Frustration and Happiness: Twilight becomes a graphic novel

Yen Press is creating the graphic novel version of Twilight. This comes as no surprise since both Little Brown and Yen Press are a subsidiary of Hatchette.

I'm happy but also frustrated. I've been waiting for the graphic novel for almost 3 years now. I won't expand on why I'm frustrated. For those that know why, they will understand. And maybe it will be a story for another time. (Or you can go bug Tissie and Allie and try to force them to tell you.)

~Meg

Read more!

Things that make you go *squee* - an addition!!

I found one more item that I just had to post...

Mini Comic Notepads!!
You can write your own story! All of the speech balloons are blank, so you can make up your own dialog. Hmmm.... I can totally see it.. Keroro yaoi!! LOL The pages can be torn out also and used as notepaper. Too cute! I guess Tissie and Meg know what they're getting for Christmas now! Hmmm... which ones to buy... Cromartie High School, Devilman... Cutie Hunney?? Oh, the possibilities!!

Available at Strapya World.
*runs off to break into her piggy bank*

~Allie

Read more!

June Manga Web-a-thon = Bad Idea

I can't keep my mouth shut anymore. The direction that Digital Manga has taken in the recent months have been odd and nerve-wracking.

Their most recent announcement was the June Web-a-thon. (For info, go to Manga Blog.)The only thing is, the Web-a-thon isn't a pledge, it's a pre-payment system for something you may never see. Pre-payment is fine. However, when going through the site, there's no indication of when you will receive the product. Furthermore, it's going through Pay Pal so you are sending the money directly to them. Is there a hold on the payment? Pay Pal requires you to hold the payment before the product ships. And there's a time limit too.

The whole legality of this is questionable. When you purchase pre-orders, there's usually a hold of some sort. Occasionally, a deposit is required... maybe even re-stocking fees. None of these terms are outlined on their website. Or if it is, it's almost impossible to find.

Not only that, but there is no way to contact them regarding the complexities of this type of program. As the blog, Comics Worth Reading, mentioned, what happens if you change your mind or move? Well, you just need to contact them. But how? Who knows.

Do they even have a page where you can check what book you've ordered through their web-a-thon. I don't remember what I've ordered 2 weeks ago, let alone, remembering something I've bought several months ago. If there's no way to check, the best thing would be to print records yourself, or hope that paypal has detailed records.

The pre-order thing also makes me nervous as it reminds me of Drama Queen's Rush subscription. I can only see the same thing happening for DMI.

DMI needs to re-think how they implement things. The web-a-thon actually is an interesting idea and could be a great strategy for them, but at this point in time, it's being implemented hap-hazardly.

My advice to fans... Buyer Beware. If you can afford to lose $9 + shipping, go ahead.

DMI - please stop doing this! This new strategy sounds great, but I smell disaster coming and we need you to ride out the storm so we can ensure that we'll have great yaoi titles (and other titles) in the future.

~Meg

Read more!

Publishing Frustrations #1: unfinished book series

Fans complain about this all the time. Unfinished book series. Believe me, for all of us who work in publishing, it's equally as frustrating. We spend a lot of time working on these books, which is often a labor of love, and when the series gets canceled for any number of reasons, it's a very very sad day.

Series -- at least the English editions -- get cancelled for a variety of reasons: 1) the books aren't selling in the US market, and it's no longer economically feasible to continue publishing, 2) the publisher goes out of business (we've been seeing that a lot lately), 3) contract negotiations fall apart between the Japanese and US publishers, or 4) the manga-kas don't finish the series!

When I first started working full time for an English manga publisher (I'm sure most of you know who that is), three series were cancelled because they weren't selling. Historically, the first volume in a collection will sell better than it's subsequent volumes, and very rarely to you see a volume 2 selling better than a volume 1. So, if volume 1 only sells, say, 1500 copies, it's safe to say the numbers aren't going to go up from there. That's not to say that the book is bad... I think a lot of the time the book wasn't published at the right time (Worst would do so much better now that Naruto is out), or the book wasn't advertised widely. If no one knows about the book, no one's going to buy it.

In the case of a publisher going out of business (US companies), it really doesn't bode well for a title. Companies are very wary of picking up a title if they can't publish the first volume, unless they feel that a title has enough of a fanbase already to make it worth their while. Aurora Publishing picked up a few of Broccoli's titles, and I do with Aurora all the best. Likewise, Udon Entertainment picked up the Robot series when contact negotiations fell through for DMP. So far, they've published up to Volume 5, and I do hope they continue. It's a beautiful series. When Biblos went out of business in Japan, it put a whole lotta book series in limbo. Actually a handful of books that I did the production work on never did get published. I hope those books see the light of day. :D

Contract negotiations with Japanese companies are always tough. Just 10 years ago, very few Japanese properties were being published here in the US, so Japanese publishers were far less stringent about the requirements in their contracts. But, nowadays, Japanese publishers are savvy about the English market, and ultimately would like to have US offices. Kodansha is the latest publisher to venture (once again) in the US market. At least that was the rumor last year. I haven't heard any new news since then.

And the most frustrating of all... when the manga-ka doesn't finish the series!!! Eiki Eiki... what happens in The Art of Loving 2???? Youka Nitta... please please please come out of "retirement" and finish The Prime Minster's Secret Diplomacy 2!!!!!!

And... I want to know... how is Gabba King related to Pampi?? (Props to anyone who knows what book I'm referencing!) LOL Boo on DMP for dropping the series!!!

~Allie

Read more!