Backlist Publishing at DC Comics

This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on Dec. 13, 2005 Sign up now!

By Calvin Reid -- Publishers Weekly, 12/13/2005

The backlist—popular titles that stay in print and continue to sell for years—is generally the bread-and-butter of traditional book publishing. Keeping titles in print is a new tactic for many comics publishers. But the growth in sales of book-format comics in bookstores is inspiring comics publishers keep their books in print. DC Comics has been prescient about its backlist, making it a priority since at least the 1980s, and keeping such works as Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's Watchmen and many other works perpetually in print.

The importance of the backlist is cited so often that some publishing professionals suggest that a certain conventional wisdom—call it a mythology of the backlist—has cropped up about its role in publishing. Publishers can't survive without it, goes one possible myth; the best backlist author is a dead author goes another.

PW Comics Week spoke with Paul Levitz, president and publisher of DC Comics, and Stephanie Fierman, senior v-p for sales and marketing at DC Comics, about the myths and the realities of backlist publishing at DC Comics.

Publishers wouldn't survive without backlist.

Paul Levitz: Our backlist is growing and its become a more exciting part of our program. We've been growing it for the last 20 years. It's been cool. For us, it's like a new toy in the publishing toybox.

The best author is a dead author.

Levitz: 95% of our sales are from living authors, so we'd have to call that a myth for our purposes.

Stephanie Fierman: Our top 25 backlist sellers are all alive. Modern graphic novels and comics aren't old enough to support this particular myth. The late Jack Kirby and now Will Eisner are probably the exceptions.

The Internet has helped backlist sales.

Levitz: Yes, it's easier to find out what's cool. If you're a fan interested in a particular writer, using Google you can find out what the writer has done. The information is tremendous. Things are accessible. The knowledge and passion of fans helps close the sale. Amazon.com and BN.com have been fabulous closers for us and we get more activity on DC.com than most publishers get through their sites.

Fierman: We have the most diverse backlist of any comics publisher. If you're using Google, you'll find something from DC Comics.

Hollywood helps backlist.

Fierman: Sure, a good movie will help anything, whether its underwear or books. Look at Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's League of Extraordinary of Gentlemen graphic novel series. A relatively modest film jumped the LOEG graphic novels to #1 sellers.

Superstores are a boon for backlist.

Levitz: Graphic novel publishers need knowledgeable handsellers and we need deep selection. Superstores increase the depth of selection of our books. Whether its Barnes & Noble, comics shops or independent bookstores, we need that depth, and then our books do wonderfully.

A new book by an author bumps his or her backlist sales.

Levitz: It was true in 2003 when we published Neil Gaiman's Endless Nights [which hit the New York Times's extended bestseller list]. We had an exciting new title and it had a strong effect on Neil's backlist. It introduces new readers to a body of work. Word of mouth on a new book or great reviews are all great tools for helping the backlist.

Fierman: It's true even when the new book is from another publisher. HarperCollins publishes Neil's prose novels and we use them to look for opportunities to promote the Sandman series. [Endless Nightsis a collection of short stories that continues Gaiman's popular Sandman comics series].

Backlist sells by itself.

Levitz: Not if we're helping it. Publishers tend to work less at selling backlist than frontlist, but we do cool stuff to help sell backlist. We bind CD-ROMs in Sandman books and in Alex Ross's Kingdom Come. We try things to pull readers in deeply to the backlist. If you're a smart publisher, you work at it.

Classics are a backlist cash cow.

Levitz: Not unless you're talking about public-domain material. So, no, we have to work. There's really a short list of graphic novel classics, like Alan Moore's Watchmen (from 1987), our number one backlist seller. People do walk into stores and just ask for it, and it's profitable for us and the creator. But we wanted to be in the backlist business in our category before there really was a backlist business for comics publishers. It's a good business to be in. We've got a list rich in comics from the last 70 years and graphic novels for about 20 years, and we think we manage our backlist business better than our competitors.

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