I would say that the number one question I was asked was “will this be available in comic book stores?” when confronted with a debut book. And you know what? I don’t really think that enough credit is being given to the customers in the direct market. I’ve been behind a publisher booth, at The San Diego Comicon, selling books that had not yet been released to direct market comic book stores. Part two of all of this is the fact that I’ve worked on the publisher side of the table as well. So, you know, it’s actually more advantageous for us–as a local retailer–for these publishers to do big launches of these books, even if we don’t get all the sales, because more often than not, it’s these big launches/pushes that help put the books on the radar of our customers on the first place.
The benefit to us? As a local retailer, we knew there would be too much stuff for any one person to buy, and because every new book that comes out needs all of the promotion it can get, the excitement generated at the show that will last for the next couple of years and we’ll reap the rewards of all of that. We did that because we wanted the exhibitors to have a good show, first and foremost. The Beguiling is the premiere sponsor of The Toronto Comic Arts Festival, and the fest actively encouraged participating exhibitors to debut new works at the show. I started typing this a couple of times, but despite how wretched the behaviour has been by a couple of retailers (and the CBIA forum in general, as of late) I’m not quite ready to burn all of my retailer bridges just yet… but I did want to comment on this.
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