How Comic Sales Are Calculated

File: Channel Sales.jpg (78KB, 600x844px) Image search: [Google]

78KB, 600x844px

>Comichron Twitter: Meanwhile books, the bigger format in $ terms, has its own reporting regime. But like the audit firms Bookscan data is not fully public. We get a lot of information about the book market from people who do see that data; Brian Hibbs has been reporting about it for years. But even Bookscan is only a portion of book channel sales; some data, like on sales at book fairs, comes from shoe-leather reporting. Our analysis partners at @ICV2 report on those specialty markets -- and also digital, where very little hard data indeed is made public. One of the factors we can't get away from, as well, is that the various reporting regimes are really talking about different things. Bookscan uses tech to report confirmed sales to consumers, whereas Direct Market data comes from sales at the distributor level. To a degree, this distinction is without a difference in that in both cases the books are gone, and considered a sale by the publisher. We're also in an era where sell-throughs are relatively higher than they once were. But yes, there's apples and oranges in the mix here. Short of wiring up thousands of owner-operator stores, I'm not sure I see a solution that gets sold-to-consumer data at all levels. So that's the challenge: sifting different kinds of data from multiple channels and formats. There's a reason we only do it annually!

File: 1500x1500_9962a6f4df030984dff5725de9f9b710f831795b74bca8293135d0e7[1].jpg (189KB, 1000x1180px) Image search: [Google]

189KB, 1000x1180px

Full joint Comichron and ICv2 report: https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/37939/comics-graphic-novel-sales-up-5-2016

>>93862536
>>93862547
I see what Didio was talking about when he said digital either plateaued or was regressing and how trades looked like the biggest area of growth. Makes Rebirth's double-shipping of mainline titles really smart since it'll allow them to get more trades in the market. It also makes Marvel's complete incompetence when it comes to the trade market all the more glaring.

>>93862669
I do not understand how Marvel hasn't replaced everyone in their trade department. Should really have some Iron Man solo collection doing well in bookstores every year just based on his MCU popularity.

>>93862599
Good to see the "Comics are dying" thing isnt true.

>>93862599
Is there a graph that goes further back? I like this, but it's always easy to make a point with a graph if you limit the focus that any change seems great.

>>93863152
We didn't have digital before 2011. Some of the charts here might interest you but don't include bookstore sales iirc: http://www.comichron.com/vitalstatistics.html

>>93862966
Funny enough, comics are the only print medium that's growing.

So book stores sell roughly 3/4ths of all trades and digital makes roughly 8% of all sales.

>>93862966
Comics sales have been increasing year-on-year since 2011 from this report. But trades are growing at a more accelerated rate. It's been talked about as the end of the Big Two in the US and I can definitely see that, but floppies are themselves up in numbers over the 5 years.

>>93862536
>>93862547
Surprised to see that after 2013, Digital sales have not really increased by that much. They are not even a 1/4 of floppies sales.

>>93864124
I wonder how Marvel unlimited figures in this

>>93863217
You can tell who on /co/ are the most ignorant of the business side of the industry, they usually either demand that comics ditch the direct market and go back to newsstand (which shows a lack of knowledge of how non-comic magazines have been selling in the last 10 years) or aren't aware of the multiple markets or try to keep claiming comics are dead.

>>93862966
Same man. I see people saying it in every monthly sales thread and while I don't usually pay too much attention to them it always is a sad thought. I really do love comics and don't wanna see them go.

>>93862536
>>93862547
Why is everyone saying digital is the future again?

>>93865649
Because they don't look at numbers and assume that because people like the internet means that people will prefer digital comics to trades.

There's a reason why DC abstained from a digital service up until the news from a month or two ago

>>93865775
>There's a reason why DC abstained from a digital service up until the news from a month or two ago
Also, for them the AT&T merger is basically a done deal. It makes no sense for them to not do a digital service at this point since they'll have access to AT&T's wide digital distribution network. It also makes sense in this case that their digital service would include things like animated, television and movie programs.

>>93862599
And they said the movies didn't affect comics

>>93862966
>>93863855
It's less "comics are dying" and more "capes are dying", and even then it's not entirely true

Interest in cape comics seems to remain the same in terms of trades, but people have also become interested in non-capes. The market is growing in general, and indies are growing faster than capes.

Maybe in 10 or 20 years indies will sell more than them, if the trends do not change. This would be much more extreme if movies didn't renew interest in cape comics.

>>93862669
>>93864124
I think the explanation for digital sales stagnating is that the main reason people buy comics is to have them as fashion accesories and collection items. ie: "Why would I buy a comic if my friends cannot see I have it?"

People who buy digital would be more invested into comics or the contents of the comics themselves. Also I guess it depends the system used to obtain digital comics. A one time adquisition will have different results than having to pay for a netflix-like service.

>>93865468
buying comics in libraries are still preferable than the direct market. The problem with the direct market is not the sales themselves, but how the system negatively affects new comics as LCSs have to guess the buyer's interest based on very poor information, and are often victims the big two gimmicks forcing them to waste money.

See how LCSs were fucking pissed when marvel shoot itself in the foot and reader interest plummetted - not all comic shops realized that in time and now have hundreds of unsold comics sitting around.

>>93865649
Because the digital marketplace has huge potential. Comic publishers just haven't figured out how to make it work for them

>>93865920
I also wouldn't be surprised if the stagnation of digital sales could be partly attributed to the fact that digital comics only really read well on a few select formats - namely tablets - which makes them a little impractical since it means they don't travel well; which is kinda one of the big reasons someone would turn to digital at all.

>>93862878
Because Marvel trades aren't as cheap as DC's.
They're not even that cheap compared to buying the floppies. They're nearly the same price. Marvel said at some point they don't want to focus on trades cause then people wouldn't buy the floppies