Comments on: UPDATE: The continuing obsession with sales figures http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/ The News Blog of Comics Culture Sun, 8 Nov 2009 05:22:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.2 by: Platzreife http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-2459010 Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:59:34 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-2459010 That’s some nice commentary, Tom! Though, argh, I’m going to have to freshen up the perspective of something I’m working on now. That’s some nice commentary, Tom! Though, argh, I’m going to have to freshen up the perspective of something I’m working on now.

]]> by: Shade of Yggdrasil(仮) http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-988532 Mon, 03 Mar 2008 04:35:23 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-988532 <strong>US manga sales, 2007...</strong>  My last post got the attention of someone who, in passing, mentioned The Beat; taking a moment to check it out, I happened upon a link to Bookscan numbers for 2007, which struck me as a great topic. * 192 titles sold over 10,000 copies * 572 of the t... US manga sales, 2007…

 My last post got the attention of someone who, in passing, mentioned The Beat; taking a moment to check it out, I happened upon a link to Bookscan numbers for 2007, which struck me as a great topic.
* 192 titles sold over 10,000 copies
* 572 of the t…

]]> by: Shade of Yggdrasil(仮) » Blog Archive » US manga sales, 2007 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-988531 Mon, 03 Mar 2008 04:34:30 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-988531 [...]  My last post got the attention of someone who, in passing, mentioned The Beat; taking a moment to check it out, I happened upon a link to Bookscan numbers for 2007, which struck me as a great topic. [...] […]  My last post got the attention of someone who, in passing, mentioned The Beat; taking a moment to check it out, I happened upon a link to Bookscan numbers for 2007, which struck me as a great topic. […]

]]> by: John Jackson Miller http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-968376 Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:00:19 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-968376 Ali, that doesn't surprise me -- the Curtis folk advised that the average newsstand magazine had less than half a second to attract attention, with only 10%-20% of the cover showing. (Though their testing showed that of magazines actually picked up, almost 50% were eventually bought.) To the topic of Nielsen's Bookscan and its sales charts, an interesting post just up about its sister Soundscan top-seller lists -- and how they set it up so that backlist items wouldn't creep back up into the top-seller lists: http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart_watch/4065/week-ending-feb-24-2008-the-case-of-the-missing-2-album As this is a case of them publishing sales rankings in actual practice, we might wonder whether they would bring a similar approach to comics, separating frontlist from backlist. On the Diamond charts, the monthly sales for the Golden Oldies do make the list with everything else, when they earn the spots. And Heidi's comics royalty, so the pronoun fits either way! :-) Ali, that doesn’t surprise me — the Curtis folk advised that the average newsstand magazine had less than half a second to attract attention, with only 10%-20% of the cover showing. (Though their testing showed that of magazines actually picked up, almost 50% were eventually bought.)

To the topic of Nielsen’s Bookscan and its sales charts, an interesting post just up about its sister Soundscan top-seller lists — and how they set it up so that backlist items wouldn’t creep back up into the top-seller lists:

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart_watch/4065/week-ending-feb-24-2008-the-case-of-the-missing-2-album

As this is a case of them publishing sales rankings in actual practice, we might wonder whether they would bring a similar approach to comics, separating frontlist from backlist. On the Diamond charts, the monthly sales for the Golden Oldies do make the list with everything else, when they earn the spots.

And Heidi’s comics royalty, so the pronoun fits either way! :-)

]]> by: Kenny http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-968190 Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:17:12 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-968190 I'm sorry. I was just trying to have some fun! I’m sorry. I was just trying to have some fun!

]]> by: The Beat http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-967863 Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:39:29 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-967863 Google "the editorial we"...you might just be surprised. Google “the editorial we”…you might just be surprised.

]]> by: Kenny http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-967803 Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:15:43 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-967803 Who is this "we" you (plural) keep referring to? Is there more than one person writing this article? Was this article written to speak for more than one person? I think any point this column tries to make is greatly diminished by the mystery of the "we" the reader is presented with. Who are they? Who is this “we” you (plural) keep referring to? Is there more than one person writing this article? Was this article written to speak for more than one person? I think any point this column tries to make is greatly diminished by the mystery of the “we” the reader is presented with. Who are they?

]]> by: Torsten Adair http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-967147 Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:40:21 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-967147 From Lucien's Library: Strange Nature Tales #37 "The Monkey Wrench Gang" The cover, by Anderson and Swan, features a variety of simians in leather jackets riding motorcycles through a small midwestern town as townfolk panic and Main Street burns in the background. From Lucien’s Library: Strange Nature Tales #37 “The Monkey Wrench Gang” The cover, by Anderson and Swan, features a variety of simians in leather jackets riding motorcycles through a small midwestern town as townfolk panic and Main Street burns in the background.

]]> by: Ali Kokmen http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-966889 Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:11:25 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-966889 &#62;&#62; “When I worked at Disney Adventures, they once made &#62;&#62; a big display of FOUR YEARS WORTH of covers with the &#62;&#62; newsstand sales for every issue so that the ENTIRE STAFF &#62;&#62; could look at what sold well and see if they could come up &#62;&#62; with a formula.” &#62; &#62; Digressing, this reminds me of the correlations we used to run &#62; at Krause on the newsstand numbers. I think we found out the &#62; ideal issue of “Scrye” had a polybag with between three and five &#62; inserts, a yellow bar across the top with black lettering, game &#62; logos in specific places, and a fifth ink in the logo. Further digressing, I recall an editor of a movie/entertainment magazine telling me they'd gone through a similar exercise and concluded that the larger the movie-star's head was on the cover, the higher the sell through. And, getting back to comics, there's the story that Julius Schwartz realized that comics with gorillas on the cover were top-sellers... >> “When I worked at Disney Adventures, they once made
>> a big display of FOUR YEARS WORTH of covers with the
>> newsstand sales for every issue so that the ENTIRE STAFF
>> could look at what sold well and see if they could come up
>> with a formula.”
>
> Digressing, this reminds me of the correlations we used to run
> at Krause on the newsstand numbers. I think we found out the
> ideal issue of “Scrye” had a polybag with between three and five
> inserts, a yellow bar across the top with black lettering, game
> logos in specific places, and a fifth ink in the logo.

Further digressing, I recall an editor of a movie/entertainment magazine telling me they’d gone through a similar exercise and concluded that the larger the movie-star’s head was on the cover, the higher the sell through.

And, getting back to comics, there’s the story that Julius Schwartz realized that comics with gorillas on the cover were top-sellers…

]]> by: Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal » Blog Archive » Feb. 28, 2008: Impossible to get http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-965080 Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:29:07 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-965080 [...] [Publishing] This leads us to Tom Spurgeon and Heidi MacDonald&#8217;s latest entries in the Bookscan brouhaha. [...] […] [Publishing] This leads us to Tom Spurgeon and Heidi MacDonald’s latest entries in the Bookscan brouhaha. […]

]]> by: Matthew Fabb http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-963662 Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:45:06 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-963662 "At DC, sales figures were shown to us every month, and every so often there would be the sad meeting when we were told sales had reached the point of no return and a book was getting cancelled." As a reader, this is mainly where my interest in sale figures lies. Are my favorite comic books and favorite comic book creators selling enough units to keep producing more great comics? Also as someone who mostly picks up trades, are these good titles doing well enough to be collected in a trade? Or perhaps a fancy hardcover if I think the quality of the comic is especially good. Finally, is the comic popular enough that I will be able to easily find it in a comic book or book store and not have to special order it through them or through Amazon? “At DC, sales figures were shown to us every month, and every so often there would be the sad meeting when we were told sales had reached the point of no return and a book was getting cancelled.”

As a reader, this is mainly where my interest in sale figures lies. Are my favorite comic books and favorite comic book creators selling enough units to keep producing more great comics? Also as someone who mostly picks up trades, are these good titles doing well enough to be collected in a trade? Or perhaps a fancy hardcover if I think the quality of the comic is especially good. Finally, is the comic popular enough that I will be able to easily find it in a comic book or book store and not have to special order it through them or through Amazon?

]]> by: John Jackson Miller http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-961118 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:32:22 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-961118 "When I worked at Disney Adventures, they once made a big display of FOUR YEARS WORTH of covers with the newsstand sales for every issue so that the ENTIRE STAFF could look at what sold well and see if they could come up with a formula." Digressing, this reminds me of the correlations we used to run at Krause on the newsstand numbers. I think we found out the ideal issue of "Scrye" had a polybag with between three and five inserts, a yellow bar across the top with black lettering, game logos in specific places, and a fifth ink in the logo. So that soon described every issue, which only made the next batch of data more confusing still! And the Curtis Circulation guys would come out with their "what-cover-sold-well-and-what-didn't" slideshow quizzes -- which seemed to only ever establish that the uglier a magazine covers looked to an editor, the better it probably sold. If the sight of it made people sick from across the store, it was probably a winner! “When I worked at Disney Adventures, they once made a big display of FOUR YEARS WORTH of covers with the newsstand sales for every issue so that the ENTIRE STAFF could look at what sold well and see if they could come up with a formula.”

Digressing, this reminds me of the correlations we used to run at Krause on the newsstand numbers. I think we found out the ideal issue of “Scrye” had a polybag with between three and five inserts, a yellow bar across the top with black lettering, game logos in specific places, and a fifth ink in the logo. So that soon described every issue, which only made the next batch of data more confusing still!

And the Curtis Circulation guys would come out with their “what-cover-sold-well-and-what-didn’t” slideshow quizzes — which seemed to only ever establish that the uglier a magazine covers looked to an editor, the better it probably sold. If the sight of it made people sick from across the store, it was probably a winner!

]]> by: Brian Hibbs http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-960894 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:56:10 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-960894 Well, I'm sufficiently chastised! But, seriously, Eight words: "The Madder He Gets, The Stronger He Gets" *grins ducks and runs* -B Well, I’m sufficiently chastised!

But, seriously, Eight words: “The Madder He Gets, The Stronger He Gets”

*grins ducks and runs*

-B

]]> by: John Jackson Miller http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-960877 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:52:16 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-960877 I find the public release of sales figures useful on a lot of levels, but one benefit infrequently mentioned applies directly to the comics-as-collectible crowd: As supply levels have become better known, speculator frenzies like we saw in the black-and-white boom and in the early 1990s may have become less likely -- or at least, better informed by reality. I stress "may." I'd like to think that the one customer who famously had his retailer order 5,000 copies of the "adjectiveless" X-Men #1 in 1991 would have been deterred, had he known that there were 7-8 million more copies out there, but maybe nothing would have stopped him. (I doubt he would have put his money into 5,000 DIFFERENT comic books, in any event.) But bubble markets tend to harm even those who don't participate in them -- as many retailers from the last crash can attest -- so I have to think that having information out there is a good thing for everyone. Fewer people burnt is fewer people burnt out -- and less collateral damage, we would hope... I find the public release of sales figures useful on a lot of levels, but one benefit infrequently mentioned applies directly to the comics-as-collectible crowd: As supply levels have become better known, speculator frenzies like we saw in the black-and-white boom and in the early 1990s may have become less likely — or at least, better informed by reality.

I stress “may.” I’d like to think that the one customer who famously had his retailer order 5,000 copies of the “adjectiveless” X-Men #1 in 1991 would have been deterred, had he known that there were 7-8 million more copies out there, but maybe nothing would have stopped him. (I doubt he would have put his money into 5,000 DIFFERENT comic books, in any event.) But bubble markets tend to harm even those who don’t participate in them — as many retailers from the last crash can attest — so I have to think that having information out there is a good thing for everyone. Fewer people burnt is fewer people burnt out — and less collateral damage, we would hope…

]]> by: Jennifer de Guzman http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-960743 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:10:15 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-960743 That's some nice commentary, Tom! Though, argh, I'm going to have to freshen up the perspective of something I'm working on now. On another note, it seems "a dog in the fight" is so last year! Everyone's using "a horse in the race" now. I think I'm going to start using "a cock in the ring." And, yeah, "graphica" is horrible. That’s some nice commentary, Tom! Though, argh, I’m going to have to freshen up the perspective of something I’m working on now.

On another note, it seems “a dog in the fight” is so last year! Everyone’s using “a horse in the race” now. I think I’m going to start using “a cock in the ring.”

And, yeah, “graphica” is horrible.

]]> by: Brian Hibbs http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-960131 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:13:53 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-960131 Can I say that I dislike the term "graphica" more than just about anything ever in the history of comics? -B Can I say that I dislike the term “graphica” more than just about anything ever in the history of comics?

-B

]]> by: Torsten Adair http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-960082 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:51:07 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-960082 Dunno about other stores, but the Scholastic Bone novels are shelved as children's books at Barnes &#38; Noble. The Art book and the one-volume trade are placed in the general Graphic Novel categories, not Comics Lit. If one counts Maus and Persepolis as art books (what a crappy name, art books are exhibition catalogs, retrospectives; these are comics literature or graphica or independent titles) then there is no contest. Superhero serial fiction (ignoring watchmen and heroes) trades rarely break into double digits in my store, one of the largest and best stocked B&#38;Ns in the country. And let's face facts... most Manga could be considered arty/independent: singular creators, working outside the superhero genre, mostly in black and white, smaller representation in comicbook stores. Of course, I consider Walt Kelly's Pogo collections to be graphic novels, so what do I know? Dunno about other stores, but the Scholastic Bone novels are shelved as children’s books at Barnes & Noble. The Art book and the one-volume trade are placed in the general Graphic Novel categories, not Comics Lit.
If one counts Maus and Persepolis as art books (what a crappy name, art books are exhibition catalogs, retrospectives; these are comics literature or graphica or independent titles) then there is no contest. Superhero serial fiction (ignoring watchmen and heroes) trades rarely break into double digits in my store, one of the largest and best stocked B&Ns in the country.
And let’s face facts… most Manga could be considered arty/independent: singular creators, working outside the superhero genre, mostly in black and white, smaller representation in comicbook stores. Of course, I consider Walt Kelly’s Pogo collections to be graphic novels, so what do I know?

]]> by: Nat Gertler http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-959886 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:14:42 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-959886 Pumba is not truly mainstream. Pumba is not truly mainstream.

]]> by: Jonathan http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-958885 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 13:24:16 +0000 http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/02/27/the-continuing-obsession-with-sales-figures/#comment-958885 What, no love for Pumba? What, no love for Pumba?

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