this is the cretin’s path, devoid of any love for the medium and strictly mercenary, asking first ‘what sells’ and screwing the rest.
But in my mind, the love and dedication to the artwork are what the collected trades (and trade paperback originals) are for. I’m not going to save the industry with floppies.
In a bookstore of the size imagined to date: 24 feet of floor space for a couple hundred comics — I’d plan to set aside 10 times that for seating and tables; so I’m sure we can spare a pretty large corner for a comics rack. It may be a loss. But that’s Fine. Newspapers are also a loss-leader; you don’t stop selling newspapers just because you can’t make money on them.
[well… we haven’t stopped selling them yet]
Part of the stocking strategy is the Face you present to the Public, and for a ‘graphic novel bookstore’ some portion of the public will expect the monthlies — they like to see them, even if they’re buying the trades.
For the current math problem, I’ll assume one sale a month on each of 200 comics titles (or 0 sales of everything else but 200 sales of an Obama cover; whichever, whatever) — so, a contribution of $7200 a year from ‘comic books’.
—
Graphic Novels:
And here we go.
This is what I mean by a graphic novel bookstore:
3 copies each of at least 20,000 graphic novels. Are there 20,000 graphic novels? Actually, I hope there are 30k; if not now, than soon. Amazon lists 100,000, but so many of those are false hits and errors it gives me a headache—on a weekly basis—when I look at Amazon and try to compile the aggregate sales rankings.
A lot of these you stock just to have a complete run of a series, or a complete catalogue of a particular publisher. Nothing wrong with that, and the investment is hardly wasted: nothing sells books like more books.
60,000 volumes at a turn rate of .25 at an average price of $10 = $150,000 in annual sales.

Let me cut it off there.

3 copies of every graphic novel. This was my first, gut impulse. I’m going to stand by that, now, even though back in August I almost immediately backtracked following comments by Hibbs and others.

##

Before I get back to 3 Copies of Everything, I want to take some time — and space.

Your average Big Box Bookstore takes up 25,000 square feet and stocks 100,000 to 200,000 titles — individual titles, not just 100 copies each of the 1000 best selling books. Which of course means that for almost all titles stocked, we’ll only have one copy.

A daily frustration of mine (and a frustration of many booksellers) is finding that last copy of something. Sure, we have a sophisticated distribution chain that will deliver a book in scant days. We have fancy computers to track inventory, both coming in the back door and going out via a cash register. We employ several people just to continuously reorganize books — getting titles back to their sections, and back in order (alphabetical or otherwise). All this fails when compared to what just a few determined customers can do in a single afternoon. When I look something up and the computer tells me I actually do have a copy of a book, but only one, it’s almost like not having the book at all. Sure, I go look, while the querent waits on the phone or hovers over my shoulder; I know most customer habits and there are a few tricks (no one bends over to put a book back, they’ll just chunk it on the top—or eye-level—shelf whether it goes there or not) — and I even know a few of the more common mistakes made by my fellow booksellers; my favs this past year were Olive Kitteridge and Edgar Sawtelle (both titles, not authors, but it’s worth looking in both K and S, respectively, in these cases).

Say, four-fifths of the time, by hook or by crook, I find the damn things. But for a not-insignificant number of queries if there is only one copy left,

• it’s on hold for another customer
• someone was looking at it, but just dropped it off in some random section
• It was stolen
• no, really: customers refuse to believe it, “OMG! How could a popular book like that, one that was just publicized on Oprah, have been stolen! It Was Just On Oprah. You obviously aren’t looking hard enough.”
• It’s “in the back”

And let me insert another long aside: Apparently, at least in the perception of some of our customers, “The Back” is a mythical, idyllic land where any book can be had, conjured into existance by the mere mention of an author and the firm belief that the bookstore has Every Book, Ever, but intentionally hides them unless a crafty, intelligent, good-looking customer-in-the-know remembers to ask, “Well, are you sure you don’t have a copy in The Back?”

Our back room is a hell hole of bare concrete floors, bare metal shelving, a mountain of cardboard, 15 year old non-returnable merchandise, last month’s magazines (don’t get any ideas: we return or recycle these on a weekly-almost-daily basis, there are no back issues for sale “in the back”) and a couple of overworked, sarcastic booksellers stuck doing receiving and returns. Your book is not “in the back”. I’ll gladly make an offer to check the back room, as it is a natural part of customer service and about 3% of the time, sure, maybe I’ll find it — but unless it’s a brand new book that just came in this morning, you’re just wasting your time and mine by asking me to go look.

Sometimes a book is just missing. If I’m stocking 200,000 books, even an error rate of one-tenth of one percent is two thousand books I think I have, but don’t. The error may have originated at the warehouse, or in store, or in my computer system. Doesn’t matter where we place the blame; the book isn’t here.

Given human error and the inability of some (customers and employees alike) to put a book back exactly where it belongs, and the computer errors and theft, we’ll be ‘missing’ quite a few books on any given day. Misshelved books can take up to six weeks to relocate and reshelve (we rescan and reorganize the entire store on a six week cycle; some sections we’ll try and hit mid-cycle as well, but that means another smaller, less popular section has to wait even longer) and sometimes a ‘missing’ book is a missing book: we won’t know until our annual inventory.

An error rate of one-tenth of one percent: That’s a one-in-a-thousand error.

Which interactions do customers remember most? The 19 times I find the book with only minimal information? The one time in 20 that I know a book (and it’s location) off the top of my head and don’t even need to touch a keyboard? Or that one in a thousand error in the system that we ‘tease’ a customer with but can’t find?

(any retailer will be able to tell you, actual inventory shrink is a lot more than 0.1%)

At a major chain bookstore, we’re victims of our own success: we’ve supplied so many books in the past, some customers expect us to have everything. Even 200K is just 3% of the (estimated 7 million) books available, or even less if one considers out-of-print titles, audio books, text books, print-on-demand titles, and the 200,000+ titles added to the total every year.

If I had a space the size of the Mall of America, maybe I could stock all books. Maybe. But we still wouldn’t be able to find them all each and every day.

##

I’ll tell you how to fix this problem: Stock 3 of everything. One copy is “missing”. One just sold. And now, even if you just sold a copy of Moomin vol 4 and inexplicably someone else comes in the same afternoon looking for it: You have it. Heck, you might still have two. You don’t have to say no, you capture the immediate sale, you mint a Customer for Life.

This is also how you’ll compete with Big Box Books, down the street, and steal a march on Amazon and other online retailers to boot. If this is your niche, own it. Don’t say, “I can have it here in 3 or 4 days” — only your loyal customers will take you up on that. Stock everything, in multiples, and put the book in the customer’s hand. That’s awfully hard to say no to. “I asked for a book, and here it is!” It’s like magic.

Oh, it’s not a good solution: It’s expensive. About $1.5 Million — 3 copies each of 30,000 books that average $15. (that’s only $1.35M but as long as we’re spending, might as well chip in another $150,000 for slip-cased hardcover special editions)

If you were a major corporation with an ongoing book business and had years of sales data to fall back on, obviously you’d know which titles historically sell better, and you’d have a much better idea on how to set your stock counts: 20 copies of Watchmen, 8 copies each of Naruto volumes, 6 copies each of Bleach, 5 copies each of anything Batman, Death Note, or Fruits Basket… 1s and 2s of everything else

Even as a raw start-up, with no preconceptions and without any data on your local market, over time you’ll figure out what you need to stock. After a few years, you’ll be able to manage you inventory like a pro. But on Day One, Grand Opening? You have no idea what people will ask for.

(Unless you’ve been analyzing online sales for the past 2—and working on 3—years.

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You sell one copy of a book, that’s a mitzvah. Mazeltov! But if you bought three to begin with you don’t need to do anything yet.

You sell the second copy, and all of a sudden you have a sales trend. Did they sell in the same week? Great, order two more. Did they sell in the same month? Order one as a replacement, to keep your par count at 2.

You sell a third copy, and now we have points to plot on a graph.

At my current bookstore, we place orders daily. [but as a corporate store, most if not all of those are fulfilled internally so we can order single copies as they sell and take advantage of the economies-of-scale inherent in the set up] As an indy, you’ll likely place orders weekly with your major vendors, and a couple of regional distributors. Weekly orders are fine. Just remember to keep a two-week supply of any one book in stock (in case an order gets placed late, or you otherwise miss a week) and you’ll be fine.

And if your backstop is 2 or 3 copies of everything, that likely is your 2 week supply and then some. So you’ll be doing quite well on auto-pilot, and you only order in what sells, what’s new, and what your booksellers want to recommend. Your orders will be a fixed percentage of sales, a manageable ongoing cost of doing business.

[aside: and this is one other difference between selling graphic novels as books as opposed to running a comic shop: your business is the backlist. You don’t have to guess about new mini-series or cross-overs, or plastic ring promotions, you just stock proven titles and likely-looking manga and GN originals. Not an ideal situation, but one with some sales history behind it.]

That initial outlay of $1.5M, though? Gone. Sunk. You’re not getting it back, you can’t really amortize it, it’s going to sit there on shelves (and you’ll need to pay taxes on it) and this is just one more cost of doing business. If you balk at the initial investment, you’ll miss the opportunities it buys you: That one impossible sale, the unmistakable draw of a shop full of graphic novels, your reputation as a Landmark store pulling in shoppers from three states away, a growing legacy as a Expert in the field…

…and your only hope of directly competing with Amazon and Big Box Books. This is the sticker price on an entry to the game.

Yes, it’s a lot of money. (Damn it’s a lot of money) But: This is what I want. So long as I’m writing about hypotheticals anyway, I might as well dream Big. My Graphic Novel Bookstore Pipedream is a beast, the size of half a football field with at least $3 million in inventory and a coffee shop and restaurant besides (I’ll open a pub if I can get a liquor license) — and at that size, a good chunk of my hypothetical bookstore is going to be non-fiction and genre fiction and other add-ons that are only tangentially related to comics. It’s going to be a proud, handsome bookstore.

##

This is also possible on a smaller scale. But you won’t be able to say “yes” to customers nearly so often. You will be just another comic shop, or just another bookstore. There isn’t anything ‘new’ here to recommend it, just business as usual and a couple dozen competitors. But, I wish you luck and I hope my columns have been at least marginally supportive.

A number of Graphic Novel titles are on sale at the B&N site at the moment, and they’re doing well enough it’s skewing the overall GN rankings there. Here, have some:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?BRG=Y&CAT=804729&DSC=50%252b&SZE=100&WRD=graphic+novel

The good news: cheap comics.
The Bad news: this is a clearance, folks, purging titles from stores and from the warehouse. These may not be available (from this source) again.

Looking at similar sales at both Borders and Books-a-Million turns up squat for manga/graphic novels. In BAMM’s case, I know it’s because they were selling quite a bit of ‘bargain’ manga throughout all of 2009, and now are sold out; in Border’s case, I don’t think they bother to mark down any comics — or at least they won’t this year because they recently expanded these sections (their new ‘Ink’ in-store shops) to fill the void left when they took out the music & DVD departments. Plenty of shelf space, for now, so no need for markdowns.

And Amazon: Amazon’s byzantine sales-and-price labyrinths give me a headache — sure, used books to be had for pennies and all that but those are from third parties, not Amazon-proper, and I’m not going to try and grok it tonight. Amazon, or at least some sellers accessible through Amazon, are like clearance-all-year-long, but you also get what you pay for.

FTC disclaimer: B&N currently signs my paychecks, if that matters to you. This post was not suggested, vetted, or authorised by my employer; I’m just pointing you to cheap books, & trying to explain why Batman: Year One Hundred and Defenders : Indefensible are suddenly springing to prominence in my online sales rankings.

“So, smart guy, what am I supposed to do with that big honkin’ list ?”

Let me show you the different ways I can sort the data.

And Also, imagine yourself a scrappy Comic Shop owner or Indy Bookseller, who would like some additional resources (past Diamond’s Previews) about just what Graphic Novels to order in to your shop.

I’ve some of that data, and I’m willing to share. My methods track online sales; if a book shows up here that means someone searched for it, laid down plastic to buy it, and is eagerly awaiting it’s release — I can’t tell you if it’s a good book or a bad one, but someone wants it.

And since I have this big honkin’ list in a spreadsheet, I can sort it.

Case 1: By Date of Release

March 2010, by rank. A listing of how the titles score according to my method, so the most popular books should be on top:

988. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight 6 – Dark Horse, Mar 2010 [40.4] ::
1114. Dark Tower 4 The Fall of Gilead – Marvel, Mar 2010 [29.2] ::
1289. Warriors Ravenpaw’s Path 2 – HC/Tokyopop, Mar 2010 [18.3] ::
1364. Gold Digger Peebo Tales – Antarctic Press, Mar 2010 [15.2] ::
1367. Birdhouse – SLG Publishing, Mar 2010 [15.0] ::
1372. Vampire Samurai – Dimension Entertainment, Mar 2010 [14.8] ::
1386. Last Reign – Boom! Studios, Mar 2010 [14.5] ::
1406. Digger & Friends – IDW, Mar 2010 [13.6] ::
1408. Last Resort – IDW, Mar 2010 [13.4] ::
1415. Space Ace – Arcana Studio, Mar 2010 [13.2] ::
1424. Kingyo Used Books 1 – Viz, Mar 2010 [12.8] ::
1428. Pink Innocent 1 – Del Rey, Mar 2010 [12.6] ::
1432. Deka Kyoshi 2 – CMX, Mar 2010 [12.4] ::
1444. Ode to Kirihito 2 – Vertical, Mar 2010 [11.9] ::
1619. Vampire Hunter D (novel) 14 – Dark Horse, Mar 2010 [7.7] ::
1626. Ignition City 1 – Avatar Press, Mar 2010 [7.6] ::
1635. The Phantom Complete ’38-‘40 – Hermes Press, Mar 2010 [7.5] ::
1692. Samurai Harem (Asu no Yoichi) 4 – Tokyopop, Mar 2010 [6.7] ::
1759. Ninja High School Shidoshi 8 – Antarctic Press, Mar 2010 [5.8] ::
2258. Iron Man Omnibus 1 – Marvel, Mar 2010 [0.1] ::

Case 2: By Publisher & Imprint

Say you stock almost-nothing-but DC titles because 2/3 of your customer base only buys DC. Fine.

Fine. Here’s the DC stuff for 2010:

1840. The Chill – DC Vertigo, Jan 2010 [4.8] ::
860. Fables 13 The Great Fables Crossover – DC Vertigo, Feb 2010 [55.5] ::
1677. Green Lantern Tales of the Green Lantern Corps 2 – DC, Feb 2010 [6.9] ::
2165. Green Lantern Rebirth Absolute Edition – DC, Apr 2010 [0.2] ::
2310. Wednesday Comics – DC, Jun 2010 [0.1] ::
1224. Blackest Night – DC, Jul 2010 [21.3] ::
1751. Planetary Absolute Edition 2 – DC Wildstorm, Jul 2010 [5.9] ::
2069. Doom Patrol Showcase Presents Edition 2 – DC, Aug 2010 [0.8] ::

Case 3: Manga

Say you’re a manga snob and you just really want to know what the fans (w/ money, and willing to purchase) are buzzing about. Well,

601. Inuyasha 44 – Viz, Jan 2010 [97.5] ::
1220. Yu-Gi-Oh! GX 4 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jan 2010 [21.6] ::
1298. Vagabond VizBig Edition 6 – Viz Signature, Jan 2010 [17.7] ::
1312. One Piece 24 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jan 2010 [17.3] ::
1511. Natsume’s Book of Friends 1 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jan 2010 [9.7] ::
1524. Nana 20 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jan 2010 [9.5] ::
1535. Strawberry 100% 11 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Jan 2010 [9.4] ::
1548. Awakened Soul – Tokyopop, Jan 2010 [9.3] ::
1581. One Piece 25 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jan 2010 [8.5] ::
1875. Shaman King 26 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jan 2010 [4.1] ::
1938. One Piece 26 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jan 2010 [3.0] ::
2274. One Piece 27 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jan 2010 [0.1] ::
1525. Vampire Knight 9 – Viz Shojo Beat, Feb 2010 [9.5] ::
1684. Waqwaq 3 – Viz Shonen Jump, Feb 2010 [6.8] ::
1289. Warriors Ravenpaw’s Path 2 – HC/Tokyopop, Mar 2010 [18.3] ::
1424. Kingyo Used Books 1 – Viz, Mar 2010 [12.8] ::
1428. Pink Innocent 1 – Del Rey, Mar 2010 [12.6] ::
1432. Deka Kyoshi 2 – CMX, Mar 2010 [12.4] ::
1444. Ode to Kirihito 2 – Vertical, Mar 2010 [11.9] ::
1619. Vampire Hunter D (novel) 14 – Dark Horse, Mar 2010 [7.7] ::
1692. Samurai Harem (Asu no Yoichi) 4 – Tokyopop, Mar 2010 [6.7] ::
1467. King of Cards 9 – CMX, Apr 2010 [11.1] ::
1858. Oh! My Brother 2 – CMX, Apr 2010 [4.4] ::
1786. My Girlfriend’s a Geek 1 – Yen Press, May 2010 [5.5] ::
1752. Wallflower vols 22-24 collection – Del Rey, Oct 2010 [5.9] ::

Say, did Del Rey make an announcement about this and I missed it? http://www.amazon.com/Wallflower-22-23-Yamatonadeshiko-Shichenge/dp/0345514602/

Case 4 would be the big honkin’ list…

previously posted

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What kind of listing would be most useful to you, either as a retailer or just an internet observer of the industry?