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Posted by:

aimsatellite

Date:

February 4th, 2007 1:01 PM

Header:

Why GearHead No. 1 is late.

Bulletin:

So.

Having a book be late and having to explain why is not what Dennis Hopeless and I wanted to ever have to do, but we find ourselves in the untenable position of having to do just that. I could easily type a short shrift sentence or two and not explain where we're at, but since we're not in a position where our names mean something, I think that a little more explanation is warranted.

So, first, and quite obviously to anyone that knows us, it's not due to us, or anything within our control. The first issue was completely finished the last week of August for Wizard World Chicago 2006. The Second issue was completely done and turned in a month ahead of schedule at the end of October, 2006; and it was not supposed to ship until March.

So, why is GearHead number one not on store shelves right now?

I don't know how much I'm allowed to say, not merely for legal reasons, but for reasons of good faith towards and from our publisher, so I'm just going to lay it out as simply as I know it. It's all fairly easy to grasp, but I'll get it if you don't understand it, this business is strange.

Our publisher, Sean at Arcana, turned in the files for printing issue one months ago. Since we're bi-monthly, our due dates are spread out that way. When we filled out the solicitation info for Diamond to print in their Previews ordering magazine, we requested the ship date of January 10. The book solicited in November, we had already turned in the first issue. None of this seemed unreasonable to us, and it all seemed fairly cut and dry. Our major mistake this whole time has been not asking enough questions. We didn't ask when, and how long, and what process the printer and shippers used.

(Because of the higher cost of printing state-side, Sean uses a printer in Hong Kong. I know more about this than I probably should, but suffice it to say, it breaks down that it costs less to print in and then ship from HK to anywhere else than it does to print state-side and ship within the US).

Comics Distribution is largely controlled by one company. Diamond Distribution. When our book didn't ship the week we asked for, we just naturally assumed that Diamond was at fault, as we have heard many horror stories from indy creators that boxes of books just get lost there, and that sometimes they just ship late for no apparent reason. Since they are the main (read: only) distributor to the comic book direct market, they have complete control over when and if books ship on time and to where they are supposed to. Diamond does a good job with most of their shipping and a lot of the time when an indy book is late, it's due to the creator/publisher. We DID NOT want to be those guys. We struggled to get the books done in a manner that put us way farther ahead than we needed to be. So it was rather natural to blame Diamond to friends and interviewers because we assumed they had the books in their warehouse and just hadn't shipped them. (We apologize to Diamond for automatically thinking that way).

Alas, that was not the case.

We got our comp copies of GH #1 the second week of January. This also contributed to our thinking that the books were in the states waiting to hit shelves.

We go ahead and do signings, have a release party at our local comic shop, and generally promote the book as we had all along, as being out in January. The week of the 24th we see the book is still not on Diamond's ship list, even up to the last ship date in January, the 31st. Naturally we're quite concerned, and we're starting to feel like heels.

Here's where we get into how this business REALLY works. Sean kindly explained that there is a two week window after the month that the book is supposed to ship, for the book to actually get into Diamond's warehouse and to actually ship. Our books did not arrive from the printer/repackager (that's another can of worms) to Diamond till the 31st of January.

He also explained that our promoting of an actual street date was/is not realistic for indy books because we are the low man on the totem pole in the shipping and distribution chain. Unlike book, movie and cd releases, there is no legal ramification for shipping early or late (ignoring the case of Hibbs v. Marvel). We should consider it lucky if we do ship the actual month and that since we got in before the two week window was up we are fine and that we should have our books before the New York Convention. The last week of February.

Sigh.

I wish there was a better explanation, and I think that measures are being taken on our publisher's side to see about a more efficient way of getting product to Diamond in more reasonable manner. I also wish that we had asked a lot more questions up front and during the process about the printing and shipping and all that, so that we could have had a more realistic grasp on what was/is going on with our book.

But that doesn't change that GearHead 1 is late, and we don't know when it will actually ship.

Thanks for listening. Feel free to comment and ask any questions you might have.

-Mellon

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