I was mostly working from my limited experience on getting one comic on the stands. There is a much bigger pond out there when it comes to distribution possibilities.

I didn't want my article to be a missive for or against Diamond and the direct market. Merely how to sell more indy comics to more stores. The floppies themselves. And the best bet for sales to meet that goal, until demonstrated otherwise, is still Diamond.

In the interest of brevity, (my piece was loooong) I did cut down some of my original "send new people to the store" section. When people outside of comics emailed me, I explained how to order and gave them order codes. I also explained the process of pre-ordering in advance of release. You're right. I did not want to risk them going to stores and not having the comic there. The bigger point of that section was to reach outside of a typical comics fanbase, which I felt took priority.

I agree with the sending an advance copies/preview directly to retailers. As I recommended in the article. And if money is tight, I would definitely use that money for the preview, not the ad. I actually mailed my hard copy directly. I have heard horror stories of creators sending single advance copies to stores through Diamond only to have them arrive late. Well past the the ordering window for the book. Tangent.

But I have also heard, and I may be wrong, that many retailers don't go online and don't look at copies sent. But every retailer looks at Previews. (Maybe not the back of the book, but that's another article.) I'm not saying Previews is the best or only way to sell your book to retailers, but it simply has the deepest reach. Amount of eyeballs for the money. I'm in advertising so I do believe in the power of a simple, well-written ad. I'm old-fashioned that way.

But yes, if you only have money of one or the other, go with the advance preview copy. Get your comic in front of retailers anyway you can. This may require an advance printing, which is costly. But that should be a priority over an ad.

Thanks though. I've learned a little, but there's a lot more to learn.
ken

I do want to argue 2 points though.

[1) I sent them to the Comic Book Store Locator.]
Why? Unless you can reasonably expect that those retailers have even heard of you, why risk losing momentum by sending a potential customer to someone who can't help them?

This is where you need to do some more legwork. Find out where this person is and personally hook them up with a local retailer. Call the local retailer, let them know you have a local customer for the book and would like to send them into the shop, Maybe arrange to send them a preview copy, POP material and maybe some giveaway items to encourage them to order extras for the shelf.

Retailers are used to doing EVERYTHING themselves and publishers who have interesting books and show a willingness to help us sell them will always get more support in store than those who just take out an ad in Previews, which leads us to...

[2) Advertise in Previews. Yeah, it sucks. It costs a boat-load. But there is no better way to get in front of retailers. Let’s never speak of this again.]

I'd encourage most publishers to NEVER ADVERTISE IN PREVIEWS.

It likely will not be seen unless you can afford a full page ad and unless most of it contains pages from the book, will really not give retailers or readers any idea whether the book is their cup of tea. And most publishers put together shitty ads that will be overlooked anyway.

For the same amount of money as a Previews ad you can send advance copies to retailers through Diamond allowing retailers to really see what you are doing. If your book is any good, you will earn far greater orders than almost any ad could ever generate.

As you mentioned above publishers will need to budget for promotion and should have books completed before soliciting to make such an effort work but then again that is what separates professionals from amateurs and successes from failures.

WWBD?,

Can't wait to put this in my people's hands!