As most Tech4Comics readers will already know, Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc., recently filed for Chapter 11 protection. (If you want to catch up on the gory details, there is a good archive of stories at Bleeding Cool.)
For years, the company held a near monopoly on distributing comics to the direct market. As a result, they had on file the address of nearly every comic book store in North America and many others worldwide. Much of this information was just leaked in a publicly available case document associated with the legal proceedings of the bankruptcy.
The Excel document at the end of this post takes the information in Exhibit A and tries to clean it up with a separate column for state/province and country.
Please, please, for the love of Stan Lee, DO NOT USE THIS TO SPAM THE COMIC UNIVERSE! For one thing, the contacts here are contacts for a bankruptcy. The names of the people listed are not necessarily the same people who could stock your comic. Moreover, you want to build relationships with retailers that provide value to them.
Over on the Comics Experience Discord, creator Timothy Bach of Moonrise Comics, provided some excellent advice on how you might use this list.1
“I've done a lot of retailer outreach, contacting them directly to pitch my books using email, snail mail, and social media. Here's my two cents on what to do when retailer info like this comes into your possession.
Don't spam. Curate. Contact lists are great, but what works best is targeting stores that you know buy indie books. So you'll want to curate a list that works for you.
I'd suggest keeping this list as a database, and using the info to update or add to a more specialized curated list you make. For example, see what stores are in your region. Maybe there are some shops you weren't aware of, or they are beyond your typical everyday travel, but are still within driving distance. Start following them on socials and then begin building a relationship. Share copies of your book, set up a signing, etc.
See if there are stores in an area you frequently travel to (like where your inlaws live and you go all the time). Do the same with those stores.
If you are planning to travel somewhere, especially for a con, look up the state/city and see what shops, if any, are there. When you visit, you can find out what kind of store they are, build a relationship, etc. And when you do, bring books with you to give them, either just to read or to sell in their shop.
For more widespread sales, especially if you are in previews or have a publisher with some kind of distribution, develop a list of stores that are indie-friendly.
Follow them on social media. See which books they champion--try to tie your book to that, like, “You seem to like X, well, my book is for that same reader.”
Then, whenever you have a book to promote, focus on the 30-50 stores that you know stock and champion indie books. Personalize your communication and forget trying to appeal to the 2,000 other stores. Build your list, add stores and contacts. Repeat.”
Because of the potential for abuse of this data, I am putting the file behind the paywall for paid and comp subscribers. These are folks I either know personally or who have engaged with this newsletter in a professional manner. But don’t worry. You do not have to pay for a subscription at this point. About once every two months, I go through the subscriber list and see who is actually opening their mail. Currently, anyone who consistently opens their mail from Tech4Comics gets a comp subscription for a year.
Use this Excel file wisely. Enjoy!
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Tech for Comics to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.