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So I got a rejection letter for our next book Dragonlast. :/ a bit of fustration.
This is the email I got From Diamond:
>>On DragonLast. I have distributed the samples throughout our department and unfortunately it does not look like something we would want to list at this time. It appears to be a title that would succeed in overseas markets and not in comic shops in the United States. We have seen comparable material solicited through Previews and retailers which have not been supported by retailers. At this point this is not something we would be willing to list.
The book feels very condensed. There does not seem to be much character development. The framing device with the old man who is telling the story to a group of children feels awkward because it takes the reader completely out of the story. There are times when the book does not feel that it is paced at the same tempo. A reader might be reading along with pages where there are sparse amounts of text and then they will hit a wall of text.
This title really feels more like a manga in the art style and story telling. Some companies have tried to recreate the success of manga titles but when the books are from the United States, historically, we have those titles not supported by retailers.
<<
While I know Manga and AMerican Manga companies are not doing as well as they used to. But really? They Feel this: Girls with Corpses http://www.previewsworld.com/Home/1.....emID=JUN131508 is clearly what the market wants over Dragonlast (Dragonlast previews on my Tumblr): http://jasoncanty01.tumblr.com/search/Dragonlast
Now I know their is a fetish market for women next to deadbodies (I heard about this book years ago). But apparently they don't think that Dragonlast will make the sales minimum over women and dead bodies. >_< Ughhh Thing is this is not even the best art. Diamond got the full preview, and Satanasov (http://satanasov.deviantart.com/ ) who has worked for EA and UBI Soft and can pump out 3 pages ADAY like this.
This greatly interfears with our Fall listings. As the other books are still not yet ready, and Evil Diva is taking a break for the new artist to catch up and to figure out how to make sure #3 sells as good as #1.
This is the email I got From Diamond:
>>On DragonLast. I have distributed the samples throughout our department and unfortunately it does not look like something we would want to list at this time. It appears to be a title that would succeed in overseas markets and not in comic shops in the United States. We have seen comparable material solicited through Previews and retailers which have not been supported by retailers. At this point this is not something we would be willing to list.
The book feels very condensed. There does not seem to be much character development. The framing device with the old man who is telling the story to a group of children feels awkward because it takes the reader completely out of the story. There are times when the book does not feel that it is paced at the same tempo. A reader might be reading along with pages where there are sparse amounts of text and then they will hit a wall of text.
This title really feels more like a manga in the art style and story telling. Some companies have tried to recreate the success of manga titles but when the books are from the United States, historically, we have those titles not supported by retailers.
<<
While I know Manga and AMerican Manga companies are not doing as well as they used to. But really? They Feel this: Girls with Corpses http://www.previewsworld.com/Home/1.....emID=JUN131508 is clearly what the market wants over Dragonlast (Dragonlast previews on my Tumblr): http://jasoncanty01.tumblr.com/search/Dragonlast
Now I know their is a fetish market for women next to deadbodies (I heard about this book years ago). But apparently they don't think that Dragonlast will make the sales minimum over women and dead bodies. >_< Ughhh Thing is this is not even the best art. Diamond got the full preview, and Satanasov (http://satanasov.deviantart.com/ ) who has worked for EA and UBI Soft and can pump out 3 pages ADAY like this.
This greatly interfears with our Fall listings. As the other books are still not yet ready, and Evil Diva is taking a break for the new artist to catch up and to figure out how to make sure #3 sells as good as #1.
Category All / Comics
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 504 x 756px
File Size 264.8 kB
uhhhh XD doesn't quite work that way unfortunetly. Since the 90's Diamond has been basicly the only game in town. They ran all the other compition away, and beceame a monopoly. So you have to go through them. And most comic shops don't order from you unless they know you/ you're local. They rather do business through Diamond.
So this makes it very exclusive and hard for small guys to continue or even grow. And since the internet is still so vast, thats a bad thing. Its so large you can get lost. Eventhough one of our artists has around 20,000 watchers on his DA page, we don't even get 1% of those people (2,000) buying our comics. We need at least 500 sales to stay on good terms, and even that is hard. Mind you again, With Shawntae Howard, Ken Singshow, Ronzo, Josh Perez, James Hardiman, Satanasov, Akasaka (the Manga artist for "BLUE GENDER" Anime), on our staff and even access to other names, one would think 2000 sales would be easy, let alone 500. :/
Haven Distribution which tried to takeover for Cold Cut was really the last other Distributor in the country and it is dead: http://philipclarkmusic.wordpress.c.....-distributors/
If only 1% of our collecteve fans and followers showed up to buy our comics online or in shops, I wouldn't be constantly in financal problems (Since I fund this company my self like an idiot because I want to help friends. XD )
So this makes it very exclusive and hard for small guys to continue or even grow. And since the internet is still so vast, thats a bad thing. Its so large you can get lost. Eventhough one of our artists has around 20,000 watchers on his DA page, we don't even get 1% of those people (2,000) buying our comics. We need at least 500 sales to stay on good terms, and even that is hard. Mind you again, With Shawntae Howard, Ken Singshow, Ronzo, Josh Perez, James Hardiman, Satanasov, Akasaka (the Manga artist for "BLUE GENDER" Anime), on our staff and even access to other names, one would think 2000 sales would be easy, let alone 500. :/
Haven Distribution which tried to takeover for Cold Cut was really the last other Distributor in the country and it is dead: http://philipclarkmusic.wordpress.c.....-distributors/
If only 1% of our collecteve fans and followers showed up to buy our comics online or in shops, I wouldn't be constantly in financal problems (Since I fund this company my self like an idiot because I want to help friends. XD )
Hrm, sorry to hear it. But even though it's an unfortunate situation that things didnt go the way you wished, I wouldn't call yourself an idiot. Making your own business is the working-man's dream, and your doing it. :) If this was to help out a friend, then might I ask if said friend is helping you out with these problems as well?
Well its not my dream. I want to go back to being a science teacher, I just however can't not help people when they ask for it. years ago The artist friends I had, couldn't find any company to publish them. I said ok I'll do it. So $167,000 and 7 years later. XD But no belive me this is no where near my dream. :/
I did it because I'm an honest beliver of being "my brothers keeper" its because so few of us do help each other that we have alot (not all but alot) of these problems. The more we work together as a team (hence teamwork) we solve some problems. If I see a problem that I know I can fix... why leave it. If I can fix it.. I'll fix it.
Just @#4king annyoing that even a problem that should be fixed still goes unfixed.
Just @#4king annyoing that even a problem that should be fixed still goes unfixed.
I agree full heartedly with ya n that. The people can survive more as a team then as divided, but making yourself to be the weaker link by dumping all you have into someone elses' dream sometimes isn't the wisest decision. Then again, that doesn't make it the wrong decision either. Kudos for doing what you could to help out a friend though. :) I dont know if it'll have any merit, but my cousin knows a few comic book store owners in Streamwood Illinois, and I tossed him a text. Again, no promises, but maybe he might know someone that can do something? Every little bit helps ^_^
Yeah. :/ Anyway if your cousin thinks he can get something done, have him email me at angryvikingpress[at]yahoo.com
Well their is sort of one way your plan of contacting the comic shops would work... What I'm thinking is trying to contact 100-500 shops and see if they'd pick up one to five copies each after I send them a Digital PDF for review and that if they like it have them put presure on Diamond to Pick up the book and list it this fall. If 500 stores pick it up, we meet our bare min. All we need to sell is 500 copies of any book and we live to stay in busness another month.
nods while ordering through us directly would give us more money, at the same time we'd get more publicity through Diamond (even more people knowing of us). I wouldn't mind working directly with 1000 stores however. XD But as I said before the likely hood of that happening is low since most stores want to deal with you ONLY if you are in Diamond.
So the way around that is a Mix of both. Let afew hundred stores know we have a book AND that we're in diamond, but Diamond isn't sure "you" the store will be 1-5 copies of this book. And If I can convince just enough stores to Presure Diamond, then that will work. Because they may say no to working directly with me.. But they might say yes to picking up our book and presuring Diamond.
So the way around that is a Mix of both. Let afew hundred stores know we have a book AND that we're in diamond, but Diamond isn't sure "you" the store will be 1-5 copies of this book. And If I can convince just enough stores to Presure Diamond, then that will work. Because they may say no to working directly with me.. But they might say yes to picking up our book and presuring Diamond.
Well then it's just a way to market it to the stores directly better. If the only thing that Diamond is doing is distributing it, then if you offer then to cut out the middle man, who takes money to do what your willing to do for cheap (or free), then they can make a better profit by selling it at the same price, or even lower the price a tad bit to improve the chance of it selling, and there-by increasing their profits even more. If you want to hit Diamond in the diamonds, then I think you need to start campaigning to ALL of the independent physical comic artists out there and start mass-shipping the stuff outside of they're grip.
Nothing sounds more juicy to a local shop owner then hearing about the little company that's giving the middle finger to a major monopoly by doing a bit of leg work and cutting them out of the middle, and in the process helps improve profits and/or sale probability on the product itself. Next time I'm in downtown Eugene, I'll go pester them a bit. http://www.emeraldcitycomicseugene.com/ I -believe- they have some local comics there too, sense almost every place in Eugene Oregon supports local and small businesses :) Might want to toss them a few previews and see if they'd be willing to snag a few 'limited edition' copies or something :p
Nothing sounds more juicy to a local shop owner then hearing about the little company that's giving the middle finger to a major monopoly by doing a bit of leg work and cutting them out of the middle, and in the process helps improve profits and/or sale probability on the product itself. Next time I'm in downtown Eugene, I'll go pester them a bit. http://www.emeraldcitycomicseugene.com/ I -believe- they have some local comics there too, sense almost every place in Eugene Oregon supports local and small businesses :) Might want to toss them a few previews and see if they'd be willing to snag a few 'limited edition' copies or something :p
the sad truth is Diamond is helping to kill small press... and it being a monopoly is not helping any of us that run small press companies. we've lost quite a few in the last few years and there will be more sooner then later. Even with a great stable of artists and titles none of that matters to them, all that matters is the sales and quite frankly a lot of their sales number minimums are hard to reach for new titles even if you have a well known creator working on it. I do wish you all the best though and will say i've enjoyed what I have seen, especially Evil Diva. Now,I have to get back to work on a new Ben Dunn book which won't be available through diamond for obvious reasons.
Yeah. I'm just a bit annoyed right now. I know Dragonlast isn't world changing awesome new comic, but its story is a long build
that would take place over afew volumes, with hooks and climaxes at the end of each volume to keep people coming back for more.
As was sugested to us when we submitted our titles.
And the Visuals for a "Manga esque" book to me seem to be as good as a lot of other books.
that would take place over afew volumes, with hooks and climaxes at the end of each volume to keep people coming back for more.
As was sugested to us when we submitted our titles.
And the Visuals for a "Manga esque" book to me seem to be as good as a lot of other books.
Oooh... I love such letters... to take them apart.
>I have distributed the samples throughout our department
Ah, yes. That would be similar people like those that rejected 'Harry Potter' initially? When had this 'department' contact with comic readers lately? Name the decade... if you can.
>There does not seem to be much character development.
Given, that would make a comic better, but since when was that neccessary? Dragonball sold oogles of stuff and was mostly about one power trip after the other.
>A reader might be reading along with pages where there are sparse amounts of text and then they will hit a wall of text.
Well, comics can tell a story entirely without words and has someone there ever looked at 'Cerebus'? Especially 'Reads' was mostly a text with some pictures if I remember right.
At each point, I could list more out of comic history that defied their reasoning, but this is corporate america.
I think it boils down to this. They can't throw out old customers and they can't completely reject new ones (they would risk all the independents to pull out and found a new distributor), but they can still do their best to keep the new ones numbers low. Just in case they get a new upstart outside the established corporate circles.
"What do you mean we have to pay for the serial/film rights? Isn't it onw of ours?"
>I have distributed the samples throughout our department
Ah, yes. That would be similar people like those that rejected 'Harry Potter' initially? When had this 'department' contact with comic readers lately? Name the decade... if you can.
>There does not seem to be much character development.
Given, that would make a comic better, but since when was that neccessary? Dragonball sold oogles of stuff and was mostly about one power trip after the other.
>A reader might be reading along with pages where there are sparse amounts of text and then they will hit a wall of text.
Well, comics can tell a story entirely without words and has someone there ever looked at 'Cerebus'? Especially 'Reads' was mostly a text with some pictures if I remember right.
At each point, I could list more out of comic history that defied their reasoning, but this is corporate america.
I think it boils down to this. They can't throw out old customers and they can't completely reject new ones (they would risk all the independents to pull out and found a new distributor), but they can still do their best to keep the new ones numbers low. Just in case they get a new upstart outside the established corporate circles.
"What do you mean we have to pay for the serial/film rights? Isn't it onw of ours?"
As for the not much character development, when we where approced by Diamond they said they liked our work, but insted of Doing a 24-32 page
format, we should have all our books in Graphic Novel/Trade Paperback format. So in a longer format we're given more chance to draw out
the story and not have it feel rushed. So the Character development happens over time, and since I only showed them 80pages out of the 100page
first volume, its just a story set up. As for the Wall of text yeah Cerbus is like that, and alot of our other books are like that which they first
approved. If they have problems with it they didn't say anything at the start.
And again while I am aware Manga and manga-ish books aren't doing as well as they used to that doesn't Stop Dark Horse from producing
Adam Warrens book from time to time, Rod Espenosa from his books, Fred Perry from doing Gold Digger and such...
format, we should have all our books in Graphic Novel/Trade Paperback format. So in a longer format we're given more chance to draw out
the story and not have it feel rushed. So the Character development happens over time, and since I only showed them 80pages out of the 100page
first volume, its just a story set up. As for the Wall of text yeah Cerbus is like that, and alot of our other books are like that which they first
approved. If they have problems with it they didn't say anything at the start.
And again while I am aware Manga and manga-ish books aren't doing as well as they used to that doesn't Stop Dark Horse from producing
Adam Warrens book from time to time, Rod Espenosa from his books, Fred Perry from doing Gold Digger and such...
*nodnod* to all points. Just one thing to add. Probably the real reasons they want TPB/GN format.
1. Less work for them, as you get one half a year at best instead of a monthly listing.
2. DC Comics has working to get TPBs/GNs established in book stores. Not being from the US, but from the numbers of those on sale I guess they were successful. So, if independents bring out some that can be sold there as well, the better. It helps both, DC Comics and Diamond Comics.
1. Less work for them, as you get one half a year at best instead of a monthly listing.
2. DC Comics has working to get TPBs/GNs established in book stores. Not being from the US, but from the numbers of those on sale I guess they were successful. So, if independents bring out some that can be sold there as well, the better. It helps both, DC Comics and Diamond Comics.
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