Eric Reynolds Responds To Chris Butcher On The Area of Order Fulfillment

From this article:

"Speaking from our point of view though, we like the opportunity to deal directly with Fantagraphics, because if Fanta has a book in print, then they will have it in stock. That is not the case with Diamond. We hope that Fanta knows what they're in for on that front."

I appreciate Chris's concerns and these were concerns that were paramount to us before striking the deal. But part of our new relationship includes access to sales and inventory data that we will be checking on a daily basis to ensure that supply more than meets demand. Diamond will stock every single title we have in print and we will monitor this inventory constantly; this was not the case in the past and was fundamentally part of the problem with reordering Fanta titles thru Diamond. Fulfillment will be much more efficient, fast and cheap than it was both for retailers who previously reordered directly from Fantagraphics and those who stuck to Diamond for reorders. I appreciate what Chris is saying and fully expected it, but would respectfully ask that he wait-and-see.

Chris goes on to add that "many [comics publishers] aren't happy with their exclusivity deals with Diamond," and while he may be right, I would also add that our arrangement is not necessarily identical to our competitors. With all due respect to Christopher, I wrote most of the news about the distributor wars in the early to mid-1990s. I broke the news of Diamond's exclusive deal with DC Comics. We are not ignorant as to the realities of today's or yesterday's marketplace, and our considered stance on the subject of exclusivity over the last decade-plus has very much informed the establishment of the particulars of this new relationship. We obviously wouldn't be doing this if we didn't think we -- and by extension, our retail partners -- should improve our sales considerably as a result.
 
posted 7:55 am PST | Permalink
 

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