DC Conspiracy[dots pattern]

9.27.2005

Amazon.com offers publishing on demand and sell-through

I don't think anyone's tried this for comics yet and maybe it's just not economically feasible but amazon offers publishing on demand:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/13685731/002-6441434-1972806

And you can sell through them as well:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/13685551/ref%3Dbr%5Fbx%5Fc%5F1%5F0/002-6441434-1972806

The publishing on demand is the area that interests me most. I wonder if the comics field could ever move towards doing this for the periodicals?

Chris at 8:15 AM  |  link to this     

2 Comments

I've been wondering about this. Why is self-publishing such a stigma in book publishing, but pretty much the norm for starting-out in comics?

mapletree7 at 9/28/2005 11:11 AM   

My opinion on this is that comics is a visual medium. In order to put together a good comic you need to be (or have access to) a good artist, producer, editor, etc. And when you're done putting it together, the quality of the product is, in some extent, instantly seen the minute someone opens the book (or even checks out the cover). You can't tell a self-published book is bad until you start reading it.

So, I think the fact that comics require a team and it being easier to measure the output by simply glancing at it makes comics more inline with film than novels. A talented team can put together a film that gets nationally distributed, despite who financed it or how much experience they have. A solitary writer is assumed to be just that - no-one has shown enough faith in his work to do something with it except for himself.

Jason at 9/28/2005 11:58 AM   

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