Comics sellers at Comic-Con bugged me.

[The_Julian]

So Comic-Con was last week. Maybe you heard of it. You also may have heard that I went to it.  

While I was down there, one of my main priorities was to get a copy of "Scott Pilgrim Volume 6" at the Oni Press booth.  In line, the sales people tried to do their whole schpiel of trying to get me to buy more stuff at the booth.  One that they seemed to be really proud of was "Super Pro KO," a title that Bryan Lee O'Malley (Scott Pilgrim author and artist) was quoted on the back of the book as enjoying.  I liked the 80's manga style of the art and a book that Bryan Lee O'Malley liked couldn't be that bad, so I picked it up on the spot.  

Thats when the salesman said it. "You're really gonna enjoy that one. It's just like Scott Pilgrim, but with wrestling."  That bugged me. Really bugged me. I couldn't get it out of my head.  The day came and went and I still couldn't stop thinking about it.

That nagging sensation only persisted as I read the book. I did not get a Scott Pilgrim sensation as I read it. Sure, it may have a similar spirit and the hyper-kinetic fun that Scott Pilgrim boasted is definitely there, but that's where the comparisons ended. The protagonists of the two series were nothing alike, the stories had obvious differences, and the book as a whole was thoroughly it's own thing. So why did the salesman feel the need to sell it to me as "just like Scott Pilgrim, but with wrestling"?  I even found out that a similar marketing strategy was dictated to other customers for other books at Oni Press like "Black Metal" and "Apocalipstix." How many books are "Just like Scott Pilgrim, but..." anyway?

I gotta wonder if "Super Pro KO" writer and artist, Jarrett Williams would have found that insulting to hear.  After all, if I were to write a book, I wouldn't want it to be the "new" or the "next" anything. I'd just want it to be enjoyed for what it was.  

"Scott Pilgrim" was great. "Super Pro KO" was great. They can both be good books without one another.

If it seems like I'm over analyzing a simple recommendation from a sales rep, I really don't want it to. I've gotten plenty of books marketed me from a much better direction. For instance, when I was told about the Goon last year, it was described to me (by series creator Eric Powell himself, no less) as a "sort of in the same vain as Hellboy. But don't think it's a carbon copy. I tried to include more of humor and mobster undertones to my story. But if you enjoy Hellboy, I think you'll enjoy my book" "Y'see that? He didn't try to tell me his book was "like Hellboy, but with zombies and a mob involved." That would be like telling me that "Superman flies like he walks, except it's in the air and he doesn't really use his legs."

I guess what I'm saying is that comic books (or any other media for that matter) should be able to stand on their own. It's fine to recommend books that you can see have similar fan bases and, thus, can each be enjoyed by both fan bases. However, it's an entirely separate matter to insinuate that two books are virtual carbon copies of each other, aside from their themes.  Just seems like it would be really insulting to the creators and the intelligence of the consumer.

Thoughts? Am I takin' stuff too seriously?

[Navarre]

Thoughts? Am I takin' stuff too seriously?

Probably. I do get your point and I agree with what might be annoying or even offensive about what he said.

But you encountered a person who said something that he might even have believed to be true. If so, you can only fault him for having an opinion different than your own.

Even if it was his marketing scheme, a common sales tactic is to draw interest in something based on the prospect's prior interest in something else. Ultimately, you already know you have to decide for yourself. What if you had found his statement to be correct from your perspective? Then he would have been right.

The type of opinion expressed can't be quantified. It's just an opinion. It seems your disgruntlement is instead over the fact that a comparison was made at all. But, again, we compare things in our mind all the time.

I do however give you a lot of credit for not stabbing him in the eye with a pen.

I hope your overall experience at SDCC was a good one.

[Blackthunder01]

When you go to a convention, your talking to salesmen.  It's their job to find ways to get you to buy stuff.  That's what happened/happens.

[Slappy]

I briefly worked with a major tool at a restaurant.  I tried to train him as a server.

Customer:  I would like some ice'd coffee

Tool:  "We don't have iced coffee only iced tea.  It's the same thing only tea."

That is what she ended up getting that day.  Just to show you that some sales people are morons whether it is at a comics store, restaurant or a call center.  I am sure that Matthew has met one or two.

[The_Julian]

Thoughts? Am I takin' stuff too seriously?

Probably. I do get your point and I agree with what might be annoying or even offensive about what he said.

But you encountered a person who said something that he might even have believed to be true. If so, you can only fault him for having an opinion different than your own.

Even if it was his marketing scheme, a common sales tactic is to draw interest in something based on the prospect's prior interest in something else. Ultimately, you already know you have to decide for yourself. What if you had found his statement to be correct from your perspective? Then he would have been right.

The type of opinion expressed can't be quantified. It's just an opinion. It seems your disgruntlement is instead over the fact that a comparison was made at all. But, again, we compare things in our mind all the time.

I do however give you a lot of credit for not stabbing him in the eye with a pen.

I hope your overall experience at SDCC was a good one.

It's not really his opinion on the book that bugged me. It's that he ignored what the strong points of the book, and felt that he could just quantify it all to being like Scott Pilgrim.

I don't need a book like Scott Pilgrim. I have Scott Pilgrim for that. Tell me what the book does well, tell me what's interesting about the characters, tell me why I should care about the story. That's what I like to hear whenever I'm being convinced to buy it.

And don't worry, this was but a minor foible in the epicness that was SDCC.

[Beta Ray Bill Cosby]

I feel ya, J.

It's an easy way to hook someone, "Oh yeah, if you liked blackest night, you'll love whatever the crap we're selling you now." That said, what bugs me about it is how lazy it is. As you said, rather than telling you what's good about the book, they just compare it to something else you like.

What's funny too is that Scott Pilgrim is a terrible book to do that with, saying something is "Like Scott Pilgrim" tells you pretty much nothing since Scott Pilgrim is a ridiculous grab-bag of things.

I also think it's funny that he said the statement that bugged you AFTER you had already agreed to buy it, as I understand it one of the big lessons of being a salesman is "Once you've sold it, stop selling it."

[greyman24]

I am uniquely qualified to speak on this subject.

See, I used to sell books that I didn't read, too.

I was the marketing/sales manager for a publisher of professional instructional photography books. I had to train our reps and speak to the wonderful things within our books, but the thing was that I wasn't a photographer. Not only was I not (and am not currently) a professional portrait photographer, I was (and still am...mostly) a horrible photographer.

But the thing was that I knew how to package the books. I knew how to deal with the reps. I knew how to set up a marketing plan and work with vendors. And the likelihood that my boss was going to find someone who had those traits and ALSO knew all the ins and outs of F-Stops, exposure times, ISO ratings and everything else that photographers wanted to know was nill.

So, what did I do? I read our press releases. I talked to our editors. I compared these to OTHER press releases. I read the blurbs on the back covers and compared what I could glean from the book with things I gleaned from OTHER books. Basically, I cobbled together information from other people who seemed to know better than me what the book was trying to say.

I had to do this, because we released 30-40 books a year, and there was no way I would understand even ONE of these things, let alone be able to read and absorb that kind of quantity.

Your guy may have done exactly the same thing.

Now, this is all assuming your guy didn't actually read your book and come to an entirely different conclusion/comparison. That's also a possibility.

I have to say, as a consumer, what always used to kill me was when you'd turn to the back of the book and there'd be a ton of reviews...for another book by the same author. I recently read Anathem, by Neal Stephenson (a sci fi book about dimensional travel and another world where scientists are forced to withdraw into a class of monks), and the back cover had all kinds of reviews for Stephenson's Baroque Cycle of books (a series of THREE books set primarily in 17th century Europe).

Not quite the same thing.

[The_Julian]

I feel ya, J.

It's an easy way to hook someone, "Oh yeah, if you liked blackest night, you'll love whatever the crap we're selling you now." That said, what bugs me about it is how lazy it is. As you said, rather than telling you what's good about the book, they just compare it to something else you like.

What's funny too is that Scott Pilgrim is a terrible book to do that with, saying something is "Like Scott Pilgrim" tells you pretty much nothing since Scott Pilgrim is a ridiculous grab-bag of things.

I also think it's funny that he said the statement that bugged you AFTER you had already agreed to buy it, as I understand it one of the big lessons of being a salesman is "Once you've sold it, stop selling it."

I hadn't thought about that. To be fair he seemed to just want to be giving that PR talk to anyone who was in line for booth.  There were some that were just eyeing the merchandise with volume 6 in hand and the rep would quickly pounce on them for a quick sell, so yeah, that definitely strikes me as with that laziness you brought up.  It seemed like a major knee jerk to just get some books in their hands. So that may be the reason that they felt to tell me to buy it, even as I was.... Y'know, already buying it.

And I think that the main reason they sold it to me with a Scott Pilgrim similarity would probably be the recommendation O'Malley was quoted for giving it. That, of course, doesn't excuse using the quote as a springboard to quantify them to each other (after all Joss Whedon had a quote on the back of Scott Pilgrims Finest Hour and I doubt he meant that Whedon's movies were similar to O'Malley's books), but I think it explains it 

[litanyofthieves]

As a former electronics salesman, I know what it can be like trying to describe things in a simple, neat package. In fact I almost admire well-crafted sales pitches and the like, while still loathing them at the same time.

Oni Press is obviously going to use Scott Pilgrim's success to sell more books if they can, but I totally agree with Rodrigo's comment, it really doesn't tell you that much since Scott Pilgrim is just all over the place.

Some of the best, unique books out there, though, can't be easily summed up in one sentence without sounding utterly terrible. (Scott Pilgrim is one for sure) "Well, its about this slacker guy who falls in love with this girl who travels through his dreams, and then he has to fight her 7 evil exes, like a videogame, and also there are songs and recipes."

Sometimes it's about simplifying something even if the nuances are lost.