Diamond Halts All Shipments Of Graphic Novels To Borders

[The Valeyard]

This.....is not good.

Diamond Halts All Shipments Of Graphic Novels To Borders. Apocalyptic Wave Of Returns Expected

Submitted by Rich Johnston on January 12, 2011 – 5:43 pm

Today, Diamond Book Distributors informed publishers that, as of last week, they had stopped supplying graphic novels/collections to the Borders bookstore chain.

They confirmed that this was as result of Borders suspending payments to suppliers, and this included Diamond.

I cannot emphasise the seriousness of this situation enough. Most comics publishers use Diamond Book Distribution, at least in part, to distribute collections or original graphic novels into bookstores. Borders are a very large national chain and right now, hold, or have sold, millions upon millions of dollars of just comic book publisher’s stock, unpaid for, sale or return.

Diamond are in talks with Borders looking to resolve this. It is likely that unsold stock in the stores will be returned en masse, and publishers will be billed for any advances on expected sales they may have received. Either way, this will impact immensely on cashflow across the industry, and some publishers simply will not survive.

And while the likes of DC and Marvel do not deal with Diamond Book Distributors for bookstore distribution, it is likely that they will have their own issues with Borders…

Bleeding Cool

[fujishig]

Haven't been to a Borders in a long time, but how many non-Marvel, non-DC, non-manga (since I believe most manga goes through a different distributor) books do they stock? In any case, not good news for anyone.

[Preterite]

Originally Posted by fujishig

Haven't been to a Borders in a long time, but how many non-Marvel, non-DC, non-manga (since I believe most manga goes through a different distributor) books do they stock?

Loads of Dark Horse - Star Wars, Hellboy & BPRD, Conan, et al.
Image
Top Cow
and loads of indie/small press stuff like Kitchen Sink, Mouse Guard, etc.

[Dick Van Dork]

Originally Posted by Preterite

Loads of Dark Horse - Star Wars, Hellboy & BPRD, Conan, et al.
Image
Top Cow
and loads of indie/small press stuff like Kitchen Sink, Mouse Guard, etc.

Umm, not really.

There is a fairly big manga section at my Borders, but the comics /graphic novel/tp section is 90% DC/Marvel, with the rest mainly Image stuff, 90% of which is Walking Dead. Indy/Small Press is nonexistent.

[Anubis2005X]

Looks like Borders is pulling a Deep Discount...

EDIT: That's too bad, I hate it when stores go under. Less competition is never a good thing.

[davidh777]

I have no idea how many GN Borders moved or if people just read there, but yeah, the loss of any major retailer is bad. Reminds me of the discussion in the anime forum about how the loss of certain mall stores hurt the industry because they did a high % of their business there.

EDIT: To remove embarassing apostrophe added to store name

[fujishig]

Originally Posted by davidh777

I have no idea how many GN Border's moved or if people just read there, but yeah, the loss of any major retailer is bad. Reminds me of the discussion in the anime forum about how the loss of certain mall stores hurt the industry because they did a high % of their business there.

This is also what it reminded me of. Not just the outlets closing, but as this article says, the returned merchandise was a huge problem, and caused a lot of the smaller anime companies to either scale back or go out of business entirely. I expect the same kinds of pains not only for smaller comic book publishers who may have been depending on the one or two books they got out to Borders, but also small book publishers. Anyone know what happened a couple of years ago when Borders closed 200 Waldens?

[Preterite]

Originally Posted by Dick Van Dork

Umm, not really.

There is a fairly big manga section at my Borders, but the comics /graphic novel/tp section is 90% DC/Marvel, with the rest mainly Image stuff, 90% of which is Walking Dead. Indy/Small Press is nonexistent.

I've purchased the last few BPRD trades at various Borders. Out of the three stores I frequent, two of them have a sizable indy section, the size of which has remained stable while the superhero section has shrunk. Star Wars, Hellboy, Maus, Zorro, Lone Ranger, etc. are almost always present.

Wow, it's almost as if your experience is not universal.

[Dick Van Dork]

Originally Posted by Preterite

I've purchased the last few BPRD trades at various Borders. Out of the three stores I frequent, two of them have a sizable indy section, the size of which has remained stable while the superhero section has shrunk. Star Wars, Hellboy, Maus, Zorro, Lone Ranger, etc. are almost always present.

Wow, it's almost as if your experience is not universal.

Star Wars, Maus, and Hellboy are not published by "indy" publishers, unless in the case of Maus you are talking the original issues of RAW magaizne from back in the late 1970's.

[fumanstan]

The Borders by me have a pretty decent selection of graphic novels. I pick up one randomly with a coupon every now and then when I want something to read right away.

[Zbu]

I'm not shocked. We all knew this was coming. Plus the Borders in Ann Arbor have been cutting back their graphic novels something fierce. Unless it was manga, you would be lucky to find anything that recently came out. And it was always MSRP.

[DGibFen]

I have a feeling Diamond is the first of many to end business with Borders:

...Borders has acknowledged that it delayed payments to vendors. In a statement released yesterday to PublishersMarketplace.com, Borders claimed restructuring its vendor financing was part of an ongoing potential refinancing of its existing credit facilities. Without such a move, the company faces a liquidity shortfall. The Wall Street Journal reports that the retailer doesn't know it new funding will materialize and it is unclear whether publishers will be understanding enough to send fresh product.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/12/in-o...ears-eve-news/

[kvrdave]

If I were a large company and wanted to have vendors AFTER the shit hit the fan, I'd risk going under a month early by talking to my vendors so they don't tell me to pound sand afterwards.

[calhoun07]

Borders is the book store to go to where I live so if they go under it will suck. There are Barnes and Nobles around here but they are pretty much not in areas I shop in or go to at all.

[Preterite]

Originally Posted by Dick Van Dork

Star Wars, Maus, and Hellboy are not published by "indy" publishers, unless in the case of Maus you are talking the original issues of RAW magaizne from back in the late 1970's.

They're not published by Marvel or DC either. I can't recall the titles of the indy books I've seen there, but it's clear that the answer to the question, "How many non-Marvel, non-DC, non-manga books do they stock?" is "A significant amount".

[majorjoe23]

Marvel and DC aren't distributed to book stores by Diamond, so they should still be well represented until the distributors they're going through (I'm forgetting which ones at the moment) do the same.

[Numanoid]

Brick & Mortar is dying, and will one day be nonexistent for anything other than perishables, and clothing that needs to be tried on. There's no way around it. Borders and B&N should have died five or ten years ago. Their prices are outrageous compared to online, and people treat them like a library...consuming, but not paying.

[resinrats]

Without brick & mortar stores, my book buying amount will decrease a huge amount. A good amount of books are discovered by standing there scanning the shelves for what's therem, seeing the covers, glancing inside & reading the back. How is that supposed to be done online? Hard to discover things when you need to type in an author/title. Then you have to pay for shipping unless you buy several, then wait. I also get to compare several copies of the book & get the one in the best condition (seems there are always little tears on the spine edges). Online, you're at the mercy of what they send. Would feel like an idiot returning a book for anything less then major damage.

[Nick Danger]

Vendors is aware of that. That's why they are working on preview pages and "you might also like" software.

As for the customers who want to handle a half-dozen books in order to buy one . . . I don't see any booksellers wanting to encourage them. Get used to owning books with their corners smashed in.

[madcougar]

Originally Posted by Preterite

Loads of Dark Horse - Star Wars, Hellboy & BPRD, Conan, et al.
Image
Top Cow
and loads of indie/small press stuff like Kitchen Sink, Mouse Guard, etc.

Outside of some Star Wars and Buffy stuff from DH, I haven't seen to much more for smaller publishers at Borders.

[DGibFen]

Chapter 11 filing coming soon to a Borders near you...

Borders Group Inc. is in the final stages of preparing a bankruptcy filing, clinching a long fall for a company with humble beginnings that helped change the way Americans buy books but failed to keep pace with the digital transformation rocking every corner of the media landscape.
The troubled Ann Arbor, Mich., bookseller could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy-protection as soon as Monday or Tuesday, paving the way for hundreds of store closings and thousands of job losses, said people familiar with the matter.
Borders has abandoned efforts to refinance its debts, and is preparing bankruptcy papers and seeking financing agreements that would keep it operating during the Chapter 11 restructuring process, the people said. Its shares tumbled 33% to 25 cents apiece in 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange trading after The Wall Street Journal reported its plans.
"Borders is not prepared at this time to report on the course of action it will pursue," Borders said in a statement.
Borders's finances crumbled amid declining interest in bricks-and-mortar booksellers, a broad cultural trend for which it offered no answers. The bookseller suffered a series of management gaffes, piled up unsustainable debts and failed to cultivate a meaningful presence on the Internet or in increasingly popular digital e-readers.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...ess_whatsNews#

Ironically, I read an article the other day (can't find it online) that says smaller, locally owned bookstores are still thriving in this market.