New year wish list

Which is a work in progress…

• A manga-only chain of bookstores slash French bistro slash licensed daycare centers.

All we need is someone with the guts and the pockets to do it.

• A $30 million+ opening weekend for the Astroboy CG movie.

Please… please don’t suck.

• Dollar rises back above 100 Yen

Our licensing terms are actually done in USD, so technically the bad exchange rate doesn’t affect us.  That doesn’t mean we don’t take it into account, though, since it directly affects the mangaka.  Hence we haven’t announced any new licenses lately… I’m still optimistic that things will get a little better after January 20th.

•  Break-up of Previews into several genre-based catalogues.

I may be the only one advocating this, but I truly feel there’s a missed opportunity here.  I think part of the reason why smaller comic pubs have such a hard time in the direct market is due to how bloated Previews is… it’s a consumer catalog that’s very bad at what it does.  It’s overwhelming for new readers (can you imagine going to a music store where all the CDs were organized by their labels instead of by genre?)  It’s often an unwieldy 4~500 pages in length, and 90% of retailers out there probably don’t flip through half of it because they only order from 3 or 4 publishers.  Diamond is paying a lot for printing and shipping these phonebooks, and small publishers are subsidizing those costs.

Diamond already prints a separate catalog for adult products, and Marvel has its own.  And they work.  I know for a fact that Previews Adult’s circulation is 1/6th that of regular Previews, and I think we sell just as well as the majority of small comic pubs, because people who want adult comics can find us easily.  And we pay 75% less for a full-page B/W ad spot in Previews Adult, because we’re not subsidizing 50,000 extra copies to people who have zero interest in our products.  By splitting up Previews into several B/W magazines with lower print runs, Diamond would likely save a bit on printing and shipping costs… which in turn could mean lower sales requirements for vendors.

Think about this, guys.

+++

The user-translated digital manga site Manga Novel will be shuttering its virtual doors in February.  I think this service was launched only late last year.  That was… fast.

MangaCast takes a closer look at the development, plus word of a possible new e-manga service on the horizon.

+++

According to this Washington Post tidbit, a Virginia man convicted of using state computers to access obscene material, including “Japanese cartoons, called anime, illustrating children engaged in sex with adults” (their words, not mine), has lost his appeal in a federal court.  If I remember correctly, this guy was actually busted for violating the terms of his parole, and he also received actual photos of children, in addition to the “anime” images.

Edit: The Associated Press has a much better article. (Via Anime News Network)

+++

The New Yorker has an op ed about the declining newspaper business that is quite relevant to all kinds of media, particularly this part:

The real problem for newspapers, in other words, isn’t the Internet; it’s us. We want access to everything, we want it now, and we want it for free. That’s a consumer’s dream, but eventually it’s going to collide with reality: if newspapers’ profits vanish, so will their product.

The debate about intellectual property, sharing, and piracy often compares the transition between old media and online to the automobile overtaking the horse and buggy… except that’s not a very good comparison.  The horse and buggy went away because there was no longer a demand for that product in face of a superior alternative.  With media, there’s still demand for the product.  Many are just choosing to get it through illicit channels which does not reinvest into the development of said product.

Food for thought.