After the break are a couple more retailer responses on BOOM! Studios' Hexed/MySpace promotion. The first round-up can be found here. My thanks to the retailers who responded.
Also received a press release from BOOM! in my in-box tonight ... apparently their staff is working at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles every Wednesday in January. "Some of the best times I had growing up came from hanging at my LCS on new comic book day. We just thought what better way to support the release of HEXED than spending our Wednesday evenings helping out at Meltdown?" reads the quote from Chip Mosher. "And hey, who doesn't like to get paid to hang out at comic book store?"
And meet celebrities like M.F. Grimm:
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Carl Jansson, Comic Universe in Fountain Valley, Calif.
In general, what are your thoughts on companies putting their comics out on the Web for free like this? Do you think it ultimately helps or hurts sales (or neither)?
I think, especially in BOOM!'s instance, that it's a great way to build buzz on a book that many readers may not know about. I think it definitely helps sales, at least a little bit. This is the way of the future for comics, I believe. I'm glad to see publishers, especially the smaller press, using any tools they have to get the word out on their product. Web Comics, PDF files, anything they can use to promote, we will support and get the word out. The publishers definitely need to let us know in advance though, so we can let our customers know.
Did you order Hexed #1? If so, how has it done?
We ordered a few copies, and it has sold as well as other BOOM! titles.
Have any of your customers who bought the book mentioned the MySpace promotion?
Just one.
Has the MySpace promotion affected how you plan to order future copies of the book?
A little bit I suppose. Myspace is a great promotional tool, and has helped build buzz for this, as well as the Dark Horse Myspace Presents trade.
What was your reaction to how the promotion was communicated, via the video from Mark Waid?
To be honest, I never saw the video.
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Ryan Higgins, Comics Conspiracy, Sunnyvale, Calif. (who answered the questions in the comments field of my previous post).
In general, what are your thoughts on companies putting their comics out on the Web for free like this? Do you think it ultimately helps or hurts sales (or neither)?
I think it’s a fine promotion, but who knows if it turns into sales or not. I very rarely have someone tell me “Oh hey, I read this free on MySpace, now I’m going to buy a copy!” We sold one copy of the first MySpace Presents Dark Horse tpb, despite having a Joss Whedon story in it.
Did you order Hexed #1? If so, how has it done?
I ordered the generic 2 copies for a new series, received the 5 free copies for being a Top 500 retailer, and sold one copy as of Monday morning. Unless the others start selling soon, I will order 2 copies for another issue, and then drop it to one, assuming I continue to only sell one copy. If #2 doesn’t sell, I will reduce the order to 0 copies for the next issue.
Have any of your customers who bought the book mentioned the MySpace promotion?
No.
Has the MySpace promotion affected how you plan to order future copies of the book?
Nope. See my 2nd response for my future orders.
What was your reaction to how the promotion was communicated, via the video from Mark Waid?
I got an e-mail, but I didn’t see a video, so … I have no reaction!