There is always a lot of confusion around Graphicly at times, we are not sure if they are dying, if they are staying, or what they seem to be doing nine times out of ten. But in a nice press release this morning Graphicly is saying that they are going from strength to strength. But it seems that their focus on publishing is starting to pay off. While I don’t generally like to publish full press releases from any company, this one is worth looking at. If it is true and devoid of spin, Graphicly is still going strong, and still being something that could take on the bigger independent comic book market.
The only real issue right now is if ComiXology starts opening up to independents, Graphicly would have a harder run going into the future. But ComiXology does not seem to even be remotely interested in that market, conceding the market to Graphicly, and as long as it continues to grow and continues to be a source of income for Graphicly, we might be able to help keep independents creating, while Graphicly takes on the market that ComiXology is bypassing.
Press release in full follows.
This May Sound Crazy…
Hi!
It has been a long time since my last email to everyone (I apologize!), but I promise it’s because we have been hard at work.
For those that I haven’t met yet, my name is Micah Baldwin, and I am CEO of Graphicly, and I thank you for using our platform to help get your story seen. If you ever want to chat with me, my contact info is below…
Ok…on to the good stuff.
Since we launched the new platform at the beginning of the year, things have been growing at an amazing rate! Some quick numbers:
- The total number of publishers using Graphicly has grown 1,300%, including almost every major publisher you can think of.
- The total number of books being processed through the system monthly has grown 300% with books from all over the world.
- The total number of marketplaces that you can submit a book to has grown 400%, with it now being faster submit a book through Graphicly than through the marketplace to get your books live.
- We had added more than 180 additional features to the toolset, and killed at least 2 million bugs (I might be exaggerating slightly)
Yeah, we’ve been a bit busy…
And, yes, that sounds more like an excuse than a reason. But, here are two things we are really excited about:
InDesign Plugin: We are in the final stages of testing a plugin for In Design that will allow you to go directly from In Design right into Graphicly to prepare your book for digital distribution! One less step, and as we refine it, it will eventually allow you to do all of your directed reading experience right in In Design, and send it right to the marketplace of your choice, automagically!
Interested in testing it out? Send Ron Richards an email at ron@graphicly.com, and he will get you set up.
Completed Integration in iBooks, Kindle and NOOK: What does that mean? Two things: 1) All books that were in the Graphicly database on January 1, 2012 have been or are in the process of being sent to those marketplaces free of charge. We expect Kindle and NOOK to be completed in the next thirty days or so; 2) It means that submitting through Graphicly continues to be faster than going directly to the marketplace; and 3) We are working on adding special marketing opportunities for Graphicly publishers. We will have more on that soon!
So that’s it. A super short email. I plan to get back to a weekly or every other week schedule. Please let me know if there are other things you would like to know or how I could make Graphicly, or this email, better.
All the best!
Micah