Hey guys-

I love getting 3 books a month, but it seems the meat of the
book is small. So I was thinking---whats better, 3 normal books
a month, or 1 book a month with 104(?) pages like ASM 600 is supposed
to be.

Between the two options, three times a month is the better option.

With the current schedule, fans are able to pick up whatever stories they want. They can by the issues featuring the Spot, and skip over the stories with the FF. Or you could skip over the Waid issues, and only buy the Slott ones. Of course there are downsides to that idea, since fans don't have to pick up every issue.

With one large issue, fans are going to spend money on issues they may not want. Fans would still be paying $8.99 or so for the issue.

Ideally, I would much rather see a two times a month format. I think the three times a month format is too overbearing for the readers, where they basically have to go to the shop every week. With less issues, you also get more focused issues, so writers don't have to "pad out" the stories. Readership and sales would increase, though total sales would probably be around the same. Instead of 3 issues selling at 60K, you could have 2 issues selling at 90K.

keep it three times a month, but make it old school paper to cut costs, and tell the story like you would when it was one time a month so we actually get somewhere with the story sometime this millennium.

I like the 3x a month as going to the comic book store is my holy day of obligation. I've also cut back on some of the other books with the price increase. That said, I rather the book be full story and not sneak in a meaningless back up story or a preview of another book that seems to be better served by a supersized spiderman book that is being put out.

Inn

Can I go with that option? I'm thinking 64 pages (including ads). So that would be the equivalent of 4 issues per month really, but they could fold in the Extras and Annuals and what-not. They could even have a short non-Spider-Man feature every issue like DC is doing.

Changing the paper stock won't cut the costs.

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keep it three times a month, but make it old school paper to cut costs

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Changing the paper stock won't cut the costs.

Really? Why not?

-Comp

My first novel, The Listeners, is in bookstores now! Check it out at www.harrisondemchick.com!

Because the cost of printing today isn't that major of a factor. The cost to print a regular colored comic is something under 35 cents per issue for Marvel and DC. Going to black and white reduces the price per issue by something like 5 cents, so it's not going to result in comics for $1.99.

I've seen indie creators talk about how going to the old school paper is actually more expensive, since no one really uses it anymore. So things like economies of scale wouldn't work there.

Two factors for the price of comics are the distribution method and low sells. The unit cost for a comic that sells 1 million copies is a lot lower than the unit cost for a comic that sells 10 thousand copies.

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Because the cost of printing today isn't that major of a factor. The cost to print a regular colored comic is something under 35 cents per issue for Marvel and DC. Going to black and white reduces the price per issue by something like 5 cents, so it's not going to result in comics for $1.99.

Quote:
I've seen indie creators talk about how going to the old school paper is actually more expensive, since no one really uses it anymore. So things like economies of scale wouldn't work there.

Quote:
Two factors for the price of comics are the distribution method and low sells. The unit cost for a comic that sells 1 million copies is a lot lower than the unit cost for a comic that sells 10 thousand copies.

Interesting! I did not know that.

-Comp

My first novel, The Listeners, is in bookstores now! Check it out at www.harrisondemchick.com!

I can't remember if it was David Gabriel or Joe Quesada (maybe both, the question comes up fairly often) but the response was that changing paper stock wouldn't do enough to impact the price of a comic. The difference is negligible. I know I've heard this from various comics editors, but I can't find a reference link at the moment.