Too Big to Fail?!

This is what it's all about

Co-founded by David Basler in 1981, Edition Moderne is the oldest independent comic publisher in the German-speaking world and was taken over by a new team three years ago: Julia Marti, Claudio Barandun and Marie-France Lombardo. Since then, we have managed Edition Moderne as a trio and initiated an intensive process of innovation and transformation. We are proud of the many thing we’ve already achieved!

BUT: For various reasons, Edition Moderne is currently experiencing financial difficulties and urgently needs help. Why is this the case?

• Transformation takes time: The sustainable increase and expansion of readership that we have set as our goal takes time and resources, which we have to provide in addition to the day-to-day business with our small team.

• Increase in production costs: The increase in production, storage and distribution costs, the paper crisis and inflation are aggravating factors. It is not possible for us to pass on these additional costs to our readers, both for economic reasons and out of conviction — books should be affordable for everyone!

Urgency: Based on the 2019—2023 business figures and on the projections about the development of production costs, we have time until Spring 2024 to avoid a liquidity crisis.

Relevance: If Edition Moderne were to close its doors, book and comic creation in general, but especially in the German-speaking world and Switzerland, would lose an important platform. Likewise, history, know-how and network would disappear. Together we can prevent this! Together with our community, we are too big to fail!

What makes Edition Moderne stand out?

We are convinced that Edition Moderne is systemically relevant for a lively book culture and for the medium of comics in the German-speaking world. The publishing house is unique for a number of reasons:

• We are a piece of comic history: The oldest independent comic publisher in the German-speaking world is an internationally respected institution.

• We combine tradition and innovation: We publish the avant-garde of the genre and have diversified our publishing programme by working with young FLINTA authors.

• As trade book publishers, we finance ourselves primarily through book sales and are therefore independent.

• We have a specific profile and, through the image-based medium, a low-threshold approach that makes a valuable contribution to «visual literacy».

• Our mediation work is broad-based and includes a very diverse groups of readers.

• We are committed to high quality books in terms of content and design that have political and social relevance.

• We have successfully sold licences of many of our books in other languages and thus provide an international platform for the German-language cultural heritage.

• We have strong values: Our aim is not to maximise profits, but to place our activities on an economically sustainable basis and to allow all those involved in book production to partake.

This is what we need your support for

Our goal remains to place the publishing house on an economically sustainable basis. Until we get there, your support will enable us to invest time and resources in the production and visibility of our books. Among other things, we will continue to:

• develop book projects, produce and publish high-quality books (incl. editing, proofreading, production, design, etc.),

• do mediation work for our books and authors (organise readings, participate in fairs and festivals, etc.),

• do press and public relations work,

• develop licensing work,

• initiate and implement collaborations with institutions outside the literary world,

• manage the day-to-day business (distribution, finances, controlling, HR, book-specific fundraising, communication, marketing, website, social media, previews, contracts, infrastructure, etc.).

(images team and books: Anne Morgenstern)