I’ve been reading with interest on Newsarama.com the travails and frustrations of Micah Wright, whose “Stormwatch: Team Achilles” was canceled (with numbers that were, frankly, not much different from “Fallen Angel.”) Which gave me an idea, but I’ll get to that later. What struck me the most was that his experiences in boosting readership paralleled my own. He said:
When the monthly book was cancelled a week later, I noticed that a lot of online readers were saying things like “I’ve never even heard of this book… is it really as good as people here are saying?” That’s a bit depressing to hear… that someone’s never seen a copy of the book on the shelves of their Local Comic Store? Interestingly, another group of people expressed disappointment because they were following the book exclusively in trades. A third group of people were saying “Ðámņ, I’ve been seeing the new art team online and I was waiting on that third trade to jump onto the series.”
I’ve talked a lot online about lessons learned from this series… one of them is this: no nine-part story arcs while the book is still young. People whose store didn’t carry early issues can’t find the first part of the story so they wait for the trade.
Fans never heard of it, retailers didn’t stock copies to be seen. Boy, is this familiar. I can assure Micah, though, that the lesson he learned is pretty futile. “Fallen Angel” launched with two done-in-one issues, followed by a four parter, followed by a five parter. Made no difference. People who *found* the first issue said *they* were waiting for the trade.
But speaking of the trade, that’s the most intriguing aspect. According to the article, pre-orders are now very brisk on the third trade paperback of S:TA. In fact, fans are acting in concert to order copies. Only problem: The book doesn’t actually exist. DC cancelled the trade. So the tactic is of questionable effectiveness.
The trade of “Fallen Angel,” however, has not been cancelled. However, the quantity and, even more important, the speed with which the book sells is likely going to determine the future of the series.
If you’ve already bought the issues and don’t want to pick up the TPB in addition, I can totally respect that. If, on the other hand, you want to, so you can give it to a friend or something, hey. Great. Heck, as always, send it to me with a SASE to PO Box 239, Bayport, NY 11705 and I’ll sign it and send it back. And if you’re planning to buy the trade anyway… order it now. Bump the numbers up. Spread the word. Get some buzz going. What can it hurt?
Hopefully our esteemed webmaster will put a direct link to it (so you won’t have to slog through the astounding number of books, CDs, DVDs etc. that are all called “Fallen Angel.”)
Let’s see how high the Fallen Angel can fly.
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