The comics industry isn’t what it was in it’s heyday – but then you knew that. Gone are the days where single issues were the primary way in which we read our comics; indeed as I write this, the next thing I intend to read is a hardcover collection. With a growing number of people forgoing floppies in favour of trades, one has to wonder what a publisher can do to encourage people to return to buying the individual floppies instead of trade waiting. Below you’ll find a few ideas that I think are actually viable (whether they’re good or not, I leave to you).

• Reduce the price of the floppies. Yeah, it’s obvious. No it likely won’t happen…. unless publishers follow Alterna’s example and return to newsprint comics. Alterna have proven that a $1.50 price point for newsprint comics is a sustainable price point, and from the buzz I’ve been hearing, it would seem that the price point has done wonders in pulling new customers into the Alterna fold.
• Don’t collect every possible comic into a trade paperback. If there’s a couple of one-shot stories in the series, then leave them out of the inevitable trade; reward those buying the floppies with a little extra content that you’d be producing anyway.

• Include content that won’t be found elsewhere. Whether this is going to be something along the lines of a short interview with the creators, or a few pages that show the progress of a page from pencils to inks to a fully coloured piece of art; adding a few pages to the comic with something simple such as this is going to be appreciated. A great example of this is Valiant’s Pre-Order editions are a prime example of this; a large number of people (I don’t have exact numbers) went the pre-order route which gave them bonus content that wasn’t in the regular comic – and won’t be found elsewhere.

• A different digital comic! Not a digital copy of the comic you’ve just brought, because, frankly why do you want a copy of the same comic, but rather a digital version of an earlier trade that’s slightly related to the story at hand. You’re reading Old Man Logan? How about the first two issues of Origin? If done digitally then there’s really no cost to the publisher (assuming the has already adopted a digital distribution model), and it could encourage folks to delve into some stories they might not have read. The downside is that there’s a decent chance the reader has already read the free bonus – but it’s still free.
• Give away a free digital thing. Rather than a digital comic that some of the audience may have read, how about an exclusive wallpaper for your phone, computer or iPad.

Absolutely not the kind of coupon I mean.

• Coupons! Not the physical kind you clip from a comic that are the bane of a collector’s existence, but a single use code that you enter on the publisher’s site in order to unlock a free comic/merch item after you’ve brought a certain number of them. This could be anything from accruing points to redeem against a publisher’s online store, or even unlocking a bonus Annual or Zero issue that will add to the enjoyment of a future series. The hidden benefit of this for publishers is that they’d be able to gather some valuable data on who reads their comics, and depending on if it’s a physical reward, where and by whom their comics are being read.

Obviously some of the benefits of reading trades will never fully be overcome by floppies. The ability to get a full story in one sitting without waiting weeks in between issues is always a benefit, but the way the deluxe hardcovers look on the shelf is also a plus over the stacks of long boxes – and those hardcovers are much easier to reread with the added long box navigation.