Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Dear Comic Book Publishers: A List of My Digital Demands
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but when are comic publishers going to get their act together and allow their books to be easily purchased for digital download on a site like Amazon.com?
Yes, individual publishers have made small moves toward digitizing their comics. Marvel has their online digital comics reader (which is currently offering a 10% discount on the annual subscription through 12/1, making the total cost $53.89), but you're locked into using their clumsy online reader. Plus, it's based on a subscription model (either monthly or annually) with no option of just buying an individual comic you're interested in checking out. Other publishers such as SLG offer comics for download in PDF format, which, at least in my experience, isn't an optimal comics reader. (SLG's digital offerings are also slim, with only six series listed on their site. I was unable to connect directly to Eyemelt to see if there were more comics available there.)
While it's great that publishers are making incremental moves to provide their works in other formats, I don't think digital comics will ever really take off until they're as easy and hassle-free to purchase as an MP3 from a site like Amazon.com. Others have probably already made these very same suggestions before, but here are the points I would like to see in a digital comics offering:
1. All publishers must agree on the same digital format. I don't want to have to sign up with individual subscription plans with different formats, and I don't want to have to use different readers for comics from different publishers. Preferably all companies could come around to using the .cbr format, which is a simple but convenient way to read comics. Using viewers such as CDisplay, readers can easily page through the comic and determine how to size the display options. (I know it's ironic that this format grew out of illegal scans, but it's still the best option for viewing comics that I've seen so far, so publishers would be smart to adopt it.)
2. Publishers must allow other sites to sell their digital comics. I know publishers want to lock down their content and keep it on their site, but it's simply not convenient from the customer's perspective to visit other sites to purchase or view comics.
3. Get over the DRM worries. Look, people are going to copy your comics and distribute them illegally no matter what you do. It's not fair, but what are you going to do at this point? By attempting to insert content protection into your digital files, you're just going to frustrate users who would legitimately purchase your comics but don't want to deal with the potential DRM headaches.
4. Allow the flexibility to purchase individual issues or complete collections. Someone may just want to sample a particular issue that they've heard so much about online, while others will want to get the whole story. Make sure that both options are available and convenient.
5. Come up with a pricing model that makes sense. Whatever pricing structure publishers come up with, the prices have to reflect a substantial discount over the physical comics. Since individual comics are reaching the $3-$4 price point, publishers could probably get away with charging 99 cents per issue. (It'd be great if they could price the individual comics even cheaper, say 25 or 50 cents, but the 99 cents price would nicely align with what's become the standard price for a single MP3.) The "album" collections should not only be cheaper than the physical books but also cheaper than buying the individual CBR issues.
6. Release the digital comics at the same time as the hardcopy comics. I know this will piss off some retailers, but I think a big part of the traffic for individual digital comics would come from casual superhero fans who are really only interested in checking out a particular issue because they've read so much about it online. Obviously, that "impulse" interest is going to diminish as the buzz fades, so publishers would maximize their digital sales by synchronizing the digital and paper comic release schedules. Digital collections could come out when the physical collections are published or even later.
I never really got into buying MP3s until Amazon's MP3 store launched, so obviously that's the model I'm following here. I know a lot of people like the iTunes shop, but I didn't like the idea of having my music restricted by DRM protections. With Amazon's DRM-free MP3s, I can easily transfer my MP3s to my MP3 player or burn the files to CD. I'd like similar flexibility with digital comics. I don't want to be locked into a proprietary format, and I want to be able to easily buy an individual issue or complete collection from the same site where I buy my dead-tree TPB and HC comics.
As an example of how I think this would ideally work, consider one of my recent MP3 purchases from Amazon. My wife and I were lucky enough to be invited to a Coldplay concert at the last minute by some friends who had extra tickets. I knew who Coldpay was, but I couldn't name any of their actual songs. At the concert, I recognized several of the songs that I'd heard before but never realized were by Coldplay. When I got home, I looked up Coldplay on Amazon to find some of the songs I particularly liked. In the end, I decided to buy an entire digital album.
If I'd had to wait to buy the CD in the store the following day, or even wait a couple days to receive the CD after ordering it online, I probably never would have followed through with the purchase. I'm sure something would have come up that distracted me or I would have just forgotten about it. But because I could log in and download the music immediately after the concert, I bought the entire album. I think a similar dynamic would come into play with digital comics. I know a couple weeks ago I was morbidly curious about Kevin Smith's new Batman comic because it was getting so roundly panned everywhere. I've also been interested in the latest Spider-Man comic since the sample art I've seen by Marcos Martin is simply stunning. These are two examples of individual comics that I have a fleeting interest in -- nothing strong enough to actively track down, but something I might download if I could do it easily and immediately. (I also wouldn't want to bother with the hassle of storing any more physical floppy comics. I have enough long boxes of comics that I have to figure out how to get rid of someday.)
Yes, I'm being completely selfish in my demands, but I'm just trying to be honest about what I want as a consumer. Comic book publishers have an opportunity to make some money off me, but it will only happen under very specific circumstances. (Of course, publishers are free to ignore my preferences, but perhaps someday we'll be able to meet halfway.)
So how about you? What would you like to see in a digital comics delivery system? Would you read digital comics if they were as easy to buy as MP3s?
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but when are comic publishers going to get their act together and allow their books to be easily purchased for digital download on a site like Amazon.com?
Yes, individual publishers have made small moves toward digitizing their comics. Marvel has their online digital comics reader (which is currently offering a 10% discount on the annual subscription through 12/1, making the total cost $53.89), but you're locked into using their clumsy online reader. Plus, it's based on a subscription model (either monthly or annually) with no option of just buying an individual comic you're interested in checking out. Other publishers such as SLG offer comics for download in PDF format, which, at least in my experience, isn't an optimal comics reader. (SLG's digital offerings are also slim, with only six series listed on their site. I was unable to connect directly to Eyemelt to see if there were more comics available there.)
While it's great that publishers are making incremental moves to provide their works in other formats, I don't think digital comics will ever really take off until they're as easy and hassle-free to purchase as an MP3 from a site like Amazon.com. Others have probably already made these very same suggestions before, but here are the points I would like to see in a digital comics offering:
1. All publishers must agree on the same digital format. I don't want to have to sign up with individual subscription plans with different formats, and I don't want to have to use different readers for comics from different publishers. Preferably all companies could come around to using the .cbr format, which is a simple but convenient way to read comics. Using viewers such as CDisplay, readers can easily page through the comic and determine how to size the display options. (I know it's ironic that this format grew out of illegal scans, but it's still the best option for viewing comics that I've seen so far, so publishers would be smart to adopt it.)
2. Publishers must allow other sites to sell their digital comics. I know publishers want to lock down their content and keep it on their site, but it's simply not convenient from the customer's perspective to visit other sites to purchase or view comics.
3. Get over the DRM worries. Look, people are going to copy your comics and distribute them illegally no matter what you do. It's not fair, but what are you going to do at this point? By attempting to insert content protection into your digital files, you're just going to frustrate users who would legitimately purchase your comics but don't want to deal with the potential DRM headaches.
4. Allow the flexibility to purchase individual issues or complete collections. Someone may just want to sample a particular issue that they've heard so much about online, while others will want to get the whole story. Make sure that both options are available and convenient.
5. Come up with a pricing model that makes sense. Whatever pricing structure publishers come up with, the prices have to reflect a substantial discount over the physical comics. Since individual comics are reaching the $3-$4 price point, publishers could probably get away with charging 99 cents per issue. (It'd be great if they could price the individual comics even cheaper, say 25 or 50 cents, but the 99 cents price would nicely align with what's become the standard price for a single MP3.) The "album" collections should not only be cheaper than the physical books but also cheaper than buying the individual CBR issues.
6. Release the digital comics at the same time as the hardcopy comics. I know this will piss off some retailers, but I think a big part of the traffic for individual digital comics would come from casual superhero fans who are really only interested in checking out a particular issue because they've read so much about it online. Obviously, that "impulse" interest is going to diminish as the buzz fades, so publishers would maximize their digital sales by synchronizing the digital and paper comic release schedules. Digital collections could come out when the physical collections are published or even later.
I never really got into buying MP3s until Amazon's MP3 store launched, so obviously that's the model I'm following here. I know a lot of people like the iTunes shop, but I didn't like the idea of having my music restricted by DRM protections. With Amazon's DRM-free MP3s, I can easily transfer my MP3s to my MP3 player or burn the files to CD. I'd like similar flexibility with digital comics. I don't want to be locked into a proprietary format, and I want to be able to easily buy an individual issue or complete collection from the same site where I buy my dead-tree TPB and HC comics.
As an example of how I think this would ideally work, consider one of my recent MP3 purchases from Amazon. My wife and I were lucky enough to be invited to a Coldplay concert at the last minute by some friends who had extra tickets. I knew who Coldpay was, but I couldn't name any of their actual songs. At the concert, I recognized several of the songs that I'd heard before but never realized were by Coldplay. When I got home, I looked up Coldplay on Amazon to find some of the songs I particularly liked. In the end, I decided to buy an entire digital album.
If I'd had to wait to buy the CD in the store the following day, or even wait a couple days to receive the CD after ordering it online, I probably never would have followed through with the purchase. I'm sure something would have come up that distracted me or I would have just forgotten about it. But because I could log in and download the music immediately after the concert, I bought the entire album. I think a similar dynamic would come into play with digital comics. I know a couple weeks ago I was morbidly curious about Kevin Smith's new Batman comic because it was getting so roundly panned everywhere. I've also been interested in the latest Spider-Man comic since the sample art I've seen by Marcos Martin is simply stunning. These are two examples of individual comics that I have a fleeting interest in -- nothing strong enough to actively track down, but something I might download if I could do it easily and immediately. (I also wouldn't want to bother with the hassle of storing any more physical floppy comics. I have enough long boxes of comics that I have to figure out how to get rid of someday.)
Yes, I'm being completely selfish in my demands, but I'm just trying to be honest about what I want as a consumer. Comic book publishers have an opportunity to make some money off me, but it will only happen under very specific circumstances. (Of course, publishers are free to ignore my preferences, but perhaps someday we'll be able to meet halfway.)
So how about you? What would you like to see in a digital comics delivery system? Would you read digital comics if they were as easy to buy as MP3s?
Labels: Comics of the Future, Digital Comics, Idle Dreaming, Legal Downloading: Pipe Dream or Wishful Thinking?, Putting On My Pundit Hat, Superhero Comics
12:52 PM | |
Monday, October 01, 2007
Delayed Satisfaction of My Immediate Gratification
A follow-up to my post last week wondering when downloadable digital comics will become a standard: As I noted in the comments over at David Welsh's post discussing the idea, I think the concept of digital comics applies to more than just superhero comics. In fact, given how prevalent illegal downloading of manga scanlations seems to be, I think manga publishers might benefit from offering digital downloads even more than superhero publishers would. And I'll admit, I'd love to see the big manga publishers step up to the plate and leapfrog past Marvel and DC in this regard. Given Viz's success rolling out anime downloads and Tokyopop's interest in providing digital content, it seems like a natural extension of their strategies to provide legal downloads of their manga content. If manga publishers could make such downloads available quickly and cheaply, I imagine it would help reduce the number of people making and consuming unlicensed scanlations. One reason cited by fans for downloading such scanlations is that they just can't wait for the latest chapter of their favorite series to come out. If, for example, Viz could quickly turn around high-resolution translations of the latest chapters of Bleach and Naruto, perhaps even just rough translations of the material that would later be reworked for "official" publication in the magazine and eventual collections, it might be a nice alternative to scanlations for fans who really want their latest manga fix now. Of course, this wouldn't address those who download scanlations for other reasons, such as simply wanting things for free or objecting to the official translations offered by the publisher, but it would at least be a start.
My only caveat is that I would hope publishers offering comics for digital download all agree upon and use a single standard (preferably the .CBR format, but even PDF would do if that's seen as more universal). I'm sure each publisher would like to lock users into their proprietary format, but I really think that's a nuisance from the customer's perspective, and it would reduce the ability for publishers to offer their books through multiple venues, such as Amazon.com.
Related: Steve Rude has made the first two issues of his self-published Nexus series (the Free Comic Book Day offering and #99) available for free on Wowio. Said Rude in an interview:
A follow-up to my post last week wondering when downloadable digital comics will become a standard: As I noted in the comments over at David Welsh's post discussing the idea, I think the concept of digital comics applies to more than just superhero comics. In fact, given how prevalent illegal downloading of manga scanlations seems to be, I think manga publishers might benefit from offering digital downloads even more than superhero publishers would. And I'll admit, I'd love to see the big manga publishers step up to the plate and leapfrog past Marvel and DC in this regard. Given Viz's success rolling out anime downloads and Tokyopop's interest in providing digital content, it seems like a natural extension of their strategies to provide legal downloads of their manga content. If manga publishers could make such downloads available quickly and cheaply, I imagine it would help reduce the number of people making and consuming unlicensed scanlations. One reason cited by fans for downloading such scanlations is that they just can't wait for the latest chapter of their favorite series to come out. If, for example, Viz could quickly turn around high-resolution translations of the latest chapters of Bleach and Naruto, perhaps even just rough translations of the material that would later be reworked for "official" publication in the magazine and eventual collections, it might be a nice alternative to scanlations for fans who really want their latest manga fix now. Of course, this wouldn't address those who download scanlations for other reasons, such as simply wanting things for free or objecting to the official translations offered by the publisher, but it would at least be a start.
My only caveat is that I would hope publishers offering comics for digital download all agree upon and use a single standard (preferably the .CBR format, but even PDF would do if that's seen as more universal). I'm sure each publisher would like to lock users into their proprietary format, but I really think that's a nuisance from the customer's perspective, and it would reduce the ability for publishers to offer their books through multiple venues, such as Amazon.com.
Related: Steve Rude has made the first two issues of his self-published Nexus series (the Free Comic Book Day offering and #99) available for free on Wowio. Said Rude in an interview:
If you're thinking about giving me a shot, I'll make it as easy to buy my books as possible. If it just so happens that you like them, well, then everybody wins.And that's why he's known as "The Dude," ladies and gentlemen! I look forward to buying the eventual collections of Rude's self-published Nexus work, but for now I'm grateful it's made it so easy for me to keep up with the individual installments. ("The Dude" also makes it easy to buy individual issues directly through his website, in either digital or print format, so I might have to buy some actual floppies to show my support for his forward thinking and customer focus. Or maybe one of those signed Nexus Archives editions, on sale for only $34.95!) [Hat tip: Tom Spurgeon, who doesn't provide permalinks for his "Quick Hits" linkblogging posts.]
Labels: Idle Dreaming, Illegal Downloading: Threat or Menace?, Putting On My Pundit Hat
12:19 PM | |
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Riding Dark Horse
Some amusing & interesting bits in Dark Horse's latest Pony Express newsletter:
Dark Horse's Star Wars line of comics is having some sort of series-spanning crossover, but Dark Horse doesn't quite have the solicitation technique for these kinds of events down yet.
Self-deprecating humor or lack of self-awareness? "Ring ring!! Do I hear the tardy bell?" Well, you're Dark Horse, an expert on tardiness, so if you say it's a tardy bell I'll take your word for it.
Publisher Mike Richardson waxes philosophical on how to fix comic shops and comes to conclusions similar to those offered by other recent commentators. (Hey, is Richardson cribbing from the blogosphere?) Other insights offered by Richardson:
*[Assuming adequate distribution, marketing, etc.]
Some amusing & interesting bits in Dark Horse's latest Pony Express newsletter:
Dark Horse's Star Wars line of comics is having some sort of series-spanning crossover, but Dark Horse doesn't quite have the solicitation technique for these kinds of events down yet.
This promises to be one of the biggest events ever to shake the Star Wars galaxy!You forgot to promise, "NOTHING WILL EVER BE THE SAME AGAIN!!"
Self-deprecating humor or lack of self-awareness? "Ring ring!! Do I hear the tardy bell?" Well, you're Dark Horse, an expert on tardiness, so if you say it's a tardy bell I'll take your word for it.
Publisher Mike Richardson waxes philosophical on how to fix comic shops and comes to conclusions similar to those offered by other recent commentators. (Hey, is Richardson cribbing from the blogosphere?) Other insights offered by Richardson:
- The success of shojo manga was largely an accident. I'm sure that comes as a surprise to publishers like Tokyopop and Viz, who actively courted female readers for years with titles such as Magic Knight Rayearth and Fushigi Yûgi. "I swear, we licensed the latest manga from Kazuo Koike, but the Japanese publisher sent us this girly stuff from some company named CLAMP!"
- Richardson relates the story of what happens when one of their books received some notable media attention:
A number of years ago, Dark Horse published a book, Another Chance to Get It Right, by mainstream author Andrew Vachss and artist Geof Darrow. The book was held up on screen during the Oprah show while a phone number was flashed for less than ten seconds. Over 150,000 phone calls were received by viewers attempting to order the book. Unfortunately, we received complaints for weeks afterward that the book could not be found in bookstores or comic shops.
It seems like a strange example to use in order to discuss the supposed shortcomings of comic shops since retailers could hardly be expected to know (months in advance, no less) that Oprah was going to mention the book on her show. And even if they had, would Dark Horse have been able to meet demand? Given their spotty track record having enough material on hand for sure-fire sellers (e.g., Hellboy, Sin City, 300) when it's known well in advance that there will be media interest, it hardly seems like retailers are the ones at fault in this scenario.
*[Assuming adequate distribution, marketing, etc.]
Labels: Dark Horse, Putting On My Pundit Hat
11:32 PM | |
