comic book market?

[sabba]

ok here is my problem i lve in beriut lebnon and i'm trying to put a decent business plan for an international comic book publishing business i have some decent resources but i need to research the us and uk comic book book market for my plan how can get this done being in beruit, this part is the most painful at moment please somone give me some suggestions

[Magilla1973]

Who is your target audience (geographically) and what is your primary distribution mechanism (online / print to retail / print direct to consumer / etc) ?

[sabba]

intially i want the global comunity as in i am planning eventually printing in arabic,french ,english and spannish . ( uk ,us and mideast ,french speaking countries then spannish speaking countries )i will start with english ,french and arabic then add spannish later on. i am planning to sell through retailers and directly to the consumers . printing is no problem to me because my family owns a printing press. i will also eventually online web comics/webisodes. when i actually start i will be printing four titles ,two in-house and two creator owned .

[Magilla1973]

Originally Posted by sabba

intially i want the global comunity as in i am planning eventually printing in arabic,french ,english and spannish . ( uk ,us and mideast ,french speaking countries then spannish speaking countries )i will start with english ,french and arabic then add spannish later on. i am planning to sell through retailers and directly to the consumers . printing is no problem to me because my family owns a printing press. i will also eventually online web comics/webisodes. when i actually start i will be printing four titles ,two in-house and two creator owned .

What % of your business do you plan on selling through retailers and what % do you plan on selling direct to consumers ?

The retailer segment can be broken into categories like book store chains and comic book stores. Comic book stores typically sell the monthlies and collceted trade paper backs ( TPB ) while the book store chains are more likely to just to focus on the TPBs. Some folks have been successful in selling into other types of retail stores based on the audience that visits those stores (like a comic book about soccer could be sold at a soccer equipment store). What do your stories deal with ?

Do you plan on using a distributor or do you plan managing the retailers directly ? For example, in the USA Diamond distributes to 3000 - 4000 comic book stores. http://www.diamondcomics.com/

[sabba]

i am not sure of % ' s of direct sale and through retailers , i have heard of daimond distribution before. i am plasnning to styart with monthly comics then add 1 or 2 titles per year until i can do more. i am planning to take a cradsh corse in marketing since i am a creative person. as for my stories they will be diverse (the only genre i won't touch is porn ) i have written two concepts of antihero subject . i can get an usa post box easy. my cuz is in the corporate banking sector and is helping me write my business plan. he is not writting it for me which is rightly so , otherwise it won't be my vision. i have looked localy in lebanon book stores (which are the only placce you can get comics here) and in dubai which seems more limited. i have too many ideas but i am working one at a time. i will definately have some adds in each title but won't overdo it. i am reading how to self publish comics by devil's due pub. as a reference. personally i believe comis are for anyone not just kids. on thast subject i will device a rating system to make it easier to tell who are the target audience is for the perticlar titles. i know tbhis long hard road but it is worth it

[Magilla1973]

Understanding your exepected sales volume is critical for a business plan as it will be the primary driver of both your revenue and expense forecasts.

According to historical ICV2 data (since 01/2002), most (61%) non marvel/dc/image/darkhorse titles sell well under 4,000 per issue through diamond. And of course many indies don't even make the list. Those that sold more than 4k per month were typically well known licensed properties (ie games, toys, movies) or well known creater owned/endorsed properties (ie miller, moore,etc). Without seeing your product ahead of time, statistically it would be unreasonable to expect sales of 4k or more per month per title, most probably sales would be under 2,500 per month through diamond. This number could be increased by having a fantastic product, incentivizing the retailer base, and by driving sales through another channel (non comic book stores). Even reaching 2,500 per month will require spending to make the retailers aware of your product.

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/1850.html

Is your current unit forecast more than 2,500 units per month ?

[sabba]

i am thinking 2000 units with increasment 500 unit. i working on the first draft of my protatype comic to go with my business plan

[Magilla1973]

Originally Posted by sabba

i am thinking 2000 units with increasment 500 unit. i working on the first draft of my protatype comic to go with my business plan

I am not sure what increasement 500 unit means, but it is important to note for your plan the industry standards for month over month unit growth / decline for ongoing series.

In the past 4 years, 381 (50%) of the 773 independent titles on the top 300 listing appeared on the list for only one issue. Many of these were one shot issues by design, but not all. Only 45 titles (6%) of the independents went more than 6 issues.

The typical monthly unit attrition trend for multi issue independents looked like this…
18% unit drop off from issue one to issue two.
7% unit drop off from issue two to issue three.
11% unit drop off from issue three to issue four.
8% unit drop off from issue four to issue five.

This means that a book that sells 2000 units of issue one, will slowly decline to only 1250 units by issue five. This trend is not true of all books, just most books (including major publishers). There are also examples of books that broke these trends. Although they were exceptions, perhaps something could be learned from them ?

You can contact diamond to get an idea of how much marketing costs may be for an initial awareness campaign within the retailer community. You will need to spend some time (and money) getting to know the retailers. For example, to reach your goal you would need 500 retailer to purchase 4 copies of your book. Some type of communication should be budgeted for (direct mail, phone, etc) as well as costs for promotional material / activity. This type of activity can also help address the monthly unit attrition described above.

[Caio Reis]

Wow! Aint that the most exciting part of the business???
Great info on the publishing side, Magilla!

[sabba]

you have a great help with the info , as i stated before i am working on my first title which will be a prototype comic book until and if daimond willing to pick it up