From a commercial perspective, the history of the rise of graphic novels in the 21st century has not been truly written. John Shableski From 2007 to 2011, he served as sales manager for Diamond Book distributors and shared some early memories, as well as some timelines of development. Diamond Book Distributors is the department that sells graphic novels to bookstores and at some point represented nearly all major comic publishers – they still work with dozens of publishers.
2003: Diamond hires Kuo Yu Liang to launch DBD
2003: Librarians begin reporting that graphic novels are producing a dramatic cycle of increase, essentially a mechanism for tracking ROI. The circulation of any category or topic is usually equivalent to a copy of the library purchasing more books to meet the needs.
2004: ALA Commission’s Excellent Graphic Novels (Kate right (chair), Eva Volin, Robin Brenner, Barbara Moon, Mike Pawuk, Todd Krueger, et al.)
2007: KU hires Janna Morishima and then John Shaableski
2008: Shableski joined the BEA Advisory Committee, Morishima created GN programming for BEA in Anaheim, and Shableski wrote programming for ALA DC of the Year and Miami Book Fair.
2009: Morishima facilitates the release of Midwinter Ala.
Commissions and programming may not sound like exciting news – if not like Jeff Smith, Kazu Kibuishi and Raina Telgemeier – But, as someone who reports when these events happen, believe me, this is a huge development that leads to the current $2 billion North American comics market.
Given the future of diamonds, this is John’s memory.
– Ini MacDonald
John Shableski
I received a call from me sometime in August 2007 Kuo-Yu Liang Invite me to join the recently established Diamond Books Distribution Department. He said they are building a team that they “make things happen or know where the next thing is going to happen.”
A year ago, I met KU at the Diamond Books booth during the annual meeting of the American Library Association. Ritchie JohnsonHe was then the senior vice premier of DC Comics trade sales, and he incited what was about to become Graphic Novel Museum at the annual meeting. Ricky convinced Michael Martens As Rich puts it, “Librarians are exactly what the industry needs now”, and dark horses are on display in this special show.
Later that summer, I got a call with KU and he said, “There are some cool things in the book department and I think you are a perfect fit for the team.” He went on to explain that there was a great opportunity for the Diamond Book department to come Help shape
Marketing, working with librarians and independent retailers and helping comic publishers grow into markets they never fully understand. He added: “You’re going to talk about libraries now, but we also need some help with the independent book market”, so this is where I’m going to start using DBD.
My first sales meeting at Diamond Headquarters was really great. The team is basically NASA-style skunk work: we have three great people from Borders/Walden Books: Emily Bottica, Josh Hayes and Stu Carter. Scott Hatfil from Ingram distribution Develop our international market. Doug White Also from the traditional book market, he used to be a buyer Baker and Taylor. Cameron Drew Represent the Canadian market through our partnership Manda Group although Simon Byrne Represent us in the UK and other international markets.
Then Janna Morishima Who has come from the academics she has ever had Co-created Graphix Brand. This is the one who brought the skeleton soft cake into the same building ruled by Harry Potter. Janna’s Diamond Show is a development of children’s publishing program.
When I first looked around the room at that meeting, I realized that KU had built something amazing. Whenever we have an idea that might take us to New York, Miami, Chicago, and even West Texas, KU says “Go and find out what we can do.”
One day in October 2008, Janna and I both had meetings in New York. I served on the Advisory Board of the Book Fair and at that meeting, Jenner and I were working with it Francoise Mouly At the press conference for her Toon Books Indrint (It will be held at the American Library Association’s Winter Conference). Among other meetings, Janna invited me to a meeting in the mayor’s office Barbara striptease He was the Director of Library Services at the New York Department of Education at the time.
The meeting was attributed to Janna and Melissa Jacobs Who works at Barbara. Barbara brought her staff together for the meeting, and Janna and I had to share with them the growth of the market and how the value of children’s comics can quickly become a great tool for literacy in young children. Janna gave an editorial and developmental speech, while I stressed the importance of the impact of public libraries on categories. The point is: Independent bookstores don’t know what graphic novels are, comic shops don’t carry them, but librarians know that the books drive their business in ways that have never been seen since the arrival of videos. The original entry point for the graphic novel is through the young adult section, where you will start to find the titles, namely Viz and Tokyopop.
At this conference, Janna must explain how comics challenge early readers and challenge readers. I have to share information on the explosive impact of graphic novels on the circulation of public libraries. Remember that school libraries and public libraries have very different ways of choosing and buying books, so this approach from the director and her team is not entirely normal.
When we’re done, striptease simply, Jenner and I will be training in service to the NYD Department of Education librarians after the spring. She didn’t ask or ask- she just said it could have been.
As we walked out of the building, we both realized we were going to talk to librarians representing over one million students. Graphic novels quickly became “a thing” for New York City schools. This happened because of Jenner.
So what happened to our book department? We are stranded by a stale operating system created for comic retailers and financial terms designed to control comic stores. Our ordering system and title database are both DOS. Yes, that weird green screen that most companies left behind in the late 90s. Diamond is still using it in 2007. Due to the incredibly lazy system, the library cannot be ordered directly from us.
The work around is to promote publishers at trade shows and convince librarians to order from places like Ingram, Baker and Taylor or Broda. Even the process of loading title data into the system is driven by the “direct market staff” who put the title into the system title at once, and he operates it in a direct market language. Just like when talking about Aramaic, the entire publishing and distribution world speaks English. When I asked him this time, he just shrugged and said, “I don’t know, that’s what I was told to do.”
When developing an independent bookstore market? Comic store currency cash cash cash diamond direct market terms are not emerging. Independent bookstores get standard payment terms From traditional publishers This allows the store to try new authors or publishers and have the opportunity to return unsold titles and/or delay 120 days. Again, these terms allow and encourage market development for any publisher.
In DBD, even the return policy is abused. A store will get a box of nonsense that has nothing to do with their orders and they will get stuck because people either deal with the retailer’s returns either don’t care or don’t know. When I was in charge of policy for our credit department, remember her, she was hired for a major home – her reply was “If the direct market hears you’re doing this for a bookstore, then everything will Sideward.”
We have a solid team in the book department, we have a great partnership with independent book representative companies, we have integrated into them with library wholesalers, they all say, “This works fine and we will help you But you have to adapt to the real world. ”
Therefore, the recent news about the demise of diamonds is not surprising. In many ways, this is a sad thing. Our team has done a lot of work for everything we have. We have a great team, a think tank, and any idea can lead to changes in the industry. KU gives us all kinds of running space – as long as it grows for the market development of us and the industry as a whole. Some publishers listened and thrived, while others didn’t. If diamonds adapt and evolve, it would be a completely different conversation.
Before joining the publishing industry, John Shableski lived his former life on radio and cable TV. Over the past 20 years, John has been in book distribution, library wholesale, professional development, conference and conference development, he created industry awards and became a juror for the Eisner Award. He has consulted for Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation, Norman Rockwell Museum, Archie Comics, Heavy Metal Magazine, Udon Entertainment and several other homes. He currently manages the Otto Bookstore, one of the oldest independent bookshops in the country.
