So here's the clever bit...
You've got 10,000 extra copies of each issue, right? What if, instead of putting a cover on each of those and stapling them together as a pamphlet comic, you put a cover around all of the issues and glued them together along the spine? You'd basically have a paperback collection!
I've talked about a similar method of collection before, in regards to some of Russ Cochran's EC reprints but where he was taking advantage of complete pamphlet issues that he wasn't able to sell individually, this method is baked into the production line itself. So you can be a little more selective of what shows up in the trade version -- not including covers, for example, or letters pages (although that would depend a little on how the book is laid out, of course). But the key here is that the contents for these TPBs would not require additional set-up on the presses -- you would just take half of the contents from each print run and set them aside until all the issues were complete.
Now, that would require storage of the unstapled versions of each issue until you had all four issues done, and there's almost certainly going to be some costs associated with that. And you'd still be paying to have all the pages printed, so we're not talking about zero cost TPBs here, but you could save a significant amount. Something between 30%-50% depending on how the book is set up. That means that you can turn around and sell what most people would expect to be a $15-$20 book for $10-$15. That's a heck of a deal, particularly if you're aiming younger audiences with less disposable income.
The EC books were a little awkward because they included the covers using different paper stock than the interior pages. But the paper quality of the interior pages would be fine on its own. Cheap newsprint might not work so well, but who publishes comics using newsprint any more?
It's a genius idea, I think, and I'm surprised more publishers aren't doing something like this!
3 comments:
A number of comics publishers besides EC did the same thing with remaindered books in the 1940s-50s, Fox and St John being the most prolific of them.
Take several(4-5)issues, bind a new cover (with bigger spine) around them, and charge 25 cents for the "giant" book.
Basically, it's going back to the pre-comic shop market days when there were always leftovers and returns.
"You've got 10,000 extra copies of each issue, right? What if, instead of putting a cover on each of those and stapling them together as a pamphlet comic, you put a cover around all of the issues and glued them together along the spine? You'd basically have a paperback collection!"
It's assuming you'll sell as many copies of the TPB as you will of the "floppies".
And, if there are no "extras" (alternate covers, costume sketches, unused pages, etc) to provide added value, what's the incentive to get a TPB to a series that was out only a few months earlier?
Or do you hold the TPB release for a couple of years?
Well, I used the 10k/10k split for easy math, but obviously those numbers would slide based on what you think would realistically sell. Over the course of several issues, everything after #1 would sell fewer copies, so you wouldn't need a 20k run for each issue. More like 20k for #1, 15k for #2, 12k for #3... Basically, you'd print as many floppies as you'd think you'd sell for each issue, then some additional amount based on how many TPBs you expect you could sell.
As for added value, you could absolutely add another dozen (or however many) pages of additional material for the TPB. Those would need to be printed up separately and cost a more on a per page basis. Or, to your point, you could store the books for some additional length of time.
My point was that you're building in the TPB publication directly into the pamphlet production process to reduce (not eliminate) costs in the long-term, as opposed to trying to repurpose overstock so that it doesn't remain waste.
"My point was that you're building in the TPB publication directly into the pamphlet production process to reduce (not eliminate) costs in the long-term, as opposed to trying to repurpose overstock so that it doesn't remain waste."
The whole point of the Direct Market (and print-to-order) was to eliminate waste (and attendant costs), not merely minimize it.
Once you have the digital publishing files created, you can re-use/reformat them any way you want.
So when the time comes, and you solicit orders for the TPB, you can reprint "to order", with mimimal over-runs (presuming you even receive enough orders to make it profitable to print, which, as we've recently seen, is not always the case.).
Also, by reprinting at that point, you eliminate storage fees for already-printed signatures (8-page sheets that are combined to produce comics), plus the potential loss incurred if the TPB orders are less than the numbers of leftover signatures.
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