VALIANT December 2013 and End of Year Sales Discussion

[BugsySig]

First info released from Diamond today:

http://www.newsarama.com/19986-2013-com ... ic-gn.html

PUBLISHER - UNIT SHARE (2013 ALL)

MARVEL COMICS 36.97%

DC COMICS. 33.35%

IMAGE COMICS. 8.49%

IDW PUBLISHING. 5.10%

DARK HORSE COMICS 4.50%

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 2.59%

BOOM! STUDIOS 1.92%

VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT 1.06%

ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT INC 0.76%

AVATAR PRESS 0.74%

[Phoenix8008]

Nice that VEI stayed above the 1% mark still even without the huge bump from Unity #1. Might still be a less big bump from Unity #2 affecting it, but we'll have to wait and see when we have the individual issue sales numbers. Hopefully that'll be out by the end of this week or very early next week at the latest.

[jedimarley]

November unit share 1.74 and dollar share 1.58

December unit share 1.06 and dollar share 0.98

[bygranddesign]

I read those numbers(0.98/1.06) as the TOTAL year .. not december

[BugsySig]

I read those numbers(0.98/1.06) as the TOTAL year .. not december

Yes, those are for the year. I should have specified. Top post fixed

[Phoenix8008]

Oh, I see. Well then that's pretty good to have their yearly average above 1% too.

[hawkeyeps]

We're the 1%

[drmirage]

We're the 1%

Funny Post

[comicsyte95]

1% Rule!!

[bygranddesign]

[BugsySig]

December Publisher Numbers via Newsarama:

PUBLISHER - UNIT SHARE
MARVEL COMICS - 36.56%
DC COMICS - 31.13%
IMAGE COMICS - 8.07%
DARK HORSE COMICS - 6.35%
IDW PUBLISHING - 6.17%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT - 3.25%
BOOM! STUDIOS - 2.12%
VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT LLC - 1.16%
ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT INC - 0.91%
AVATAR PRESS INC - 0.81%
OTHER NON-TOP 10 - 3.45%

PUBLISHER - DOLLAR SHARE
MARVEL COMICS - 35.42%
DC COMICS - 27.22%
IDW PUBLISHING - 8.18%
IMAGE COMICS - 7.32%
DARK HORSE COMICS - 6.28%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT - 3.22%
BOOM! STUDIOS - 2.06%
VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT LLC - 1.11%
EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS LTD - 0.98%
ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT INC - 0.91%
OTHER NON-TOP 10 - 7.32%

[bygranddesign]

1.16 isn't too shabby we had to expect a pretty good drop from last month.

Look forward to seeing the sales numbers for each title .. Expect a huge drop for Unity #2 but Hopefully we see a little bump up for some other titles that have been dropping.

I just went back and looked at the January sales discussion

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=39310&hilit=Sales" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We were at 0.93 Market share in January .... Each year is a Baby step

[jedimarley]

All titles are under 10k. Unity #2 just over 18K.

[jedimarley]

XO MANOWAR lost 4,500 readers in twelve months. This has to worry vei.

[jedimarley]

Bloodshot is ready to fall under 8K.

[leonmallett]

All titles are under 10k. Unity #2 just over 18K.

Unfortunately it looks like Unity has cannibalized sales of some other books. And that the myriad variant covers clearly inflated the sales of #1.

Shadowman gained a little, I wonder if a bigger jump was hoped for?

Quantum and Woody had a big drop among the more established books. I know what I would attribute that to, but wondering if the blame will be laid at just one door, or if the book needs some serious examination. Only 4 VEI books have sold less than Quantum & Woody #6, and they were all released in November or December 2013.

[BugsySig]

All titles are under 10k. Unity #2 just over 18K.

Where'd you see the numbers Jedi? Comichron says they are up, but the page says coming soon when you click on the link

[BugsySig]

Where VEI books fell in the Top 1000 comic books for 2013:

235 Unity 1 $3.99 Valiant 66,200

And Top 1000 TPBs:

350 Harbinger Vol. 1 Omega Rising $9.99 Valiant 3,300
414 Archer & Armstrong Vol. 1 $9.99 Valiant 3,000
549 Bloodshot Vol. 1 $9.99 Valiant 2,500
648 X-O Manowar Vol. 2 Enter Ninjak $14.99 Valiant 2,200
734 Shadowman Vol. 1 Birth Rites $9.99 Valiant 2,000
747 Harbinger Vol. 2 Renegades $14.99 Valiant 2,000
800 Quantum & Woody Vol. 1 Worlds Worst $9.99 Valiant 1,900
845 X-O Manowar Vol. 1 By The Sword $9.99 Valiant 1,900
994 Archer & Armstrong Vol. 2 Eternal Warrior Amazon $14.99 Valiant 1,600

Comments: Only 1 book in the Top 1000 this year after 2 (XO #1 and Harbinger #1) in last year's Top 1000. The TPB sales are not bad, especially if you look at some of the TPBs around and below them. Also keep in mind some had longer time to sell those amounts, like XO Vol 1 which was released in 2012 originally, and others, like Q&W Vol. 1, have only been available for a few months in 2013.

[greg]

All titles are under 10k. Unity #2 just over 18K.

Where'd you see the numbers Jedi? Comichron says they are up, but the page says coming soon when you click on the link

http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicss ... 13-12.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[greg]

Imagine you have 7 children and you are giving each of them their allowance in October.
All together, you handed the children a total of $77.

In November, you have 7 children who get a total of $68 in allowance AND you spend another $60 to adopt an 8th child.

In December, you have 8 children who need to get an allowance.

You might consider splitting $68 or $77 eight ways, because there are now 8 children.
If so, each child would get less money, but the total of $68 or $77 would be the same.

Instead, in December you spread $83 across all 8 children because you also added additional family income.

Is the family doing OK?

This is the story of Valiant comic sales from October to December 2013.

October, 7 titles, 77,000 copies.
November, 7 titles, 68,000 copies plus Unity #1 at 60,000 copies.
December, 8 titles, 83,000 copies.

[Phoenix8008]

While I'd prefer to see the numbers going up instead of down, I'm continuing to be optimistic for the future. I think VEI is okay to hang in there for awhile and if they can do that, their stability and consistancy will speak for itself, as will their qulity and storytelling. I still have high hopes, but with no data to back it up, all I can do is keep buying the books I want for me and supporting the company the best I can. Gotta get home later and plug in these December numbers to my Excel database.

[Chiclo]

Imagine you have 7 children and you are giving each of them their allowance in October.
All together, you handed the children a total of $77.

In November, you have 7 children who get a total of $68 in allowance AND you spend another $60 to adopt an 8th child.

In December, you have added an 8th child who also need to get an allowance.

You might consider splitting $68 or $77 eight ways, because there are now 8 children.
If so, each child would get less money, but the total of $68 or $77 would be the same.

Instead, in December you spread $83 across all 8 children because you also added additional family income.

Is the family doing OK?

This is the story of Valiant comic sales from October to December 2013.

October, 7 titles, 77,000 copies.
November, 7 titles, 68,000 copies plus Unity #1 at 60,000 copies.
December, 8 titles, 83,000 copies.

greg sounds more optimistic than Jedi. I wonder how VEI's average print run per title stacks up against the other indys, like IDW, Zenescope or Dynamite. Dynamite publishes some dreck with absolutely miserable print runs.

[greg]

greg sounds more optimistic than Jedi.

Jedi doesn't like the numbers falling PER title, but the only way to add titles is to take money from non-Valiant or from other Valiant books.

Which is more likely:
a retailer who says "another Valiant book? I guess I'll cut down on this other publisher to up my Valiant order."
-OR-
a retailer who says "another Valiant book? I guess I'll spread my current Valiant money... maybe put in a little extra."

The second is far more likely than the first, and it appears to be what's happening.

Jedi seems to want the first retailer (wouldn't we all?), but it's not realistic.
I'm happy that we're seeing the second retailer putting in the little extra for Valiant.

I wonder how VEI's average print run per title stacks up against the other indys, like IDW, Zenescope or Dynamite. Dynamite publishes some dreck with absolutely miserable print runs.

Easy to check the Top 300 Comics (rough numbers, anyway):

December 2013 - Average Number of Units in Top 300
Marvel 36272
DC 30123
Image 15296
Dark Horse 14300
Valiant 10335
IDW 9478
Avatar 9240
Dynamic Forces 9203
Boom 9108
Archie 8580
Abstract 7581
Bongo 7260
NBM 7271
Zenescope 6765
United Plankton 6745
Archaia 5940

Publishers with books outside the Top 300 are only being judged on their top-selling titles, not on their full line.
Valiant has no books outside the Top 300, so Valiant's numbers are for the full line of titles.
Other publishers at the top of the list have low-sellers that aren't included.

If we use all the listings in the December 2013 Comic Sales report on Comichron.com, we get title averages of:
Marvel 35,388
DC 28,255
Image 12,343
Valiant 10,335
Dark Horse 9,505
Avatar 7,774
Abstract 7,581
IDW 7,522
NBM 7,271
Dynamic Forces 6,812
United Plankton 6,745
Bongo 6,390
Boom 6,152
Zenescope 5,854
Archie 4,439
Archaia 3,272

[rjrjr]

All titles are under 10k. Unity #2 just over 18K.

The Unity #1 to Unity #2 fall was to be expected. We should expect that title to fall for a few more issues before we find out what it's "floor" is. I'm guessing around 10,000 which has been were most of these titles settled. The recent solicitation has 5 or 6 variants, so that will help keep it's numbers elevated for a while. What I'm surprised at is the the other titles haven't found a floor yet. I though 10,000 was the floor, but now all the titles (minus Unity) have fallen through that floor. I suspect we are going to see new floors as Valiant ramps up the number of titles.

It seems there is a constant readership for Valiant books and Unity doesn't seem to have reached out to new readers. That makes sense though since the characters in Unity are from their existing titles. New books with new characters are going to be needed to grab new readers.

[greg]

... Unity doesn't seem to have reached out to new readers. That makes sense though since the characters in Unity are from their existing titles. New books with new characters are going to be needed to grab new readers.

That may be true but we don't know yet.
Unity #1 wasn't in stores at the time December 2013 orders were placed.
The effect of Unity #1 won't be known until January or February numbers are in.