How Important Are Conventions to You?

[slg_news]

That was an eerie bit of silence, wasn't it? One thing about Comic-Con, it makes everything just stop for a while, and as much as I want to keep up the blog, it doesn't work out. Comic-Con is a huge undertaking, not in the least because it takes the efforts of every single person in the office, plus a few ringers brought in to kick ass at the booth

Comments

[vee_ecks]

I haven't paid much attention to Comic-Con, as regards comics, since it turned into primarily a video game and movie fest in the last decade. It sure is neat when the secret trailers for upcoming genre movies get leaked, but I don't even remember the last time I paid attention to any news about comics coming out of San Diego.

[slg_news]

There isn't really much news about comics, you're right. But I don't really regard it as a news-feeding event. The signal-to-noise ratio is just not conducive for it. What I'm talking about here is actual interaction, not press releases.

There really isn't much in the way video games there that I saw, actually.

[vee_ecks]

Oh, I'd gotten the impression there was, in years past. In terms of interaction, I just don't go to cons, so I'm probably not the reader you wanted to hear from.

[slg_news]

No, there was comics news, but there's just not a lot of it reaching fans, is what I mean. Smaller companies like ours have little chance of our news getting heard, unless it's something like our Disney deal a couple years back. It's good feedback to know, though -- we need to use the convention to leverage coverage, but it's so hard when you're competing with the likes of Warner Brothers and Twentieth Century Fox.

Chan ramble- go!

[spooky_chan]

I enjoyed seeing the SLG booth at my first SDCC. Not only did i get to see some of my friends who are SLG creators, but I got to pick up some books that i've been wanting for a long time too. [in fact the SLG booth was my only shopping spot the whole con

[tammylee]

I've never attended Comic Con before but if I were to I'd definitely seek out my favourite publishers and check out publishers I'd never heard of before.

I do think a publisher would be missed if they didn't show up. I don't know a lot of what goes on but from what I hear there is a lot of business discussed, alliances forged, projects bandied about, and of course getting to put faces to names. It would be a pity to miss out on that.

[imaginetending]

I actually really want to see the SLG booth when I go to SDCC. I wouldn't just be upset, I would be mortified. The trip just wouldn't be the same.

I think going to conventions is a great thing for the fans and the company. A lot of people wonder around SDCC, and from what I've seen from the conventions I've been to, a lot of people receive a lot of publicity from participating in the booth.

A lot of the fans would be greatly upset.

[gregusa]

If SLG as a whole wasn't there, does that mean none of the creators would be there? That's the part that would upset the fans most, I think. No offense, but as a fan I follow creators, not publishers. It doesn't matter to me if they are at a publisher's table or one of their own. I will find them.

Maybe instead of the company coming out in full force with a big all encompassing booth, you could subsidize tables for more of the creators. Those creators can handle a few extra SLG titles and/or have promotional materials in return for the table subsidy (keep the SLG branding highly visable). I don't know about SDCC but most cons would group them together. Could you make a deal with retailer (or several) at the con to carry everything so the creators attending can send people looking for other books that way?

Hopefully that would free up time and money so you can have a presence at more conventions. Not every fan of SLG gets to go to SDCC. Keep a presence there but also get more creators out to more fans instead of killing yourselves

[jdeguzman]

The problem I see with scattering creators--and they would have to be scattered in Artists' Alley--is that there would be less cross-over purchasing. You might think in terms of creators, but we think in terms of our line as well, so if someone coming to our booth to see Jhonen discovers Ethan Nicolle's work while there, we're doing right by our new artists. Without that crossover, we would probably make less money at Comic-Con than we do now. We would be making less if we had to give a retailers a cut, too.

I'm not sure I asked for business plan suggestions, actually...