to the making of books there is no end, so let's get started!
Everyone likes free stuff! Now through the end of the year, Rolled Up Dimensionality: Short stories from a forgotten life, is free on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod! The book is a collection of SciFi short stories inspired somewhat by the great pulp classics of the 1950’s and 60’s.
If there’s enough interest, the good folks at Amazon and Barnes & Noble may let me drop the price to free for the Kindle and Nook versions as well!
Since closing down their North American manga publishing operations back in May, it seems that Tokyopop’s manga aspirations are doing anything but resting in peace. The Tokyopop Facebook page is still active and recent news that they may still publish Hetalia volume 3 has brought mixed reactions. The plan calls for a limited retail print release along with digital.
Prior to the shutdown, there had been indications that Tokyopop was going to expand their digital manga offerings. Perhaps this is being revisited in their Hetalia plans. But is it too late? Japanese manga publishers seem to be putting much, if not all, of their digital manga efforts behind the JManga project. Tokyopop would have to figure into this somehow, and it is unknown how much the May shutdown strained relations with their Japanese partners. Most of Tokyopop’s Japanese licences have reverted back to their owners, and some believe that fans would be better served if they gave up any remaining ones so that they may be published by more stable organizations.
Still, love ’em or hate ’em, Tokyopop is a well known brand in the United States. As a manga lover, I’d be very happy to see the return of Tokyopop.
A couple of days ago, I read of Michael S. Hart’s passing on the Project Gutenberg site. Up until that point I’d never even heard of him, nor knew the great debt that all of us who enjoy and promote eBooks today owe his pioneering spirit.
When I first got my Nook, some of the first eBooks I loaded on it were from Project Gutenberg. It was one of those Star Trek moments, having the feeling that the sum of human knowledge and thought was at my finger tips. Between Google and Project Gutenberg, I had it all! I think that someday we’ll look back on Michael S. Hart’s invention of eBooks as one of the turning points in the evolution of human society.
Thanks Michael. This site is here because of you.
It’s every publisher’s hope that new books will catch on and find an audience. You promote, promote, promote and then watch the sales figures. If all goes well, the rocket takes off and a smile comes to your face. I’d been smiling a bit lately about Oh My! A thinking man’s guide to crossplay.
The eBook has been doing reasonably well on the Kindle, but when sales recently spiked a bit, I was curious and began to do some digging. What I discovered was that the book was also available on a number of file sharing sites on the web. My book was being pirated!
I knew that this was a possibility from the beginning. Piracy is just an unavoidable part of the digital ecosystem that has to be accounted for in any modern business plan. So rather than becoming angry, I was rather proud that someone thought my book was worth pirating. At $1.99, it certainly isn’t too expensive, and the sales spike is very likely due to the increased exposure.
So it seems that there really is no such thing as bad publicity!
Oh My! A thinking man’s guide to crossplay is available for Kindle, Nook, and iPad/iPhone.
Anime News Network reported that the JManga web site had launched with a lineup of titles that included manga never seen in print in the United States. These new titles include Macross Frontier.
It was the Macross Frontier part that piqued my interest primarily. JManga is a web portal where manga can be purchased and read online in the most popular web browsers. Reading manga online is not new, but being able to do so legally is, for the most part. And any anime or manga fan can attest to the very loud absence of anything Macross Frontier (legally) on US shores. So as a Macross fan, I put aside my general dislike for web based manga reading and signed up for a JManga account to look around.
Well first, I should note, that at this time Macross Frontier is not yet available on JManga, but still there was quite a lot to see. And I wanted to see if the site would work on my iPad. All of the legal online manga reading sites make use of Adobe Flash based readers which don’t work on Apple iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad. I had hoped to find that JManga was iPad friendly. Unfortunately, the JManga reader is also Flash based and didn’t work on my iPad.
The Flash based manga reader wasn’t really a surprise. But I was surprised and a little disappointed at the price of manga on the site. On JManga, readers buy manga using points. These points are worth a penny a piece. Many titles on the site do not have prices listed as yet, but of those that did, I found the range from 895 to 899 points for a volume. Nine dollars is not a bad price for a printed manga volume, but charging that for digital seems excessive considering that Viz typically charges $5.99 for their iPad friendly digital manga. JManga does have a $10/month subscription plan that currently has a one time bonus of 500 points and then a 50 point/month bonus after that. This brings the cost down a bit, but not enough to escape the fact that they essentially charge print prices for digital.
Pricing aside, I’m happy to see that new titles are being made available to US readers in digital format and hope we’re seeing the beginning of a trend. The general decline of retail bookstores and loss of Borders and publisher Tokyopop in particular has made it more difficult for US manga readers to find new titles. JManga was established by the 39 Japanese publishers who make up the Digital Comic Association with the goal of making manga available worldwide in a fashion that benefits the publishers, artists, and readers alike. If manga is to have a future in the US, JManga is going to be part of it.
With 39 publishers to manage, issues like pricing and availability will take some time to work out. But yes, even at print price I’ll be there for Macross Frontier!
Perhaps taking advantage of the demise of Borders, Amazon has lowered the price of their popular Kindle 3G eBook reader to $139. This is truly a great time to move to eBooks as the choices for quality readers have never been better. And I’m sure that the Borders closing stories have increased interest in eBooks in general and the Kindle in particular given that Amazon is getting a lot of credit for the demise of Borders and popularization of eBooks. Those who really like to pinch pennies may want to wait and see if Amazon also drops the price of their $114 Kindle with ads to the magical $99.
Anyone who’s been following the Borders saga is probably not surprised at the news that Borders is closing its remaining stores and liquidating. Like watching the decline of an ailing old friend, I’m somewhat relieved that Borders will soon be out of its misery. All remaining stores may close as early as this Friday.
That Borders execs continued to seek bonuses even as the company sank, seems like some surreal necrophilic episode as this ordeal draws to a close. Much has already been made of the company’s failure to compete with Amazon and the rise of eBooks. But in the end, I think shortsighted, greedy executives killed what was once a great bookstore chain.
The demise of Borders is going to leave publishers with a lot fewer places to sell books and ultimately with a lot less leverage on Amazon. Like Apple was to the music industry, the demise of the large bookstore chain is casting Amazon into a similar role in publishing. If publishers want to stay in business and sell books, they have to play ball with Amazon whether in print or eBook format for the Kindle.
While Barnes & Noble can offer some alternative for publishers right now, it remains to be seen whether or not they themselves will escape Borders’ fate. Reports are that the Nook is doing well versus the Kindle, but the balance of our own eBook sales here at Learncrest points up an enormous Kindle advantage. Titles are moving on the Kindle but not so much on the Nook. And while Barnes & Noble stands to gain Borders customers in places where they have stores nearby, those readers farther away will likely turn to Amazon. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of marketing pitch B&N will make to woo those orphaned readers. Heavily discounted Nooks would be nice!
If anyone had any doubts that the book business had changed forever, they can be sure now. Rest in peace Borders old friend. Rest in peace.
Many Harry Potter fans, myself included, have been waiting for some time to add the adventures of the young wizard to our growing collections of eBooks. But alas, they have remained out of reach, until now. J.K. Rowling recently announced that not only will the collection be available as eBooks, but readers will be able to experience the world of Harry Potter in a whole new way.
In announcing Pottermore, Rowling has thrown down the gauntlet and challenged eBooks to be more than mere words on a digital page. We’ve already seen some glimpses of a more interactive approach to eBooks in children’s books on the Nook Color. And visual novels (aka dating sims) have been around in Japan for a long time. But Pottermore promises to go far beyond that.
Rowling said that the reader will uniquely shape their own experiences as they read through the books. I would guess that the experience will be centered around the web site itself. But there is no reason to believe that it will stop there. While there are no details yet on what or how the current crop of eReaders will be supported, I can imagine the interactivity of Pottermore being extended even there. Both the Kindle and the Android-based Nook are capable of supporting interactive applications. The introduction of touch screen eInk readers can only expand the level of interactivity supported by the devices. And, of course, there is the iPad and other tablet computers.
With the resources Pottermore likely has at its command, we could be seeing something approaching what I’ll call a Literary MMORPG. Rowling’s video gave me the impression that she wants something that retains the “bookish” quality of reading, but reading that immerses and is in turn shaped by the reader. When we read a book, we all imagine the characters and settings in our own unique ways. I think Pottermore will attempt to retain that quality in a way that other media like movies and video games cannot.
Right now, no one knows how this is going to turn out. So like thousands of fans probably already have, I put my email address on the list and eagerly await further news and perhaps the chance to experience Pottermore a little early. ~_^
Digital Manga Inc. announced 23 launch titles for its Digital Manga Guild program at its Anime Expo panel on Saturday. It appears that all of these manga are of the popular Boys Love (BL) or Yaoi genre. While this may not appeal to most manga readers, all have reason to rejoice that the Digital Manga Guild is moving forward with a substantial list of titles that will be available in digital format.
The recent losses of TokyoPop and the Borders bookstore chain have made buying manga outside of Japan a more challenging prospect. While Amazon carries many titles, the loss of large U.S. publishers has made it less likely that even some popular manga will find legal publication outside of Japan. Niche titles even less so. And online purchasing is generally not an easy option for younger manga enthusiasts.
This has undoubtedly made scanlations, fan translated scans of manga, more popular. The avid manga reader may simply have no other choice than illegal scanlations for a growing number of titles. While the internet is rife with people who think everything should be free, many manga readers would gladly pay something to support the artists they love.
Efforts like the Digital Manga Guild promise to not only make more  yaoi manga available, but cultivate the next generation of manga translators. So over time, if successful, we should see a wider variety of manga being translated and sold outside of Japan. The many scanlation groups clearly show that there are talented people out there who want to share their love of manga with others. And the thousands reading scanned manga online indicates that the time for digital manga has arrived.
My youngest son, who’s only 10, wants to publish his Young Authors story as an eBook and sell it for 99 cents. I told him sure, I’ll do it. With the process I’ve built, it’s pretty easy to do and should be a fun project. And who knows, it might even be profitable!
Scenarios like this can only cause great fear and trepidation in the large publishing houses, who like the music industry before them, are faced with a serious threat to their existence as they have known it. Any artist with the technical know-how and inclination can create and sell directly to the public. Authors no longer need publishers to sell their books. Arguments about editing and quality of work aside, those are the brutal facts.
So how can publishers survive? Well first of all, they can last a long time on their enormous back catalogs books that can be converted to eBook formats. It means renegotiating a lot of contracts, but, if they aren’t too greedy, it can be done. Readers don’t just want cheap eBooks, we want quality ones as well. The big publishers have many of the world’s best writers to draw on. If they market and price their products well, people will continue to buy.
The tricky thing for them will be attracting and retaining new talent. The authors of today know that they don’t need publishers to sell their books if they’re willing to publish in purely digital format. Publishers have to offer something more. Money certainly helps, but today’s author is going to be very reluctant to cede much control/ownership of their works to publishers. I think editing and marketing are the places where the big publishing houses offer the most attractive services. They have the resources to promote authors across all major media.
To survive, the major publishers need to identify and sign the next generation of authors. These writers are not waiting around to be discovered. They are writing and publishing eBooks right now and some of them are already having a lot of success doing so. If publishers miss this boat, they really will be sunk.
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