I'm Wrong Too. We Do Need Print.

A Bunch of Back Story - I Get to Sound Cool

Before the leap to writing, I specialized in sales and marketing.

Wait. Let's say that again. While making the leap to full-time writing, I continue to specialize in sales and marketing. I still love sales and marketing strategy and implementation. I don't think I ever want to leave it completely, though I wouldn't mind never having to rely on it to pay the bills.

Once upon a time I started and ran my own sales, marketing and distribution company. We helped software companies from all over the world enter and grow their sales in the Spanish market (I lived in Spain). We would basically be our partners' Spanish office, running all their sales and marketing actions. When we started there were three channels to sell software: computer makers who installed our products in their new PCs and laptops, boxed software sold through major retail and volume licensing for companies and public organizations. 

The first channel was all about volume. The third channel, being the first real digital channel, also allowed for big volume but with better margins.

But it was the second channel though, retail sales, that had been the real cash cow for so many.

Lots of companies made big, big money selling software through major retail chains. The manufacturer of course, The retailer of course again. 

But the distributors who actually moved those boxes (we didn't do that) also got a great piece of the action and made mucho dollars (actually pesetas and then euros). They made whole lot of money even in a software market like Spain's.

The Game Changer

Eventually though a fourth channel started and grew. Quickly. Very quickly. Like brush-fire quickly.

Individual digital sales to users.

Thanks to the Internet and it's explosion manufacturers had begun to invest and market their software more and more towards sales done directly off their site. And while a lot of it was actually still done by specialized distributors, now digital ones (see Digital River or Asknet), the game had changed.

Retailers knew it. But the truth (especially in Spain) was that while they of course didn't want to ever see drops in any sales, software had nothing on hardware or especially videogames.  They may not have liked the trend but hey, it never had been the biggest part of their business. And since they too were growing online sales there were still ways for them to make money selling software.

However the distributors, the ones that got that nice cut on the physical distribution of boxes, they were getting squeezed out. Hard and fast.

Certain big ones survived and then some. A few had been much more specialized in hardware and electronics anyway. One very big software distributors had already diversified greatly into volume licensing and videogames, reducing most of the risk from retail losses. 

Others weren't so lucky. Some fell quickly. Some held on a bit longer. Almost all of those are gone today.

I remember those days clearly. It happened so fast. And every distributor, big, medium or small was not at all happy. Every single one complained about the manufacturers killing retail with digital distribution. Especially since most manufacturers would sell the digital version at some % below the retail price. And while many manufacturers said and did things to placate the distributors, the truth was that not only did digital sales of individual versions provide the easiest sales channel, it also was the one with the best margins. Win, win, win and win again. 

Screw 'em

I had known for years that it had been coming. The signs were there. The writing had been painted in large strokes on the wall. But so many distributors had ignored them.

Hey, that's your fault, I thought. Everyone knew it was coming. And, in my mind, so many big distributors were (are), to use the technical business term, real assholes. They leveraged their position to squeeze every dime they could (can) from manufacturers. They rarely ever want(ed) to go the extra inch let alone the extra mile for any partner other than the really big ones. Some distributors even go beyond asshole and move into real piece of shit territory by purposefully delaying payment or just not paying altogether the smaller manufacturers that have no real recourse.

Screw 'em anyway I figured. They had deserved it for being such jerks for so long.

Oh Yeah, This is About Comics

So when digital comics took off, and the discussions about print versus digital and would digital kill print grew, my deja vu kicked into overdrive.

Remember that I am a big adopter of digital. It just works better for me and my brain. At the same time it was a perfect way to get back into something I loved. To be honest I really didn't care about print and whether it lived or died.

In fact for the past few years I have absolutely hated the fact that the digital version and the print one have the same price. I mean pissed off. Really pissed off. Why the hell should I pay for something digitally, that has a much, much lower cost, at the same price as the higher cost version? Why shouldn't the economic ease of digital get passed down to the consumer as it had been done with software?

Based on my experience I had my own pet theory. You know those, the ones that come from our asses that sound good to us and others, especially when you've got a few beers in you.

Back in the early days of my selling software (2001-2003) when people wanted to understand the laptop manufacturing market I would often ask them this question: Who is the largest laptop/notebook manufacturer in the world? I would usually get two standard answers, one after another: Dell or HP. I got to then see the look on their faces when I said no to both of those. I would tell them that, back then, the biggest manufacturer was mostly likely Quanta, the company that actually made the computers for those two and others.

Most people know this now, but just in case you don't, Marvel, DC, Image and just about any other publisher don't actually handle the real distribution of their printed versions. Diamond Comics does this. They have for years and, for the most part, are the company that does it all.

I want to make it very clear that I have never had any real contact with Diamond nor do I know how they work. My experience is completely limited to my sending a resume for a sales job (never got a call for an interview, even though I did a follow-up call and reached out to some guys on LinkedIn, but I'm not bitter) and having a small, pleasant exchange on LinkedIn with an original founder who no longer works there. That's it.

But, as you now know (because you've made it this far), I have a very pre-conceived, we could even say jaded, view on large distributors that have a very strong and powerful position. There's no doubt I would have nodded my head like a Baptist at a sermon at Mark Waid's words about his first thoughts that "...we couldn’t continue to be held hostage by our only significant print distributor..."

There was no doubt in my mind, even with the lack of any real evidence or the fact that, you know, I don't actually work in the industry, that Diamond must be a big reason that print and digital are the same. They are basically the only print distributor in North America. That's a huge position of power. Even if done in a peaceful, mutually beneficial way, I'm paying extra for my digital comic just so that Diamond doesn't lose their cut.

 The problem when we think with our ass is that our ass never does a good job of looking at the whole picture. Or the real picture. Or even the truth for that matter.

Not too long ago I read Mark Waid's post on how he "fumbled the ball". Just days ago I read Mark Millar's post about he too got it wrong.

Turns out, so did I.  

Who knew I could ever be wrong when thinking with my ass?

This isn't the 2002 Spanish software market. We're not talking about the largest retailers in the country owning the majority of the market and not too worried about losing sales on a minuscule piece of their revenue.

We're talking about small shops whose owners and families live on these sales. We're talking about places where kids start their love of comics. 

I'm almost 42 and there's still nothing like walking into a comic book store packed to the gills with comic books and lots of stuff. For whatever reason I still get a kick at looking at that stand on the wall behind the counter.

Do you ever have a bad conversation in a comic book store? Is there ever a time you don't get some sort of pleasure from it?

We need comic books stores.

Right now comic books stores are doing well even with digital. In fact, according to Waid, they're both growing.

And while I personally have not read any study or large market data, I believe those that say that pricing plays a part in this mutual growth.

So while there's no doubt that I will almost exclusively buy my comic books digitally, I realize that what I saw/see as "extra cost" actually brings enormous value to the comic book industry and especially the fans.

At least that's the conclusion I come to when thinking with my head and heart instead of my ass.