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03.29.06

Tales of an FM refugee - Part II

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:58 pm by rhys

So, it was the end of February (as in the very last day of the month). I got up and was going about my business as usual. I decided to get out our old roladex and call people I hadn’t gotten a hold of to tell them about the comic book’s catalog listing. Jerry (from FM) had said the catalog would be in stores that week, so now was the perfect time.

I flipped through the listings then had a brilliant idea; I was going to call around the local comic book shops, so when I did get a hold of people I could tell them what stores carried FM’s books. I got out the three phone books for the three local counties and started dialing. The first couple of stores I called had never heard of FM. They were mostly mainstream stores anyway, so I looked forward to calling the die-hard collectors’ stores.

What I heard from most of them went something like this…

ME: “Hi. Do you guys carry FM International’s catalog?”

STORE: “FM? No. They went out of business in January.”

ME: “WHAT?!? I just talked to them yesterday!”

STORE: “Well, we used to carry them, but we haven’t gotten a catalog in some time.”

Well, I knew that couldn’t be true, so I decided to call FM up and find out who around here DID carry their catalog. For several hours after I called the stores I tried to get a hold of FM, but I always got their answering machine. Finally, at 4:30, the phone rang through and someone answered…

ME: “Jerry! I’ve been calling around to local stores and no one carries your catalog. In fact, most of them said you went out of business in January.”

JERRY: (sounds of boxes being packed) “Oh no. I can assure that’s not the case.”

ME: “That’s what I said. Well, I’ve got about 500 issues here waiting to be sold, but I need to know where to send people.”

JERRY: (more boxes being packed) “Oh, well, Wayne has that information. He’s not here right now, but I can have him call you when he gets in.”

Needless to say, Wayne never did call back. I tried to call the following day (March 1st) and the phone was disconnected. Desperate, I called my printer. I was told that FM had, just two weeks prior to that date, returned their entire shipment of books to the printer, and told them not to send any more to FM until FM said so (thanks for the info, Kristen). That’s when it started to really sink in. I got on line and started to find out the information that I outlined in part one of this blog. I realized that we wouldn’t be in stores in March.

So, here we are. We’re trying to set up some new distribution. It’s not a job I like, but it’s one that needs to be done. No. We won’t be on shelves in March. When will we be? I don’t know. I guess that depends on when we secure another distributor. Hopefully, it won’t be too long…

For any other indy publishers out there in the same position we are, I sympathize. To be honest, though, I sympathize with the the guys at FM too. They’d been at it a long time, and now they’re working elsewhere. It just goes to show, you can’t throw stones at the bulldozers for long. Eventually they will plow you under.

03.19.06

Tales of an FM refugee…

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:21 pm by rhys

Part 1:

So, back in October (we’re talking ‘05), I contacted Wayne Markley and asked him if he’d looked at our solicitation submission and would FM be willing to distribute us. He said yes, but I would need to get my information to him soon because the catalog for November was going out. I told him I wanted to make sure we had all of our ducks in a row and had planned a March release. He said, “Great!” My biggest mistake was not paying any attention after that point.

I had a ton of things to do to get ready for the release. We had promotions we were pushing via direct mail. I had to get all the files set for the printer. I had last minute editing and revisions to do. In short, I was a busy guy. I didn’t take the time to scan through blogs dealing with, oh, I don’t know, distribution or self publishing.

All the while I was wrapped up in my own little world, here’s what was happening in FM’s. I’m going to keep it kind of short, so don’t look for a history of FM from the distribution wars of the ’90’s. A smaller publisher they carried, IDW, became a big publisher. IDW has enjoyed some success lately. Well, this is the dream all distributors must have; carry a smaller supplier, they become big, rake in some profits. That was the case for FM for a while.

In November (don’t forget I signed up with FM in October), IDW signed an exclusive deal with FM’s competition (everyone’s competition, actually), Diamond Distribution. Not only could FM not carry any of IDW’s new releases, but the contract was retroactive, so FM could not carry any of IDW’s older issues either. Pretty much the minute this was announced, the vultures started to circle. In the span of time between November and March, I have found at least five articles on line claiming that FM was out of business. They were all wrong. I know that because they actually seemed to close up shop on March the first.

All of this activity and discussion was going on and I was oblivious. I called and talked to Jerry (the FM guy who answered the phones) a million times, asking him questions about when they needed this, what format they needed that. Not once did he even hint that the March catalog I was going to list in would never come out. I wonder now what happened to all of the direct mail postcards we sent to them. It would be nice to think that they were sent out, but I really, really doubt it. In fact, if you are a retailer who got one, let me know.

Some people I talk to about this seem to get really mad about the fact that FM never mentioned going out of business to me, but I kind of see why. Let’s face it, you are not going to have that much confidence in your distributor if you call up and the guy on the other end of the line says, “Yeah, about those postcards, send us a couple hundred, but really, I might be in the unemployment line tomorrow anyway.” Some astute observer likened distribution to a pack of dogs; as soon as you show weakness, the rest devour you.

That’s all of the tale for tonight. I’m tired and still have stuff to do. Next time I’m at the keyboard I’ll let you know just how I found out all this was happening and where we are going now…

03.10.06

You want to talk about competition? Let’s talk about it.

Posted in Uncategorized at 2:41 pm by rhys

Before I started the whole “self publish a comic” thing, I did some research. A lot of what you hear online boils down to, “why would you want to do that to yourself?” Of all the articles I read, I can only remember one that was generally positive. One of the ones I remember clearly said something to the effect that as soon as you publish, you’re out there competing against the big boys: Marvel, DC, Dark Horse. I don’t see it. Let me tell you why…

For starters, let’s look at the definition of compete. “To strive to gain or win something by defeating or establishing superiority over others who are trying to do the same.” Thanks, Webster. Am I trying to gain or win readers? Sure. Would I want you to quit getting every other comic book you buy just so you’d get mine? No. In fact, if you are so hard up for cash that you can’t afford the $3 my book costs, you shouldn’t be buying ANY comic books. If you regularly blow $50 a month on books, then part of that money SHOULD be spent picking up stuff you haven’t read before. ! How many copies of Batman do you need?

Do I need to defeat or establish superiority over others who are trying to do the same? Well, who’s trying to do the same thing we are here. You can’t compare The Purged with anything at Marvel or DC. No one is running around in tights here (well, except me on weekends). Vertigo? I love the stuff at Vertigo, but it doesn’t address the fantasy genre in mature comics. Image? Don’t think so. You could try to make a case for Cros-Gen, but I’ve read their stuff. It’s not aimed at the same aged audience we are going for. Avatar? No scantily clad women here (again excepting weekends).

The closest I could come up with tonight were Cerebus and Poison Elves. Dave Sim finished Cerebus last year (or was it two years now) with issue 300. So that leaves Hayes’s Poison Elves. Hey, if it’s them or me, sure I’d like you to buy mine, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t check out Lucifer and the boys (and girls) in Poison Elves.

I suppose I missed some Manga titles, but I don’t do Manga. If that’s what you’re into, you won’t be buying our book anyway.

If everyone else feels the need to be competitive, they can. I don’t. We aren’t even big enough to be a blip on their radar anyway. If you, for some reason, have to pick between our book and another, sure, I want you to buy ours. I’m not going to resort to any name calling or misleading covers to convince you though.