I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine. For the sake of this post, we will call him Scotty (his ancestry is Scottish). As I was stating, I had a conversation with him that was initiated by remarks from my wife. Scotty is life long friends with her. Apparently he is an awesome author in the comic realm. My wife was telling me that he had stockpiles of stories and original, innovative characters in them. She was worried because he had mentioned trying to get his works published. The reason my wife was worried is that she has heard me talk about people getting rich off of other people’s ideas, people not protecting their IP (intellectual property), and (sadly) our own experience in the past of having an idea stolen. So, my wife told him to talk to me. Because one thing I did, after having an idea stolen and watch someone else profit from it, was to learn how to protect myself.

After telling me the story, I called Scotty because I wanted to make sure he did not tread down the wrong path. He is insanely talented in writing comics but not very experienced in the business world. I told him not to tell a soul about his characters or his story lines. And if he was serious about publishing his works, that we needed to legally protect his IP. As for the remainder of that particular saga, I will post it here when and if I get him published.

So, why did I tell you that story? Because, during my conversations with Scotty, I was enlightened to the fact that there is only one main distributor for comic books in the United States. That’s right, just one. Marvel, DC, and the rest of the publishers distribute through them. I was amazed that there was a legal monopoly on the comic book distribution chain. Now, of course, I am referring to physical distribution and not digital distribution. This set off all kinds of bells and whistles in my head.

I love to hear about monopolies. That means no other competition in the segment. Most may think, it is too hard to go up against such a giant monopoly. And that is the reason why most are sheep and not entrepreneurs. To be fair, many entrepreneurs would not take on this position either. However, I am not most entrepreneurs and I always look at “How can we do this” rather than “That can’t be done.” Any of you who have done any reading about my experience and background know that I am good at spotting opportunities. Most of them (opportunities) are uncommon unions or hidden to the populous. And typically, I keep them to myself so I can capitalize on them unless I am paid to devise a solution and do so through finding opportunities while under contract. However, I am going to try something new and elaborate on this one. All I ask is that if any of you are successful in this arena, that I get a thank you. Fair enough?

I have led you down a path and hopefully ideas are starting to materialize. I think pretty abstractly, so let me pull it together here. There is one national comic book distributor. There are dozens of publishers. But only one main national distributor. So you can create your comic and even have it published. But if you want that comic book to end up on a comic book store shelf, you have to go through distribution. And comic books are sold through direct marketing. If you begin to search around and ask, the same name will come up over and over – Diamond Distribution. These guys are the 800 pound gorilla of comic book distribution. They have been credited with saving the comic book market through their distribution methods.

It is time for an enterprising person or group of people to begin creation of a national distribution entity for comic books. If you read that and thought, “That can’t be done.” Stop reading because this isn’t for you. However, the right person or persons could make a fortune if done correctly. The 800 pound gorilla is established and ingrained in the minds of publishes. They are big and not very nimble. This is where you be the guerrilla to their gorilla. Here are a few ideas. They have brick and mortar with a large overhead. With the proper business model, management, and connections, you can get started with your home computer. How?

You will need to create your own site and begin to attract comic book authors and artists to talk with you. You can attract them through proper SEO (search engine optimization) to generate leads. Utilize services like Intense Debate, Lijit, and the social networks to get your name out there. I will not walk you through the various ways to use these services. They are social based and you need to figure out what works for your personality. Once you begin to talk to some of them, the word will spread that you are the go to entity for new authors and artists. Visit the comic book events and many of the smaller comic book stores. The smaller stores will be able to negotiate quicker than the larger chains. Offer things just above cost. Remember, you are trying to build a network here. If done successfully, you will be the only other ballgame in town and the revenue will come once you get the support.

Ok. So now you have created a buzz and have authors and artists coming to you begging you to publish and distribute their comic(s). So how in the world do you deliver? You are just one person or a small group with a home computer, some business cards, and some wild ideas. The answer is actually rather simple. Start out with Lulu.com as your publisher and distribution point. Contact Bob Young or one of his staff at Lulu.com. explain what you are doing. They give bulk discounts and you will want to negotiate the bulk based on quantity of total comics rather than the quantity of one title. They have an on demand service and can actually provide you with a storefront and add you to their marketplace. I suggest you take orders on your own site and you place the order with Lulu.com. This way your hard work is protected until you generate enough revenues to take it to the next level. That next level is so broad and vast that I will not cover it here. You could setup a brick and mortar yourself now that you have experience with publishing and distribution. You could hire some awesome web developers to create an ingenious one of a kind digital distribution system and/or subscription service that does not require paper printing and have the option to print a particular comic as an add on service which Lulu can fulfill. As you see the ideas are limitless.

It is funny and scary all at the same time. It is funny that a small conversation with my wife led to unveiling an enormous hidden opportunity in a market segment that not many people know about the inner workings of. And the scary part? That my mind works like this all the time. It’s a curse sometimes. I see opportunity everywhere. To most it is hidden. And this is because you need vision to see opportunity that is hidden in plain sight.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 1:17 am and is filed under Entrepreneurship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.