ComiXology launches pre-order feature

It’s actually kind of hard for me to believe there wasn’t one already…

Normally, I’m not really a big fan of pre-ordering digital content because… why? This is a little different though. As someone who buys books both digitally and in the real world, I can tell you it’s waaaaay too easy to miss comics that you buy off the virtual rack.

At my local comic shop, it’s easy to get what I want- I just fill out a ‘pull list’ with the owner and boom. All my stuff that I want gets pulled from the week’s order and stuck neat and tidy into a box for me to pick up. Never miss a thing.

With digital, it’s now pretty much as easy as that since that’s basically what the pre-order feature on comiXology is.

The pre-order feature solves the problem of comic fans missing their favorite new comic books or graphic novels. Once customers make a pre-order, they will be notified by email at the time of release and the comic or graphic novel will appear for download in the Purchases section. It is at that time that customers will be charged.

Now there is one caveat with this and that’s that there are only a few titles available right now that take advantage of it. There are some good, big, solid names on the list- but it probably wouldn’t take you all that long to read through ’em all.

This innovative pre-order feature, developed jointly with Marvel Comics, is now available through the Marvel webstore and the comiXology website. Pre-ordering kicked off earlier this week with Marvel’s launch of Marvel NOW! and the release of Uncanny Avengers #1, to give Marvel fans the ability to make sure they didn’t miss the first issue. Since Marvel’sUncanny Avengers #1 debut, comiXology has rolled out the ability to pre-order to a wider slate of titles and is eyeing offering all new comic books and graphic novels for pre-order in the future.

Other comic titles currently available for pre-order:

• Uncanny Avengers #1
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe #3
• The Walking Dead #103
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise #10
• Prophecy #4
• Godstorm #1