Last month someone asked me if there had been more “indie” titles in the top 300, or if the high cut off rate for the top 300 was just due to Marvel and DC shipping a lot of books. Well I took a look and the answer is…inconclusive at best. Do not make any assumptions from these charts! They don’t really reflect anything, I just think they’re interesting to look at.

These charts just show the number of different titles shipped in the top 300, and do not reflect sales in any way. It’s interesting to see just how much product Marvel and DC release every month! DC’s big bump in October is due to the $7.99 not-quite-a-tpb “DC Comics Presents” books.

In September the number 300 book shipped 4,702 copies, yet there wasn’t a major decrease in the number indie titles in the top 300. However, if you look at the chart you see that in June there was a big dip in the number of indie books appearing in the top 300, and that month the number 300 book shipped 4,528 copies. I think all we can surmise from this is that many indie books do not ship every month. : )

Now let’s take a closer look at the non DC/Marvel books. Remember, these aren’t total books shipped, or even total titles shipped, just the number of titles that made it into the top 300.

This chart is much more interesting looking!

Looking at this chart we see that the “other indie” section has decreased from earlier in the year, while IDW have released an increasing number of top 300 books.

Image moves up and down quite a lot, part of this is because a lot of their books don’t hit the schedule every month, but another part is because some of their titles (even quite established ones) don’t make the chart every month.

Dark Horse seems fairly stable in the number of books they release every month, but it’s a little surprising to see that they only released nine top 300 books in May!

Dynamite seem fairly steady, though it is important to remember that not all of their books ship every month (none of their Kato series shipped in October for example).

Boom! move seem to move up and down quite a lot, partially because they have a number books in the lower end of the top 300 that don’t always make the chart.

Remember, this is just for fun. It only reflects the number of different titles various publishers have showing up in the top 300 chart over the last year. Not how many copies sold or how many books they produce in total. Don’t get too worked up about it!

1 COMMENT

  1. Did you count reprints and reorders in each month they appeared?

    Again, not that it matters, just curious.