Today, IDW and Diamond are taking their relationship to the next level with a kinky new distribution status. IDW–best known for licensed franchise titles like Angel, Doctor Who, GI.. Joe, and Star Trek as well as independent series like Locke & Key and 30 Days of Night–has been named a 'Premier Publisher.' They are the first vendor to snag this classification since 1996. As a Premier Publisher, IDW will have its own showcase section in the front of Diamond's Previews starting with the April catalog.
Here's the nitty gritty from IDW's press release:
Premier Publisher
Under the new agreement and as a result of the company's consistently strong market share, IDW will have premier status within Diamond and Diamond's PREVIEWS, including an exclusive section at the front of the monthly catalog.
Discount and Terms of Sales
IDW Publishing will remain in a traditional buy/sell relationship with Diamond, with their books continuing to be sold to comic shops under Diamond's Terms of Sale (unlike Diamond's brokerage arrangement with publishers like Marvel and DC Comics where Diamond acts as a sales agent). Discounts will remain unchanged at this time.
Final Order Cut-Off
IDW will be added to Diamond's Final Order Cut-Off Program sometime in the near future. "Since IDW is a traditional buy/sell vendor, we have some programming work to do, but we expect to have that finalized later this year," said Schanes.
Book Market Distribution
Diamond remains the exclusive book market distributor of IDW's publishing efforts. "We're extremely proud of the progress we've made in helping IDW grow its sales in the book store market over the last five years," said Diamond Book Distributors VP Sales & Marketing, Kuo-Yu Liang. "From their strong licensed properties to their successful launch last year of the Worthwhile Books line for kids, IDW has adeptly shown what products will sell into the book market channel."
IDW's grown a lot in the past ten years. Once known primarily for scooping up licenses from TV and movies, these days it's the movie studios coming to them. Just take their original properties like 30 Days of Night and Locke & Key. The former's available on blu-ray and an adaptation of the latter is currently in development. And don't forget their tremendous collected editions of comics like Torpedo and Darwyn Cooke's Parker series. Big ups to IDW for moving up in the world.
Honestly, I think it all has to do with those sleek place-holder ribbons.
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This is pretty fascinating. They’re a company that sprang up from almost nowhere, helmed by Chris Ryall, who you might have first gotten to know as the guy behind Kevin Smith’s Movie Poop Chute. With some really stalwart licensing effort, and just the right original content, IDW has made incredible strides against the other companies, eclipsing publishers with a lot more history than them. I think it’s an incredibly good thing for the industry that IDW can succeed in this way. After Crossgen, I think a lot of people didn’t think it was possible.
I love seeing a little guy get big on merit. I know I’ve gone from being barely dimly aware IDW existed to anxiously awaiting their new releases every week in the span of just the last year or so. Go IDW!
Seriously, Locke & Key, best book on the racks.
Impressive. Nice work, IDW. Keep it up.
@Paul: Agreed. I didn’t know Locke & Key was up for a movie option but it makes perfect sense.
@JesTr – Yep, looks like Dreamworks has it and Kurtzman and Orci (Transformers, Star Trek) are scripting. Last I heard anyway.
So…. did it just get easier to break into comics? XD
No.
=(
Great to hear for the small company. Of course they have been doing great work with their GI Joe, Transformers, Angel adaptations. Plus Locke & Key is one of the more popular titles to hit the stands every month.
I hope this means even more work comes to the company. We might be seeing a ‘Image’ like rise if they keep it up.
Does this mean their own section on the release list every week?
In sort of similar news, did anyone else notice that DCBS broke Boom out from their "Other Comics" section to put alongside Marvel, DC, and the rest?
thats nice, to bad for the last 3 issues diamond has been shorting my LCS of Locke & key and the GI: cobra books.
@s1lentslayer: Probably.
Ahhh…good for them. Not a fan of all the licence stuff, but they put out some great work by Templesmith and Wood, among others. Well deserved.
Great news for them!Does that mean Dark Horse gets pushed to the back?
@harwellpkg: No. It’s not like there can be only so many companies listed as premier.
@erichouston: I did notice that a month or two back. I sort of thought Boom! would be the next premiere publisher.
@JFernandes: Here’s Diamond’s estimated market share for February 2010 by unit / dollar:
Marvel – 42.56% / 38.77%
DC – 34.89% / 29.59%
Dark Horse – 4.20% / 5.62%
Image – 3.37% / 4.23%
IDW – 3.00% / 3.68%
BOOM! – 1.99% / 2.10%
DYNAMITE – 1.70% / 1.80%
IDW and Image have been jockeying back and forth for fourth place for a while now. I’m not surprised Diamond has moved them up.
@conor: Thanks for the stats.
I’m glad to see them get the push up, especially given how close they are to Image regarding the market shares. As long as they keep pumping out great series like G.I. Joe: Cobra, Locke & Key, and pretty much anything that Templesmith touches, they’ll keep getting my money.
At the rate BOOM! is going it might also become a Premier Publisher as well. Amazing considering it’s only been around for…..what? 1-2 years?
@TNC I think BOOM! is in great shape to grow. They have some very solid original series, and with the Disney/Pixar licensed comics, as well as the Muppets, they have the potential to dominate the kids share of the market. Not sure how long those licenses will last now that Disney owns Marvel, but for now at least, I think they are doing some great work. I’m actually surprised that IDW made it before Dynamite. Maybe it’s just because Dynamite seems to have more books I am personally aware of, but they seemed on the brink to me for a while. i think Lone Ranger is one of the best books out there, although it rarely gets talked about.
@John: Yeah they need to plan in the future if they wanna stay around. If Marvel/Disney takes away those licenses then they need as much original productions as possible. I wouldn’t worry about it though cause so far, Boom! has been good at making original ideas.
@conor:Regarding your stats,does that mean someone has a shot when they hit 3% of sales?
@harwellpkg: Beats me. That’s a question for Diamond.
@harwellpkg: I’d imagine it would be a matter of consistency.
To bad all thier comics are still $3.99