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| Diamond Comics Struggling? |
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| Written by Administrator |
| Wednesday, 17 June 2009 08:59 |
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Rumors, possibly facts, are going around that Diamond (the main distributor of comic books in the U.S.) owes money to indy publishers and those publishers in turn owe money to creators/freelancers. Now nothing has come out as fact at this point and nothing has been reported, at least at the main news sites - some of whom at least check sources first. We're obviously in a down economy here in the states, as well as the world, and I know first hand that some comic book stores sales are down. Though maybe not enough to worry about their doors closing. But with down sales means down sales for Diamond which might be affecting them since they recently opened and moved into a new warehouse. So they do have some expenditures out there, whether or not that was financed or paid for out of money they all ready had... well I couldn't say. They could also be having problems collecting money from comic stores who's sales are lower than the average. Some stores might not be able to pay their bill. Now you ask how can they get their comics if they don't pay for them? Well if a store has been around for awhile then they most likely pay after receiving the comics - typically 30 days or end of the month. New stores pay COD (collect on delivery). So Diamond could be sending out comics, with costs in shipping and of course what's owed back to the publishers, and not receiving anything in return or partial payments from certain stores. I can say that since 2003 Diamond was never late with a payment from me. They always cut a check 30 days after receiving an invoice from Rorschach Entertainment but never before and never after. I had a good relationship with them, never a problem. Though we haven't put out a book through distribution in a little over a year. The other side of this rumor/story is that the publishers are claiming not to have received money from Diamond and in turn are late paying their freelancers. Obviously if you aren't getting money from your distributor then it would make it nearly impossible for publishers to pay their creators. This has happened before with the distributor wars in the early 90's and the Direct Market nearly collapsed with retailers and publishers going under - Diamond was the only legit distributor left standing. Truth is most of the publishers that are being talked about (not going to name names) are small in size, though bigger than we are, and are most likely losing money on just about every comic they publish - it's been a tough market for indy publishers for years. So no matter what they've got cash flow problems and eventually it was going to catch up to them. Some could very possibly be missing payments from Diamond... hey it is tough to manage all those invoices, mistakes are a major possibility. So it's totally understandable that they can't pay the creators. Diamond of course is going to pay their top suppliers first. But I can also guarantee that some other publishers are jumping on the band wagon and lying about not being paid as a way to excuse not paying their creators. Unfortunately there's a long history in the comic book industry of comic book publishers not paying their talent. And there are current publishers out there, and I know who at least some of them are, that are very shady and have had issues with paying creators. As a freelancer myself, there has been a few times where I wasn't paid and it sucked, especially with bills to pay. Is Diamond struggling? Most likely but it's hard to imagine that they are going to go under or that they aren't paying their suppliers. Are publishers struggling? Of course, indy publishing is always a struggle.
Has more news comes out I'll be sure to make more comments on this developing story. So keep checking back. - James Taylor |
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