In response to the weakened economy, Diamond is ending the print edition of the Previews Adult supplement, effective with the March issue. The catalog will survive in PDF form for retailers. Additionally, Diamond is raising the purchase order minimum from $1500 retail to $2500. This affects ALL publishers, and will be significant for those who resolicit items often; books not expected to reach $2500 in retail orders (that’s copies x cover price) will be far less likely to be relisted in Previews.

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Diamond, the undisputed ruler of direct market distribution, asks vendors to meet two sets of sales guidelines. The first is a general sales threshhold applicable to initial orders, somewhere between $3000~4000 retail, that Diamond expects comics to meet to continue to be listed in Previews. New comics are given a few issues to reach that plateau. If the comic doesn’t, or falls below it after a few issues, Diamond will ask the series to be cancelled. While the sales threshhold is applicable to all products, this is most relevant to the concept of comics as periodical magazines; serials which have limited shelf lives.

Thus the important functional distinction is that the first sales threshhold only applies to the first time a comic is listed in Previews, while the purchase order benchmark applies to new and repeat solicitations. Here’s a fourth example:

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