Why is the cover date several months later then the release date? Its something I have never been able to understand.

_________________

The cover date signifies when it was written vs. when it actually hits stands. Because of processing time the books were finished well before they could be put into print and distributed. I believe the cover date is maintained more or less as a timestamp for copyright reasons.

_________________

That can't be right, because the cover date is well after the book is released. June cover dates came out back in April.

_________________

Yep I was completely mixed up on that one. From wikipedia this time:

"In the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, the standard practice is to display on magazine covers a date which is some weeks or months in the future from the actual publishing/release date. There are two reasons for this discrepancy: first, to allow magazines to continue appearing "current" to consumers even after they have been on sale for some time (since not all magazines will be sold immediately), and second, to inform newsstands when an unsold magazine can be removed from the stands and returned to the publisher or be destroyed (in this case, the cover date is also the pull date)."

_________________

From a retailers point of view, this is the major thing. I work for a company that write software for shops, and I've just done a big overhall of our news and magazine module. One of the most important things is ensuring everything past its cover date is correctly flagged for return, since the retailers are refunded for everything they don't sell, as long as they return it to the supplier.

_________________

I guess I see that, but it still seems a strange policy. For an entire industry (or apparently multiple industry since its magazine & comics) to alter the dates of their magazine several months past when they are actually out so retailers know when to pull the product? Pretty much every industry I can think of, they would keep it consistent for the customer and let the retailer figure it out on their own.

And making it appear so its current even when its old. That might work when the first issues are put out, but 50 years later, I would think most comic buyers would know that the cover date is way delayed from the actual date so they would still know the book is older.

Just doesn't seem logical to me.

_________________

But the newspaper and magazine industry has always worked on the basis that if you can't sell it, you get your money back. It's how publishers ensure you always buy your daily paper, not the competitor, because it's always on the stands, because the retailer doesn't have to worry about overstocking. Therefore releasing you July edition halfway through June makes sense, because the retailer can't send it back until July is over, so may as well keep it out and try to sell it.

Officially they're told not to put it on sale until the cover date, but no-one enforces it, and they're sent it early enough that they'd be dumb to sit on it for so long.

_________________