How do publishers decide which books get additional print runs? 1 1

[Jesse-Lee]

I understand the concept of 2nd, 3rd, etc. printings at face value - if the first printing of a book sells very well, i.e. sells out, then it makes sense that the publisher would do subsequent printings. But there must be other factors that go into it, right? For example, books like Batman 423, 445, 457, 497, some others in that era, etc. all have at least a 2nd print, and sometimes more. But books like the Year One run (404-407), the Death in the Family run (426-429) and others - they don't have multiple printings as far as I'm aware, even though they were super popular when they came out. I know there are examples in other titles as well.

Does it come down to distribution channels (like multipacks and things), or is there something else that goes into it as well? Just something that struck me as curious, and I assume there are some experts on this board with insights.

[Qalyar]

On 4/8/2024 at 3:02 PM, Jesse-Lee said:

I understand the concept of 2nd, 3rd, etc. printings at face value - if the first printing of a book sells very well, i.e. sells out, then it makes sense that the publisher would do subsequent printings. But there must be other factors that go into it, right? For example, books like Batman 423, 445, 457, 497, some others in that era, etc. all have at least a 2nd print, and sometimes more. But books like the Year One run (404-407), the Death in the Family run (426-429) and others - they don't have multiple printings as far as I'm aware, even though they were super popular when they came out. I know there are examples in other titles as well.

Does it come down to distribution channels (like multipacks and things), or is there something else that goes into it as well? Just something that struck me as curious, and I assume there are some experts on this board with insights.

There's no one answer here.

Sort of the default case is that a book sells out and the publisher believes there's enough interest to make another printing profitable. That's probably the case for those miscellaneous Batman issues. It's definitely the case for things like Killing Joke or DKR. Runs like Death in the Family probably didn't need 2nd printings because DC knew that was a pushed, high-profile story arc; they very likely had higher print runs from the start. Historically, some indie books (and especially the top-tier undergrounds) went through a lot of printings because they simply didn't have the money to print large numbers of comics at a time! To some extent, some high-profile modern books abuse that process by intentionally shorting the initial print run so that they can go to reprints with new covers to drive collector demand.

But there are other reasons for reprints, of course. Sometimes we get 2nd printings because a book is needed in an alternative distribution channel. That's how we get unique prints in multi-packs and the like, as well as reprints for stuff like pack-ins with toys. Sometimes books go to multiple printings because something about the book needs corrected or because something went wrong in the printing process.

And sometimes, it's hard to know why a book gets reprinted. Take Charles Burns's indie series Black Hole. The first two books went to a 2nd printing because they outperformed publisher Kitchen Sink's expectations. Then, Kitchen Sink went out of business and the rights were purchased by Fantagraphics, which reprinted #1 - #3 under the new imprint, in part to make them more available to prospective readers of the rest of the miniseries (there was evidently enough stock of #4 on hand to not need a reprint). Those all make sense. But Fantagraphics also eventually sent #5 and #9 to 2nd printings for no reason collectors have ever been able to discern. In particular, the #9 2nd printing was released after the first compilation was already on sale! Why was that necessary? We'll likely never know. 

[Jesse-Lee]

Thanks for the outstanding in-depth answer, much appreciated!

[Lazyboy]

On 4/8/2024 at 4:52 PM, Qalyar said:

Runs like Death in the Family probably didn't need 2nd printings because DC knew that was a pushed, high-profile story arc; they very likely had higher print runs from the start.

That's not true. There was demand for reprinting the Death in the Family issues, but DC's solution was to instead quickly release a TPB, which was definitely not common practice at that time.

Ultimately, it came down to demand (from the distributors) and willingness (from the publishers). For decades in the industry, reprints were extremely rare. In the earlier years of direct distribution, publishers were still reluctant to immediately reprint due to the success of individual issues. By the 90s, that reluctance had disappeared, though it did pop up again occasionally.

Special printings for things like multipacks were a different thing.

[Qalyar]

On 4/8/2024 at 6:41 PM, Lazyboy said:

That's not true. There was demand for reprinting the Death in the Family issues, but DC's solution was to instead quickly release a TPB, which was definitely not common practice at that time.

Ultimately, it came down to demand (from the distributors) and willingness (from the publishers). For decades in the industry, reprints were extremely rare. In the earlier years of direct distribution, publishers were still reluctant to immediately reprint due to the success of individual issues. By the 90s, that reluctance had disappeared, though it did pop up again occasionally.

Special printings for things like multipacks were a different thing.

Mea culpa. That's what I get for speculating about books I don't collect.

Ramping up the run on issues that are expected to be of particular interest, however, is certainly something that has occurred. Just... not on those books, it seems!