Giving Comic Book Away For Free Helped Boost Sales
from the leave-it-to-the-smaller-publishers-to-figure-this-out dept
Paddy Dwyer writes "The comic book publisher Boom Studios announced about 2 weeks back that they were going to release the full first issue of a new comic called North Wind online free the exact same day as it was released in shops. They also plan to do this with the remaining 4 issues in the mini series. There was some retailer outcry when this was announced but it didn't last long. As the book quickly sold out with Diamond Comics Distributors. Then even though the book is still available online for free they are planning on doing a second printing to fulfill remaining back orders for the book. Also the book was released in CBZ format which is to comics what the mp3 is to music. There is no DRM and it is of very high quality."This comes just a couple months after Tim Lee pointed out why comic book publishers should free up their content. He also discussed how the big comic book publisher, Marvel and DC have, instead, chosen to lock up their content and threaten people for sharing their books online. Yet, here we are, once again, with an example where the companies who embrace the ability to use free content as a promotion are finding that it actually helps them sell more.
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Filed Under: business models, comic books, economics, free
Companies: boom studios
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About time
Don't get me wrong, I realize that there are people involved that need to get paid for their work, but when on the average, you're paying over 3 bucks for a 22 page comic, something needs to change.
Plus, in my opinion (as humble as it's not) alot of people would rather pay out the money for a paper copy of a book.
Snuggling up to read your monitor doesn't hold the same appeal to me as holding a book (whether novel or comic) in my hand.
The feel of the paper, the smell of the ink... ahh joy.
Alright.. I think I've said enough.
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Re: About time
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self-solving problem...
Eventually the MAFIAA are going to get with the program or go out of business. In the meantime I'm listening to some pretty good music, and renting the occasional DVD. The MAFIAA comapnies get very little of my money.
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ComicMix
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See http://megatokyo.com
See http://penny-arcade.com
See http://www.pvponline.com/
They all sell books, merchandise, or something else and give out their comics for free.
In order word, this article is old news.
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Re:
They haven't gotten information up for this year yet but you can see the past offerings at the web site. My local shop took it as an opportunity to clear out the back room from things that they overbought.
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sounds great
Anyway it's nice these guys have the freedom to try other business models. I don't know how their success necessarily means everyone else has to do the same thing now.
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One of my favs
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