ACTION:
ON PRE-ORDERING
BY WARREN ELLIS

---

Pre-ordering is the act of ordering your comics at the same time as they are solicited for comics stores to order, two months or so before publication.

The Warren Ellis Forum advocates that comics enthusiasts and evangelists who attend their local comics store at once a month should pre-order their comics.

The main pre-order tool is Previews, a 400-page catalogue released monthly by Diamond Distributors for the ordering of comics and other merchandises. Most comics stores will either give or sell you a copy of Previews, or let you read a copy at the counter. You'll either get a form to fill out, or be asked to note down what you want on a piece of paper. Ask your store how they prefer to receive pre-orders. If they won't accept pre-orders -- and if you routinely cannot find what you want on their shelves -- then find a store that will. Or order by mail or via the web. The Forum's preferred location service is http://www.the-master-list.com.

If you order your books from Previews - that is, order them based on the information therein, two months before their publication, just like the retailer - you are accomplishing many things.

You are showing the retailer that there is a committed audience for the work.

You're offering the retailer a guaranteed sale.

If enough people at your store pre-order a book in this manner, the retailer will likely order an extra couple on top to put on the shelf for general sales. Which means you're creating the opportunity for other people to discover the work.

If it's just you, then chances are good that the retailer will take a look at the thing themselves when it arrives. You've placed the work within the retailer's awareness. This is an important achievement. I don't sell books because I'm the greatest writer since Dickens. I sell books because the majority of comics retailers know my name.

It obtains a firm sale for creators of independent and marginal comics. This is crucial. Ordering comics is guesswork from both ends. Neither the retailer nor the creator actually know how a book will sell. But you've just given a deserving creator one guaranteed sale. And one will lead to another. And therefore you're building the way towards that creator DEFINITELY being able to continue working.

(And if you want to be an activist for the good stuff that slips through the cracks, then you'll pre-order and you'll do something else. You'll print off an online ad or a virtual ashcan or a short webcomic and take it to the store and put it in front of your retailer with your copy of Previews and say "I want to order this." Want to know where to find such things? Watch the Forum.)

Okay: pre-ordering is a pain in the arse. No, it shouldn't be necessary. Yes, it validates the behaviour of what a retailer friend of mine calls "catalogue shops" -- stores that just order Spider-Man for the racks and make their customers pre-order from Previews if they want any other damn thing. Yes, in a perfect world, we should be able to walk into any comics store and get what we want off the shelves. But you may have noticed that this isn't a perfect world. And when you tell me that you won't pre-order because what you want should be on the racks -- then you're guaranteeing a continuation of that situation. And helping us all slip further down the spiral. Should-be's are killing us.

If you want to make comics better, then you need to ensure the good stuff survives, as a foundation for what is to come. It starts here - with you.