Geek Syndicate Issue 5 | Página 34

Geek Syndicate
Image © Cinebook, 2012

deal. So we switched to single volumes, and sales got better. Hard to argue with that, really!

Marketing and Distribution
GS: Despite a huge increase in public awareness of comics, (in large part courtesy of comic-book films) most high-street retailers seem woefully poor at displaying and selling them. Large scale publishers spend an awful lot of money on in-your-face marketing, but such ploys are not available to everyone.

And it’s paid off, big time! Anyone who’s ever mentioned seeing us at a convention usually talks about the friendliness of the staff, the cool display of beautiful material... and our fantastic convention specials of buy five, get five free! It’s usually accompanied by good-natured grumbling about being tempted into spending too much and having to eat pot noodles for a while, but hey. On a more global level, we’ve recently been included in Diamond Comic Distributor’s catalogue (Diamond Previews), which instantly made us available in a lot more comic book shops across North America. This ought to help tremendously in being seen by the public. Aldous: Another large part of our marketing is the support of our readers. It’s always encouraging to see people coming back and being really enthusiastic about what we do. Often, at conventions,
Image © Cinebook, 2012

when you’ve produced double-volumes such as Green Manor 1 and 2 and The Scorpion 1 and 2 but these seem to be the exceptions, rather than the rule. What is the business rationale behind this, and what kind of feedback have you had from your readers? Jerome: The length and width of the books has been kept larger than the traditional UK/ US comic book format, as you said, to preserve the artwork. French/Belgian artwork is designed for bigger pages, and shrinking or cropping it to make it fit a different format is both a crime and a mistake. Probably one reason so many attempts to publish translated works failed before we came around. As for thickness, it’s a financial reason. Plain and simple, the double volumes didn’t sell as well. People were put off by the price tag, even though, technically, it was a better
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How do you meet the challenge of getting your products in front of people’s faces? Jerome: We count a lot on reviewers, bloggers, websites such as yourselves to sample our products and get the word out there about what’s available from us. It’s been a vital part of our growing success, and we cannot thank you and all the other reviewers enough who’ve taken a chance on our books. Our other method is literally “in your face”: conventions and festivals. Aldous and Goon have been our convention gremlins (sorry, just watched NCIS!) almost from the start, and they’ve done a stellar job of manning the tables, making them look good, communicating with the fans, and following up with all the people they’ve met during the cons. They’ve invested so much of their time I’m constantly impressed by their dedication.