Diamond Graphic Novels Chart - Backlist stats

As we wait for the February 2014 numbers from Diamond, an overview of the Diamond Graphic Novel chart and the role of backlist/re-order items on it.  For the purposes of this discussion, I'm considering backlist any item making the chart after its initial month of release.

Until 2003, Diamond generally only listed newly released items on its Graphic Novel chart, back when the charts were based on pre-orders from retailers.  When they changed to charts based on actual invoiced sales in March 2003, they began including backlist items as well. However, at the time the Graphic Novel chart only went to #50, so there were generally only a handful of books a month making the charts after their initial release, and a lot of new releases didn't make the chart at all.

In February 2004, Diamond expanded the list to 100, which added a few more backlist items making the charts every month, as well as a lot more new releases.

In November 2008 they tripled the list to 300, which is where it's been ever since (I think they might be due for another expansion, with the comics chart having recently gone to 400). At 300 entries, the list generally goes down to about 500 copies or lower in estimated sales, which means that almost all books from DC and Marvel make the list in their first month of release, as do most from other medium sized publishers, although all of them occasionally have a book which will fall below, often expensive books or books where the primary market isn't the North American direct sales market. That also added a lot of backlist items to the chart every month.  It varies, but on average it seems you can expect about 60% new items and 40% backlist items on the list.

And of course that backlist isn't evenly distributed. As I discussed before, there are over 100 evergreen books which make the chart more often than not, some of them showing up every month, sometimes making up half or more of the top backlist items. On the other hand, looking at books since the list expanded to 300, over 85% of new books listed will never reach the top 300 again. Another 9% will only reach the list twice. That second entry is often either the month after initial release, which could just be one side of the country getting the book from Diamond a few weeks later than the other due to shipping delays, or over a year later, which often means that the remaining stock was liquidated at heavy discounts. Only about 4% of books have a significant presence on the chart beyond the quarter they were released, and maybe 2% will be likely to still hit the charts a year after they come out.

That doesn't mean, of course, that all those other books don't sell at all. As discussed before, you can reasonably continue to sell some 3000 copies a year through Diamond and still never make the monthly top 300.