Manga series on hiatus followup

[geri_chan]

 
MangaBlog posted two links responding to the Tokyopop article about series on hiatus, which I blogged about the other day. It turns out that I was not the only one who was irked by the accusing tone of the article, which makes me feel somewhat vindicated.

AstroNerdBoy pointed out the same thing that I did, that fans hold off on buying series because they've been burned before. He talks about his own experience with the Slayers novel series: there are two story arcs in the series, with the first taking place in volumes 1-8. Tokyopop licensed only the first 6 novels and then dropped it. Later (more than two years later, judging from the release dates on Amazon), they finally did release 7 and 8, but not before AstroNerdBoy felt burned by TP, and they never did license or release the second story arc. 

And you know what? Tokyopop lost a sale from me because I had no idea that Slayers 7 and 8 had been released at all until I read that post! Normally I keep up with the new releases, but I never saw those books. The comments say that it may have been a limited release, so they might not have made it to the stores that I usually go to, or they might have sold out before I got there. I also never saw any promotion about the titles being released, obviously. The owner of the local comic book shop where I buy most of my manga usually orders only a few copies of obscure and/or slow-selling titles, so sometimes a book will sell out before I have a chance to get there. He'll set a copy aside a copy or do a special order for me if I request it, but I can only do that if I know the book exists. Since Tokyopop likes to play coy about whether a title has been canceled or is just on hiatus, I wasn't looking out for the Slayers books, so they lost a sale from a fan who would otherwise have been happy to give them my money. Looks like they're still available on Amazon, so I may order them now, but honestly--a publisher shouldn't expect a customer to do detective work to track down a title if they want to make sales. Unless it's a title that I desperately have to have, it's much easier to spend my money on the stuff that is readily available on the bookstore shelves, since there are many more great manga series out there than I can afford to buy.

(Recently I've signed up for the comic shop guy's "new releases" e-mail list, so I'm notified every week about which new manga titles are coming out, so hopefully I won't miss anything in the future.")

The other response is by Christopher Butcher, who quite logically points out that it's not good for business to attack your customers: 

...at the core of the article is a very real problem; the combatative attitude between this Tokyopop employee–and really Tokyopop in general–and their fans. You don’t start off an answer to a frequently asked question on your website by complaining about your customers. You don’t do any one of dozens of weird aggressive things Tokyopop has done over the past 10 years or so (running Sailor Moon in the same magazine as Parasyte? Really?), but that’s a big one.

Not that he doesn't relate to the Tokyopop editor's frustration, since it seems that he owns a comic book shop himself:

Standing behind the counter at the store, it can be brutal to hear customers say things like “I really like that series but I’m not going to buy it because they might drop it half way through.” Hell, it’s even more angering to hear a customer (or potential customer) say “I’m not going to buy that because I already read it online.” But if I responded to such comments with, say, “People like you saying things like that is what’s killing manga!” I would get creeped-out, blank looks as the once-potential-customers backed out of the store, never to return.

He also states the same thing that AstroNerdBoy did, that it's unfair to put all the blame on the customers who've been burned before, especially when the publisher won’t even acknowledge the fact that they’re cancelling the series publicly, or the reasons for it. (Bold emphasis is the OP's.)

I loved this post because he stated in a very clear and logical way, everything that ticked me off about the original Tokyopop article. As I said in my original post, it's not that I don't sympathize with the editor or agree that fans should actually buy the manga series that they want to read, but the tone of the article came across as "It's all your guys' fault," without acknowledging any responsibility on their part.

Two TP employees, including the author of the original article, responded to the post. Daniella Orihuela-Gruber (not the author) pointed out that many Tokyopop series have not been canceled but are merely on hiatus. She also acknowledged that the article was a bit rude and snarky in tone, but "this is probably the 100,000th time they’ve addressed these questions."

To address the "rude and snarky" part first--I work in public service and I often get asked dumb questions thousands of times, and you know what? I'm still not allowed to be rude to our customers. If I was, I'd be reprimanded at the least, and in the worst-case scenario, fired. And for the person asking the question, it's still the first time to them, and they're not going to know that you heard the question a bazillion times before. They're just going to know that the person they're doing business with is being rude to them, and quite likely, they'll spend their money someplace that treats them better. I can sympathize with the snarkiness--God knows I've had to bite my tongue at times, but as Christopher pointed out, actually venting at the customer is not good business. I would've taken less offense if the author of the article had added some sort of disclaimer like, "And to all the people who do buy our manga from the start, thanks for your support."

As for series being on hiatus and not canceled, the problem is that Tokyopop refuses to actually say if a series is on hiatus or not. Christopher says: "they play coy, make no public statements, and then turn on the fans for behaviour they helped to create. It’s aggravating." Another commenter chimed in to say that it would be great if TP would just tell us how many copies of a manga they need to sell in order to get the next volume printed, which I think is a great idea. Fans could spread the word around, try to get an online campaign going to boost sales and revive a series, and people who were holding off on starting the series might actually start buying it. I'm not naive enough to think that every series can be saved, but it's worth a shot--what have they got to lose when those series aren't selling anyway?

According to Daniella, publishers are afraid of losing face with the Japanese rights holders by officially announcing that a series is canceled or on hiatus. Okay, I admit that I don't understand all the business and cultural intricacies of the manga industry, but aren't they already losing face when a series is selling zero copies because it's on hiatus? Even if they don't actually say it's on hiatus. Surely the Japanese rights holders are noticing that no royalty payments are coming in?

LillianDP, the author of the original article that sparked all this discussion, also weighed in. She admitted that she knew that article could come across as blaming and cranky, but hoped it would also be empowering. (I assume she means the part about on-hiatus series being revived.) She said she wasn't trying to reach the people who are already spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on manga, but wanted to reach the "segment of the fanbase who have never thought about things this way and have no sense of how their decisions can affect the continuation of series they care about" and was trying to "impart a sense of urgency to people who may have been sitting on the sidelines." She admits that TP has "certainly screwed up plenty over the years, but we don’t make the decision to switch around our publishing schedule in a vacuum, or out of whimsy or cruelty." If she had taken this tone in the original article, I would've been a lot more sympathetic, and it probably wouldn't have antagonized so many people.

Lillian says that fans can make a difference, so I hope that all this discussion will have a positive effect on Tokyopop and urge them to be more honest and upfront about which series are on hiatus and what it would take to bring them back.

And to be absolutely fair since I touted Viz previously, it seems that they also have some communication issues about whether or not a series is on hiatus. Once again linked through MangaBlog, Johanna Draper Carlson on Manga Worth Reading wonders if the Viz series Inubaka has been canceled, since Volume 17 came out last November, and Volume 18 is showing as "no longer available" on Amazon. In the comments, people talk about how Reborn also seems to have been canceled or suspended, and inquiries to Viz either go unanswered or just say "keep checking our website." (Which is not very helpful, since the person had e-mailed Viz because they couldn't find the information they were looking for on the website.) I'm sure, as with TP, there are reasons why they can't or won't answer, but I wish they would at least be honest enough to say that it's been canceled or that it's on hiatus until sales pick up, or even just that they're still working things out and they'll let the fans know their decision as soon as possible.