Sunday, April 28, 2013

Vertigo And The New York Times Best Seller List - Comics Blog


At the Vertigo panel at C2E2 last night when I was fast asleep, the Question and Answer session revealed a few interesting points. And thankfully Newsarama live blogged it. And stayed there. I recall a C2E2 a couple of years ago when Karen Berger announced that all the DC characters would be returning to the DCU, but by that point all the other reporters had left, the audio had been turned off and no one seemed to believe me when I reported it… things are different now.


So we learned that Vertigo have a new anthology, The Witching Hour, to follow Ghosts and Time Warp for the autumn, considering a digital extension of the anthology format which would fit well with the Legends Of The Dark Knight digital publication model, and there are three new comic projects in the works with female leads, two from Will Dennis, one from Shelley Bond.


But one exchange, as least as recorded by Newsarama, that may have further news cycle legs, regards the New York Times Bestseller lists. Let’s rejig a couple of entries;


The popularity discussion was sparked by Azzarello calling Dennis asking the crowd if they read Punk Rock Jesus “a Karen thing,” referring to former Vertigo executive editor Karen Berger.


Cunningham points out that Murphy’s Punk Rock Jesus is on the New York Times best-seller list. “Listen, everybody’s on the f*cking New York Times list, it’s not a measure, and I don’t think we should pretend that it is,” Azzarello says. “You put out a graphic novel, and it shows up on the list.”


Cunningham disagrees that it’s that easy. “Our books are great, and that’s why it shows up there,” Azzarello says, stating that the New York Times list shouldn’t be used as validation of quality. “Do you guys care about that?” (That, being a book on the New York Time’s best-seller list.) “F*ck no,” a fan yells from the crowd. Cunningham says Azzarello is “so wrong” about the NYT list.


Azzarello: “John, I’m really sorry I was trying to make a Vertigo panel fun for a change.”


On Trillium, “It’s The Notebook with rayguns,” Dennis says, adding, to laughs, “It will be on the New York Times best-seller lists in a couple of months.”


“This catalog is chockfull of New York Times best-sellers, but don’t let that keep you away,” Cunningham says.


What does the panel read to stay contemporary? “New York Times,” Dennis answers.


A while ago, after running another series of Diamond marketshares that showed DC falling again, a senior DC executive told me that I should look to the New York Times Bestseller lists. Where, indeed, DC beat Marvel regularly, but were also beaten to a pulp by Walking Dead and Scott Pilgrim.


The list monitors sales in thousands of bookstores and for comics runs Hardcover Graphic Books, Paperback Graphic Books and Manga. Right now, Walking Dead and DC dominate the first two with notable appearances from Building Stories, Avatar The Airbender, Hawkeye, Relish, A Wrinkle In Time and All New X-Men.


But there are plenty of graphic novels published last week that don’t merit an entry. It is dominated by big publishers, but First Second and Farrar, Straus & Giroux do get a mention. Of course the latter is owned by Macmillan.


DC’s bookstore sales team is renowned, especially compared to Marvel’s and it’s no surprise that a DC book gets into the list. But does it make a difference to sales? It depends…


Marina Krakovsky reported on the Stanford Business School’s Alan Sorensen’s judgment.


Sorensen estimates that previously best-selling authors got the least benefit from being on the New York Times list, while unknowns had the greatest jump in sales. On average, he estimates, appearing on the Times list might increase a book’s first year sales by 13 to 14 percent, but for first-time authors sales probably would increase by an impressive 57 percent. And for established authors “the list has no discernible impact,” writes Sorensen.


This pattern suggests the best-seller list primarily tells consumers what may be worth reading. “It’s free advertising for new authors who make it to the list,” Sorensen says. With a well-known author, on the other hand, people don’t need a best-seller list to help them decide whether to buy the book.


Sorensen also looked at the famous “Oprah effect,” the stunning way being chosen for Oprah Winfrey’s onair book club immediately catapults a title onto the bestseller list. Though reluctant to name numbers because there were few Oprah titles in the sample, Sorensen says the Oprah effect is “many times bigger” than the bestseller effect.


So… yes, the New York Bestseller list is worth it, it can be a struggle to get on but its easier if you have DC’s sales team behind you, and what we really need is a comic book Oprah.


From www.bleedingcool.com




Source:


http://comic.express900.com/2013/04/28/vertigo-and-the-new-york-times-best-seller-list/






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