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September 26, 2006


Newsarama: Bob Wayne Discusses FOC

A new interview with DC Vice President - Sales Bob Wayne at Newsarama puts back into the spotlight DC's decision announced late July/early August to move to a Final Order Cutoff system for their books.

Retailers please scream at me if I'm getting this wrong, but "Final Order Cutoff" or "FOC" programs allow for Direct Market retailers to adjust initial orders up to a final cutoff date depending on type of product. If a retailer were to see a surge of interest in an issue of a title, for example, they could adjust upwards their orders on subsequent issues or books in related series to capitalize on that surge. This mitigates against the retailer having to guess weeks and weeks in advance the exact level of interest in any project, particularly subsequent and related issues in series, issues that depend heavily on the level of interest established with the first offerings. It should allow popular series and initiatives to better build sales as they go along, because there won't be a conservative dip in orders a few issues in by retailers protecting themselves -- understandable in a non-returnable world.

It's more work, but it gives the retailers more control to negotiate hit books, crap series and crucial changes in creative teams and the like, and as much as I know about such things I'm all for it. It seems particularly appropriate to a market driven by huge, very specific hits as opposed to year-in, year-out perennials.

Wayne's interview is a fine primer; he notes that DC's variety in format offerings make this a more complicated program for that company to institute. It's actually encouraging to hear Wayne admit there will be a learning curve for DC to figure out how best to apply the information they'll get back, which indicates they're open to pursuing any advantages that arise, and aren't just locked into the ones they expect.

Marvel instituted (or began to institute) this kind of policy in 2003 partly (I think) as a way of solving the lateness problem that exposed them to a retailer lawsuit, DC announced a trial program with its 52 weekly series back in September 2005 in a way that successfully allowed retailers a chance to support that series by avoiding over-conservative guesstimates brought about by having more issues in play in a smaller time window.
 
posted 10:10 pm PST | Permalink
 

 
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