Over at ‘The Unofficial Apple Weblog’ they have an article on digital comics:
Before the launch of the iPad, people who illegally download comic books read them on their computers — compared to a printed comic book, a decidedly inferior experience. However, with the advent of the iPad and the tablet form factor that closely mimics a comic book, Apple’s tablet is liberating illegal comic book downloads from the computer monitor and allowing them to be consumed in a much more appealing and natural way.
There are some interesting points here, and they have come forward with some suggestions:
But the good thing about all this is that comic book publishers don’t need to scratch their heads and come up with a successful business model for digital comic distribution. The people who package the illegal CBR files have written the business model for them. In other words, comic book publishers: just copy the people who are copying your product:
- Release issues at a reasonable price of $0.99 to $1.99 each.
- Release issues the same day that print copies ship to comic book stores.
- Publish all current titles on the iPad.
Read the whole thing hereBegin publishing back issues and series in groups (ie: X-Men #1-100) and sell them in groups of 25 or 50 at a reasonable price.