: Re: Comics marketing: focus on issues or collections? Situation: 5 year comic book series (by my spouse; I do marketing, website, etc) 4 issues a year (in theory...it's been slower) Issues are available

@Jessie137

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individual issues 50¢
eBook ~
printed book in stores ~
direct sale ~ +

I'm not sure how helpful this will be, but starting with observations.

Your marketing should focus on the one type of sale you can control: direct to buyer. This is your "luxury" or "gift" market. Try to think of ways to get people to buy a copy for their friend. Perks can include a few other things like the bookmarks (mentioned in another question) and autographed copies. Maybe you can get the artist to sign a few to keep on hand too.

You might even consider a higher tier of related merchandise. T-shirts and mugs are corny but maybe a printed card or framed print could serve as an even higher-end gift item, that makes the print book seem more practical and affordable by comparison.

Treat the copies in stores as something that promotes you, and legitimizes the product. You won't get steady updates or quick income this route, but you should feature it in your promotional materials, website, etc, as a status, similar to reviews and pull quotes. You are not really directing people to go buy it in the store, so much as you are saying "these fine retailers loved it too" – not that heavy-handed of course, but leverage the brick-and-mortor stores as a feather in the cap.

I'm not sure how much you "own" the digital copies and can manipulate their sale price or other promotions (besides just a link on your website), or whether they will cannibalize your print sales. I guess the strategy here is the single issues are the lowest commitment for the reader, and the cheapest way to "try" the product. There is another angle that single issues are the most immediate way to get new issues, but that is honestly compromised by only 4 per year. You can't really emphasize that it's "faster" when it's seasonal (it is technically faster, but it's not really like you can sell 1 and then another and another. The "glow" will wear off before 3 months). Another problem is the potential that someone buys 2 single issues and skip the full book, because the money is going twice to the same product. It's a low dollar amount, so it's probably psychological, but it might compromise sales by breaking up your market.

Maybe there is a way to encourage a subscription to the digital copies? Either the full book once each year, or the quarterly issues. If they can somehow be pre-sold, or pre-committed to buy each issue as they are released? No idea how that might work, but it might be as simple as an email list and notification. A quarterly reminder by email might drive customers back to the print version – again, to buy those gifts for their friends.

Good luck!

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