I’m Just Ahead Of The Curve

The comic book industry has seemingly gone into a tailspin with the news of Diamond Distribution filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, concerned how publishers not named Marvel or DC or even Boom or Dynamite will be able to exist moving forward without a distributor willing to take on small independent operations or creators willing to self-publish.

In many ways, I’m not surprised by the news, which is why I decided from the start that if I was going to bring projects such as THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES or KEN PENDERS’ KNUCKLES OMNIBUS VOLUME 1 to market, I figured I was better off putting the books out myself, see if the support was there to determine viability and then make the decision to move forward or not based on that support.

I’ve been asked why I haven’t turned to Kickstarter or GoFundMe as a means of financing my projects, and the simple answer is neither crowdsourcing method is guaranteed to have positive results. On top of that, with Kickstarter one has to have tiers of incentives based on who gives how much towards the project.

There are several drawbacks to this. One: the increased amount of work plus the added cost of creating, producing and shipping the incentives. Two: if the amount being raised isn’t fully achieved within a designated timeframe, there’s no payout of any kind forthcoming to the creator. Thus, the creator risks seeing the project deemed a failure with the odds of moving forward even more difficult to surmount.

If I had solicited THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS through Kickstarter, chances are it would never have happened. Why? The biggest factor was making people aware of the project in the first place. The next obstacle was convincing people this was a project worthy of support.

I started soliciting orders in July of 2023. I had to say yes to the printer by late September in order to lock in the cost of the book’s production. By the time I had to commit either way to the printer, I had raised just under half the cost of producing the book. Do I then commit to printing the book or do I refund everyone’s money back?

At that point, I decided to move forward with the book, figuring if worse came to worse I could use a credit card to pay off the balance due.

Fortunately, by the time the files were ready to send to the printer some six months later that were used to print the book, people came through. I was able to cover the full cost of printing plus overseas shipping and taxes.

The cost of shipping the books from my location to their final destination was also covered in the orders.

What hasn’t been fully covered yet is the time and effort I myself put into project. But that’s okay. This was my first project I took from concept to finished product all on my own without the backing and support of a publisher other than myself.

People now know I can deliver a quality product on time as promised. People can see the results for themselves.

One of the reasons I didn’t utilize options such as GoFundMe and Patreon is that I’d still have to put the same amount of work in to get people to support any project I do while paying out a percentage to another site in addition to online processing fees.

I was able to achieve my goals using social media along with my website that included an online store page. I didn’t have to depend on Diamond, Amazon or some other entity that would have required me to accept less in terms of financial remuneration, maybe even signing over a percentage of ownership.

With the news of Diamond filing for bankruptcy protection, independent publishers and creators are now left scrambling trying to figure out how to get their product to market, as it’s been made clear alternative distributors are only interested in the big dogs of the industry.

The ripple effect could prove to be catastrophic for a number of parties. Stores could go out of business if they can’t afford to pay Diamond what they owe if the courts begin to call in those payments to make good to Diamond’s creditors. Small publishers might have to cease operations with no way of getting their product to the stores.

Since I am a small operation, I’ve proven I have an audience very much interested in my latest releases. I’ve delivered a quality product, whether a book such as THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS, a print or a back issue, and excellent customer service by all accounts.

Within a week, I should begin taking pre-orders for KEN PENDERS’ KNUCKLES OMNIBUS VOLUME ONE, commencing the start of the Mobian Line of collected volumes. As long as the audience is out there to continue supporting these projects, I’m able to keep producing them.

So if you haven’t yet purchased BEGINNINGS or a print or anything else available through my online store page, please consider doing so as every little bit helps me keep everything going on my end with regards to getting the LARA-SU APP launched as well as keeping this website running in addition to moving forward with the KNUCKLES OMNIBUS while I wait to take pre-orders. Every sale is very much appreciated and never taken for granted.

The fate of Diamond Distribution will have a lot of repercussions throughout the comics industry in the meantime. Better to be proactive now than waiting for the hammer to drop. I’m doing what I can now to establish I will be here tomorrow.

Thanks for taking the time checking this out and take care.