“So no, I have a much greater interest in publishing products I can take pride in than in "unloading" defective books -- and I'm sure most other publishers, be they small (very small) operations like mine or significantly larger ones, operate under these same principles.”

 

While interesting, I suppose, this statement actually bears no relevance to anything I said.  I said you, and other publishers, were interested in unloading books (i.e. selling them), without having to eat defective copies.  There are two ways for this to happen.  One is to not produce defective copies, the other is to sell them to the direct market with misleading and vague solicitation copy under non-returnable terms of sale. 

But if I misread your comments and you actually meant to say that you
aren’t in the publishing business to sell books, well, I just don’t know what to say to that.  Maybe “congrats, mission accomplished” in light of your comments about selecting material to publish that didn’t have sufficient interest to get into Previews?

 

“ If you're that jaded about the publishing business than A.) it's no wonder you've never gotten close enough to it to understand how it works, and B.) it's small wonder you pre-order anything.”

Classy, though misinformed.  As for “A”, not interested.  See, for some of us comics are a hobby.  Entertainment.  Not everyone who reads comics wants to write, draw, or publish them.  Just like not everyone who watches movies wants to direct, and not everyone who goes out to eat harbors a secret desire to be the next Iron Chef.  For some of us, it is escapism.  And when we are done we go back to the real world with our families, jobs, mortgages…our lives. 

As for not understanding how it works..., that seems to be a common fallback position.  Newsflash, publishing isn’t rocket science.  It isn’t a matter of situational ethics or personal taste to suggest books should be complete and error free every time.  It’s a demonstrably actionable fact.  Diamond’s TOS says defective products, which include those that arrive "not as solicited", are returnable.  The only issue at hand is what the term “defective” means.  If you can sit there with a straight face and tell us all that a book missing half the strips of the sequence it purports to reprint *isn’t* defective then I’ll just have to say your position as a publisher has inoculated you against the burdens of reason, logic and intelligence.

 

As for preorders…? I don’t.  Been burned too many times.  I order it when it says “in stock” at Amazon or instocktrades.  And I *always* check here and elsewhere first.  If something slips by and the discovery isn’t made until after I bought something, it gets returned.  If the retailers don’t like it, they can take it up with the publisher who should have gotten it right.  This is the only way they will ever be motivated to do better.  If it costs them something.


“Meh. So they don't get enough pre-orders, and they don't publish. That advice was intended for a small, self-selected segment of the audience that seems more likely (or inevitably) to be disappointed than not. (Honestly, you've never struck me as someone who is particularly concerned with the well-being of comics publishers -- and we're all well aware of the high esteem in which you hold publishers! -- so that shouldn't be a cause for concern.)”

 

I am concerned with the health of the industry. Publishers who do a good job get kudos from me all the time. When they take shortcuts which result in defects, they get called out.  And publishers with a consistently terrible track record should have their feet held to the fire until they shape up or are driven out of business.


"All there really is...Is Virtue & Vice."

-Chris Robinson