Tricky New Approach

I advance order my comic books. The closest comic book shop is about an hour's drive from me and I usually pay less than $10 for shipping/handling, so it not only saves money, it guarantees I get the comics I want even if they sell-out at the market level (in stores). However, I get confused - easily and often - by the companies' promotions.

I get PR on comics, titles, and properties 3-4 months prior to their release. For the most part, I have been publishing PR as soon as they come in, more or less since The Rundown began. Because of this, I have missed more than a few opportunities - by the time they're available, I've forgotten about them; whenever a PR on something I want comes through, I go right to my provider and try to order it, and it usually isn't available for order until the next month. I don't think I'm the only one who's fallen prey to this, either.

So I've started hanging-on to the PR for at least a few weeks. I've maintained from the beginning that the natures of blogging and reporting are not the same; I love it whenever I get the chance to bring you some "breaking news" item that not every comics source online has already brought you, but that doesn't happen often and isn't really my goal. True to its namesake, The Rundown "runs things down" - usually long after the dust has settled and some real sense can be made of the situation - and that's what we're going to do with comic books from now on, too.

Again, depending on the nature of the PR and so forth, I may release it as soon as it crosses my desk, but I like the idea of holding onto them until it's closer to the release date. That way, not only are you reminded they are on the way, but you aren't as likely to forget about them before they arrive! It also ensures a more steady stream of content for you to read.

I'm always open to suggestions and love to hear your comments, so fire away, but I think this is a better approach. The only problem is an overflowing inbox which is too easy to ignore for weeks on-end, meaning I'm likely to miss a few PR and announcements along the way until I get a system in-place and become familiar with it.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010