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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 4982649" data-attributes="member: 80487">I have not been directly involved in the business since the early '90s, but here are some impressions I have picked up from the periphery.One is that the distributor situation really has people over a barrel now. Is there any competition left? The distributor's interests are not always in line with those of hobbyists, retailers or publishers -- which is bad to the extent that it becomes the tail wagging the dog.The comic-book shops (unlike book stores) are not allowed returns. They have a very targeted market, which happens to be considerably smaller than what more general retailers reach.Heck, comic books themselves are a feeble shadow of the business they used to be in the "golden age", or even more recently.Back to distributors (assuming plural is still accurate): They don't want to keep stock in the warehouse. They do want to ship in big lots. So, they don't want something that sells at a slow but steady rate; they want a flash in the pan -- a BIG flash. Then on to the next, boom boom boom. Out with the old, in with the new, keep that pipeline lubricated.And that has nothing necessarily to do with sales at the retail end; it's not based on gamers getting what they want. Once the product is in Comic Shop Guy's hands, it's his business whether he sells it or not; he still owes the distributor in any case.So, it's a slightly screwed-up feedback loop. It's also hard to get into because you not only need to be able to deliver a big batch of product to the distributor all at once, the distributor needs to see (or expect to see) a lot of demand from retailers.That might be hard to generate when neither the retailers nor their customers have seen the product yet. Wizards, White Wolf and some others are more or less "familiar faces", at least as long as they're churning out familiar stuff. The "d20 System" explosion of publishers left a lot of unsold stuff gathering dust on shelves.Comic Shop Guy often doesn't know much about what's available. He often doesn't get much of a chance. If people wait to place big orders until they've seen the product and customers' responses to it, then it might be too late; the line may have been killed for "lack of interest".</blockquote>

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