Price of a comic???

dmcloughney

Hey, I was wondering if anyone can help me out... I'am working on a 24 page colour comic that I hope to finish soon and i intend to get a few copies printed and stocked in local comic shops. How much can i expect to get from a comic shop for each copy??? I've seen similar comics go for about 4.50 euro so is 3.00 euro per comic reasonable???

Ger_Hankey

dmcloughney wrote: »

Hey, I was wondering if anyone can help me out... I'am working on a 24 page colour comic that I hope to finish soon and i intend to get a few copies printed and stocked in local comic shops. How much can i expect to get from a comic shop for each copy??? I've seen similar comics go for about 4.50 euro so is 3.00 euro per comic reasonable???

I'd imagine it is. Would you end up losing money at that price though? Basically at €3 per issue you are allowing 12.5 cent per page for colour printing.

Fysh

You'll be lucky to get that kind of margin TBH. Comic shops ordering through diamond get a fairly hefty discount on the cover price (IIRC somewhere in the 45%-55% region) and that's on high-profile material that's a reasonably sure sell. If you're talking about a first-time independently produced comic you'll not be in a particularly good position to expect them to pay a higher percentage of the cover price for your comic than they would for the likes of Superman, etc. (I did a bit of searching to try and find where I'd gotten those figures from - check out this column, specifically the section headed "At a profitable margin for retailers").

Have you got a printer sorted for your project yet? The reason I ask is that unless you've got a good deal with a printer, you're going to be talking about an awful lot of money up front for any significant number of copies of a full-colour comic (particularly if you're not putting ads in to bring in some money). If you haven't got a specific deal you should consider using a digital printing service as you will probably get a better price from digital printing for low print runs than you would for lithographic printing due to the lower setup costs.

Regarding the loss of money....I'll be perfectly honest, you'd be quite lucky to break even on the first issue of an independent comic project, never mind to make a profit. You might, if you get several issues in and have a popular enough book, be able to profit from a repackaged TPB collection. But profit from the first issue? That's vanishingly unlikely to happen.

(I don't mean to put you off the idea, but it's important to have an idea of how things will play out if you're going to publish a comic in print, and grasping the financial realities seems to be less common than it should be considering the problems it can cause....)

dmcloughney

Thanks for the comments lads, I had always anticipated i would lose some money getting it printed but as long as I can keep it to a minimum I'll be happy. Yeah luckily i have access to a printer in work but I wont be able to use it for free so my plan is to go around comic shops and see what kinda demand there is, and any money they are willing to offer me I'll try offer that to my boss to use the printers and see if I can keep loses small or hopefully break even. So I really just wanna get an idea of how much I can ask for without pricing myself out of the market.
Fysh you were saying comic shops can get about a 50% discount on the cover price of high profile titles??? hhhmmm if I did the same say 2.25euro a comic would they entertain the idea or for a first time independent comic will I have to go lower????

Fysh

dmcloughney wrote: »

Fysh you were saying comic shops can get about a 50% discount on the cover price of high profile titles??? hhhmmm if I did the same say 2.25euro a comic would they entertain the idea or for a first time independent comic will I have to go lower????

They might do, the discount issue is more down to the profitability of the title in terms of the shelf space it might take up than anything else. It's still separate to what demand, if any, the shop perceives there to be for a new independent title. (Dedicated comic shops will tend to stock independent and small press stuff as much out of a desire to nurture and support the medium as to make money, but realistically I don't think any comicshop outside Dublin could be considered a purely comics shop so this may not be a possibility for them).

None of which is to say that you shouldn't try to do it anyway, but if you're talking about a properly printed full-colour title you should check around your local shops and talk to them about it first. If you can give a title that would be of comparable quality to what you intend to put out it may help them give you an accurate idea of demand and likely price point; from memory Malsaine #1 sounds similar to what you've mentioned but I never did get a chance to pick that up so I don't know for certain.

dmcloughney

I'll be able to get 1 copy printed and go around shops with that and let comic retailers have a look themselves. So going on what you said I'll let them tell me what they would be willing to pay instead of me telling them a price..... hopefully its close to what I have in mind. Thanks for the advice and I'll let ya know when I get a few printed.

ztoical

There are two ways shops will take stock from you. One is they buy books directly off you. I know nearly all the comic shops in the states work that way and for small press they usually pay you half what the cover price is [ie if the book is priced at $10, they will pay you $5] But printing is cheaper in the states and also most shops will have a dedicated small press section so they are more willing to buy small press then shops here.

Option two, which you are more likely to find here, is sale or return. The shop will give you some shelf space for X amount of time, after X time is up if the book hasn't sold they will return the stock to you at no charge or if its sold they will take a % cut of the profits. I know this is how both FP and Sub City have treated small press in the past and I doubt its changed.

In both cases they will not take a great deal of stock off you to start so don't go mad getting a massive print run done right away.

dmcloughney

Thanks ztoical, the option 2 you mentioned sounds interesting... its the likes of sub city and fp ill b going 2 so thanks for the heads up. I won't be doing any mad amount of printing till I know how many copies various shops r willing to take so ill gauge that first.