George Walkley’s posterous

Warren Ellis on economics of comics

Very interesting Warren Ellis column in this month's Wired:

"I just pulled up North America’s estimated comics-sales figures for May, and the top comic sold 163,000 issues that month. That’s a regular US-style comic single, costing $4 that goes directly to specialist comic-book shops. The top ten comics for that month sold a combined number in excess of a million units. The top 20? Somewhere over 1.6 million. And these estimates are usually lower than the real sales figures. Plus, of course, all these single issues will eventually be reprinted as trade-paperback collections. Tell a book publisher those numbers and see what colour they turn . . ."

"But here’s the thing that interests me: what happens when a big, cult audience gets entrained to buy bits rather than atoms? We’ve seen that before, but not necessarily with the people Hollywood relies on to open a film or buy a DVD."

Paul Carr on self-publishing and peremptory jackasses (via @eoinpurcell)

Paul Carr on characteristic form. As Eoin says, he's got some valid points. It doesn't stop him being provocative though:

"You see, I love my publishers. Absolutely adore them. Couldn't live without them. Furthermore, I think anyone who willingly abandons theirs in favour of self-publishing, is either delusional, a peremptory jackass – or both."

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/29/self-publish-and-be-damned/

80s choose your own adventure meets 10s music marketing

Via @stml:

"Hurts and Manchester novelist Joe Stretch have created a wonderfully unique experience . . . an interactive audio novel which utilises Spotify in a completely new and unexpected way. Each chapter of the novel has been published as a track on Spotify, and can be located by typing a unique code into the search field. After listening to each chapter of the story you’ll be offered a choice of what to do next . . . If you manage to get to one of the story’s eleven possible endings without dying, you’ll be rewarded with an exclusive preview of an album track."

@financialtimes on physical retail and smartphone promotion

Interesting piece in the FT on using location-based smartphone promotions in physical retail. I haven't heard of any bookshops using location-based services as part of their marketing strategy, but it seems like a natural step.

"In a sign of how the new generation of internet-connected phones is set to transform traditional retailing, [Best Buy] has deployed a location-based marketing tool developed by Shopkick, a California-based start-up . . . Customers who activate the Shopkick application on their phones will automatically receive 'kickbucks' credits just for entering the store that can be traded for benefits."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e986b328-a320-11df-8cf4-00144feabdc0.html