Long time no “see” ! I thought I'd pop on and clarify some things.
1. The S&H is expensive because I'm located in Quebec City Canada and shipping to USA is considered internationnal so the S&H price is higher than if I were to ship within Canada. I did not make the rules and I am certainly not making a dime out of S&H. I'll be glad to show Canada Post proof of the S&H costs.
GCC S&H is 5$ USA and 12$ internationnal.
Also the S&H is based on a plane shipping, not ground, faster but a bit more epxensive. When you pay 38$ usually you want your stuff fast.
2. The specially designed box is indeed very sturdy and protective. What's the point in buying a 38$ book if it arrives with crunched corners? However the S&H costs for the box is about 2$, so out of your 13$ of S&H 2$ is for the box. Not more.
3. Please keep in mind that any transporter charges a “fuel overcharge” since we live in a quasi-oil-shortage, fuel prices are insanely high for everyone. So the S&H is a bit higher than it was before oil prices started to climb.
4. Why cancel the Diamond pre-orders? The pre-orders were too low combined with a prohibitive discount price which Diamond requests from any publishers. So B2C ( business to customers ) was the only solution.
5. Why not make it soft cover? This is a high quality book, a collectible for the shelves, something rare, in fact it'll be even more rare than the GB #1 retailer incentive since I expect to print less than 1000. So I want this trade to shine and be quite unique.
6. I understand that many are frustrated at the S&H costs, I understand but there is no other option for me at this point, it's either that or no trade at all. I wish there was other solutions.
7. This book will not be in book stores, so ordering now is very important. Book stores only deal with big distributors, not small companies like mine, plus when you ship to book stores your books are returnable forever folks. That's right, they can return those unsold at anytime. Plus they also require big dsicounts, as much as 70% off cover price so very prohibitive since they order in low quantities anyways.
Once this is all done and over, I'll sit down and write the story behind publishing comics in these day an age. Most would be surprised that most of small publishers don't make any money. I'm not trying to whine or expect sympathy, I chose to do this because of my passion for GB and I wanted to do it the way I thought was the right one.
I invested all I had and more, the creative team realized my vision of GB in ways I never thought possible and I am very proud of what we've accomplished. Now I hope people order this book because it really defines the future of seeing more stories afterwards, or not.
In a perfect world I would get 1000 orders for the trade, and then for the quarterly I would get 3000 orders for 56 pages issues (no ads) at 7.95$ each +S&H (3$ approx) and we'd be set forever. Alas perfect worlds only exists in our dreams.
My goal is not to sell the most copies, not to become a big powerful publisher, but to do high quality GB comics done the way they should be done, and deliver them to GB fans. In many ways think of this B2C idea as a GB club
GB Comics for GB fans.In the end I'd like to not loose any money while working on my favorite franchise of all time and do something people will buy and cherish. GB is a winner franchise, but comics are in a big decline so I need all GB fans to gather and make this happen.
Finally, I am thankful for all the support from you the loyal fans, without you this would not have been possible.
Cheers
Sebas
P.S. I hope I did not come off as sounding like an asshole. If I did blame my french origins.