Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk is a weekly column by Kendall Swafford of Up Up Away! in Cincinnati, Ohio.  This week, Kendall focuses on acronym-based issues: Day Early Delivery and Final Order Cutoff.

So... last week I wondered aloud why we hadn’t heard anything from Diamond Comic Distributors about this summer’s survey, regarding day-early delivery.  Lo and behold, Diamond grants us our (Okay, at least MY) wish and confirms that we’re moving forward with DED beginning early next year.  I want to offer my most sincere appreciation to everyone involved for making this happen.  I feel like the industry just grew up more than a little, and I felt a few years being tacked back onto my life.  Probably nearly equal in importance to DED, was the upcoming end to day-late delivery!  No more "don’t forget, new comics are THURSDAY next week" repeated over and over again.  No more "pseudo-Tuesdays" every few months, as only the people who forgot dare to wander into my store on a new comic-less Wednesday.  Oh, the horror!

I’m not sure there’s another industry with a fan base so hungry for new product on such a regular basis.  We couldn’t be luckier in that regard.  And I can’t fathom another industry that would have been willing to operate under the adverse conditions we’ve had to face in servicing that hunger.  And I rarely have a kind word to say about Diamond; but without beating a dead horse, thank you Diamond, and I look forward to moving this industry forward together.

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Let’s talk Final Order Cutoff, or FOC.  And let’s assume if you take the time to visit ICv2, and are willing to read the nonsensical ravings of a loud-mouthed malcontent, then I’ll presume you are regular users of FOC.  I hope we’d all agree that FOC is an enormous boon to all of us.  So I believe it was back in March at the ComicsPRO meeting that the subject of FOC came up, in the context of wondering when IDW would be added to FOC.  It was relayed to us that the delay was due to a programming issue, related to adding a non-brokered publisher like IDW to FOC.  We were also lead to believe (that sounds sinister, doesn’t it?  "Led to believe" seems to infer "MIS-lead" somehow) TOLD that the change in programming would allow other non-brokered publishers to be added to FOC, hopefully restricted to publishers of a certain market share.

So, where is it? (Okay, everyone over a certain age, sing...) I want my ef oh seeeee... I know, I know, it takes as long as it takes, but IDW has been a premier publisher for several months now, and we all know FOC is an important part of that status.  And I would love to have other publishers added to the mix; Avatar, BOOM!, Dynamite and Zenescope are just a few that would benefit greatly from FOC.

The larger question may be, how to determine who should be on FOC and who shouldn’t?  I really don’t want it opened up to every publisher Diamond distributes, but how and where does the line get drawn?  Overall market share with Diamond?  Minimum number of titles published?  Anyone that wants it?  Too much, and we’re suddenly spending hours adjusting and re-adjusting the numbers for dozens of publishers.  Yikes!  I don’t have an answer for this one, I’m just floatin’ the question out there.  Could we "opt-in" for the publishers each of us wants to see on FOC, or have the ability to "hide" the publishers we don’t want to adjust.  Or simply skip over those on the list?  I’m anxious to see how Diamond chooses to handle it, and more importantly, WHEN.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely  those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.