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Category: eBooks (Page 5 of 8)

C2E2 And The Future Of Comics

March 18, 2011 /

Today is the beginning of the 2nd Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2). In addition to having fun, I’m hoping to see something of the future of comics in the digital age. There are already a number of ways of reading comics on various devices, but the number of titles is limited. And right now the lack of a digital comics standard means having to juggle applications going from my Nook, to my Mac, to my PSP or iPhone.

I hope that perhaps I can get some hands on time with the different comic apps and see for myself how they stack up. And, hearing from industry insiders about the direction that publishers are moving in should be interesting as well. Right now I suspect that Apple’s iPad has the inside track on becoming the preferred future home of digital comics. The following list would seem to bear that out.

New Manga On The Nook: Lots Of Yaoi!

March 15, 2011 /

This morning’s Digital Manga Newsletter brought the welcome news of new DMP manga titles for the Nook and Kindle. Since my eReader of choice is the Barnes & Noble Nook, I’m always happy to hear of new manga titles for it. And because DMP publishes a lot of Yaoi titles, it didn’t really surprise me that nearly all of the titles listed below are of the popular BL (boys love) genre.

A lot of new titles have been added to our digital storefront! There are so many, we’re just going to list the titles here. Titles now available on the Kindle: Right Here Right Now 1&2, Love!!, Kiss Blue 2, Endless Comfort, No Touching At All, The Spiral of Sand, Yokan 1&2, Maiden Rose 1&2, Let’s Draw Manga: Sexy Gals, Il Gatto Sul G 2&3. Titles now available for the B&N Nook and Nook Color: Candy, Right Here Right Now 1&2, Love!!, Kiss Blue 1&2, Endless Comfort, No Touching At All, The Spiral of Sand, Yokan 1&2, Maiden Rose 1&2, Let’s Draw Manga: Sexy Gals, Il Gatto Sul G 1-3, The Day I Became a Butterfly, Little Cry Baby, Lost Boys, and Same Cell Organism.

Yaoi manga has been on the Kindle for a long time now, and the Kindle still boasts a lot more of them than the Nook. But it is interesting to note that yaoi manga are not available for sale at Barnes & Noble retail bookstores. At least, I did not see any at the Chicago area bookstores the last time I visited. By contrast, Borders carries a lot of Yaoi and BL manga. But with so many of those bookstores closing, the amount of retail shelf space for Yaoi must be rapidly shrinking. Needless to say, going digital is becoming a matter of survival in the already distressed manga market.

I don’t know how big the yaoi manga market is, but from what I’ve seen in online forums and the anime convention circuit, yaoi has a legion of hardcore, mostly female, fans. So there is a good chance that it is a profitable niche to be in. And of course, an eBook of sexually explicit material can be more discreetly purchased online than in person at a bookstore. Just as pornography has often been the driving force behind the mass adoption of new entertainment media (e.g. VHS, DVD, the Web), perhaps Yaoi is paving the way for manga eBooks.

TokyoPop Manga May Be Coming to iPad, Kindle, and Nook Soon

March 12, 2011 /

Recent tweets from TokyoPop indicate that the company is in the process of bringing its manga library to the iPad and other eBook readers soon. When asked on Twitter about creating an iPad manga app like competing publisher Viz already has, TokyoPop responded that one was coming soon. And indicated in response to other questions that Kindle and Nook support was also in the works.

TokyoPop eManga Tweets

TokyoPop eManga Tweets

The global recession coupled with the twin challenges of piracy and the transition to eBooks have put a lot of pressure on the publishing industry. The Borders bankruptcy has been particularly hard on small independent publishers who may not be able to easily write off millions of dollars in book shipments that may never be paid for. TokyoPop cited the Borders bankruptcy in its most recent round of layoffs and restructuring.

TokyoPop already sells manga online via Zinio, but the rising popularity of the iPad and the need to make up for losses may be accelerating its move to support additional digital formats. It is not publicly known just how successful iPad manga has been for Viz, but with fewer and fewer places to buy manga at retail, digital may be the only avenue left for growth. For small publishers, digital may be a matter of life or death.

In Progress: A Parent’s Guide to Anime, Manga, and Cosplay

March 9, 2011 /

As popular as anime has become in the United States, it is still not mainstream entertainment. So many parents are at a loss to understand this thing that their kids have an interest in, and sometimes an obsession with. In this vein, I often get questions from other parents about what anime their kids might enjoy. While I certainly have an opinion on what I like in anime and the shows my own kids enjoy, it isn’t always easy to translate that into recommendations for another family.

So, with some gentle prodding from my wife, I’m writing a parent’s guide to anime, manga, and cosplay. I’m not looking to make specific recommendations of which anime series kids should be watching, so much as giving some background and general guidelines. There are a number of such guides on web sites across the net, but many of these focus only on anime. And I think an eBook might be a more effective way of reaching a target audience more comfortable searching for books than searching the web.  My hope is to produce a concise guide that will allay much of the fear that American parents have when it comes to anime, manga, and cosplay.

It is true that Japanese anime is created in a culture that necessarily has a different worldview than American culture. But Japanese parents love their children just as much as American ones do. And they wrestle with the same challenges raising their children. My hope is to show that not only is there nothing to fear in anime, but maybe American parents should get into it too!

Borders Epitath: Bad Romance

March 7, 2011 /

Today is the last day for the Borders bookstore in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. The kids are out of school today, so I decided to take them there to see what might be left and to say good bye to the store.

Throughout the closing process, the staff had maintained a very neat and orderly store as was still the case on this last day. The second floor had been cleared of books and closed off since last week. That was when I bought what would prove to be my last arm load of manga for $1 per book. At that time there was still about a bookshelf full of manga and about twice that of science fiction. Today there was nothing left except 3 shelves of romance novels.

We were all rather disappointed that all remained were romance books. Or as my oldest daughter loudly proclaimed, “trashy novels!” We did eventually find 4 or 5 sci-fi novels amongst the trashy ones, but nothing we wanted to buy, even at 50 cents each. So we left the store for the final time and got pizza at Cholie’s nearby.

On the way home, my oldest son expressed his belief that it was eBooks that killed the Borders. While this is certainly a part of the story, I could not help but wonder if all of those unsold romance novels were taking up space that should have been used to sell books people actually wanted to buy. Watching the end of my neighborhood Borders has also convinced me that paper books have become too expensive. When the closing sale began and the book prices were cut %30, people came in droves. People always come out for closing sales, but maybe if the books were 30 or 40 percent cheaper all the time, there would not have been a need to close the store at all.

Viz iPad Manga Madness

March 1, 2011 /

I just received an email announcing Viz Manga Madness Month. To celebrate their 100th volume, Viz has cut the price of all volume 1 iPad manga to $0.99 for the month of March. This is a great deal for titles that are normally $4.99, but always being one to ask a gift horse lots of questions, first I wonder why. Then I wonder why shouldn’t each digital volume be $0.99 every month?

Previously, I’d wondered just how successful iPad exclusive digital manga could be given the probably small overlap between the manga reader and iPad owner demographics. Most iPad owners are older people who probably do not read Viz manga. And lately there have been a number of stories relating the difficulty of maintaining the readership of iPad magazine editions, such as Wired which after a great debut crashed spectacularly.

Viz Manga Madness Month

Viz Manga Madness Month

Not knowing anything else, the $0.99 volume 1 price is clearly intended to attract new readers to Viz’s iPad offerings. Current iPad edition readers would already have the first volume. So Viz is looking to dramatically increase readership and perhaps test the viability of the $0.99 price point.

I think the iPad is a great machine, but unfortunately this manga reader, like many others doesn’t own one. So while I wish Viz all the best in attracting new readers, I still hold out hope that they will release manga for the other popular eBook platforms as well. And of course, Viz does have a number of titles that can be read online, though mostly introductory volumes at this point.

With fewer and fewer bookstores in which to sell printed manga, coupled with a youth skewed demographic that cannot easily buy them online from Amazon, all roads point to digital manga.

Barnes & Noble’s Conquest of Space

February 25, 2011 /

The growing popularity of eBooks, the success of online bookseller Amazon, and the implosion of Borders would seem to argue that large bookstores are more liability than asset. But Barnes & Noble is seeking to refute that logic by hosting in-store events to promote PubIt authors. PubIt is the eBook self-publishing platform Barnes & Noble launched back in October of last year. Michael at Good eReader writes,

Barnes and Noble is taking advantage of their tangible retail spaces and large book stores, that are a great place to showcase their own authors and build their brand internally. Meanwhile Amazon has a virtual website only and cannot put its own authors in the forefront, while their Digital Text Platform continues to be THE most popular self authoring program on the internet.

Marketing eBooks has been a concern of mine from the very beginning of the Learncrest venture. The online avenues are apparent and easily available, but how does an eBook author cross over into 3D space to promote his/her digital works? Now it looks like B & N is providing just that bridge and going somewhere that Amazon cannot easily follow.

In another current promotion, Barnes & Noble is offering a free cup of coffee to anyone who comes into their stores and tries out a Nook Color eBook reader. Again, this isn’t something Amazon could easily match to promote the Kindle. But I think it may also reveal that B & N’s underlying strategy is not very different from that of a movie cineplex. As high as movie ticket prices may be, that’s not really where a cinema makes its money. Movie theatres make most of their money from concessions sales. The profit margins on soda and popcorn are very high, and I suspect that the same can be said for the sales of eBooks relative to paper ones.

People spend a lot of time on the internet, but we are still physical beings living in 3D space. Free Wi-Fi and in-store promotions that encourage customers to bring their Nooks to the store with them, coupled with events to promote eBook authors is a powerful one two punch to promote your most profitable products. And, of course, it doesn’t hurt to have good old fashioned books on the shelves to be purchased in either physical or digital form.

How well this strategy plays out against Amazon remains to be seen. But with Barnes & Noble’s eBook market share having risen to 25% and strong sales of the Nook Color, they must be doing something right.

Are Physical Books Really Dead Yet?

February 23, 2011 /

A new Amazon Kindle ad has Crave writer David Carnoy speculating that Amazon has pronounced the physical book dead. Long live the physical book! He writes,

By saying that the physical book “lives on,” Amazon is implying that it died at some point. That’s not exactly true, of course, but the messaging seems pretty clear, and expect to see more of it going forward.

It seems rather obvious that physical books continue to be printed and sold to millions of readers. But you know what? I think Amazon is on to something here. As an avid book lover, my heart has been torn by my growing love of eBooks and the accelerating disappearance of bookstores most recently due to the Borders bankruptcy.

As I sort through the remains of the store closing sale of my neighborhood Borders, I am filled with the same ambivalence about physical books as I’m sure was in part responsible for the store’s demise. I love the printed book, but these days I prefer eBooks whenever they are available, and in many cases, I am more than willing to wait for an eBook version to come out. As a result, the only printed books I buy now are graphic novels and manga because they are still mostly unavailable in eBook form, at least legally that is.

So maybe Amazon is right. Somewhere along the way physical books died, at least in my heart, but the soul of the book lives on. It lives on in Kindles, Nooks, iPads, and anything that can display the printed word. If that’s not going to heaven, I don’t know what is!

Pump Up The Manga On The Nook!

February 17, 2011 /

After reading this excellent review of Sundome on the UK Anime Network site, I popped over to Barnes & Noble’s web store to see if it was available on the Nook. It was no big surprise to me that it was not available as an eBook. But I was surprised and happy to see that there was a “Tell the publisher you want this in Nookbook format” link. Amazon has had a similar link for requesting a Kindle version for years now, so I am happy that Barnes & Noble is now providing the same to its customers.

Sundome Vol 1 Image

Barnes & Noble now has "Tell the publisher you want this in NOOKbook format" links

I don’t know just how effective clicking that link is, but I would like to encourage anyone who wants more manga on the Nook and the Kindle to click those links like your lives depended on it! Right now, I don’t know of any better way to demonstrate demand for manga eBooks. And, of course, buy manga eBooks when possible!

Borders Bankruptcy For The Manga Reader

February 15, 2011 /

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Borders is in the final preparations for declaring bankruptcy. When this happens, a lot of Borders bookstores are going to close. Borders currently operates about 650 bookstores and various reports estimate that they will likely close 150 of these. I think, for no reason other than things often being worse than they appear in these situations, that Borders is going to close a lot more stores than that by the time it’s all over.

But what does this mean for the manga reader? Personally, I’ve already made the switch to eBooks whenever a title I want is available in digital format. But many manga title are not currently available in any digital format, at least not legally. So I’ve depended on Borders for much of my print manga for years now because they always had the best and largest selection of titles, including mature ones.

After reading a bit of speculation on what the surviving Borders would look like on Japanator, I think the prospects for print sales of manga are rather bleak indeed. Between a smaller Borders chain only offering the most popular manga titles and Barnes & Noble maintaining its quick return policies and a ban on mature titles, that seemingly leaves Amazon as the winner in all of this. Or does it?

Manga publishers in Japan and their U.S. licensees have been fighting a seemingly losing battle against illegal manga scans, scanlations, on the web. Initially, many, if not most, of the illegal scans consisted of series that had little hope of being distributed in the U.S.. But the growth of the internet soon saw even those popular titles licensed in the U.S. easily available on a number of web sites for all to download for free.

Some of the highest profile scanlation sites have been closed down, but many remain and are relatively easy to find for the most popular manga titles. There are even scans of manga showing up as YouTube videos! By contrast, there are still few popular manga titles available in eBook format for eReaders like the Kindle or Nook. The number of popular titles is growing on the iPad, but few of the largest part of the manga buying demographic, teens and college students, own iPads. A growing number of popular manga are also readable on publisher web sites in a web browser where they must compete head to head with the often easier to read (i.e. no Flash or DRM required) illegal scanlations.

Against this backdrop, it isn’t clear that Amazon will be the clear winner as retail bookstore availability of manga decreases. It seems likely that at least some frustrated manga readers will turn to the grey market for their manga fix unless publishers and booksellers give them an easy way to get manga legally. For now, I’ll probably buy from Amazon because there are no longer any nearby bookstores that carry the titles I want and the selection available at anime conventions is haphazard at best. My hope is that in 6 months I’ll be writing about how all of the major manga publishers have released their titles in all of the popular eBook formats.

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