Posted in: Comics | Tagged: fcbd, free comic book day

Diamond Asks Retailers About The Future Of Free Comic Book Day

This year's Free Comic Book Day wes cancelled – but all publishers had, at the time, printed all their FCBD titles. What were they to do? Well, DC Comics pulped the entire print run of one of their comics, as it contained a new DC Timeline created by their former publisher Dan DiDio, which no longer reflected the company's plans a few weeks later. But the rest were distributed to stores as part of "Free Comic Book Day Summer", each week retailers getting a small sample of issues rather than all fifty all at once.

But what of 2021? Plans have to be started pretty soon, so Diamond has been contacting retailers to ask about their experience, needs and wants. Here are some of the questions they are asking.

1. How would you rate your experience this year with Free Comic Book Day/Summer?
2. How would you rate this shift this year from a one-day event to a multi-week "summer" event?
3. How did having the event spread out over the summer affect the turnout?
4. How did having the event spread out over the summer impact the draw of new customers to your store?
5. How would you rate the flexibility this year to build out your own schedule to accommodate your unique store needs?
6. Tell us when/how you chose to give out the free comics (i.e. all available as soon as their Wednesday release date, one specific title available each day, only available on weekends, etc.)
7. How did having the event spread out over the summer affect your typical FCBD sales?
8. From a sales and promo standpoint, was Free Comic Book SUMMER (FCBS) more or less effective than Free Comic Book DAY (FCBD)?
9. Did you do anything special or creative to celebrate FCBS?
10. How did you promote FCBS?
11. In general, is your preference for a summer-long event (FCBS) or a single-day event (FCBD)?
12. If large, in-person events continue to be an issue in 2021, would you participate in Free Comic Book Day if it followed a similar format as 2020 (multi-week event vs. a single-day event)?
13. If large, in-person events continue to be an issue in 2021, what would you change about Free Comic Book Summer next year?
14. Please provide any additional comments or feedback you may have.

With mass immunisation ijn the USA not expected until late 2021, we're a long way from any normality…

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