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Diamond Book serves the returnable retailer market of libraries and bookstores. They are separate divisions with little overlap aside from the publishers Diamond Book represents.
Here's a chilling fact: comic book sales (floppies, periodicals, pamphlets) are diminishing as customers "wait for the trade" paperback or download illegal digital files online. As customers and publishers embrace e-books, this trend will avalanche the decline of comic book sales.
Diamond Comics (and their clients) need to adapt. Most stores will probably change into specialized bookstores with sidelines. Others will become hobby shops, serving a dedicated but small clientele. (Change is already happening, as many comic shops have reduced or eliminated their back-issue bins.)
Diamond, the two-headed beast, needs to open the Retailer Summit to ALL of their clients, both book and comic, for no other reason than this: The future for Diamond lies in offering non-digitized product to as many retailers as possible. Smart retailers (the most important clients) will attend the Summit to learn more about comics and games, a growing and dedicated consumer base. Every fan remembers when bookstores did not have a Graphic Novel section. There are still some bookstores without, not because of prejudice, but because of ignorance. The Diamond Retailer Summit is an excellent opportunity to learn more about GNs, but that opportunity is denied when bookstores are segregated from comics retailers, when comic book stores can learn much from mass-market retailers.
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