Notes on the manga industry (from a huge geek)
I just read an article on Publisher's Weekly's site yesterday about how Japanese and American manga publishers are trying to crack down on Scanlation sites because they feel that the decline in manga sales is due to these websites offering the manga for free and then gaining a profit by hosting ads and charging for memberships or accepting donations.
A few points:
1. manga scanlation sites do not make a profit. How much do you think it costs to run servers that host that much info? A lot. The ads and the donations go to site upkeep, not into anyone's pocket.
2. Anyone think that perhaps manga sales are down because the economy has been bad and teenagers have not been able to find jobs, and adults have been too busy spending money on, I dunno, food and bills?
3. I dunno about anyone else, but I usually don't buy a manga unless I know I love it and will want to read it over and over, especially if that manga is 25 volumes long. I read Nana online. I'm buying that one. I read Hana Kimi online. I own all of that one too. I'd love to pick up Tsubasa Chronicle too at some point once I have the money to invest in it.
4. If TokyoPop, Viz, and all the others would just actually release the series that they keep buying the licenses for instead of sitting on them just so that they can demand that sites take them down, the whole scanlation thing would not be as rampant.
5. Also, I talked to some people yesterday who were like "manga is $3 per volume in Japan. I feel that I'm getting ripped off." Perhaps these companies should try to explain the markup? (I know, licensing fees, translating and printing costs, but a markup of $7 per volume? Really? If I bought every manga that I wanted off the shelf for list price, I could probably buy Rosetta Stone in Japanese, buy a shitton of manga in Japanese, and translate them myself for the same amount as I would spend buying it all in English. Oh snap! I wonder if that's why scanlators do it!?)
Anyway, I need to get to work. You can read the article here.
A few points:
1. manga scanlation sites do not make a profit. How much do you think it costs to run servers that host that much info? A lot. The ads and the donations go to site upkeep, not into anyone's pocket.
2. Anyone think that perhaps manga sales are down because the economy has been bad and teenagers have not been able to find jobs, and adults have been too busy spending money on, I dunno, food and bills?
3. I dunno about anyone else, but I usually don't buy a manga unless I know I love it and will want to read it over and over, especially if that manga is 25 volumes long. I read Nana online. I'm buying that one. I read Hana Kimi online. I own all of that one too. I'd love to pick up Tsubasa Chronicle too at some point once I have the money to invest in it.
4. If TokyoPop, Viz, and all the others would just actually release the series that they keep buying the licenses for instead of sitting on them just so that they can demand that sites take them down, the whole scanlation thing would not be as rampant.
5. Also, I talked to some people yesterday who were like "manga is $3 per volume in Japan. I feel that I'm getting ripped off." Perhaps these companies should try to explain the markup? (I know, licensing fees, translating and printing costs, but a markup of $7 per volume? Really? If I bought every manga that I wanted off the shelf for list price, I could probably buy Rosetta Stone in Japanese, buy a shitton of manga in Japanese, and translate them myself for the same amount as I would spend buying it all in English. Oh snap! I wonder if that's why scanlators do it!?)
Anyway, I need to get to work. You can read the article here.