Why Does It Take DC So Long To Release Trades?

[Young Avenger]

Does anyone know why? I wanna get the trade collecting JLA#115-119 and it won't came out until March. I also notice that the trade for Year One Batman/Scarecrow will be release in February but the mini was release in the same month as Batman Begins. It was a two-part for god sake! What reason do they have release trades for so long?

[LordEd1976]

Does anyone know why? I wanna get the trade collecting JLA#115-119 and it won't came out until March. I also notice that the trade for Year One Batman/Scarecrow will be release in February but the mini was release in the same month as Batman Begins. It was a two-part for god sake! What reason do they have release trades for so long?

Because the powers that be want to torture us till we die. And then they start the nasty stuff

[kossori]

I think it's because DC still has faith in monthly comics.

The main reason why Marvel's comes out so fast is because most of their comics are written for trades and are really just teasers for the real book that'll be out the month after the story's complete. Usually with extras that were held out of the original, even.

[Captain Jim]

Why Does It Take DC So Long To Release Trades?


They want to encourage retailers to order the monthly books in quantity, reorder additional copies and to order subsequent printings. There is little motivation to do any of this if you know a trade is coming right away. You'll notice that Marvel does not do subsequent printings and often does not have reorders available.

[Lorendiac]

They want to encourage retailers to order the monthly books in quantity, reorder additional copies and to order subsequent printings. There is little motivation to do any of this if you know a trade is coming right away. You'll notice that Marvel does not do subsequent printings and often does not have reorders available.

I've heard that about Marvel's policies before, but I still don't understand the logic behind it. I mean, suppose a regular publishing house put out a first edition of a new fantasy novel by somebody, and it sold out pretty quickly. Would the publisher immediately say, "That's interesting - but we recently adopted an ironclad policy of never going back to press with a second printing of a popular title? But perhaps those fans will be interested in buying the sequel volume next year?" Or would the publisher say, "Yeehaw! We struck gold! Let's do a second printing! And if that sells well, a third printing! And somewhere down the line we may even want to do fourth, fifth, and sixth printings!"

Why should Marvel's policy for a Spider-Man TPB, for instance, be so radically different from Tor's approach to a fantasy novel that becomes a sleeper hit or something?

[Paul Newell]

I've heard that about Marvel's policies before, but I still don't understand the logic behind it. I mean, suppose a regular publishing house put out a first edition of a new fantasy novel by somebody, and it sold out pretty quickly. Would the publisher immediately say, "That's interesting - but we recently adopted an ironclad policy of never going back to press with a second printing of a popular title? But perhaps those fans will be interested in buying the sequel volume next year?" Or would the publisher say, "Yeehaw! We struck gold! Let's do a second printing! And if that sells well, a third printing! And somewhere down the line we may even want to do fourth, fifth, and sixth printings!"

Why should Marvel's policy for a Spider-Man TPB, for instance, be so radically different from Tor's approach to a fantasy novel that becomes a sleeper hit or something?

They believe it builds demand. There are a few other mediums doing it. George Lucas uses the "Marvel method" for releasing the Star Wars DVD's rather than the "DC method" of keeping stuff in print constantly.

[Lorendiac]

They believe it builds demand. There are a few other mediums doing it. George Lucas uses the "Marvel method" for releasing the Star Wars DVD's rather than the "DC method" of keeping stuff in print constantly.

But what's the point in building extra demand, if you don't intend to keep making money off of that demand after it has built itself up to wherever its natural peak is?

First, let me stipulate my vast ignorance of the nitty-gritty details of the publishing industry, to save anyone else the trouble of pointing it out later :)

With that out of the way, let me try to provide a more "specific" - albeit purely hypothetical - example of what I perceive as the major problem in Marvel's strategy. To the extent that I understand that strategy. I may be missing something very important here, and as I said above, I'm the first to admit it :)

Let's suppose that in April of 2006, Tor releases a new novel, Jade Warriors in January, first of a series by Hopeful Author, whom no one ever heard of before. Let's say it's released with a first printing of 20,000 copies.

Simultaneously, Marvel releases a new TPB collecting a six-issue miniseries titled Clash of the Cyborgs, featuring such characters as Deathlok, Coldblood, Donald Pierce, Lady Deathstrike, etc. It is written by that new kid on the block, Junior Technophile. It, too, is released with a first printing of 20,000 copies.

(I'm making up these authors and titles, you understand.)

A couple of months later, 99% of the copies of Jade Warriors in January have sold out. So have 99% of the copies of Clash of the Cyborgs. Both have gotten favorable reviews, in printed magazines and online.

Tor decides there's clearly a larger demand out there than the first wave of "supply" was able to satisfy. So it orders another 10,000 copies of Jade Warriors in January printed and distributed to any stores that want them (i.e., virtually all stores that carry SF/Fantasy, and that have just seen the first shipment disappear from the shelves as word got around that this book was a cut above the average). Thus, having had a sleeper hit, Tor goes back to the presses and continues to make more and more money by selling thousands more copies of this novel until it finds out just how high the demand is that needs to be met.

Marvel says, "Gee, that's nice. This TPB sold out. What a pity that we'll never make any more money off of Clash of the Cyborgs as long as we live, because we flatly refuse to print up more copies beyond the 20,000 in the 'first' printing. There may be another ten thousand fans out there who are ready, willing, and eager to spend their money on TPB copies for their very own, but what do we care about a stupid little thing like getting our hands on their money?"

That's the part where I get stuck. What does it matter if the demand for Clash of the Cyborgs is sky-high, if Marvel has made up its mind in advance, "We are only going to satisfy the demand up to a certain point. Twenty thousand units, for instance. Any additional demand after that, no matter how large it may become, is totally irrelevant to our corporate strategy!"

Incidentally, I hadn't heard anything about what sort of strategy George Lucas was following with the DVD versions of his Star Wars movies. Has he made some sort of ironclad commitment that even ten or twenty years from now, it will be Absolutely Unthinkable for any new editions of his films to be released on DVD for those who failed to buy them the first time around? Or is it just that he decided to manufacture a certain number of the DVDs, and then - at least for the next couple of years - not repeat the process?

I'm trying to imagine myself saying, fifty years from now, "Gee, I'd love to buy the old Star Wars films on DVD for my grandkids for Xmas - except that of course there haven't been any new copies of the Star Wars DVDs in about half-a-century, and the old ones were all snapped up long ago and became collector's items!" That just doesn't seem to make sense - so it makes me wonder if I'm missing something important about the long-term strategy here? :)

[Paul Newell]

The thinking is that they'll move quickly and satisfy current demand, then discontinue the product and wait until demand rebuilds then rerelease it when there is sufficient sales. That way you're not spending money up front on product that may not sell right away. Or spending money storing stuff until it sells. Meanwhile, those that missed out or decide to buy the product realise they can't get it and that builds demand. Of course if they don't feel that there is sufficient demand, then they save money by not reprinting it.

That's pretty much what Lucas does now wth the Star Wars DVD's. They're only ever released for a limited time. Then he lets the retailers stock run out and rereleases for a limited time a year or so later.

[Paul Newell]

Just reread your posts Lorendiac and one misconcepotion you have is that they won't reprint stuff....Marvel do....Off the top of my heafd they recently reprinted the Secret Wars and Squadron Supreme trades. I have a feeling that they are also staring to keep more stuff in print now that they are more financially viable.

[Lorendiac]

Just reread your posts Lorendiac and one misconcepotion you have is that they won't reprint stuff....Marvel do....Off the top of my heafd they recently reprinted the Secret Wars and Squadron Supreme trades. I have a feeling that they are also staring to keep more stuff in print now that they are more financially viable.

Yes, that was certainly the key point that bothered me the most. Over the last few months I had seen other comments on various forums along the lines of "Marvel has a firm policy - the first printing is the only printing," or words to that effect. The comments I have seen made it sound like an absolute rule in the long run, instead of something more along the lines of "Marvel has a firm policy - the first printing is the only printing they will do for, let's say, the next couple of years!"

Obviously there's a world of difference between those two propositions - but the other sources I saw on one forum or another either didn't feel the need to draw such distinctions in their own comments on Marvel's policies - or else were not terribly clear on the details themselves. Earlier in this thread, Captain Jim only said "Marvel does not do subsequent printings" without mentioning any time limit on that policy, and that reminded me that I had never understood why Marvel would take (according to what I had heard) a hardline attitude of "No more printings of this book - ever!"

(I still have problems with the whole idea though - I'm trying to imagine how J.K. Rowling would have reacted if her publisher had said, "Your first Harry Potter book is a runaway bestseller! A couple of years from now, we may get around to doing a second printing of it!" I'd say it's a safe bet she'd have taken her second book in the series to another publisher entirely and never looked back. :))

[Captain Jim]

Earlier in this thread, Captain Jim only said "Marvel does not do subsequent printings" without mentioning any time limit on that policy, and that reminded me that I had never understood why Marvel would take (according to what I had heard) a hard-line attitude of "No more printings of this book - ever!"

We're talking monthly comics here, right? Marvel doesn't reprint issues that sell out. For example, if The Ultra-Incredible X-Men #1 sells out in two days, they do not go back to press and put out The Ultra-Incredible X-Men #1 (second printing).

What they will do is one or both of the following: a) put out an compilation book of The Ultra-Incredible X-Men #1, Wow, It's Petey Parker: Spider-Man #4 and Fantastic Four #612 (all of which were sell-outs). In other words, in order to read a copy of UIX-M #1, you have to pay for the other two as well, whether you want them or not.

b)The Ultra-Incredible X-Men Trade Vol. 1 collecting issues 1-6 will be released two weeks after The Ultra-Incredible X-Men #6.

If you'll recall, the original question was why does DC wait to put out tp collections when Marvel puts them out right away?

Btw, Marvel's reasoning is that retailers will order much more conservatively the first time around if they think reorders and/or subsequent printings will be available--which is true. And they figure if people can't get the originals, that's one more customer for the soon-to-be-released trade--which also has some truth to it.

Both are motivated by sales dollars; they're simply taking a different approach.

[newscott]

Well, the "Countdown to Infinite Crisis" trades all came out pretty quickly, with the 4th one hitting the shelves this week. It's not too terrible to get all four mini-series only a few months after they ended.

[jpk]

Anecdotally, it seems to me that DC is more likely to quickly print and ship 2nd, 3rd and even 4th editions of issues, which has made it easy for me to pick up books that published as early as March 2005.

I walked into my shop yesterday and bought all 6 Villains United copies (older printings) at cover price. I can't do that with most Marvel titles.

[Headhunter]

For some titles, so DC can sell some hardcovers first. It pains me to wait so long for Superman/Batman in collected form...

[Viking Bastard]

I remember thinking back in the day: "I wish Marvel would be as good as DC at releasing trades."

Pre-Jemas, that was.

Hah!

[Apathy Boy]

Marvel has pretty much trained all of fandom to expect a trade to come out as soon as a story arc or mini-series is completed.

DC is essentially trying to counter-program fans into buying the single issues by making their trade schedule as odious as possible. With DC, you can never be sure if a story is going to be traded and when. Even if a trade comes out, there's a pretty good chance it'll come out in hardcover first or be split up into two volumes.

As a guy who mostly buys single issues, I can appreciate DC's attempts to increase monthly readership. But I can't help but think they're shooting themselves in the foot here.