Posted in: Boom, Comics | Tagged: arune signh, boom, comicspro, trader joes

How Many Times Can Boom's Address to ComicsPRO Be Exclusive? And What Has Trader Joe's To Do With Comics Publishing?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2020 16:00:57 -0600

At 12:17pm PT, The Beat posted an Exclusive transcript of the address to ComicsPRO by Filip Sablik and Morgan Perry, in which they talked about the importance of publishers managing launches, understanding comic stores and buyers, and lesson from Trader Joe's, as well as launching a number of new titles. It was a rather good address.

But CBR had also run it as an Exclusive transcript an hour earlier at around 11.15 am PT.

And before that, Newsarama had run it as a transcript at 11.03 am PT (though had lined it up three hours previously)- but they didn't even bother to claim it as an exclusive, despite beating the other two who did.

Maybe that's because Bleeding Cool had already run the news about Power Rangers, new titles from Tom Taylor, and Al Ewing, and a super-secret surprise tease in the half-hour before.

But we didn't have the thing about Trader Joe's. Our bad.

I don't need to explain that going into a crowded supermarket overwhelmed with 20 different kinds of BBQ sauce is like Direct Market comic book shops. We all know it. What I do want to do is challenge and encourage all publishers to learn from our successes and be more like Trader Joe's. Know who your audience is for your new original series and how you're going to reach them. Don't solicit 4 or 5 or 6 or more new number ones in one month. Reduce your output, call your shots, and give your retail partners your own Must Read list.

Earn your space on their shelves. Your business and the industry will be better for it.

Either way, I suspect that CBR and Comics Beat may be having a word with Arune Singh at Boom very soon… and catch up with our other ComicsPRO coverage with this handy tag.