Thursday, September 30, 2010

At What Cost? Part 3: The Price of Books in Australia


Seeing as I've already gone off on the price of comics in Australia I thought it would just do a quick post on the price of books. There's not too much to be said, but here's the example of why Australian physical bookshops could go the way of the dinosaur.
  • Price of Charles Stross's short story collection Wireless on Book Depository: AUS $7.61 (inclusive of free shipping);
  • Cheapest price of Wireless  in Australia: $15.95 at Borders (inclusive of 'free' shipping)
Actually when I compared prices at www.booko.com I was surprised at the relative cheapness of the book at the Australian sellers, (between $10.95 ans 12.95) however these were primarily all online prices and when shipping was factored in all were raised to over $16. 


Note: prices were as of 26 September 2010.


Plus with statements such as the following on their sites-
  • 'This title is not in stock and needs to be ordered from one of our suppliers.'
  • 'This title is only available online and cannot be purchased through our retail stores.'
  • 'This title is IN STOCK and will be shipped direct to you within 24 hours of you placing your order. You should expect to receive this within 10-12 working days after dispatch. Shipping from our overseas suppliers directly to you and sent via International Post'
I'm assuming then that these Australian retailers are just acting as 'middle men'. 


I have seen Wireless retail in an independent bookstore on the shelf for $21.95.


I'm not saying that it can't be found cheaper in Australia somewhere, but there you go.


Well, there's not much choice to be made, and while the Aussie dollar continues to rise, it'll only get cheaper to buy books and comics from overseas. 

Sunday, September 26, 2010

At What Cost? Part 2: The Price of Australian Comics in Australia

I recently posted on the price of comics and graphic novels in Australia and what it might mean for Australian comic retailers. But as I was in looking at Australian comics recently I was struck by the cost of Australian comics as compared now to American comics (we don't get particularly many European comics in Australia and if we do I don't know where they are).


With the Australian dollar pushing close to parity with the American greenback (as of 26 September 2010 it was hovering around US 96c) Australian comics are now cheaper to buy in hard copy than American comics, which makes them a bit more of an attractive purchase. Depending on the title Australian comics run from about $4-$8 with the average round about $5-$6. For example the anthology Fist Full of Comics #3 was five dollars,  and Andrei ButersDead by 30 was four dollars, whereas Mark Miller's Nemesis cost $6, and Brian Bendis' Scarlet set me back $8.


Mind you not all Oz comics are as well produced as the American titles. In fact few are, and the overwhelming majority are black-and-white. Similarly not all or all are in the standard comic size. Many are in an A5 format i.e.:A4 paper folded in half. That's not a problem for me as long as I'm getting value for money which can come in a variety of guises.


So does this relative cheapness of product translate into more sales for producers of Australian comics? I doubt it.  As I speculated in my previous post on the price of comics in Australia, with the advent of digital comics less people may be coming into comic shops themselves and thus less people seeing Australian comics on the shelves.


For all intents and purposes Australia doesn't have a comics 'industry'. No one makes a living out of comics in Australia. Okay, there maybe a couple, and I mean only a couple, of exceptions to the rule such as Ben Templesmith. Therefore it's not likely that physical sales of Australian comics are going to take that much of a hit. I would argue that most sales for them would come at the annual conventions such as Supanova.


What does this mean for producers of Australian comics if Australian retailers no longer but find it viable to stock American (or any) comics? 


Embrace digital. I think there's no other way to go but for Australian comic producers to throw their hat into the ring. Eliminating printing and distribution costs brings the price down, allows the comics to go full colour and be produced in proper comic size(if desired), and get exposure to an international audience. And now's the time to do it.


If American digital comics are retailing at between $.99-$2.99 then Australian comics can do exactly the same with less overheads. Just imagine 1000 downloads per month at two dollars each. I'll do the sums for you. That's $2000 a month or $500 a week. It's not a fortune but it's certainly enough. Heck you could even live on that, frugally at any rate.


The great thing about Australian comics is they have a wide diversity of styles both in art and writing and there's no barriers to putting out a comic apart from the monetary side of things. This diversity should be on show to the rest of the world and with the advent of digital may well engender an actual Australian comics industry.


I'd certainly love to know if any Australian comic producer is considering or has already done this. Let me know in the comments.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

At What Cost? The Price of Comics and Graphic Novels in Australia

This post speculates how comics will be consumed in Australia in the future (using myself as an example); how consumers will get their comics; where they'll buy them from; for how much; and what this means primarily for the handful of comic retailers in Australia. 

My comic buying agenda has for a long time consisted mainly of graphic novels and collected editions just because I lived too far away from a comic shop to buy single issues and keep up with the monthly output. When I frequented a comic shop I'd browse and pick up a few issues, usually a #1 or one-shot.

I now live in the Melbourne and have the opportunity to hit comic stores more often. The impetus for this post came from the fact that to buy a single issue comic in Australia it now costs double the US cover price.

I bought four comics recently (which are reviewed on this blog) - Nemesis #1 and 2, Bullet to the Head #1, and Scarlet #1, cover prices $2.99, $3.99, and $3.95 respectively. So that translates (roughly) into $28 Australian.

That's a lot for four comics.

To put it in perspective, I can buy a 500 page novel for $30 and that's going to take me days, maybe even weeks to read. I finished Nemesis 1 and 2 on the commute home.

This is just a price example. Let's just stick to price for the sake of argument. We can debate the merits of novels vs comics another time (might be a good comic in itself- Smackdown! Zombie Novel vs Werewolf Comic! The Final Confrontation!).

At the going exchange rate (as of 4 September 2010), one Australian dollar buys 91.65 cents US. So a $2.99 US comic costs approximately $3.26 Australian.

To give a further overview (exchange rates sourced from www.xe.com) -

US       AUS
$0.99 = $1.08
$3.99 = $4.35
$4.99 = $5.44
$7.95 = $8.72
$9.95 = $10.86

So in straight cover price that's not much of a difference. But wait! Before you go off at me, this isn't a post about comic shops ripping off customers by overcharging because I don't believe that for one second. I understand that shops have to ship the comics out here, pay their rent, employee wages, insurance, and everything else that comes with running a business which means they have to raise the retail price accordingly.

But now there's also digital to contend with. With the iPad and the plethora of tablet computers to come which host comic reader apps from ComiXology, Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, etc reading comics on these devices looks to be a much more pleasurable experience.

At between $0.99c and $2.99 US for digitally downloaded comics via a tablet app - probably cheaper via a subscription - the digital price kicks the ass of buying hard copy single issue comics in Australia.

Even though I don't have an iPad or similar, the idea of buying the yearly DC or Marvel 'event' stories via download is now very attractive to me. We're talking probably 50% cheaper more attractive and I tend to buy the graphic novel of these if at all. If and when I get a iPad-like device I'll be looking at downloading comics. I do like the physical comic in my hands, but not all of them. Physical storage is a problem in itself, and if we're being environmentally friendly, then isn't digital better? (We'll disregard for the moment the energy and resources consumed in production of the computer.)
 
Now let's look at graphic novels. The recently released (and excellent) hardback edition of Revolver by Matt Kindt retails in Australia for between $31.95 (the price I bought it) and $55.

It hardly needs to be said that I look for the cheapest price. In Sydney that was at Kinokuniya. But even they can't compete with the online store The Book Depository. Why? Because they offer free international shipping. That's gotta be bullshit, I hear you say. It's not. I don't know how they do it (probably something to do with long tail marketing I suspect, and shipping being built into the price), but they do.

Price for Revolver at The Book Depository is $24.42 Australian.

Amazon is often cheaper for the product itself but the shipping blows their price right out which is sort of confusing considering their size, but anyway...
 
However even as I write this there's another player in the market - Better World Books. They charge a minimum standard price for international shipping but the product price is way cheap too - comparable to Amazon.

Some other price comparisons (prices as of 4 September 2010) are provided below. These price comparisons are courtesy of www.booko.com.au which trawls book store websites and provides prices and shipping in Australian dollars.

Batwoman: Elegy (Hardcover) retails for $31.95 at a specialist comic retailer in Melbourne.

                           Price     Delivery    Total
Better World Books $17.98    $4.33    $22.31
Book Depository UK $23.88    $0.00    $23.88
Amazon US                 

$17.99   $10.89    $28.88

Alias Volume 3: The Underneath (TPB) retails for $22.95 at a specialist comic retailer in Melbourne.

                        Price     Delivery    Total

Book Depository UK      $16.51    $0.00      $16.51
Book Depository US      $16.68    $0.00      $16.68
Better World Books      $15.25    $4.33      $19.58
Amazon US      $16.68    $10.89      $27.57
QBD       $22.95    $6.00      $28.95
Borders      $28.95    $0.00      $28.95


Anna Mercury Vol. 1: The Cutter (Hardcover) retails for $49.95 at a specialist comic retailer in Melbourne.

                     Price     Delivery    Total

Book Depository US    $27.76   $0.00     $27.76
Book Depository UK    $31.83   $0.00     $31.83
Amazon US    $23.21   $10.89     $34.09
Amazon CA    $19.42   $18.87     $38.29
Amazon UK    $30.06   $14.80     $44.86
Borders    $46.95   $0.00     $46.95
Angus & Robertson    $41.95   $6.00     $47.95

Unfortunately it's hard to argue with a cheaper price point.

Apart from the aforementioned Revolver (which I bought because I was in shop and it was there) I exclusively buy graphic novels (and regular novels) from The Book Depository. There's no question about it. It's cheaper and I can wait the ten days it takes for the item to get to me. I haven't bought a new novel in a bookstore for years and don't intend to do so in the future.

What's the only thing that stops one from buying the digital over the physical? For one, the individual's preference for having something physical in hand. Second, that fact you're there in the comic shop. You discover something or see something that you've heard about and you buy it. Basically - browsing. Hoping to find something that appeals to you.

Comics are ongoing. If you get hooked on a series, that's regular monthly income for the comic shop. But if comic consumers are buying their comics and graphic novels cheaper online, whether via tablet apps or book stores, where does that leave Australian retailers? If say, your dedicated fan decides to buy the big DC or Marvel tentpole event via app instead of trudging to the comic shop each week, that's gonna be a problem. The customer isn't in the shop to impulse buy or be recommended other merchandise, and sales naturally take a hit. How long before Aussie comic retailers start to disappear?

Warren Ellis stated recently on his Wired Magazine Column that North America’s top comic, 'a regular US-style comic single, costing $4 that goes directly to specialist comic-book shops', sold an estimated 163,000 issues in May 2010.

Of course that's North America. By way of comparison North America has approximately 300 million people. Australia has approximately 22 million. That's less than ten percent of the US so I would estimate the top comic in Australia sells maybe 10,000 copies if we're lucky. Very very lucky. With eight capital cities and approximately with 2-3 comics shops in each, they're selling maybe 200 copies per store. Australia is just a blip when it comes to comic sales overall. That's the reality. But 200 copies (of just the top selling comic) is still between $12000 and $16000 per month. Add in the rest of the top ten and that could be your monthly profit margin. I'm not a businessman or business owner so I don't know... but it sounds plausible.

Ellis again on his blog said 'every Marvel or Comixology app sold turns an iOS device into a comics store (sort of), and if more than 1800 of these apps are in operation right now, then they outnumber the number of physical comics stores in North America'. I'm assuming that has happened for Australian comic retailers too.

I guess I'm not necessarily predicting the end of specialist comic retailers in Australia, but something close to it. I mean comic shops used to have massive back issue sections but not anymore. Comic retailers dealing with back issues are generally found online now, and I'm assuming that sometime in the future you'll be able to legitimately digitally download any issue from the comic universe back catalogue. We all know you can probably get them some other way...

I have a feeling that in the next few years as digital comics take off there'll be some amalgamation of retailers so each Australian capital city will have one comic shop.

Australia is beset by the 'tyranny of distance'. Always has. Always will be. We're a long way distant from most things (even the major capital cities are distant from each other) and this affects everything. Haulage has to be factored into everything and it's not cheap. Take that cost out and Australian consumers are sitting pretty, or at least more comfortably. Australian comic retailers may well be squirming in their seats.