×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
NEWS: Tokyopop to Put 50 Books on Zinio E-Publication Reader


Goto page 1, 2  Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
wandering-dreamer



Joined: 21 Jan 2008
Posts: 1733
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 10:05 am Reply with quote
Ah, at first I thought they were putting manga online to combat scanlations but it's a paid site. Not complaining but I was wondering, have any of the manga companies really pursued putting manga on devices such as the Kindle, Nook, iPad, ect yet?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
LKK



Joined: 31 Oct 2007
Posts: 426
Location: Virginia, USA
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 10:45 am Reply with quote
If TP uses this as a way to finish publishing all those titles that are now and seemingly forever on hiatus, I will gladly pay. The list of stalled TP titles that I was reading is painfully long.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
chinabean



Joined: 25 Feb 2008
Posts: 32
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 11:04 am Reply with quote
the main onesi care about the most is the "missing" series/novel and i would pay a premium for em' but i guess they fired whoever was translating or something =/
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
PingSoni
Subscriber



Joined: 05 Dec 2008
Posts: 195
Location: Lansing MI
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 11:56 am Reply with quote
I would use this only as a last resort to read volumes of series that aren't being finished on paper, but I really, really do not want to spend more time sitting in front of a computer reading text.

I would much rather pay a steeper price for a print-on-demand book. The technology exists and isn't hard to use; I wish one of the manga publishers would at least give it a try.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Vertical_Ed
Company Representative


Joined: 01 May 2009
Posts: 278
Location: New York, NY
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 1:13 pm Reply with quote
wandering-dreamer wrote:
Not complaining but I was wondering, have any of the manga companies really pursued putting manga on devices such as the Kindle, Nook, iPad, ect yet?


Yes we have and we continue to...
Vertical's translations of Osamu Tezuka's manga - Buddha, Black Jack, Dororo, MW, Apollo's Song and Ode to Kirihito are available on the iPod/iPhone through an app called Astro Boy Magazine. The magazine has also been submitted to the iBooks store also (so readers can get it through both the app store and the iBook store in the future).

DMP Books have put up some of there manga on the Kindle.

Some old Broccoli licenses have been put up on the Kindle by their Japanese rights holders.

Vertical is working on further expanding our digital program with a focus on the iPad and possible Android based tablets.

-Ed
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Vertical_Ed
Company Representative


Joined: 01 May 2009
Posts: 278
Location: New York, NY
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 1:17 pm Reply with quote
PingSoni wrote:
I would much rather pay a steeper price for a print-on-demand book. The technology exists and isn't hard to use; I wish one of the manga publishers would at least give it a try.


Really? How much would you pay for an on-demand book? Tokyopop tried when they were going to go on-demand for a handful of weaker titles a few years ago and fans (but mainly stores) went nuts. Then TP decided against it.

Print on-demand can be pretty expensive. It costs rougly 10% of a book's cover price to print in bulk (that's about $1.10 to print). A printing on-demand book could cost up to $6 just for the printing. In that case a book might enough up costing $15 or more!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6248
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 1:25 pm Reply with quote
I wonder when will Tokyopop will start putting their titles on the Digital Comic store for the PSP. Last week the PSP Digital Comic just got DC Comic and Wildstorm (if CMX was not close down they probably would have put manga on the Playstation Digital Comic). Now I want to see more manga on our Digital comic and Tokyopop should look into that. Come on, people has been waiting for more manga on the PSP (and also PSP owners in Japan wants to read DC and Marvel Comic since we do have many loyal Japanese fan who love superhero comic).
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Vertical_Ed
Company Representative


Joined: 01 May 2009
Posts: 278
Location: New York, NY
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 1:59 pm Reply with quote
mdo7 wrote:
Come on, people has been waiting for more manga on the PSP (and also PSP owners in Japan wants to read DC and Marvel Comic since we do have many loyal Japanese fan who love superhero comic).


Vertical started talking to Sony about this last week. After we get more details about the project, we'll be talking to our mangaka/publishing partners in Japan to see if we can move forward. It's very early in the process and we still need to learn more about how the system works. But I am very intrigued by the idea of having manga on the PSP or PSN.

Let's see if it works out.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
PingSoni
Subscriber



Joined: 05 Dec 2008
Posts: 195
Location: Lansing MI
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 2:15 pm Reply with quote
Vertical_Ed asked:
Quote:
Really? How much would you pay for an on-demand book?

I've self-published several books using Lulu.com, so I have an idea of the economics of POD. I would definitely pay $15 a volume for something I really wanted to read. I just paid what works out to $17.50 per volume (including postage) to import Bunny Drop because I don't want to wait years to read the series.

I may be wrong, but it just seems to me there must be enough people who like paper and/or have trouble reading large amounts online to justify a significant experiment with POD. Once the content exists in digital form, it should be able to be used as the basis for free previews, paid DRM-protected downloads, and POD without a lot of extra work.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Sunday Silence



Joined: 22 Jun 2010
Posts: 2047
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 2:40 pm Reply with quote
Vertical_Ed wrote:
Really? How much would you pay for an on-demand book? Tokyopop tried when they were going to go on-demand for a handful of weaker titles a few years ago and fans (but mainly stores) went nuts. Then TP decided against it.


Pardon me, butt you can't exactly expect people to go gaga over a new system when all you offer is complete and utter crap selections. IIRC, most of the offerings in TOKYOPOP's print-on-demand were it's OEL bullcrap and some other obscure titles nobody even heard of.

TOKYOPOP also has a very stinky track record when it comes to things that are "new."
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6248
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 2:53 pm Reply with quote
Vertical_Ed wrote:
mdo7 wrote:
Come on, people has been waiting for more manga on the PSP (and also PSP owners in Japan wants to read DC and Marvel Comic since we do have many loyal Japanese fan who love superhero comic).


Vertical started talking to Sony about this last week. After we get more details about the project, we'll be talking to our mangaka/publishing partners in Japan to see if we can move forward. It's very early in the process and we still need to learn more about how the system works. But I am very intrigued by the idea of having manga on the PSP or PSN.

Let's see if it works out.


In Japan, they do have manga on the PSN Digital Comic store, you can ask Digital Comic on Twitter. Sadly, Japan doesn't have DC or Marvel Comic in Japan yet and I know mangaska and Japanese fans who love DC and Marvel Comic like the creator of Ruroni Kenshin love X-men and Masakazu Katsura (Shadow Lady, and Video Girl Ai) is a big fan of Batman, and Akira Toriyama possibly be a fan of Superman (look at Son Goku and Superman origin, that's no coincidence).

Also there was a update for Digital Comic application on my PSP (finally I've been waiting to delete all the free comic I had on my PSP), I went to "View Changelog" and saw this

Quote:
Support has been added for media that is formatted to be read right-to-left (for example, traditional Japanese Manga). Autoflow controls are reversed when reading in this mode.


So you see it's look like we're going to see manga on the PSP very soon. I just hope DC, Marvel, and Disney Digicomic will go to the Japanese Digital Comic store soon. I think the Japanese are complaining about "where's our Marvel and Western Comic, Sony" as much as manga fans with PSP are asking Sony "Where's our Manga, Sony". If we get manga and Japan get western comic everybody will be satisfied.

Sunday Silence wrote:
Pardon me, butt you can't exactly expect people to go gaga over a new system when all you offer is complete and utter crap selections. IIRC, most of the offerings in TOKYOPOP's print-on-demand were it's OEL bullcrap and some other obscure titles nobody even heard of.


I beg to differ Sunday Silence, I'm one of those people that like to read these so-called "OEL Bullcrap", and there are people that like to read obscure manga that nobody heard of. So it's OK for Japan to turn Master Chief and Batman into anime but it's not OK for US companies like Tokyopop to do manga-style art. I see this double standard crap all the time.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
LKK



Joined: 31 Oct 2007
Posts: 426
Location: Virginia, USA
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 3:02 pm Reply with quote
Vertical_Ed wrote:
Really? How much would you pay for an on-demand book? Tokyopop tried when they were going to go on-demand for a handful of weaker titles a few years ago and fans (but mainly stores) went nuts. Then TP decided against it.

Is that when TP wanted to offer the online purchase only books? I didn't realize that that was a print-on demand program if that's what you're referring to. I was fully prepared to pay for the one series that interested me at the time, but then it moved to an in-store offering. So I bought it at the stores instead.

Don't misunderstand what I said earlier about wanting digital. I would much prefer a hard copy and would pay a premium for it. However, if a digital version is all that I can get, then a digital is what I will get. What I want most is to finish the stories. Everything else (within reason) is secondary.


Last edited by LKK on Mon Jun 28, 2010 3:18 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Sunday Silence



Joined: 22 Jun 2010
Posts: 2047
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 3:03 pm Reply with quote
mdo7 wrote:
Sunday Silence wrote:
Pardon me, butt you can't exactly expect people to go gaga over a new system when all you offer is complete and utter crap selections. IIRC, most of the offerings in TOKYOPOP's print-on-demand were it's OEL bullcrap and some other obscure titles nobody even heard of.


I beg to differ Sunday Silence, I'm one of those people that like to read these so-called "OEL Bullcrap", and there are people that like to read obscure manga that nobody heard of. So it's OK for Japan to turn Master Chief and Batman into anime but it's not OK for US companies like Tokyopop to do manga-style art. I see this double standard crap all the time.


Whole different argument entirely. Whole different argument.

Getting to the point, you can't exactly say the idea was a failure when you use said new technology as a dumping ground for some of your worst selling titles and titles that were reviled due to it's "creativity." It's like GM continuing to sell SUV's and trucks when the public demands fuel-efficient cars and the only selection they have is a Rebadged Korean s***box and vaporware.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Vertical_Ed
Company Representative


Joined: 01 May 2009
Posts: 278
Location: New York, NY
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 4:47 pm Reply with quote
[quote="PingSoni"]Vertical_Ed asked:
Quote:
I may be wrong, but it just seems to me there must be enough people who like paper and/or have trouble reading large amounts online to justify a significant experiment with POD. Once the content exists in digital form, it should be able to be used as the basis for free previews, paid DRM-protected downloads, and POD without a lot of extra work.


That might be the future of publishing. However, for the time being I am uncertain if there will be enough people who'd pay the POD prices to recoup overhead costs quickly.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Vertical_Ed
Company Representative


Joined: 01 May 2009
Posts: 278
Location: New York, NY
PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 4:49 pm Reply with quote
LKK wrote:
Is that when TP wanted to offer the online purchase only books? I didn't realize that that was a print-on demand program if that's what you're referring to.


I was under the impression that the program was POD based.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2  Next
Page 1 of 2

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group