Sent: Saturday 7/27/2002 4:40 PM
Good News and Bad News
Of course that’s always how it is. I’ll do the good news first. Issue #1 is finally printed and it looks absolutely awesome in full color. The books feel thinner. Not what I’m used to since I’ve been dealing with the ashcans that are the same number of pages but the paper was a lot thicker for the black and white ink.
And now the bad news… The
initial orders for issue #1 weren’t that great from Diamond Distributors. The official order count through the
standard Diamond purchase orders was 2,623. Yep, that’s all. Needless to say I was disappointed. My absolutely lowest estimate was about
6,000 or so. I figured that with
the 1,500 preview issues that I sent out to retailers that a few would buy and a
few wouldn’t and the average would be 4 (2 of each cover). Not a huge risk or investment. You figure that there’s got to be at
least 2 Finch fans and 2
I hope that you did talk to your comic shop guy (or lady) and ordered at
least one. Many times that will
spark interest in the book by the retailer. That’s the best way to get a book is
through your retailer. Now I will
make a few exceptions and send orders out overseas. Yes, that means you Scott. Scott is in the armed forces and he is
stationed in
http://csls.diamondcomics.com/
Or call 1-888-COMIC-BOOK (1-888-266-4226)
There is also The Master List (www.The-Master-List.com ), which is a big list of shops broken down by city and
state.
From all THAT there is good news. At least for the fans. I only printed 5,000 of the first issue (2,500 of each cover). I’d cover Diamond’s order plus a few for damage, take about 600 to San Diego, and then the rest I’d hold back for reorders and the other local conventions here in Denver.
How do I order the book through Diamond? Check out my retailer page for my official Diamond product numbers: www.SpilledMilk.com/retailers.htm
Also check out the distributor’s page too: www.DiamondComics.com
The moral of the story… I hope that you reserved your copy with your retailer or are going to soon (so the reorders kick in) otherwise you might have to settle for a preview issue and possibly wait for the trade paperback. I HOPE that you didn’t say to yourself… “Well I’ll just have Parker just send me a copy.” With still tons of work to do on future issues, SpilledMilk.com, learn FLASH, learn Python, learn .NET, and look for a job, that really doesn’t leave much time to mail out issues.
All I can say is that I hope when it hits the stands that people like it and it sells out so there are more orders for the following issues.
Diamond Comics (www.DiamondComics.com )
These guys have been great.
A big thanks goes out to Steve, Steve,
In order to keep costs down I didn’t do the inside back cover for the last issue. I think a better approach for about the same amount of money will be to send 3,000 issues to retailers of issue #2. With Beth doing the color on that book, I think they will want to check things out and hopefully reorder more of #1.
Comics Buyer’s Guide (#1494 –
In an attempt to generate some “buzz” on the title I submitted CiCi #1 for review. In the case for CBG I had to submit 5 or 6 copies for review. These copies went to a few different retailers who are “experts” in their field. I wasn’t really expecting a resounding failure. All in all they rated the comic a “D”. I thought I’d insert their reviews in here, but they are so short with not much detail on anything that they weren’t even worth quoting. Plus I didn’t know if I could even quote them without getting sued or something. CiCi did get a C+ from one of the retailers and one said that it has potential, but most didn’t like the artwork. Now you guys are probably scratching your head about the art. Me too. Is this the nail in the coffin? Do all retailers think this way? Will the retailers who read CBG pay attention to their reviews? I have no idea. You can check out the reviews for yourself if you can find issue #1494.
I keep going back to read the stuff you guys have written
about the gray preview issue, so that always keeps my spirits
alive.
Digital Webbing (www.DigitalWebbing.com )
These guys are great. An awesome e-zine with tons of information on the latest comic stuff. They were nice enough to run a preview of my comic and I’m gearing up to do a small preview of issue #2 on their site as well. As it turns out, Ron is a fellow Husky! Not that I really had an ounce of school spirit, but we went to the same high school. Small world, very small.
Sequential Tart (www.SequentialTart.com )
Another great e-zine that is run primarily by women (if not
entirely). I’m running a banner ad
there and their rates are rather affordable and they’ve got a pretty decent
crowd of people visiting the site each month. I hope this was a good marketing
decision on my part. I was trying
to barter for a shirt in exchange for wearing it on Saturday in
I made it to this event a while back and thought it was pretty cool. I thought it would be bigger, but it was mostly kids comic strips. It was still pretty fun and I got to talk to somebody at Highlander Comics. The guy had ordered 10 CiCi comics for the shelves. WOW! I was impressed. This kind of got my hopes up too, but I was trying to be realistic too. This was of course before I got my actual numbers through Diamond. I went with a neighbor who is also doing his own comic strip. We didn’t stay long and we didn’t even swipe any of the free snacks! Well, ever since that Ecoli scare with Odwalla… I stay away from the stuff.
Yes, it’s that time of year again.
Something that you plan for at least 4-6 months in advance (if not
more). I think the biggest this
year at
What will draw people to the booth this year? Well for one it’s a corner booth (that’s extra) so I should get quite a bit of visibility. And I had a 10 x 5 foot vinyl backdrop made that is pretty eye catching to say the least.
http://www.spilledmilk.com/images/Spilled%20Milk%20Backdrop.jpg
In order to save funds I figured I’d leave my 21 inch ViewSonic at home
and hope the backdrop does its job.
I think
I’ve got my tickets. I’ve got my booth (1550). I’ve got my room. And from Mike and Cheri in
_______________________________
Parker D. Smart
President - Spilled Milk,
Corp.
psmart@SpilledMilk.com
http://SpilledMilk.com
Copyright © 2001, Spilled Milk Corp., All rights reserved.
