Papercutz: Kids' Comics Pep Talk
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An overview of the challenges and exciting possibilities with selling kids' comics in the North American Direct Market. Presented by Papercutz at the 2013 ComicsPRO Annual Meeting in Atlanta.
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Papercutz: Kids' Comics Pep Talk
- 1. Kids’ Comics Pep Talk! ComicsPRO 2013
- 2. WHAT EXACTLY IS PAPERCUTZ? A publisher dedicated to bringing more kids’ comics into the world In fact, we’re all-ages, all the time!
- 3. We publish a mix of original titles . . .
- 4. . . . and favorite characters!
- 5. We believe that comics are an essential part of childhood . . . . . . we think comics should be FUN . . .
- 6. . . . and we’ve had some success with this so far! 1M Sold! 350K Sold! 700K Sold!
- 7. WHAT EXACTLY IS PAPERCUTZ? We’d like to bring some of the wild growth of children’s book publishing to comics stores . . . . . . and we can only do that together!
- 8. THE TROUBLE WITH KIDS’ COMICS . . . • Kids love comics • Parents buy comics • Yet sales to our current DM audience are soft IMAGE SOURCE: Action Flick Chick
- 9. THE TROUBLE WITH KIDS’ COMICS . . . Our challenge is to develop a NEW audience of kids and parents in comics stores! IMAGE SOURCE: Action Flick Chick
- 10. THE PROMISE OF Kids Love To Read KIDS’ COMICS • Books are kids’ #1 media choice • (Video games, for those keeping score, is 6th-favorite) • Kids take pride in reading goals SOURCE: Bowker / Scholastic IMAGE SOURCE: Comics Observer
- 11. THE PROMISE OF And They Like to KIDS’ COMICS Read In Print • Digital = 10% of children’s book sales • (We’ve seen it closer to 3%) • 61% of parents prefer print • 80% of e-book reading kids prefer print SOURCE: Bowker / Scholastic IMAGE SOURCE: Comics Observer
- 12. THE PROMISE OF KIDS’ COMICS Children’s Books SELL (boy, do they ever!) • In 2011, Children’s was 10% of $27.2B in Trade sales • While Adult Trade fell 2.6% . . . SOURCE: Bookstats 2011 / AAP Statshot IMAGE SOURCE: Wired
- 13. THE PROMISE OF KIDS’ COMICS • . . . total Children’s Trade grew 9%, Children’s Fiction grew 12%, and Children’s Print grew 9%! SOURCE: Bookstats 2011 / AAP Statshot IMAGE SOURCE: Wired
- 14. THE PROMISE OF KIDS’ COMICS • In Jan ’12, Children’s Print grew 65% • In Sep ’12 (our most recent data month), Adult fell 1.5% and Children’s grew 24% • (We could go on like this for days!) SOURCE: Bookstats 2011 / AAP Statshot IMAGE SOURCE: Wired
- 15. THE PROMISE OF KIDS’ COMICS This is the strongest performance and fastest growth in the entire publishing industry! SOURCE: Bookstats 2011 / AAP Statshot IMAGE SOURCE: Wired
- 16. THE PROMISE OF KIDS’ COMICS • Today, Children’s accounts for 2-3% of DM periodical sales, and 4-5% of graphic novel sales • A retail strategy aiming for 10% sales from kids’ comics wins! SOURCE: Comichron IMAGE SOURCE: Wired
- 17. Building this second revenue base can help smooth out the ups and downs in other areas
- 18. HOW A KIDS’ BOOK CUSTOMER THINKS (This Is Where It Gets Tricky!) • Kids drive the purchase • Kids are heavily influenced locally . . . • . . . friends, family, librarians, and teachers are the strongest influencers SOURCE: Bowker IMAGE SOURCE: The Commercial Appeal
- 19. HOW A KIDS’ BOOK CUSTOMER THINKS (This Is Where It Gets Tricky!) • Kids purchase on familiarity and shelf browsing • Libraries and online retail rank high on the list of acquisition points • Both have personal attention and recommendations SOURCE: Bowker IMAGE SOURCE: The Commercial Appeal
- 20. HOW CAN WE MAKE IT HAPPEN? PARTNER WITH INFLUENCERS ENCOURAGE BROWSING ADVERTISE FAMILIARITY BECOME A THIRD SPACE
- 21. HOW CAN PAPERCUTZ HELP? PARTNER WITH INFLUENCERS • We market heavily to schools and libraries • Our Educator’s Resource Guides help teachers use comics in their classrooms • Our press list includes dozens of parenting blogs, and growing every day
- 22. HOW CAN PAPERCUTZ HELP? ENCOURAGE BROWSING • Our Retail Resource Kits include tabletop displays, posters, and shelf-talkers • Prints and mini-comics are available for free giveaways
- 23. HOW CAN PAPERCUTZ HELP? ADVERTISE FAMILIARITY • Our Retail Resource Kits include pre- approved window signs featuring our most popular kids’ properties! • We publish the hottest kids’ properties, many of which are under the radar of mainstream entertainment and comics news, such as . . .
- 24. LEGO NINJAGO • Six NY Times Best- Sellers, with two #1s! • Over 1M copies sold • Top-rated TV animation • Sell-out toy sets outperform Star Wars and LEGO City themes
- 25. ANNOYING ORANGE • Cartoon Network show is #1 for its time slot among Boys 2-11 & 6-11 • Reaches 99M homes and over 10M kids • 1.5B views on YouTube and 2.6M subscribers • 11.5M fans on Facebook and Twitter
- 26. THEA STILTON • Over 700K copies of Geronimo Stilton graphic novels sold • Over 6M Thea Stilton chapter books sold • Strong female role models and an environmental theme
- 27. STARDOLL • World’s largest social gaming site for Girls 9-17 with over 200M members and 900M pageviews • 190K new signups daily • 2.3M unique visitors monthly • Average session time = 18 minutes
- 28. ARIOL • New kids’ series from Emmanuel Guibert! • 40K sales per volume internationally • Our best-reviewed series launch
- 29. BENNY BREAKIRON • “Lost” Classic from Peyo! • First U.S. edition • Superpowered rolemodel for kids
- 30. THE SMURFS ANTHOLOGY • New original-size hardcover series! • Stories reprinted in original publication order • Essays, photos, and sketches
- 31. HOW CAN PAPERCUTZ HELP? BECOME A THIRD SPACE • We love store promotions! • Co-Op ad $ available • Special terms on large orders for promotions • Marketing support and free book prizing
- 32. LEGO BUILDING CONTEST • Timed with FCBD • Kids build scenes using LEGO Ninjago bricks • Graphic novel prizes
- 33. ILLUSTRATED SUMMER READING CONTEST • May 15 — Sep 15 • Kids make comics about books on their “Summer Reading” list • Great chance to collaborate with local teachers • Graphic novel prizes
- 34. HALLOWEEN COSTUME CONTEST • October! • All costumes are eligible • Pre-approved party decorations • Graphic novel prizes
- 35. STARDOLL FASHION DESIGN CONTEST • Nov 15 — Dec 15 • Kids make original fashion designs • Grand-prize winners featured in an upcoming book! • Graphic novel prizes
- 36. WE’RE READY TO BRAINSTORM — GIVE US A CALL! • PAPERCUTZ.COM • @PAPERCUTZGN • PAPERCUTZGRAPHICNOVELS • POST@PAPERCUTZ.COM
Editor's Notes
- • Emphasize our commitment to kids’ comics — ALL of our resources are devoted to this• We have no adult titles or prose or magazines or anything else
- • We all grew up reading comics and we know how important it is for both literacy and developing imaginations, etc. • BUT, more importantly, comics should be fun, and this is a central part of everything we publish• Fun comics sell well
- • Some of our highlights – we’ve found that kids’ books can really move units and find a large audience
- • Out in the wider world of publishing, children’s publishing is always growing, and always driving dependable revenue• We’d like that same impact to be felt in comics stores• Conventional wisdom says it’s all up to stores, or all up to publishers, but it’s really a team effort
- • Most of the sales of kids’ comics are falling outside the Direct Market• We think comics stores are the experts in hand-selling comics, and more kids’ comics sales should be happening there as a result
- • Right now, we mainly sell kids’ comics to existing DM shoppers who have kids themselves• The way to increase sales beyond their current levels is to create a new, additional audience• If parents and kids see your comics store as a place to shop for their kinds of books, and not just B&N, Amazon, etc., they’ll come
- • Contrary to conventional wisdom, we’re not losing kid readers to video games • Kids are, in fact, sometimes MORE avid readers than adults because it’s all novel to them• This is all based on real data – these particular survey results are from the most recent Bowker study on kids’ reading habits, and a Scholastic report on e-reading habits
- • While something like half of all adult book sales are digital today, children’s is an astonishingly lower percentage
- • We shouldn’t be selling kids’ books because we feel obligated to, but because we can make money doing it• Good thing is, kids’ books seriously move units!
- • Basically every bit of data shows that children’s book revenue grows in every year, no matter what’s happening economically, or how much Adult book sales decline
- • Most bookstores rely on Children’s as their dependable revenue stream• Comics stores already have a dependable revenue stream in the mainstream superhero comics, but children’s offers you a SECOND one• Building it requires that second audience – it won’t come from the existing superhero shoppers
- • Even though the parent spends the money, the kid decides what it’s spent on• Kids respond instinctually to what their friends and surrounding adults encourage them to read
- • The question here is, “Why are these the top acquisition points, and what can I do to become a top acquisition point?”• Stores will never beat online retail at convenience, but stores can beat online retail at recommendations• Trying to offer your customers similar services as libraries and online retail will replicate the experience for them, and drive them into stores
- • PARTNER WITH INFLUENCERS means working with the folks kids listen to and letting them know you have books that kids want. This could mean partnering with libraries on Free Comic Book Day, working with local teachers on comics-in-the-classroom programs, or marketing your store to parents as a family-friendly destination• ENCOURAGE BROWSING is the obvious one, but kids browse differently than adults. They don’t look at spines, and they react to books that are face-up on tables at their height. Kids REALLY respond to shelf graphics and posters• ADVERTISE FAMILIARITY is also straightforward. Once you have the familiar product that kids know about in-store, let them know with outward-facing graphics, window displays, etc.• BECOME A THIRD SPACE in the community. For kids, their first two spaces are home and school, and the third space can absolutely be a comic book store. Stores that have events and encourage hanging out become a third space for kids.