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Big Hed
Joined: 04 May 2006
Posts: 1607
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 11:35 am
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Good read, albeit there's not a lot within the article that hasn't been brought up before.
Just a couple typos: "develo" at the end of parapraph 1, and "audieences" at the end of line 1 paragraph 10.
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prime_pm
Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 2350
Location: Your Mother's Bedroom
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 1:47 pm
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A Waldenbooks store separated their books a bit similarly; books for older patrons were on top while the younger patrons got the bottom. However, the line separating them was always a little thin. Not to mention, the store's been shut down.
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Richard J.
Joined: 11 Aug 2006
Posts: 3367
Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis.
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:56 pm
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I'm not surprised the biggest problem with titles for younger kids is the overly sensitive nature of ratings here. Personally, I wish the manga publishers would just throw caution to the wind and publish the titles with the same basic age rating here as they are in Japan. If anyone starts some controversy, it'll probably do more to raise sales than hurt them. (Remember all the anti-Pokemon and Harry Potter stuff? Didn't do a thing but make the series that much more well-known.)
Nice to see that the publishers are recognizing the need for series for older fans too though. Hook them while their young, keep them supplied for life! (And it wouldn't hurt to have something mom and dad might take notice of right?)
More should be done like Tokyopop did with Loveless. Online previews boost sales when they're limited special events like that. It's like running a contest, it makes people think "I've only got a limited time to do it so I'd better do it fast!"
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Paploo
Joined: 21 Nov 2006
Posts: 1875
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 4:07 pm
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Tokyopop's All-Ages line of Original graphic novels [Cat&Mouse seems to be the most successful one] is pretty nice though small- and VIZ's Pokemon comics have come back under a good all-ages imprint as well...... it seems like the best idea is to continue to import series that are mild enough for kids, and continue to create original works more suited to the North American market.
Scholastic's gotten into graphic novels a lot lately with their own excellent line of graphic novels, such as the Baby Sitters Club, and the colour version of Bone which has been doing numbers that probably equal those of VIZ and TP's best selling series. There's also their Book Club which accounts for a lot of sales- Queenie Chan's the Dreaming had a scholastic exclusive reprint that was around 40000 copies- they've also done Book Club versions of Peach Fuzz, +Anima and other titles. Though getting the really young readers is a bit more of a challenge
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redhandgrunt
Joined: 05 Mar 2007
Posts: 22
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 8:08 pm
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My only problem with Del Ray is they're a little more expensive. They do good work and I like how they have editors notes explaining some of the changes they made from the original.
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enurtsol
Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14839
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 1:09 am
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Richard J. wrote: | I'm not surprised the biggest problem with titles for younger kids is the overly sensitive nature of ratings here. Personally, I wish the manga publishers would just throw caution to the wind and publish the titles with the same basic age rating here as they are in Japan. If anyone starts some controversy, it'll probably do more to raise sales than hurt them. (Remember all the anti-Pokemon and Harry Potter stuff? Didn't do a thing but make the series that much more well-known.) |
Or it could backfire................. to bookshops' expense.
If there's bad controversy, people could avoid buying it in bookshops, boycott the bookshops that sell it then the shops can't pay rent, or even do physical damage at the bookshops, etc. That's why bookshops can't just throw caution to the wind: they have more to lose than just books or sales - they could lose the physical shop itself. Why sacrifice the whole bookshop at the expense of a few controversial products compared to, say, 95+% that won't destroy it?
So don't forget about the middlemen in these equations.** It's not just about the producers and the consumers - something has to bridge the product. The middlemen's opinions matter too, whether they'll support and stock your product in the first place, and then only if the potential return of investment much more outweighs the risk, like with Harry Potter (million$ of books vs religious nuts).
(** Of course, unless it's limited to direct online sales.)
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