Journalista » Blog Archive » Aug. 31, 2006: An act of sheer desperation
The blogosphere is alive with the sound of bitching… that is, bitching back and forth about Tokyopop‘s recent announcement that it is making some of its titles available only via their online store. That means that they’ll be cutting out the usual “middle men” involved in getting the books to Borders, Barnes & Noble, comics shops, etc., and gaining for themselves the lion’s share of the profits in the deal. Retailers, of course, are mad because they’ve (supposedly) devoted time and money to building up an audience for some of these books, and now that the books have a reader base, the customers can’t get them at those same stores, and those stores don’t reap the long-term profits from selling all the later issues.
I don’t read a ton of Manga, but as (bad) luck would have it, one I’m following right now is Tokyopop’s series, Dragon Head, which is now a “web exclusive.” Supposedly this book was chosen as one to be a “web exclusive” because it was selling poorly (although no numbers were given to support this claim). If so, I think this is definitely an Arrested Development indicator, where something that’s obviously very high quality, and not in the least inaccessable, has failed to reach the audience that it really should have. While Tokyopop seems to be taking a lot of guff for this move, I’ve got to at least give them this: If a book as good as Dragon Head isn’t selling well the way it’s currently being marketed and sold, there’s definitely something wrong. On the other hand, making it a “web exclusive” seems to be going in the wrong direction: making it harder for people to be exposed to it.
David Taylor has an interesting theory about why Dragon Head in particular was selected for this treatment. I’m thinking he’s maybe right…
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