The path a product takes from the time you first submit your product to Diamond to the time you receive your payment from Diamond may seem long and complex. That’s why everyone at Diamond is dedicated to making sure you understand each step completely.

1. Initial Contact and Submission. You, the Vendor, conceptualize and/or create your product, then send a Submissions Package to Diamond, outlining details about your product, and your Proposed Terms of Sale. New comic publishers are advised to check the New Comic Publishers Packet for details on this process.
   
   
2. Establishing Terms. A Purchasing Brand Manager contacts you to tell you that Diamond agrees to offer — or solicit — your product in the next issue of the PREVIEWS catalog. S/he will be in contact with you periodically to discuss potential ways to market and promote your product among our customers to ensure the most successful launch possible for your product, or to discuss and address any difficulties that may arise.
   
   
3. Your Solicitation Appears in the PREVIEWS Catalog. During the first week of the month, we ship the latest copy of our catalog to our retailers and their customers. They, then, have approximately three weeks to compile PREVIEWS orders from their customers and transmit them back to us for processing.
   
   
4. Your Purchase Order. Once your product has been solicited in the catalog, Diamond compiles retailers’ Initial Orders for your product. As soon these Initial Orders have been tabulated by our Order Processing Department, we then cut a Purchase Order to you for the quantity of product we will need to fill those orders, plus whatever inventory position Diamond has decided to take.
   
   
5. Manufacturing. After you receive our Purchase Order, you manufacture the specified quantity and ship as per the instructions outlined on our Purchase Order. Please remember that, under the terms of our Cancellation Policy, we must receive your product within 30 days after the end of the month in which your product was scheduled to ship, otherwise we reserve the right to amend or cancel our Purchase Order for the product, or distribute it on a returnable basis. (In the example above, the product was originally scheduled to ship in May, and so would have to ship by the end of June or be cancelled.)
   
   
6. Shipping Your Product. You ship your product to Diamond for distribution six to eight weeks after its solicitation. We accept shipments at each of our Distribution Centers.
   
   
7. Reorders. If, after our deadline for accepting Initial Orders from retailers has passed (and we have issued a Purchase Order to you), we learn that our retailers want to reorder additional quantities of your product we will issue Reorder Purchase Orders to your company in order to meet the demand.
   
   
8. Distribution. Once you manufacture your product and ship it to Diamond, we distribute it to our retailers around the world via our Distribution Centers and drop ship points.
   
   
9. Payment. Our retailers pay us for their shipments, and we pay your company according to your established payment terms.

Typically, a period of six months will elapse between the time you first contact Diamond about distributing your product to the time you receive your payment. For example:

JANUARY

You initially contact Diamond’s Purchasing Department.

FEBRUARY

You send your Submissions Package to Diamond for consideration. If accepted, you work out Terms of Sale with your Purchasing Brand Manager.

MARCH

Your product is offered to retailers and consumers in our PREVIEWS catalog. (This process is called "solicitation.")

APRIL

Diamond compiles retailer orders from the March catalog, then generates a Purchase Order and transmits it to you.

MAY

You ship your product to Diamond, then Diamond ships it to retailers. You follow up by sending Diamond an invoice for your products.

JUNE

Diamond sends you payment for your product. (This example assumes that you have granted Diamond Net 30 payment terms.)