IDW comic sales

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andersonh1
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Re: IDW comic sales

Post by andersonh1 »

Dominic wrote:Well, I will say that I am a bit skeptical of numbers/statements from a publisher's house-organ forum. That said, it does raise the question of where/how to get credible numbers.
I don't know that I'm skeptical of everything that's said. It's fairly easy to tell when a publisher is hyping their product versus simply dispensing information.

The information given here by Ryall seems specific and credible on the face of it. It's not hype, it's pretty specific printing numbers and discussion of the importance of selling enough that retailers reorder. It seems like the type of numbers and inside business information that publishers normally don't talk about.
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Re: IDW comic sales

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One other bit of info that I had forgotten. Infiltration sold for $2.99 a book. The price increased to $3.99 per book with Stormbringer, so that price increase certainly accounts for some of the sales loss.
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Re: IDW comic sales

Post by Dominic »

Good catch.

Note that "Continuum" sold for $4, which is obscene for that kind of book.


Dom
-well, some of the art was nice.
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Re: IDW comic sales

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Some sales figures for the ongoing series:
#1 15,213
#2 12,516
#3 12,609
#4 12,221
#5 11,993
#6 12,171

Spotlight: Prowl
8,839

Bumblebee Mini:
#1 10,205
#2 9,021
#3 8,537
#4 8,599

Last Stand of the Wreckers
#1 8,862
#2 5,744 (problem with shipment this month, re-prints and re-orders not counted)
#3 7,853
#4 8,133
#5 ???
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Re: IDW comic sales

Post by Dominic »

The sky is, in fact, falling.

Things seem to have hit a steady plateau after AHM, with ~16,000 (generously) bein the upper limit of a TF book and ~12,000 being average.

Quality and/or popularity among fans does not translate to sales, as indicated by the figures for "Last Stand of the Wreckers". which sold a bit worse that the BB series. Does this mean that mainstream readers are picking up the ongoing and AHM, or that the fandom is less likely to pick up peripheral books? I know somebody who is a huge fan of TFs who skipped "Last Stand of the Wreckers" because it was not set strictly in current continuity, (being set ~2 years or so back).


Dom
-wants to know what kinds of sales justify the expense of publishing these books...with licensing fees.
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Re: IDW comic sales

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I just looked over the thread at the IDW forums. Assuming sales of ~15,000, that means a given issue makes ~$60,000 a month.

Maybe I just have inflated tastes, but those looks like starvation numbers.

Consider that comic shops take a cut. Diamond takes a cut. Printing is not free. (And, if comics are anything like newpapers, printing is one of the largest portinos of the bill.) There are more than a few in-house ads, compared to relatively few outsider ads. (I do not have an issue in front of me. Nor do I know IDW's rate for advertising.)

IDW has to pay staff, as well as various over-head bills. To top it all off, "Transformers" likely entails some kind of licensing fees.

Granted, we are missing some hard numbers. But, with the steadily, if slowly, shrinking sales, should we be worried?

Anderson, you and Trekkie have some relevant experience here, right?


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Re: IDW comic sales

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We are missing numbers. I presume we only have the direct market figures for the US, nothing overseas or in places other than comic shops. I used to work in pre-press at a local printing plant, but I don't know what a full-color comic would cost to print. I think they have them printed in Canada, correct? Presumably there's some price break, enough to offset customs. I could be wrong about that, but I think I've read that the books are printed outside the US.

Even if not, it's not just the $60,000 per month from the main title. IDW never has less than two Transformers titles in a given month, and usually three when the movie books are factored in. So they're actually making closer to the range of $100,000 to $120,000 a month off the franchise.

For April 2010, the following are listed at http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicss ... 10-04.html
136 Transformers Ongoing 6 $3.99 IDW 12,171
169 Transformers Spotlight Prowl 1 $3.99 IDW 8,839
176 Transformers Last Stand of the Wreckers 4 $3.99 IDW 8,133
180 Transformers Nefarious 2 $3.99 IDW 8,002

That's 37,145 books sold in April, at $3.99 each. That's $148,208.55. Now there's an extra book with Spotlight Prowl present, but subtract that and it's still a decent month at $112,940.94. Over a year that comes out to $1,355,291.20, so over a million and a quarter in sales. I suspect there's enough there to support a small profit margin while paying the license fee, artists, writers, printers and distributors. How much goes in each category we have no idea, but it's enough to keep things going. I'm sure they'd love to do better, of course, and they do, given that we don't have all the numbers.
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Re: IDW comic sales

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150k seems better certainly. Of course, spread out over 3-5 books, with associated costs....

I am not trying to blow the doomsday whistle here. But, I am trying to figure out where the part of the franchise I really like really is.

Dom
-wonders about compilations at bookstores.
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Re: IDW comic sales

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Dominic wrote:150k seems better certainly. Of course, spread out over 3-5 books, with associated costs....

I am not trying to blow the doomsday whistle here. But, I am trying to figure out where the part of the franchise I really like really is.

Dom
-wonders about compilations at bookstores.
Without knowing how much everything costs, there's no way to really know. Stable sales figures can certainly be taken as a good sign, even if they're not as high as they could be. If you look back at early sales for Infiltration, or even Stormbringer, there's potentially a much larger purchasing base out there that IDW has simply been unable to retain. It's hard to say what they could do to turn that around. The various changes in direction and creative teams have to be looked at as attempts to recapture the audience, but so far they've been unsuccessful.
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Re: IDW comic sales

Post by Dominic »

The general trend with the sales seems to be down. The drops are not as sharp as they use to be. But, the increases are fewer, further between, and less sustained.

Comics have been helped by movies and mainstream distribution. While the movies do not hurt the franchise, the various TF books do not get as much mainstream distribution. Compilations are more rare in mainstream book stores. And, the only places I see single issues are comic stores. And, most comic stores order just enough "Transformers" to fill subscriptions. The same applies to "GI Joe". I have not seen a single issue at the Newbury's Haymarket store for about 3 months, even when I go in before work in the morning on delivery day. TF is a bit better. But, not by much.

Dom
-and missing an issue....oi.
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