Fantasy and science fiction comics publisher Vault Comics has launched “"Book It," a web-based preorder system through which consumers can order upcoming Vault comics and pick them up at their local comic store.  The goal for consumers, Vault CEO Damian Wassel told ICv2, was to "facilitate real time capture of pre-orders through social media channels, because we have a lot of fan engagement that way."  At the check-out stage of the pre-order, consumers can select the participating store where they want to pick up the comics.  No money changes hands on the website; it’s just to collect orders for the local store.

The retailer is alerted of the order via email, and when the issue ships, the consumer is notified that the order is available for pick-up.  "They go and exchange money with the retailer as they would ordinarily," Wassel said.

We asked how the retailers offered by the site were recruited.  "It’s an opt-in program for retailers," Wassel explained.  "We’ve reached out and invited a select coterie of retailers to participate in it initially, but we’re open to as many other retailers participating as might want to.” There’s no cost to the retailer.  "The goal here was to facilitate real time pre-order capture with participating retailers so that they can get a better sense of what their store demand might look like in advance, and we can hopefully see bigger preorders."

The Vault Comics Book It service is available now.  Diamond Comic Distributors has announced that it will launch PreviewsWorld Pullbox, its own pull-and-hold service that can be used for all products offered in Previews, this Spring (see "Diamond Launching Previewsworld Pullbox").

Vault released its first title in February 2017, with Heathen likely its most prominent title to date.