Analysis and Results of the Great Independent Comic Survey Part 2

This post is a continuation of the Great Independent Comic Survey and covers distribution and merchandise rights.

Question 5: What percentage of your sales are hard copies?

Answer: 53% of the group makes 75-100% of their sale in hard copy.

Answer Choices	Responses
less than 25%	23.33%
25-50%	10%
50-75%	13.33%
75-100%	53.33%

Question 6: What percentage of your sales are digital?

Answer: 73% of the group claims less than 25% of their sales come from online distribution.

Answer Choices	Responses
less than 25%	73.33%
25-50%	16.67%
50-75%	6.67%
75-100%	3.33%

Question 7: How much of your sales happen at conventions?

Answer: 40% of the group sells less than 25% of their sales at conventions. This question had the most even distribution of all the survey questions.

Answer Choices	Responses
less than 25%	40%
25-50%	16.67%
50-75%	23.33%
75-100%	20%

Question 8: How much of your sales happen at comic book shops or other brick and mortar stores?

Answer: 60% of the group sells less than 25% of their books in comic shops.

Answer Choices	Responses
less than 25%	60%
25-50%	26.67%
50-75%	13.33%
75-100%	0%
Total	30

When these distribution questions are taken together, they suggest that there is significant room for growth in the digital sector, since both convention and bookstore sales do not appear to be robust. Reducing or eliminating the issue of shelf space, printing costs and shipping costs could have the effect of increasing sales and decreasing costs, but I don’t have enough information about fixed digital distribution costs to make a definitive statement about that.

Question 9: Do you control the merchandise rights to your title?

Answer: 73% of the group controls the merchandise rights to their titles. This is encouraging because there has always been a trend of certain publishers taking many other rights in addition to the publish rights needed to print the book (see Get What You Give). The downside to this is that 23% of the group learned to retain their rights after the rights to some titles were taken away.

Answer Choices	Responses
Yes	73.33%
No	3.33%
I control the rights to some properties but not others.	23.33%
I'm not sure who controls the rights to my titles.	0%

Question 10: Are you already selling merchandise based on your title?

Answer: 67% of the group is not selling merchandise. This is encouraging for two reasons. First, the fact that a third of creator owned books has some kind of merchandise supports the idea that there is a market for these goods. Second, the results show untapped potential for more merchandise, especially when you consider that a majority of artists retain the right to sell it.

Answer Choices	Responses
Yes	33.33%
No	66.67%

Conclusion

Based on the results of the survey, the market does not have the necessary volume for my proposed merchandise platform to thrive. That doesn’t mean that there is no value in releasing a creator owned book. It doesn’t mean that individual creators can’t set up their own creator owned merchandise and make it profitable. It does mean that there is an opportunity in both digital distribution and merchandise that independent creators can use to enhance the popularity and sales of their books.

If you have any questions about this survey, please let me know.

Have fun.
Gamal

Analysis and Results of the Great Independent Comic Survey, Part 1

Early this year, I wondered if the independent comics industry was ready for an independent merchandise platform (See Do You Want to Create Merchandise for Your Comics?). During the spring, I created a business model that would fulfill this theoretical need and discussed its’ potential. (See The Magic in a Batman T-Shirt).  Over the summer, I set up a survey to test the market and see if conditions were favorable for launching such a venture (See The Great Independent Comics Survey). Now that New York Comic Con is just around the corner, I’d like to share the results with you. While they don’t support my business model, I still think there are some important lessons that independent artists can take from the survey. This post intends to share both the results of the survey and my interpretation of those results.

 Methodology

Keep in mind that I am not a statistician. I don’t have a degree in marketing or any background in analytics. I simply asked ten questions to determine the current size and scope of the independent comics market. My questions might not have been ideally worded to generate optimum results. My sample size (based on the Facebook, Linked In and Google + groups I belong to) might not be representative of the overall US market. I just tried to work with the resources I had available. This is what I got.

I broke the survey into three parts; sales, distribution and merchandise rights.

Sales

Question 1: How many creator owned titles do you release per year?

Answer: 75% of the group releases 1 or 2 titles per year. This makes sense since creator owned projects are often passion projects that have to take a back seat to day jobs and paying work for hire gigs that up and coming artists need to gain recognition (See Entertainment Contracts 101). The reality from a retail standpoint is that more titles in the market provide more chances for readers to find a title and a story they like. If the one title available doesn’t suit them, the reader has to move on to another book.

Answer Choices	Responses
1-2	76.67%
3-4	10%
4-5	3.33%
5+	10%

Question 2: How many issues do you release for each title per year?

Answer: 87% of the group releases 1-4 four issues of each title per year. This reduces the market entry points for independent artists even further, because readers used to monthly offerings in the mainstream comics market are more likely to turn away from or forget a book that comes out quarterly or annually. While it might not be realistic given the time constraints, more issues of a title can raise the profile of the title as a whole.

Answer Choices	Responses
1-4	86.67%
4-8	6.67%
8-12	3.33%
12+	3.33%

Question 3: How many copies per year do you sell for each creator owned title?

Answer: 53% sell less than 100 copies, 23% sell less than 250 copies. This could be the result of many factors, but depending on the price point of each book, this suggests that many creator owned books lose money and do not recoup their initial investment.

Answer Choices	Responses
0-100	53.33%
101-250	23.33%
251-500	10%
501-750	6.67%
750-1,000	6.67%
1000-3,000	0%
3,000+	0%

Question 4: What is the average number of copies that you sell per month?

Answer: 83% stated that they sold an average of less than 50 copies per month. This question is an elaboration of question 3 that reinforces the idea that the overall sales of independent books have a lot of room for growth.

Answer Choices	Responses
0-50	82.76%
100-150	3.45%
150-200	3.45%
200+	0%
51-75	10.34%
76-100	0%

My next post will look at the distribution and merchandise aspects of the survey.

Have fun.
Gamal