When it became apparent that ComiXology’s recent updates to its app and user experience were not the lowkey affair they suggested in September, but one of the most broadly reviled moves in recently comics history, it was obvious that I would need to check in with comic publishers about this. The only problem with that, of course, was a thought that followed. Because of how much this could change — in theory — in a short amount of time, but also due to the business relationship between these houses and the Amazon-owned digital comics giant, it seemed extraordinarily unlikely that they would actually talk to me.

It turns out I was correct.

In the process of reaching out to a bevy of publishers for this effort, I learned that each fit into a specific tier of engagement in regards to the topic. Those were:

• Tier One: No response
• Tier Two: Immediate (but polite!) decline
• Tier Three: Curiosity in the process…maybe yes!…but ultimately no 5
• Tier Four: Yes, but in the form of a prepared statement 6
• Tier Five: Interested, but let’s talk about it on background
• Tier Six: Sure. Why not?

I understand — and expected — the varied response. Sometimes you reach out for pieces knowing it won’t result in anything. That’s especially the case on a topic as complicated as this one is. You do it anyways, of course. But you know it’s unlikely to go anywhere. More than that, the response to poor performance or bad business often manifests itself in change rather than words, as we saw with both Marvel and DC leaving Diamond Comic Distributors in recent years. Saying things can matter less than doing something about it. Beyond that, sometimes you just don’t want to mess with business relationships. Again: I get it.

Not everyone fit into those first four tiers, though. Some were happy to chat, although not necessarily on the record. I would say the general tenor of the response from those publishers was a mix of resigned and unsurprised, even if they were clearly unenthusiastic about the changes to the platform. And it likely didn’t help that the shape of this new world order came with little warning. One publisher told me, “We received no notice of the planned changes,” while details were sketchy for those that did know that something was on the horizon.

“We had advance notice that changes were coming, but what exactly that meant was both vague and shifting,” Vault Comics’ CEO & Publisher Damian Wassel said. “So, on the one hand we weren’t surprised that there was, what I will euphemistically call, a ‘shakeup,’ but we were surprised by some of the specifics.”

ComiXology announced this update back in September, so we all knew something was coming. It was the details that were lacking. Unfortunately, that proved to be the case for the update itself, as it works superficially, but considerable functionality was lost in the process. That was a big concern for Charlie Stickney, the co-publisher of Scout Comics. While Scout’s comics are still available for purchase and enjoyment on the platform, “it all comes down to visibility,” something that was diminished by this update. A good example of that was the one-stop shop on ComiXology that let users look up comics by publisher — which Scout had recently been added to as a premier publisher after over a year of negotiations — and how it no longer existed after the update.

Whether you’re talking about this aspect that acted as “a bit of a halo” for publishers and the comics they release or the disastrous results of looking up publishers in the new storefront’s search functionality, 7 discoverability for releases off the front page took a major hit here.

That’s why Stickney was more concerned than the others I talked to. Scout had just made it to the promised land, and before they could gain any benefits from ComiXology’s discoverability functions, it was taken away. Others were much less concerned. There was an air of “I’m not mad, just disappointed” to it all, as this change seemed to meet the expectations of what publishers thought of ComiXology.

“The writing has been on the wall for what Amazon would do with ComiXology for a long time and we’ve planned accordingly and worked to diversify our digital offerings,” shared one publisher.