Yen, TP, Yaoi Gen on latest Diamond cancellation list

Sharp-eyed Tweeter (Twittee?  Twitterite?  Twittista? ) Sean Gaffney spots several Yen Press books on the latest Diamond Previews cancellation list, and MangaBlog follows up with YP’s Kurt Hassler, who reconfirms the release schedule for said books.  In other words, the books are still coming out, but Diamond has passed on them, and DM retailers must rely on another source.  Anime News Network lists all the Yen Press books affected, plus cancelled items from other manga/anime companies, which includes Tokyopop, Go Comi (via PGW), and, unfortunately, Yaoi Generation; as a younger publisher with fewer established distribution avenues, YG may be hurt most by this latest round of cancellations, although it is possible they do a significant amount of business through direct online sales like many other yaoi pubs.

These may not be big titles, but cancel enough of them, and DM retailers will eventually have enough reasons to move most or all of their manga orders to someone who keeps a more complete stock.  (Someone like AAA Anime, for example.  Or any of the book market distributors.)  And that’s not a bad thing at all for the rest of the industry.  Or even Diamond, for whom Marvel and DC are still 80% of their business.  They certainly seem quite willing to cede manga sales to others, even for books from top publisher Viz, so they surely have good reasons for it.

There is no distribution monopoly on paperback manga, so this isn’t a Diamond issue (pamphlet comics are another story).  Yen Press’ books will still be released, and the good comic shops will still have them; any DM retailer committed to manga already know that they cannot depend solely on Diamond.  But if it so happens that your store is one of those exceptions, don’t blame Diamond… the problem lies with the store.  Why aren’t they willing to order the book for you from another distributor?  And if it’s not viable for them to do so, have they voiced their dissatisfaction to Diamond?  If the store cannot provide adequate answers to these questions, you should shop elsewhere.