Best strategy for releasing new fonts to distributors

Adam Ladd

Wondering if anyone has had any measurable insights into the best practice for releasing new fonts if you have multiple distributors/resellers. Does it seem better to:

a) Release the new font to all your distributors at once and thus saturate the exposure a bit more and also begin gathering sales/royalties on it sooner.

or

b) Release the new font to all your distributors with some time between (e.g. 1 month or so). Perhaps stretching out it's fresh exposure over a longer time and maybe reaches different audiences and has more impact (rather than a buyer seeing it one place and then jumping over to another preferred shop to make the purchase).

Thanks for your thoughts!

Thomas Phinney

I'd release it to all of my distributors at the same time, unless you want some to feel like they are second-class citizens to you.

Adam Ladd

Thanks Thomas, I hear you. That crossed my mind to some degree (and is the practice I lean towards). Though I also wonder if there's a notable increase in sales with each distributor by staggering the release times, then I suppose in some ways it benefits the distributor as well, since each sale is shared.

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

To avoid ill feelings you could cycle through the distributors, giving each a turn at being first (and tell them you're doing so). Assuming they're not too big to even notice in the first place.

George Thomas

If you want to stagger placement, place it with the smaller distributor(s) first. The big guys don't need the sales.

Adam Ladd

Thanks Hrant and George, appreciate your thoughts/suggestions.