I was talking to the owner of the local comic shop about this, and I was curious about how other shops handle pre-orders, payment, and people ordering stuff and never picking it up.
Mergers and acquisitions
March 26, 2008 by
There’s so much food for thought today.
Proceed to checkout
February 27, 2008 by
And now, for no real reason other than I felt like writing about it and the subject kind of came up in the comments following Danielle Leigh’s latest Manga Before Flowers column, a brief look at what I buy where:
At the local comic shop: My most regular purchases at the local comic shop are books that I suspect won’t show up in a chain bookstore (manga that’s rated for mature audiences or books from smaller publishes that don’t seem to have quite achieved bookstore saturation). Most of my comic shop purchases are the result of pre-orders, just because the local shop is primarily focused on super-hero comics so I generally can’t wander in and find something to my taste. They’re very accommodating in terms of pre-orders and re-orders, which compensates for limited use as a place to browse.
At the bookstore: My purchases at Borders, Barnes & Noble, and so on are fairly random. I tend to either buy really mainstream shônen or shôjo titles, because I know they’ll be readily available and I can use my discount card. Sometimes I’ll special-order a particular book from the local Barnes & Noble if I really like it and want to trick them into ordering additional shelf copies. I’ll also buy other books from publishers like Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly, and so on, usually based on word of mouth (or blog).
Online: I almost always use Amazon, as I like the discount and the free shipping. Amazon is kind of the “everything else” dumping ground… books I wasn’t sufficiently certain I’d enjoy but was later persuaded to look into via word of mouth (or blog), manga over the $10 point (but never under, because why pay full price when I can get it for 10% off at a brick-and-mortar shop?), stuff that I’d categorize as expensive (like One Thousand Years of Manga) and “when all else fails” books that I can’t find at a comic shop or a chain bookstore. (Yay! Amazon carries Shirtlifter!) Online shopping is convenient and often cheaper, but it still ends up being my court of last resort more often than not.
Window shopping
January 25, 2008 by
I don’t know why this is on my mind. Maybe it’s all the recent talk about comics retailing. But what’s the most attractive exterior you’ve seen for a comic shop?
It’s got to be tough on the shops that have a great big window display to deal with. If you put merchandise in it, you probably have to rotate it fairly regularly so it doesn’t bleach in the sun, or call the window-display merchandise a loss from the outset. (And even then you probably need to rotate it, because nothing says “Come, spend” like bleached-out paperbacks in the window.) I can understand the desire to block out all of the light to protect stock, but making the glass opaque (particularly black) makes the place look like another kind of periodical vendor entirely, and I’m not sure that’s the ideal solution.
Packing the window space with posters seems like a good idea, because you can fill it with colorful, varied images. Unfortunately, most of those posters seem to fade and yellow even faster than a display of books would, almost before you’ve got the fourth piece of tape up. I’ve seen this solution applied at a few different shops, and you can tell who doesn’t bother to rotate their posters. (Seriously, if you thought some of those ‘90s Image posters were ugly in full color, take a look at them in sepia.)
The worst solution I’ve ever seen was to have someone paint various super-heroes in front of a neutral background to provide the desired opacity while keeping it from looking like an adult bookstore. And wow, those were some ugly, B-list X-Men in that window. Terrible anatomy (though not cheesecake-y, so points for that), just plain weird faces, and odd choices that I doubt any average person off the street would recognize (like Psylocke version 3.7, or something).
-ish
January 20, 2008 by
Just a quick request to comic shop owners: if your hours are posted on the internet, and they match the hours posted on the door of your shop, you might do your best to be open during those hours. Because someone might have taken a half-hour subway ride to try and spend money at your shop, been disappointed and annoyed at his inability to do so, and ended up spending that money at a big chain bookstore instead.
I mean, that can’t be the preferred outcome for you, can it?
In the shops
December 17, 2007 by
ICv2 has posted it’s list of the top 100 graphic novels for November, and even Naruto can’t trump the draw of Fruits Baskets (as usual), the only manga title to crack the graphic novel top ten. The fourth volume of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s delightful Scott Pilgrim series managed to beat two of that month’s Naruto releases as well, landing in 14th place. Of course, all three of that month’s Naruto releases cracked the top 20, so Viz has nothing to complain about.
In fact, Viz had a great month overall, with a reasonable sprinkling of Shonen Jump titles joining Naruto in the mix. With the exception of the seventh volume of Loveless, the list is largely boys’-love free, though vampires, game tie-ins and Muppets all make a strong showing.
And Kimmie66 continued the trend of respectable Direct Market showings for DC’s Minx line, coming in at 37th place. A total of 21 manga titles made the top 100.
Listings after the cut.
(9) – 1 – FRUITS BASKET VOL 18 GN (Of 22) – TKP
(11) – 2 – NARUTO VOL 24 TP – VIZ
(15) – 3 – NARUTO VOL 23 TP – VIZ
(17) – 4 – NARUTO VOL 22 TP – VIZ
(18) – 5 – BERSERK VOL 20 TP (MR) – DAR
(31) – 6 – HIDEYUKI KIKUCHIS VAMPIRE HUNTER D VOL 1 GN (MR) – DIG
(38) – 7 – LOVELESS VOL 7 GN (Of 7) (TKP) (MR) – TKP
(39) – 8 – LEGENDS O/DARK CRYSTAL VOL 1 GARTHIM WARS GN (OF 3) – TKP
(49) – 9 – STREET FIGHTER VOL 4 BONUS STAGE TP – UDO
(52) – 10 – NARUTO VOL 19 TP – VIZ
(57) – 11 – YU GI OH GX VOL 1 GN – VIZ
(59) – 12 – CHIBI VAMPIRE VOL 6 GN (Of 11) (MR) – TKP
(65) – 13 – MPD PSYCHO VOL 3 TP (MR) – DAR
(67) – 14 – ONE PIECE VOL 16 TP – VIZ
(74) – 15 – TRINITY BLOOD VOL 4 GN (Of 8) (MR) – TKP
(81) – 16 – GUNSLINGER GIRL MANGA TP VOL 06 – ADV
(85) – 17 – SAMURAI DEEPER KYO VOL 25 GN (Of 38) (MR) – TKP
(94) – 18 – D GRAY MAN VOL 7 GN – VIZ
(95) – 19 – BLACK CAT VOL 11 TP – VIZ
(98) – 20 – TENJHO TENGE VOL 16 (MR) – DC
(100) – 21 – STREET FIGHTER SAKURA GANBARU VOL 2 GN – UDO
Buckeye country
November 26, 2007 by
I had big plans for reading and writing over the Thanksgiving holiday, but I got sidetracked by an unusually active visit to family in Columbus. (These visits usually involve moving from couch to couch between random snack consumption, but we kept going places and doing things. I’m not complaining.)
First up was a touring production of Spamalot, which was amusing if not life-changing. By pure coincidence, I happened to be there on the same night as Mark Evanier, so I’ll just point to his description of the evening. (No matter how many Thanksgiving holidays I spend in Columbus, I always manage to forget that the Mid-Ohio Con is going on at the same time. It doesn’t really seem like the kind of convention I’d enjoy, to be honest.)
We had dinner before the show at Thai Taste. If you’re in Columbus and you like Thai food, GO. If you like pomegranate martinis and Thai food, GO OFTEN.
A large group of us hit a matinee of Enchanted on Saturday. I’m normally very pro-musical, though this movie wasn’t really on my radar before a niece or two expressed their profound interest in seeing it. A lot of reviews have described it as subversive, though I think they might have mistakenly identified cleverness. The real world that’s juxtaposed to the cartoon landscape isn’t really any more realistic, and there’s a weirdly retro vibe to everything. (It’s still reaffirming conventional relationships as much as any other Disney princess musical, so I’m not sure where the progressive, edgy underpinnings are supposed to be.) Amy Adams is spectacular, though. I’m getting sick of seeing the finest actresses of a certain generation (Michelle Pfeiffer, Meryl Streep, and, in this case, Susan Sarandon) reduced to playing vicious, oppressive harridans who hate youth even as they covet it, to be honest. And Patrick Dempsey’s appeal is entirely lost on me, apparently. He’s just grumpy.
That evening was spent at a hockey game, of all places. As far as interesting, fast-paced sports to watch, I’d rank hockey fairly highly, though I’m never going to be the target audience for any of them. And there was interesting people-watching to be done, especially if you sat there and looked for parallels to comic fandom in the puck head set. (There was this guy in front of us who was maniacally, microscopically attentive throughout and seemed utterly miserable to this casual observer, but everyone has his or her own idea of fun, I suppose.)
I did manage to work in a visit to The Laughing Ogre, one of my favorite comic shops in the entire world. Maybe it was just because I was outnumbered by staff three to one, but they were tremendously helpful and friendly and readily admitted that none of them were really big manga experts though they were happy to look stuff up for me. See how that works?
And while I did get some reading done, this week’s Flipped will still be a day late because I’m lazy and tired.
Parallel universe
October 24, 2007 by
I like to follow the ongoing discussions about the evolution of bookstores and comic shops (or Big Boxes versus specialists, if you like), so I thought this article in The New York Times was fascinating. It looks at the existing state of Germany’s book market – where small shops and big chains coexist peacefully and seem to thrive in each other’s company:
“Germany’s book culture is sustained by an age-old practice requiring all bookstores, including German online booksellers, to sell books at fixed prices. Save for old, used or damaged books, discounting in Germany is illegal. All books must cost the same whether they’re sold over the Internet or at Steinmetz, a shop in Offenbach that opened its doors in Goethe’s day, or at a Hugendubel or a Thalia, the two big chains.
“What results has helped small, quality publishers like Berenberg. But it has also — American consumers should take note — caused book prices to drop. Last year, on average, book prices fell 0.5 percent.”
Alas, that delicate, consumer-friendly balance might be threatened by recent developments in neighboring Switzerland:
“Just across the border, the Swiss lately decided to permit the discounting of German books — a move that some in the book trade here fear will eventually force Germany itself to follow suit, transforming a diverse and book-rich culture into an echo of big-chain America.”
While I enjoy bargain-hunting as much as anyone, I do find the description of Germany’s book market kind of utopian. I’m still bitter about the closing of a mystery book shop in Dupont Circle, and few things make me depressed in quite the same way as those intermittent articles about independently owned, sometimes specialty book shops shuttering because they can’t compete with the seven or eight Barnes and Noble and Borders stores that have opened up.
Of course, I’m a total hypocrite, ignoring these socialist leanings whenever a coupon shows up in the mail. And general principle couldn’t keep me from laughing and laughing at Meg Ryan’s misfortunes in You’ve Got Mail, but I don’t think that had anything to do with her character’s profession.
Still, the article is well worth a read for a glimpse at another market approach to book sales, the competing interests of culture and economics, and lots of other related issues.
Will you walk away from a fool and his or her money?
September 27, 2007 by
John Jakala is pondering the possibilities of downloadable super-hero comics, making persuasive arguments for the delivery system. As I said over at John’s, I do think removing the necessity of a trip to a specialty shop might increase interest from casual consumers who are downloading music and games and movies anyways. It’s not much of a stretch to picture someone who’s curious about Spider-Man or Wonder Woman but wouldn’t set foot in a comic shop paying a little for a download just to see what’s up.
But I can understand there being reluctance to adopt that technology on a number of fronts. Comic shops have helped keep Marvel and DC alive, at least in terms of moving monthly product, so anything that shifts brick-and-mortar retailers out of the equation would have to be approached with extreme caution. (I still think the bulk of regular visitors to a comic shop who are looking for super-hero comics would keep coming. I’ve never seen much indication that those kinds of collectors or hobbyists are looking for a new way to get their fix. I could be very, very wrong, obviously.)
I also wonder if there isn’t some way for publishers to cut supportive retailers in on the action, if they do add downloads to their delivery systems. Let’s say it works like an on-line game provider, where you can deposit a certain amount into an account to be used at your leisure. Would it be possible to allow comics retailers to vend those credits? When you go to pick up whatever Wednesday offers, you can buy $10 in “Marvel Money” or $20 in “DC Dollars” to add to your online coffers? Gift certificates or cards or whatever, with a code that people can type in whenever they log on to whatever platform the publishers use?
I can’t see Marvel and DC teaming up for something like this, so platforms would probably be inconsistent and users would probably need separate accounts. I’m still wondering if the DC-Flex deal isn’t leading to some kind of electronic delivery system for the rest of DC’s product. (The first CMX/Flex co-publishing title just showed up in the latest Previews, by the way.)
It does seem to me that there are ways to implement this without cutting traditional retail outlets entirely out of the equation, which would strike me as extremely disloyal. And I know that loyalty can’t always be a factor in business decisions, but it seems like it should be in a relationship as weirdly symbiotic as the one between super-hero publishers and local comic shops.
Shop talk
September 16, 2007 by
There’s been a fair amount of discussion of comic shops lately – how they can really suck, why they matter, what a customer should reasonably expect from them, and so on. I think shops should stock what they reasonably believe they can sell, so I’m not going to delve into that subject, but I think there are some basic things any shop can do to make itself a more pleasant place to be.
1. Assume every customer is a germaphobe or is extremely sensitive to dust. Keep your store clean. (I should say that it’s been ages since I’ve been to one that wasn’t reasonably hygienic if not actually sparkling, though there have been a few that look like they hadn’t been swept since the structure’s glory days as a speakeasy during Prohibition. One actually solved the problem of filthy, smelly carpet by covering the carpet over with new, marginally less dingy flooring, which just made things unpleasantly squishy. It’s closed now.)
2. Assume every customer is claustrophobic. Minimize clutter. Make it as easy as your floor plan and available space allow for visitors to navigate your shop.
3. Come up with a coherent shelving system. The alphabet’s always good.
4. Cut down on distractions like loud music. Not everyone has the same tastes, and some won’t linger, browse and spend if the environment isn’t relatively serene. The same applies to DVDs.
5. Admit your ignorance. If a customer asks for a book you haven’t heard of, say so, and try to order it for them. While you’re at it, take the opportunity to find out about the book, its publisher, and the rest of their offerings.
6. Follow through. Come up with a prompt, reliable system to let customers who make special orders know that their item or items have arrived.
7. Don’t lie. Most of the problems you encounter genuinely won’t be your fault, so there’s no need to make something up with a customer asks where a given book is. They can go home and look it up online and find out that you’re full of it, so don’t create complications for yourself or needlessly foster bad impressions.
8. Keep in touch with your customers. It’s easy enough to develop an e-mail list that allows you to let them know what’s showing up at the shop on a given Wednesday and to highlight delayed books.
9. Set the tone. Just because your customer base might look homogenous doesn’t mean it is. Bias-spouting fanboys are a cowardly and superstitious lot, and it isn’t difficult to redirect certain conversational threads that might be making other customers seethe. Or you can let me do it, but I can promise that the results will be really uncomfortable.
