The ongoing retailers vs comic companies on convention sales debate:Comic Companies win.....

Over on the Fantagraphics Blog Eric Reynolds and Gary Groth weigh in with their thoughts from a comic company that does sell at conventions in their view on the whole ComicsPRO position paper debate.
This from Gary Groth:

"The main reason we go to all this trouble is for the long-term promotional value it has for our company and our authors - and for all the retail channels that sell our books. If I was persuaded that we a) sell no more books short- or long-term due to our convention appearance, and that b) retail stores were losing sales because of it, I'd be happy to refrain from all that work, believe me. However, I'm convinced of exactly the opposite. In the event, I think ComicsPro's "position paper" is short-sighted and provincial. This may be a case where we have to continue promoting our books in this fashion for the good of retailers despite their wishes that we stop the practice. Which is pretty damned weird, but there you have it."

Heidi also has a lovely summary of it all:

"When all is said and done, the retailers who vocally oppose the practice have been asked again and again what would be the absolute, provable benefits of stopping the practice of pre-selling at conventions for the publishers. The answer almost always comes down to “Retailers will like you more.” We’re sorry, but given the very strong case that Reynolds and Groth make in the above linked post about the benefits for the entire medium, that just doesn’t wash.

Comic Companies win.
ComicsPRO really needs to think next time before publishing such a badly thought out, unhelpful and (perhaps most importantly) unquantified piece of rubbish like this.