Before we go any further, I'm gonna talk for a moment about the riddle of comic book and graphic novel marketing. Just to make sure we're all clear on this, ok? The riddle is this: how do you create enough awareness of a new book that folks are talking it up? Especially talking it up to their local retailers (be they Direct Market retailers, Book Trade retailers or both). Retailers need information before they place there orders and, with a new book by an unknown creator, there is very rarely anything for them to hang their hat on. If a book in this situation gets ordered at all, it'll often be because the retailer believes in the publisher of said book and is willing to take a chance. Even that, though, often results in "onesies and twosies" and that’s it. And, in my experience as a bookseller, it doesn't happen that often. For titles to be ordered broadly enough, there really needs to be a tangible sense of interest and excitement; retailers need to able to feel this. While some retailers will hand-sell a book (Moggy and I did this directly with Mary Doria Russell's fantastic debut novel The Sparrow), creators cannot rely on this to happen. If it does at all, it'll only happen a handful of times.

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