As noted also in the updated main post below: Dan Manser, director of marketing at Diamond, has confirmed my understanding of the numbers: Indeed, all three findings that have been reported are correct. The 3-4% drops in Diamond’s 2008 sales mentioned in previous interviews with Bill Schanes and Roger Fletcher refer to Diamond’s overall sales, including ancillary products; Steve Geppi‘s quoted 5% increase refers to trade paperbacks; and my “overall comics, magazines, and trades” estimates split the difference. “Your facts/figures bear things out correctly… it’s just 3 sets of statistics/numbers.”
So the groupings would appear to read this way: everything Diamond sells slightly down; comics and trade paperbacks very slightly up; and trade paperbacks slightly up. Thus, 2008 continues the 2001-present run of sales growth found in my own tracking.
Manser also adds that while the “new” column was unintentionally added to the comics list this month — it’s only marginally useful — the column will continue in the trade paperbacks list, even including the month of release. This is a very helpful item, and should provide a lot of interesting insights.
Diamond’s giant year-end charts will appear next week, he said.
Comichron founder John Jackson Miller has tracked the comics industry for more than 25 years, including a decade editing the industry’s retail trade magazine; he is the author of several guides to comics, as well as more than a hundred comic books for various franchises.
He is the author of novels including Star Wars: Kenobi, Star Wars: A New Dawn, Star Trek: Discovery – The Enterprise War, and his upcoming release, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The High Country. Read more about them at his fiction site.
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