Editorial Policies, Promotion and Sales

[sprunkner]

There was a thread posted on IDW's forums a little while ago about what you might do if handed the TF license. It turned into a total fanfic fest. Nobody made any suggestions based in the reality of IDW's constant need to sell books. These stories can't exist in a vaccuum.

Obviously, while all of us have our problems with All Hail Megatron, it's much more of an advertising-friendly title than something like Revelation. IDW has been promoting it with the great variant covers and Nick Roche poster for months and months. Given the 17k figure I've seen floating around online, the promotion hasn't paid off as much as they might have hoped, but there is still the TPB to think about.

So what would you do to promote the comics if you were in Chris's place?

Some ideas:

1) Focus on Decepticons was similar to the free Marvel handouts with the backgrounds on various stories to plug the next group of stories (see March on Ultimatum). Unfortunately, whether for financial reasons or just poor decision, Focus on Decepticons wasn't free. Had it been, and had it been given the Roche poster-cover and accompanied by a similar poster giveaway, it might have gotten more exposure.

2) With the GI Joe license coming up and the inevitable GI Joe/TF crossover, IDW could grab a bigger readership by having both Larry Hama and Simon Furman collaborate on the crossover. I'm one of the TF fans who doesn't buy the GI Joe crossovers, out of a lack of interest in the Joes, but as a confirmed Furminator, I would buy his crossover. Have Don Figueroa or E.J. Su draw it, or a similar fave Joe artist to bring in more fans.

3) Marvel has been reissuing their Civil War and World War Hulk stories as giant sized monthly anthos lately. I would definitely take that tactic for familiarizing readers with the IDW universe, binding the -ation titles in with Stormbringer and the Spotlights. The problem there is how to make up for losses in binding two 3.99 comics together in a comic that the company could charge 5.99 for, max. Cheaper paper, perhaps? The Marvel reprints and Dreamwave reprints are confusing to new readers, despite the pretty new covers the hardcore fans may buy them for. Between the cartoon, Japanese cartoon, Marvel, Beast Wars, Dreamwave and IDW continuities, I don't blame new fans for not jumping on. Focus on the IDW continuity.

4) Finally, the most sure-fire way to attract new readers is to bring in writers and artists that have a following already. Unfortunately, the TF generation is just beginning to come into its own as writers, and many of them are being offered more lucrative projects than Transformers. Brian K. Vaughn is the right age to have played with the things as a kid, but when he's getting offers from Lost, I don't blame him for having no interest. So the creative fans on this board need to write, draw, write, draw, submit their work and make a name for themselves as comic artists and writers outside of the realm of the Mosaics. Get names for yourselves so you can live out your dream.

Good marketing could have avoided the fanf*ck that has been All Hail Megatron and Revelation, and given the IDW continuity more accessibility without sacrificing it. Any other ideas?

[Yaya]

There's only one way to bring in more fans, and that's to bring in big name writers.

That's it. Doesn't matter how good the story is, how great the writing is, how great the art is, if there's no big name writer, there's not increase in sales for the Transformers.

[Best First]

I tried to pick up the second Sideswipe cover in my LCS only to be told that they don't actually put TF books on the shelves anymore as they just don't shift, they only provide them for people who actually order them. The reason cited was that basically its too confusing as there is no clear labelling of titles and too many series.

I totally agree with this and, not sure if this has been mentioned yet, i think the lack of an ongoing has been a big contributor to people peeling off. Sure you could have labelled the arcs Esc, Dev, Rev etc but having a core title that runs monthly enables you to have a consistant focal point for readers and also therefore gives you another regular channel for promoting one shots or alterni-verse series.

Personally i would have had 4-6 issue arcs with say, EJ, GG, Nick and Don alternating on art duties to keep things on track.

I also think this would have limited a lot of the pacing criticms of the earlier series as these would not have been compounded by the X month breaks between series.

In some ways while i think the Spotlights are a nice idea, they are so woven into the events of ation series (for the most part) that they would have been better off as part of the same ongoing comic in terms of keeping people in the loop. You could of course still focus on certain characters POV, but you don't have to badge the issues as such.

In terms of things like Kup, who cares if you have one month where the tale is a little different? it would be a nice pause between the more regular plot threads.

Regardless of your opinion of AHM and what preceeded it we are still seeing a bit of a cack handed approach - a new series launching before the old and notable different one, ended - Imagine if as a result of newsarama coverage you picked up AHM 1, liked it, then next week you see Spotlight: Hardhead in the shops and think you will give it a go - most likley i suspect you just confuse someone and make them feel like they wasted their money a bit.

So in summary:
- Build up a head of steam with a core ongoing
- have trades follow that so its easy to catch up
- only have clearly demarcated stories as seperate series to avoid casual reader confusion

Can't help but feel that its a bit late now to be honest.

[stranger]

IDW could learn to know when to quit. If transformers sales are continually falling, then maybe you need to look at it logically and say "the IP isn't economically viable" or accept that the interest just isnt there.

What you don't do is beat its carcass to within an inch of it's life trying to get it going again. If anything - it just extends the time needed to rejuvenate that property. Sometimes no comic is better than a series of cack handed cock-ups.

[Yaya]

And although Transformers fans are huge in number, we are significantly divided in taste.

You've got G1 fans, Beast Wars fans, Sunbow fans, Animated fans, toy fans, comic fans, Bay movie fans etc, most of whom find that niche and don't cross over.

And even within each niche, say the comic niche, for example, you've got Furman fans and Furman haters.

It's like there's ten different properties!

I think IDW, like DW, has recognized this, and tried to tackle it in the only real way-namely, get a book out there targeted at each. We've got a Furman book, a non-Furman book, movie-verse books, an Animated book, occassional Beast Wars books, and for the nostalgic folk, the reprints.

In this regard, I think it's the only way to go.

However, as far as the handling of the G1 line, I agree with BF. Marvel had an ongoing. It could have easily been broken up into arcs and sold separately. They simply went from one story to the next, whether it be a 1-,-2,-3 parter.

I guess, though, the argument they give that a new #1 gives a jumping on point makes sense.

Sigh. Guess it's just the nature of the beast, the way sales tend to go.

[Sunyavadin]

I totally agree with this and, not sure if this has been mentioned yet, i think the lack of an ongoing has been a big contributor to people peeling off. Sure you could have labelled the arcs Esc, Dev, Rev etc but having a core title that runs monthly enables you to have a consistant focal point for readers and also therefore gives you another regular channel for promoting one shots or alterni-verse series.

I have to disagree, this never hurts Marvel's sales of their various earth-616 titles. They can an X-men title and relaunch it every few months, have a load of titles focusing on specific characters on the go at any one time, with wildly random runs - some last 30 or so issues, others no more than 3. Many titles with the same name or a variant are relaunched halfway through their run, and most people who buy comics regularly are familiar with this sort of thing. I know, they've got it easier having such a massive reader-base, but the principle applies. TF readers are, by and large, found within the fanbase.

What's NEEDED to help newer readers is better exposition on what exactly is available. Give it a back-page spread detailing which TF titles are out this month and which ones are set to come out soon, and how they tie in to each other.

Hell, maybe even go so far as to do what Wildstorm have begun to do with their titles (It's a cheap attempt to garner more readers but it works) - instead of the previews of the first few pages of another comic in the last couple of pages - have a single strip which is split into a few parts and spanned over each title in the continuity which comes out that month, with one part in each.

[sprunkner]

Can't help but feel that its a bit late now to be honest.

I don't think it would be if they would reprint double-sized issues doubling up earlier stories. Stick new covers on 'em for the fans who already have 'em, print on cheaper paper to keep the price down, and thereby reorganize things.

[Manchester Devil]

You've got G1 fans, Beast Wars fans, Sunbow fans, Animated fans, toy fans, comic fans, Bay movie fans etc, most of whom find that niche and don't cross over.

I think IDW, like DW, has recognized this, and tried to tackle it in the only real way-namely, get a book out there targeted at each. We've got a Furman book, a non-Furman book, movie-verse books, an Animated book, occassional Beast Wars books, and for the nostalgic folk, the reprints.

Fat lot of good it did Dreamwave though, and that's before you factor Pat Lee's love of self-portraits, cars and money. Let's not kid ourselves on it being a Dreamwave wonderland - it never was. Besides, it's not like the reprints are bringing in the punters either.

Personally, I would've gone a main series of 3-6 issue storylines with a constistant numbering system alternatingly written by Furman and anybody not called Shane McCarthy or Brad Mick. Art duties will be shared between EJ, Nick, Guido and Klaus with the occasional one-off single issue "spotlight" on an unknown character with a guest artist. With an editor to ensure that there are no massive continuity, art and colouring cock ups.

I would also feature a timeline page for people either getting into the book or to get a brief refresher. Bring out a staggered run of TPBs for anyone who perfer TPBs two months after each storyline.

[Best First]

Can't help but feel that its a bit late now to be honest.

I don't think it would be if they would reprint double-sized issues doubling up earlier stories. Stick new covers on 'em for the fans who already have 'em, print on cheaper paper to keep the price down, and thereby reorganize things.

and put me and thee in charge yeah?

[sprunkner]

You have to wear the short pants and ride in the sidecar.