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Cait
Joined: 29 May 2008
Posts: 503
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 Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2010 5:35 pm
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It's kind of silly that they're making so much out of this "simultaneous" release, since the print version is already available in English from Akadot (and I assume Libre is using the DMP translation). It's also only the first chapter, which means anyone who wants to read the whole thing digitally is going to have to buy it piecemeal as it comes out.
I'm also pretty sure that the Boku no Koe release isn't "volume" 6, but "chapter" 6, as in, the first part of what in the print version was the beginning of the volume 2 tankoban. The to-do about that is that it actually is the first time it's ever been available (legally) in English in any format, since CPM (not CMX as Libre's press release mistakingly credits) only ever released volume 1 in print in English.
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lebrel
Joined: 16 Oct 2009
Posts: 374
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Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2010 6:03 pm
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Isn't Hyper Loving a Maniac a sequel to DMP's Deeply Loving A Maniac? If it is the same volume, it does seem kind of pointless, but I don't think it is...
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sunflower
Joined: 04 Sep 2005
Posts: 1080
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Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2010 8:49 pm
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It's not the same volume. The Higashino You hasn't been released in English before.
That said, $2.99 per chapter is too steep for me to buy anything but my very favorite mangaka. It adds up to a volume of 5 chapters at $15, and if I'm paying that much I want to be able to hold it and look at clean artwork on a real page.
Perhaps if they offered those who buy all 5 chapters a print version at a substantially discounted price I might consider buying. Netcomics does the opposite, offering cheap chapters and regularly priced books, and I buy both from them when I like a series because the total expenditure isn't outrageous.
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Cait
Joined: 29 May 2008
Posts: 503
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Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2010 9:16 pm
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| sunflower wrote: | | It's not the same volume. The Higashino You hasn't been released in English before. |
I see. It seems to be a third volume?
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Perhaps if they offered those who buy all 5 chapters a print version at a substantially discounted price I might consider buying. Netcomics does the opposite, offering cheap chapters and regularly priced books, and I buy both from them when I like a series because the total expenditure isn't outrageous. |
I seriously doubt Animate/Libre is at all interested in getting their feet wet with print editions in English. Given what they're charging for digital editions, they also seem to over-value their own titles. I have to wonder just how much they expect to make on these digital editions, and just how much they're actually bringing in. I can't fathom who in the world is really willing to pay $3 for each chapter of each title they are interested in. I'm certainly not.
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lebrel
Joined: 16 Oct 2009
Posts: 374
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Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2010 10:11 pm
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I doubt Libre/Animate is making much of a profit on their Kindle titles. They have to pay for translation and relettering, and the titles don't seem to sell more than a few copies per week, after the first week or two. They don't have print expenses, or licensing fees, but at the same time they're restricted to one sales channel and the portion of the audience that is willing to pay to read digitally. I'm not sure that even $15 per book is giving them an unusually large return on their investment, considering that they seem to have only a few hundred purchases per title, so far.
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Cait
Joined: 29 May 2008
Posts: 503
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Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 10:56 am
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| lebrel wrote: | | I doubt Libre/Animate is making much of a profit on their Kindle titles. They have to pay for translation and relettering, and the titles don't seem to sell more than a few copies per week, after the first week or two. They don't have print expenses, or licensing fees, but at the same time they're restricted to one sales channel and the portion of the audience that is willing to pay to read digitally. I'm not sure that even $15 per book is giving them an unusually large return on their investment, considering that they seem to have only a few hundred purchases per title, so far. |
Well, the previous chapters they were releasing seemed to be the old CPM and Aurora licensed properties, so they were likely using those translations, reducing the cost to them, but I have to agree. This business model is "trying," but I hardly see it succeeding financially. They're better off with a rental model the way Netcomics or eManga uses. A lot of BL fans will pay a small fee to read something once, not pay a fee akin to buying an English language print copy to own a digital copy (that in many cases was already available in a previous version legally or illegally).
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sunflower
Joined: 04 Sep 2005
Posts: 1080
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 8:48 pm
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| Cait wrote: | | I seriously doubt Animate/Libre is at all interested in getting their feet wet with print editions in English. |
They probably aren't. So they really need to lower the price.
However, I'm curious as to how you and the others are determining the approximate number of copies these sell. That information isn't available for any books unless you have legal right to it. And Amazon sales ranking isn't a reliable index of this. Especially since it doesn't take all the Amazons around the world into account.
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Cait
Joined: 29 May 2008
Posts: 503
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 10:06 pm
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| sunflower wrote: | |
However, I'm curious as to how you and the others are determining the approximate number of copies these sell. That information isn't available for any books unless you have legal right to it. And Amazon sales ranking isn't a reliable index of this. Especially since it doesn't take all the Amazons around the world into account. |
I'm not determining anything. I'm hypothesizing based on the price point they've set and the general opinion I get from other BL fans about it. BL fandom is a pretty small world in English, and in all of the circles I run in within it I don't know anyone who's particularly interested in paying that kind of money to own digital copies of any but the most high-demand properties.
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lebrel
Joined: 16 Oct 2009
Posts: 374
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 3:56 pm
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| sunflower wrote: | | However, I'm curious as to how you and the others are determining the approximate number of copies these sell. That information isn't available for any books unless you have legal right to it. And Amazon sales ranking isn't a reliable index of this. Especially since it doesn't take all the Amazons around the world into account. |
Animate's English-language Kindle books are only available from the US Amazon, as far as I can tell. And although the sales ranking allows only an approximation of the actual number sold, if you check it regularly (through a service, unless you are particularly OCD), it gives you a rough idea of the title's sales through Amazon; since Animate's Kindle books aren't available through any other vendor, their sales through Amazon are their sales, period. And the sales ranks suggests that most of their titles move slowly; for some titles, sales are infrequent enough (i.e., less than one every 3-4 days) that you can see individual sales as peaks in the ranking.
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