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Irishmetal
PostPosted: February 6th, 2012, 3:56 pm 
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Jim Schnobrich wrote:
I don't want anyone to mistake me. I am not saying I think digital comic books should cost the same as the physical copy. What I am wondering is if Brubaker's assertion that $0.99 isn't a sustainable price then what is? Personally I would feel comfortable paying $1.99 for a digital book. When the iPad first hit all the comics were at that price. I figured that that was just going to be the standard price but when publishers started releasing day & date books we all saw those prices rise.

I don't really believe it's pure profit for the publishers to go digital. That doesn't mention that both Comixology and Apple (when buying through iOS devices) both take their cut. Not entirely dissimilar to the amount that the LCS and Diamond both take, I'd imagine. So, how much is Marvel saving by not having to print and ship physical books? Not enough to price them at $0.99 apparently - or so we are lead to believe.



Well, take the yearly salary of all the artists/writers etc (I know there'll be a lot of overlap), add on a bit extra for the tech monkeys and that should be more than enough.

I dunno how many comics are actually sold, but I thought it was around a 15-20K per week cancellation point? If a series makes a full year at near cancellation numbers at $1 a pop, that's $180K for the team on that comic (at a monthly comic rate). There are, what, some 50 or more different comics out each month for the big 2, so that's $9 million a year, each, if all were at lower end cancellation numbers. Adjust for decent sellers and the big event draws, the number increases hugely, probably more than double, maybe even triple. Also, if all the people buying physical at the minute actually bought digital instead (if physical was phased out), they would probably buy more comics since they could be 1/3 the price.

Purely digital won't appeal to a lot of people, but the fact is that it cannot be the same price as physical when it could potentially cut out the middleman completely.

They seem to have a very strange business model which enables the middlemen (Diamond, comixology etc) and Comic Shop owners to survive, whilst only distributing, not creating anything. The fact is that they're completely unneeded in digital terms if the Companies had even a few semi-capable techies. The only hindrance is compatibility for different devices, which is probably why they outsource it at the minute (and I'm hugely against devices that make you pay just to be able to access content you'll then have to pay for). The only other hit I can see, would potentially be advertisers, but there's no way of knowing how that would go. The only two good things about physical (apart from preference, new comics smell, etc) is that it can't (As easily) magically disappear some day (EMP, huge technical failures, etc), and it creates jobs.

I would like to know what exactly counts as sustainable? How big do the profit margins have to be, and what is considered a normal wage for the artists, inkers, etc.

P.S. - not ranting at you, I just needed to get all that down, even though it mightn't (probably doesn't at all) directly answer your question.
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green_flame_616
PostPosted: February 6th, 2012, 4:46 pm 
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Irishmetal wrote:
They seem to have a very strange business model which enables the middlemen (Diamond, comixology etc) and Comic Shop owners to survive, whilst only distributing, not creating anything. The fact is that they're completely unneeded in digital terms if the Companies had even a few semi-capable techies.


I think we have a big part of our answer right there. I would be willing to bet that pre-arranged contracts with a company like Diamond has the most impact on how Marvel is handling digital at this point. If Marvel were to release digital comics at a lower price, it would undercut Diamond. I would be willing to bet that there are stipulations in their contracts that prevent this from happening, in which case it's at least partially out of Marvel's hands until the contracts expire or are renegotiated. The same thing happens, with TV shows and services like Hulu, in determining what is available free, or by subscription, or web only, or not at all. Even if the network and distributor are for offering a program free with commercials, if the production company's contract stipulates web only, then it will be available web only. It defaults to the lowest common denominator, which in the case of digital comics is likely Diamond for the moment.

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Jim Schnobrich
PostPosted: February 6th, 2012, 5:20 pm 
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Irishmetal wrote:
I would like to know what exactly counts as sustainable? How big do the profit margins have to be, and what is considered a normal wage for the artists, inkers, etc.


Exactly.

I does seem that publishers could make more money by selling the books directly to the consumer. I don't imagine that consumers would want to side-load their mobile devices so they will most likely go with an "in app purchase" approach and that is going to incur a transaction fee. You'd be eliminating one middleman (Comixology). Knowing Marvel, though, they'd probably insist that the price has to be higher to cover the amount that Apple or Android takes from each book sold.
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DOOM
PostPosted: February 6th, 2012, 5:32 pm 
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I'm sure there are costs that I don't know about. Of course there are. But for them to even suggest that they make the same profit from a digital sale versus a sale of a printed comic is not only absurd, it's a little bit insulting.

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Jim Schnobrich
PostPosted: February 7th, 2012, 5:13 pm 
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DOOM wrote:
I'm sure there are costs that I don't know about. Of course there are. But for them to even suggest that they make the same profit from a digital sale versus a sale of a printed comic is not only absurd, it's a little bit insulting.


I'm sorry. I don't quite follow. Is Marvel claiming that they make the same amount from a digital sale as they do from a print sale?
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DOOM
PostPosted: February 7th, 2012, 5:33 pm 
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No, I'm inferring from Brubaker's comment that they claim the costs are the same, therefore their profit on said would be the same.
Basically for them to insinuate that a digital comic has to be sold at the same price point as a printed comic for them to cover costs is an insult to my intelligence.

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Jim Schnobrich
PostPosted: February 7th, 2012, 5:47 pm 
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DOOM wrote:
No, I'm inferring from Brubaker's comment that they claim the costs are the same, therefore their profit on said would be the same.
Basically for them to insinuate that a digital comic has to be sold at the same price point as a printed comic for them to cover costs is an insult to my intelligence.


I took it as he was referring specifically to a $0.99 price point. Who knows if the same hold true for $1.99?
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tstarnes
PostPosted: February 7th, 2012, 6:19 pm 
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Are you sure. It seemed he was pretty clear he meant the 3.99 price point, which is where all their new comics cost digitally as far as I have seen.

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