Marvel To Distribute Direct Via Penguin Random House 0

[MatterEaterLad]

50 minutes ago, Prince Namor said:

New Comic Book buyers don't really care where the product comes from, just that it's there on time and in good condition. Which is NOT what large book publishers are necessarily good at. And floppies are NOT books.

Random House is going to suddenly have to deal with a number of issues they don't normally have to address.

Believe what you like, we've been down this road before and the last time it eliminated nearly 1/3 of the comic book shops in the country. 

Diamond isn't a BOOK distribution company, they are a COMIC BOOK distribution company and with that it includes a whole host of problems and demands that book publishers aren't used to. Shorting some Borders a discounted novel from their weekly shipment goes by unnoticed - short a comic book store in Podunk, New Jersey the latest X-Men and all hell will break loose. Those phone calls and problems add up really quick.

This will end the days of small comic book shops. Smaller Independent publishers will pretty much go exclusively online, small mailings and digital. Diamond will either go primarily toys, specialty items, and a smattering of other publishers, or they will disappear. This is all just one step closer to direct digital.

750,000 different books were published in the US last year (printed books, not ebooks). I don't know the number of comic titles published but it's significantly less than 750,000. RH distributes to 2,500+ indie bookstores. Most are small mom and pop shops akin to your LCS. 

This is actually the opposite of getting closer to digital. RH does not want the book world to go digital (no major publisher does) because they will lose to Amazon. 

This is going to be fine. 

[Mirkinator]

I always thought diamond had too much of the market and this feels like it could be good news? I only started seriously collecting 2 years and was dumbfounded that all the major publishers print from the same roof. At the time I attributed it more to the state of this hobby being in decline as I have seen similar things in my other hobbies (Looking at you Horizon Hobby).  Just hope this isnt Marvel's excuse to also jump to $5.99

[Ares]

1 hour ago, Prince Namor said:

Case in point:

When Marvel bought out Heroes World Distribution in 1994 to distribute their comics (what a mess that was - late books, damages, money held up - it was a mess), Diamond followed that up by buying the other Comic Book Distributor, Capital City Comics in 1996. After the Heroes World collapse, that left just Diamond as the only real distributor of comics. 

Didn't work out for the best. We were stuck with that for 25 years.

Be careful what you wish for.

The Problem with Heroes World is that Marvel was trying to run it as part of marvel. The distributors need to be independent

[PKJ]

I see a few people responding with knowledge of RH operations, I worked in that industry for a while and most of the retailers received product through a third party, meaning RH did not ship directly Wal Mart, Sam's, Target etc, companies like Levy (Now Readerlink Distribution Services) handled the pick pack to the retailers. So the Publisher shipped full cases and the 3rd party broke the shipments down to be shipped in to the retailers. My concerns would be at that stage, if breaking cases for single or below case qty orders are happening, preserving condition is not a strong suit of most Book Distributers due to them being fully returnable, paperbacks I believe still operate where credit is given when the covers are stripped and sent back to the publisher to save freight. I still have a few colleagues in that business so I will be asking for an invite on warehouse sales.

[kaculler]

I think that a lot of bookstores and libraries get their books from Ingram, Baker & Taylor, or some other distributor.  I've had an account with Simon and Schuster for about 20 years and they ship product straight to my house.  During the pandemic, though, their warehouses were closed for a period of time and they were using Ingram to ship product.  I opened my account when I was working at a comic book store (that also carried science fiction books), but I've continued to get stuff for myself since the store closed.  This is pretty small scale compared to your average bookstore, but they have generally been pretty decent with the packaging of material.

In the few instances that there have been damages, I've been able to contact my personal sales rep. and she's had replacements sent out.  I don't know how well that would work on a larger scale if there are a larger number of damages.  If PRH does complete the purchase of S&S, they'll likely merge operations to an extent to save money, but there should still be a considerable sales force to deal with various comic stores that do want to deal directly with them.

Edited March 26, 2021 by kaculler

[Ares]

"You can order Marvel through Diamond and through PRH. But PRH won't charge you freight." 

And also getting sales reps for everyone. But there's more. We also had 52 questions asked and answered by Penguin Random House to potential comic book retailers. The headlines seemed to be free shipping, a standard 50% discount level for retailers, a specific warehouse for comic book distribution (half an hour away from  Diamond Comic Distributors own big warehouse) and assigned sales reps for all comic book stores.

Senior industry sources talking to Bleeding Cool have let is know that DC Comics has a clause in their existing book market deal with Penguin Random House – that might even let PRH publish their own DC Comics graphic novels – that states that DC Comics will always get "favoured nation status" at the distributor. This means no other publisher will ever have a better deal than DC.

But far more significantly, that while DC is distributed in the returnable book market by PRH, Marvel cannot be. Which is why this deal with PRH and Marvel is just for the direct market, made up of non-returnable comic books.

Seems like an attempt to break Diamond and get a better financial deal

[ttfitz]

8 hours ago, MatterEaterLad said:

750,000 different books were published in the US last year (printed books, not ebooks). I don't know the number of comic titles published but it's significantly less than 750,000. RH distributes to 2,500+ indie bookstores. Most are small mom and pop shops akin to your LCS. 

March solicitations from Diamond (including books and merch) totaled about 2500, DC another 120. So call it maybe 3,000 a month, 36,000 a year. Once again, counting everything.

[littledoom]

If you wanna be in black and white, black and white's gotta be in you....

[ttfitz]

At least this time around, retailers won't have to add a new distributor if they don't want to:

"Under the terms of the new arrangement, Diamond Comics Distributors will order stock through Penguin Random House for distribution to Direct Market retailers. Diamond will now manage their own prices on Marvel goods for retailers who decide to order through them instead of through Penguin Random House."

[NWOslave]

On 3/25/2021 at 9:46 PM, Prince Namor said:

Surely someone here was around the last time Marvel attempted something like this...

It was not a good thing. Diamond’s days are numbered. 

this is not the same thing. marvel owned that distributer so in essence they were the ones handling the orders and logistics. Penguin will now handle all that. all they have done is traded one distributer for another. 

[dupont2005]

So both of the Big Two have left Diamond? I don’t think it’s going to solve all the problems the direct market has but I do think it’s an improvement 

[MatterEaterLad]

On 3/26/2021 at 11:55 AM, PKJ said:

I see a few people responding with knowledge of RH operations, I worked in that industry for a while and most of the retailers received product through a third party, meaning RH did not ship directly Wal Mart, Sam's, Target etc, companies like Levy (Now Readerlink Distribution Services) handled the pick pack to the retailers. So the Publisher shipped full cases and the 3rd party broke the shipments down to be shipped in to the retailers. My concerns would be at that stage, if breaking cases for single or below case qty orders are happening, preserving condition is not a strong suit of most Book Distributers due to them being fully returnable, paperbacks I believe still operate where credit is given when the covers are stripped and sent back to the publisher to save freight. I still have a few colleagues in that business so I will be asking for an invite on warehouse sales.

Penguin Random is opening a new distribution facility that will only handle comics. Hopefully they will handle comics properly, if not I'm sure they will hear it from retailers and the collecting world.

[MatterEaterLad]

This is a good article on the nuts and bolts of the Penguin Random House move. 

The part that jumped out to me was that this will make it easier for indie bookstores (not LCSs) to carry comics.

Some do, but most do not (though they'll carry graphic novels and TPBs).

The end result will be more places to buy comics, which for me is a good thing. Though at first glance this might seem like a negative to a LCS, to have a bookstore down the street selling comics, but the audiences are fairly different. LCS will always have the primary collecting audience. Indie bookstores with comics will cater more to the casual reader, or better yet, the parent who goes into a store with their kid and says, "I'm going over here to look at books, go pick out a comic." A return to those days is great for building the next generation of comic readers/fans/collectors.

[Mirkinator]

7 minutes ago, MatterEaterLad said:

This is a good article on the nuts and bolts of the Penguin Random House move. 

The part that jumped out to me was that this will make it easier for indie bookstores (not LCSs) to carry comics.

Some do, but most do not (though they'll carry graphic novels and TPBs).

The end result will be more places to buy comics, which for me is a good thing. Though at first glance this might seem like a negative to a LCS, to have a bookstore down the street selling comics, but the audiences are fairly different. LCS will always have the primary collecting audience. Indie bookstores with comics will cater more to the casual reader, or better yet, the parent who goes into a store with their kid and says, "I'm going over here to look at books, go pick out a comic." A return to those days is great for building the next generation of comic readers/fans/collectors.

Ooh that is a good point. Especially if they order some books from them. Now their catalog has a bunch of new media for a few bucks each. Why not see what happens...

 

[comicstock]

This is a good article on the nuts and bolts of the Penguin Random House move. 

The part that jumped out to me was that this will make it easier for indie bookstores (not LCSs) to carry comics.

Some do, but most do not (though they'll carry graphic novels and TPBs).

The end result will be more places to buy comics, which for me is a good thing. Though at first glance this might seem like a negative to a LCS, to have a bookstore down the street selling comics, but the audiences are fairly different. LCS will always have the primary collecting audience. Indie bookstores with comics will cater more to the casual reader, or better yet, the parent who goes into a store with their kid and says, "I'm going over here to look at books, go pick out a comic." A return to those days is great for building the next generation of comic readers/fans/collectors.

[comicstock]

At an indie bookstore, I don't think many parents are going to be spending $3.99-$5.99 on a comic for Junior.

There will be sticker shock.

[the blob]

3 hours ago, comicstock said:

At an indie bookstore, I don't think many parents are going to be spending $3.99-$5.99 on a comic for Junior.

There will be sticker shock.

Why? Parents spend that much for a pack of stupid pokeman cards. It is true, I spent $9 yesterday on a captain underpants book that will get read a lot longer than two comics by my 9 year old.

[dupont2005]

19 hours ago, the blob said:

Why? Parents spend that much for a pack of stupid pokeman cards. It is true, I spent $9 yesterday on a captain underpants book that will get read a lot longer than two comics by my 9 year old.

Are kids buying Pokémon cards? I have a 12 year old, an 8 year old, and a 6 year old and have never seen Pokémon cards in person. They all like to play Pokémon go in the car though, when we let them bring phones on a trip

[the blob]

12 minutes ago, dupont2005 said:

Are kids buying Pokémon cards? I have a 12 year old, an 8 year old, and a 6 year old and have never seen Pokémon cards in person. They all like to play Pokémon go in the car though, when we let them bring phones on a trip

My 9 year old was pretty obsessed with it a couple of years ago. Some of his friends were. It is more about getting chase cards than playing, although he would play a little. What a waste of money though. The chase cards have probably been trashed by now.

The 15 year old was similar at 9. Last year his main exercise was Pokeman go and wandering around. He'd get like 10,000 steps in during his hunting sessions.

[the blob]

15 minutes ago, dupont2005 said:

Are kids buying Pokémon cards? I have a 12 year old, an 8 year old, and a 6 year old and have never seen Pokémon cards in person. They all like to play Pokémon go in the car though, when we let them bring phones on a trip

people opening pokeman packs in huge entertainment on the youtube