Say What?! - Judging A Book By It's Cover
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How important are bookstores to comic books today?
I'm not talking your direct market shops, I'm referring to Barnes & Noble, Border, Amazon.com and the like. We always hear that certain stay alive in the direct market because they sell well in the bookstores (the DC Kids and Marvel Adventures lines are prime examples). Bookstores are also the reasoning for the rise in hardcover editions.
And yet, whenever I go into my local Barnes & Noble or independent bookstore, I still don't see anyone in the graphic novels section. There are many more shelve filled with them now than there used to be, but at best they'll be a young child sitting with some random volume of Bleach. I don't see these high brow consumers that we're told shop in bookstores but not in actual comic shops.
Am I alone in this? Is my store just a fluke? Or is the whole bookstore line an excuse to print more and different versions of reprinted material? It's a fair assumption to think that those who buy TPBs would also buy a hardcover, not to mention those fans who buy every version.
So do bookstores act as a bridge to comics? Are they selling to the same audience just in a different location? Are they selling at all?
Goblin
Posted to Say What? on 6 June 2008
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: Bookstores, Kids, Say What
depends on the bookstore, i think. i'll occasionally pop in to borders if i have a particularly good coupon and i want to pick up an absolute edition or something, but because i fetishize my books, the ones you find in bookstores are generally a little bit too picked over and manhandled for my taste. i also don't think for a second, despite the voluminous amounts of manga for sale, that they do much actual selling of manga, since in my local borders it just seems like kids camp out in that section all day and read everything they can without actually buying.
that said, in my neighborhood (hyde park in chicago) the nearest comic store is not at all nearby. thankfully, the seminary co-op bookstore (and 57th street books), both of which are traditional bookstores (the co-op being primarily an academic store), are pretty good about stocking their comic selections, both in terms of getting the major trades right away and more obscure trades you might not even find at a comic store.
god help you if you want to find single issues, though. it's why i missed out on batman 676, and now i'm in a rut to start batman r.i.p....
The local Barnes & Nobles and Borders in my area (East Atlanta/Lower Midtown Atlanta) always seem to be loaded with people in the graphic novels area, kids and adults alike. I go to the local B&N sometimes myself, but my local comic shop is only a few blocks from that, so there's not much of a point.
My local B and N, has a shelf for Manga and a shelf for graphic novels/DC/Marvel stuff. I'm usually not the only one browsing that section (at least 2 or 3 others), but they are usually just interested in the manga.
They usually have setups to the side for whatever comic has a movie out. I think they do a decent job at targeting the casual comic reader.
I think it's ok since it has the bigger name books, but I prefer my local comic shop since it has more than just DC/Marvel.