Diamond Comics, which in February shuttered its own digital comics store, announced on Wednesday that they had signed a multi-year agreement for Trajectory to convert comics for digital distribution worldwide.
Diamond will be working with Trajectory to convert comics publishers’s existing titles from PDF to formats compatible with Comixology, the Kindle Store, and other ebook retailers. The conversion will be handled by Trajectory at a facility in Shanghai, and Trajectory will also distribute the titles through its global network of online retailers as well as school and library vendors.
This is a distribution deal that enables Diamond Comics to offer comics publishers a digital option alongside Diamonds floppy and graphic novel distribution system.
Under the agreement, comics publishers pay a one-time fee of $1 page for production. Publishers can upload the source PDF to a Trajectory website, where it will be converted into the format for each retail channel, enabling Trajectory to distribute it to their network of vendors.
This deal comes in the wake of Amazon buying Comixology and of Graphicly, a competing distributor, shutting down following its acquisition by Blurb. The landscape of the comics market (both digital and print) is changing and the Trajectory/Diamond partnership will offer publishers distribution options beyond Amazon.
