I know, I go on and on and on about DC. But it is generally for a pretty good reason. Here is another example.
The first week of DCnU books hit the week of Labor Day. Because Monday is a UPS holiday, we have a one day delay in delivery. You shouldn’t notice this, because instead of getting the books Tuesday, we would get them Wednesday and I would bust my hump getting them out. The problem with this is that I would then not have the opportunity to read these brand new, first wave books prior to putting them on the shelf. Now, I certainly can’t say that I read everything and that my tastes match all of yours. But, generally, if I tell you something is really good, you (as a whole) will usually like it. Flashpoint is a good example. Most people were planning on passing on the series as a whole, but my enthusiasm (after reading #1) and good reviews and such, have made is as big or a bigger seller here than Fear Itself.
So, what was I going to do? This first week is very important for the entire launch. I could lock the door until I had read them all. Not really an option.
I got an updated DC Relaunch FAQ yesterday (soon to be seen on Bleeding Cool, I am sure) which states:
“UPDATED/REVISED: Will DC Entertainment be able to get comics to us on-time for Wednesday sales on 9/07, the Wednesday after Labor Day?
DC Entertainment has made special arrangements with Diamond to insure timely delivery of our comics that week. We will ship comics to Diamond earlier than usual. We know that there are accounts who normally receive books on Tuesday who did not receive books until Wednesday on the weeks after Memorial Day and Independence Day. For those accounts, Diamond will expedite their post-Labor Day shipments to arrive on Tuesday at DC’s expense.”
This is yet another reason that I view DC as a company that WANTS to do business with me. There is no reason for them to do this. My orders have already been placed. How the books sell through for me is my problem, not theirs. Yes, there is returnability, but I seriously doubt more than 10% of the stores will return anything, and it will only be on #2s that totally tank. So they could have said “Oh, well. Sorry about that.” But they didn’t. They are really stepping up for me and, consequently, for you. They really want this to work.
