Plan Nine Publishing

Plan Nine Publishing
StatusDefunct
Founded1996
FounderDavid Allen
Country of originUnited States
Publication typesBooks
Fiction genresComics
Official websitewww.plan9publishing.com

Plan Nine Publishing was a small press book publisher known for publishing webcomics in printed form. The first series published, and perhaps its most famous, was Kevin and Kell.

History

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Plan Nine Publishing was named after the Ed Wood film Plan 9 from Outer Space. The publisher was owned by David Allen, who worked publishing alongside his day job as a systems engineer at Financial Computing in Winston-Salem. Plan nine was started in 1996, and in January 2000 Allen left his day job to concentrate full-time on the publishing business.[1]

98% of Plan Nine's products were sold direct to customers through their website. With low print runs (typically less than 2000), the company were able to run with a profit with runs as low as 300. The low running costs meant that the company was able to have a 70% gross profit margin, and was able to give its artists a 20% royalty, more than 4 times the industrial average.[1]

In April 2008, the Plan Nine main page was replaced by a message stating: Plan Nine has gone on hiatus for re-tooling and transition to new owners. Please check back with us Sept 1st, 2008. Thanks for your support! That page remained until the site finally went offline in 2010.[2]

Publications

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In addition to Kevin and Kell, Plan Nine published a number of other notable webcomics, including:

Plan Nine also published Black Box Voting by Bev Harris, a nonfiction book discussing the issues involved in computer-based balloting.[3] In 2004, the company published I Lived with My Parents and Other Tales of Terror, a collection of nonfiction and humor essays by Mary Jo Pehl.[4][5]

References

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  1. ^ a b Miller, Jeff (2000-04-17). "Man with a plan". The Business Journal. Advance Publications.
  2. ^ "Plan9Publishing". Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
  3. ^ Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century from amazon.com
  4. ^ "Contributors to On The Page". On the Page Magazine. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
  5. ^ Sebastian, Trisha L. (2004-04-11). "Trisha L. Sebastian Interviews Plan 9 Publishing's David Allen". Comixtalk.