Comixology: First off, introduce us to Alterna Comics. What are your titles and who are your talents?
Peter Simeti:We're a graphic novel and comic publisher that publishes creator-owned graphic novels and ongoing series titles in trade paperback format. Some of our more well-known titles are 'Birth' by Michael S. Bracco, 'Jesus Hates Zombies' created by Stephen Lindsay and featuring an onslaught of artistic talent, 'Morbid Myths' created by Hard Way Studios, and ' Diary of the Black Widow' by Bret M. Herholz. We've got over 15 titles here so it's hard to mention everyone's, but that's what websites are for!
Cmxlgy: Tell us about your publishing model, in terms of print/digital.
PS: We started off the traditional way by producing single issues, but we slowly started to find that people were waiting for trades and they were more prone towards purchasing and reading our graphic novel titles, rather than our single issues. With the varying production schedule that most smaller publishers are aware of (day jobs, etc.) it just didn't seem right to have people waiting 3 months or more between issues. So we're striving to put out 2 to 3 trades a year of our ongoing series titles as well as a slew of graphic novels that tell a complete story. We publish mostly black and white books, but we're slowly venturing into full-color territory and we should have some full-color titles available by winter 2008. We've also got a digital line of books that we distribute on sites like wowio and drivethrucomics. Digital publishing has been great to us and we hope the medium and readership continues to expand!
Cmxlgy: How do you decide what to print and what to release digitally?
PS: In all honesty, a lot of it is gut feeling on a project. It's just about knowing which audience the book will speak to and also where our print budget stands. Since we don't want to flood a given month with 5 to 10 graphic novels (costing $10 to $15 each) we tend to release 1 to 3 in a month. This opens up the schedule for our creators, eases deadlines, and it helps to give the books that come out in a given month, a proper chance to be considered and read. So for this reason, digital publishing represents something great for us as it helps us add "test the waters" digitally so we can see how a product would perform physically. Given the niche market of digital comics, this strategy doesn't eat into physical sales as one might think it would. And we also find that people who read our books for free on sites like WOWIO, end up being more inclined to purchase the title than someone who only saw a 5 to 10 page preview of the book. WOWIO is basically like a digital library for everyone, and while some people argue that it is almost like "legalized stealing", it couldn't be further from the truth. WOWIO provides compensation to all the publishers on its system as well as providing an easy to navigate site, if they didn't provide compensation, then it probably would've died out by now or people would have just been using the site to offer small previews of their books. Plus the way we see it, someone can sit and read our books for free in a Barnes & Noble or a Borders without even paying for it - so what's the difference if they decide to sit and enjoy it in the comfort of their own home?
Cmxlgy: It looks like you are releasing titles on Wowio, for free, and through Drivethrucomics, for $.99 (or less), at the same time. What's the thinking behind that, and are people paying for downloads that they can get free, elsewhere?
PS: We started with Drivethrucomics first and later on joined with WOWIO. While we never experienced much success on drivethrucomics, we still find that international customers (who aren't able to access wowio) purchase our comics through that site instead of paying horrendous shipping charges that we unfortunately have to charge. I think one of the problems with drivethru is that people don't want to pay for a low-res product that they can only keep as a file. I think if drivethru was to tie in the PDF model with a physical purchasing model, then they'd be on to something bigger. For instance: if I buy a PDF comic for 99 cents and I read it and want to own the physical book that costs $3, now I'm going to have to pay upwards of $4 to $6 for that book (given shipping and handling costs) - but if people were allowed to use that 99 cent purchase as a "deposit" towards the physical book, then they would be more inclined to purchase the physical book AND drivethrucomics could also receive a percentage cut from that purchase as well. As it is, physical distribution swallows 55% to 65% off cover price, drivethru could easily take 40% to 50% of a sale and publishers and creators would STILL be making more money than they were before.
This is also a system model that WOWIO or any other PDF site could use, because one of my complaints on wowio (even though I love the site) is that they don't exactly promote traffic BACK to the publisher and creator. A simple thing like linking the publisher's name back to the publisher's site, could take the hassle out of google searching for a site - and as anyone with a website knows, the more work you can do to make a visitor's life easier, the more inclined they'd be to keep using your site.
Cmxlgy: For titles that have been released in print, and then subsequently made available digitally, does the digital release have any impact (positive or negative) on print sales?
PS: So far it's had a positive impact on print sales. And so far we've actually had more business digitally, than we ever had physically. I think the digital sites take the risk and doubt out of someone who was leery on purchasing the book. It's almost like the thought process behind renting a video game. Most of the time you rent a game because you don't want to take that $50 chance on what looks good but might not be. But if you at least get to try it out, you might find that it's worth your investment and time. Like I said before, it's just a true digital library.
Cmxlgy: Has this model had any effect on your relationship with brick-and-mortar retailers?
PS: As of yet, not that we know of.
Cmxlgy: What prompted you to try this model in the first place?
PS: Just to gain some more exposure for our titles. We never had any idea it'd be such a successful venture for us!
Cmxlgy: You're obviously not the only small publisher on the block to try a hybrid digital/print model (SLG/Eyemelt comes immediately to mind) or offering free downloads of some titles that are also available in print (many publishers have some titles available at Wowio). Has there been any sort of communication or sharing of best practices among publishers, or is it pretty much the Wild West out there?
PS: As far as I know of, there hasn't been much communication between publishers on Wowio. But maybe they just aren't talking to us! hah!
Cmxlgy: What does the future hold for Alterna—do you plan to continue this model indefinitely?
PS: As of now, we plan to continue this model indefinitely. But we're always willing to adapt to change and new opportunities. Onwards and upwards!
Cmxlgy: Anything you'd like to add regarding what it's like to be an independent publisher in this day and age?
PS: I think right now is the best possible time there is to be an independent in anything. The use of the internet has made communication a breeze (I mean this interview is even through e-mail right now!) and information technology is just constantly growing and allows us to tell stories around a global campfire. It just doesn't get better than this!
