While there's been a lot of talk about promotion and other factors contributing to the success (or not) of new books in general, I wan'ted to throw this out for discussion (feel free to move threads if you feel appropriate, mods.)
What about price points on the books?
Marvel and DC seem to do the same, with the most popular books at lower price points.
With Marvel, their most popular titles or the most mainstream are generally at $2.25: X-Men, Uncanny, Avengers, Amazing, Spectacular etc. FF jumped that 74 cents with #520.
MKnights is always higher, so I am excluding that and not even going to get into the $3.50 for stiff covers on some limiteds.
Related titles and other mainstays will usually be at $2.99: New X-Men (keeping same price point from New Mutants), Captain America, Iron Man and some of the Spider titles.
Newer titles are almost always at #2.99, including Alpha, She-Hulk, New Thunderbolts and the slew of solo X's. The notable exception I picked up on was Marvel Team-up. That's at $2.25.
Does anyone think the price points hurt the newer books, in a way that more people might pick up a newer title more consistently (until they're hooked) if the newer titles were at $2.25.
My thought is that the top sellers are at the lower price point, and I have a chicken-and-the-egg question about that. If these titles are selling out of loyalty and quality, wouldn't they still be top sellers at the higher price point, and the revenue would allow new intended-to-be-ongoings to be sold at $2,25, at least for the first year, with enough time to develop an audience?
My theories aren't perfect here, but I was wondering if other people thought the price might be one barrier.
Jeff