Forum - View topicNEWS: Diamond Raises Wholesale Benchmark Minimum for Publishers
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SongstressCela
 Posts: 615 Location: Pennsylvania |
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Wow, in an economy that has people buying less, that's...That's economic brilliance, Diamond. Seriously. I applaud your forethought in aiding in the death of the American industry. Kudos to you!
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nargun
Posts: 930 |
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My understanding of Diamond's structure is that it's really not set up to deal effectively with backlist items; they only want the first couple of months of sales and if it's not demand that arose a couple of months after release they're really not terribly interested. Basically an extension of their origins as a superhero comic distributor, where the first month's sales was basically all there was.
But manga GNs don't sell like that, they've got a tail that's a couple of years long, and given the up-front costs and the low capitalisation that leads to tiny marketing budgets pre-release and small initial sales, english-language manga companies really need access to that tail to survive effectively. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15577 |
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Oh, well. After Black Jack HC 3, I'll have no need to deal with those jerks; and I'll be able to use Amazon for my manga needs. Who the hell does Diamond think it's gonna extort, when the comic distribution biz is completely different from even ten years ago? Most indie publishers just set up shop online nowadays, too.
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Bluebeard
 Posts: 267 Location: Massachusetts |
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Over the years I've been friends with several comic shop owners and I've never heard a single good thing about Diamond. These days B&M comic shops seem to be only temporary fixtures lasting 1-3 years before finally closing shop. Only a few lucky ones are able to last if the location is very geek-friendly. Nearly doubling the minimum monthly order will all but kill any upstart comic shops. Diamond is only surviving because of their near monopoly on comic and hobby shop distribution. Boo to them.[/i]
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Kiyoko
 Posts: 131 Location: Pennsylvania |
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I've had several comic book stores try to set up shop in my local area, but none of them even lasted a year. One store I went to about every month (It's over 30 minutes away) had a store that was half comic books and half manga, and they had a little Nascar corner. Well, every time I went to that store, the Nascar corner got larger, and the comic/manga sections got smaller. The last time I went there they changed their name to something like Nascar Connection and only had a small cardboard box with "leftover" comic books for 50 cents that they weren't able to sell. 
I know for a fact my town isn't geek-friendly. My local Suncoast held an anime cosplay contest with huge signs advertising it weeks in advance. I was the only person who showed up for it. Good for me cause I won all 3 places, but also a little embarrassing and disappointing. =/ |
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jsieczka
 Posts: 150 Location: Rochester, NY |
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This will not have a large impact on the comic stores themselves other then reduce the available choices of what they have to sell. A PO is not what the stores have to order from Diamond. What this means is that the sales of a comic must be over $2500 per issue for Diamond to keep the title in the catalog. Who this will hurt are smaller publishers who are currently being distributed to a small number of stores. With a PO minimum at $2500 you are looking at around 1,000 books a month, most of the larger publishers sell around 30,000 books per issue.
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LordRobin
Posts: 354 Location: Akron, OH |
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Diamond is raising the minimum for publishers, not retailers. And it's been my experience that most comic shops fail because they're run by people without a lick of business sense.
That being said, the owner of my comic shop does as little business with Diamond as he can. I use Diamond's "Previews" catalog to order, but he actually orders from several different sources, and pretty much uses Diamond only for comics. He's also down on manga, stocking way less than he used to, though he'll order anything you want. There's just too many titles, and most manga is bought at stores like Borders and Barnes & Noble these days. Keep in mind, this guy isn't your average comic store owner. I've been patronizing his store for nearly ten years now, and it's been around for longer than that. The store is large, clean, well-lit, and it's all the owner does for a living. In short, this guy knows his sh*t. And he avoids Diamond and hasn't been stocking manga. ------RM |
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Redd the Sock
Posts: 55 |
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Diamond's already on my crap-list for anime and manga. Between lateness and prices I've gone almost entirely to rightstuf. Even one of my local anime suppliers buys anime from rightstuf finding their retail prices lower than diamonds wholesale ones. Now it looks like more niche titles may not get in there, and forget re-orders after the intial run.
Back to Amazon I go. |
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kokuryu
 Posts: 915 |
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This will definitely hurt a lot of the smaller retailers...
Sheesh, I am glad I am out of that business... I used to pay Diamond about $15,000 to $20,000 a week for stock... |
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HQuest
Posts: 14 |
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This is going to help small retailers more than it will hurt them.
Every shop near me has been cutting back on anime and manga in the last 3-4 months. All my local, small comic shops (2 under the same ownership that I visit frequently, and another one ran by punk rawk guys in the city that I only go to once every two months or so) have completely cleared out their manga sections, and are only ordering the big shonen titles. This will save them a ton of space, because now their entire manga section will reside in a couple of spinner racks, or just one or two normal shelve units. The big box stores have also been cutting back on anime. I was at a best buy the other day, and they were condensing the anime section to half its original size. Big box book retailers like Borders and Barnes and Noble are also cutting back on manga a bit. There's been such an abundance of manga these last few years, that the comic and book shops were overflowing with titles, volumes, and entire series that no one was ever going to buy. If these titles aren't listed, than the stores will no longer be enticed to buy any of them. On a retail level, this is a smart move; it cuts down the catalog content to just what's important or guaranteed to at least break even. This is especially a great scenario for the independent shops, who try to keep a varied and expanded stock on hand in order to stay competitive. Licensors for manga will have to think extra hard now before picking new titles, but this could help them as well. If they're more considerate in their gambles, they can only stand to save or gain financially. It does, however, completely screw publishers and authors. Small books and odd niche titles will have to go back to the word of mouth method of they want to be purchased and displayed in the small shops again. Still, I think that at the moment, this is really going to help out a lot in the next year or two. Right now it'll make things more difficult for publishers who've already spent on licenses that won't have a large, dedicated following. |
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sunflower
 Posts: 1080 |
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How will this help small retailers? Just because they have to look at a listing and say yes or no? That's ridiculous. Having more items in the catalog allows them to serve a larger customer base should they choose to.
Also consider that if customers ask them to buy a few special orders and the higher minimum is not met by all retailers that month, they won't receive the orders and their customers will be dissatisfied and not come back. So it's going to hurt anyone who sells small independents to customers who prefer that sort of thing, because those customers will no longer come into their stores. And then there's the likelihood that some publishers will raise the costs of their books to help them meet the minimum. That's going to make them not only more expensive for retailers to buy, but a harder sell in this rough economy. This doesn't help anyone but Diamond, and those large publishers who could profit from driving the small ones out of business. |
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Redd the Sock
Posts: 55 |
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I don't see this being much help to retailers. 75 - 80% of my local shops orders are for hold lists and they do't order a lot for casual sales. Half the stores out of town I used to visit that tried to maintain causal buying racks have gone under. I idea that it might help retailers is based on the idea that if I can't buy montser because it's under the sales limit, I'll then buy Naruto which is over it. The reality is, I take my business elsewhere to get the title I want.
This is the next step on a road that goes to where only the mega popular stuff gets offered. I know times are tough and that no one wants to take a loss financially, but moves like this neuter the art form, and put businesses at risk if what was popular suddenly isn't, and they have no new fandoms to develop and sell to. |
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Grico
 Posts: 201 Location: Fort Wayne, IN |
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Well it is certainly going to hurt manga distribution through comic stores. I'm sure manga is on pull lists for people at a number of stores and the smaller manga people will be squeezed out. Luckily there still are relatively good means to pick up manga online various places. It will probably have the biggest negative impact on the small comic publishers. A high percentage of comic buyers buy their new comics in shops only and now those publishers will lose that outlet. You don't get small indy comics in borders.
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strider175
Posts: 28 |
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this whole thing is bad times for the economy. diamond like any business has to reduce their overheads so if a series of book is not selling well, they probably will not continue to carry it or order it. raising the minimum means that they are trimming down some of the fat in the company that they can no longer afford to keep. now smaller publishers will have to look for other venues to get their products to consumers, either by direct sales or using other distributors and warehouses to hold their products.
as much as it is easy to blame diamond for this move, this would not have happened if the retail economy in the US was not failing as hard as it is. makes sense for them to protect their bottom line, as if they continued to work the way they did in the past, then they can disappear like circuit city and kb toys, and then that would be worst as diamond currently is the largest distributor by far for direct market stores. borders, barnes and noble, and amazon are not affected by this as they get their books directly from the publishers or through a larger chain store distributor. this mainly affects comic book shops and anime shops giving them less variety and in the end, less competitive with the chain stores. the major things small stores had over chain stores is better customer service and reorders. times are changing, pretty scary for small retail. |
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