Forum - View topicNEWS: Japanese Publishers' JManga.com Portal Now in Beta
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Axlen
 Posts: 5 Location: USA |
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The pricing needs to reflect the reduced cost of not needing to print hard-copies. If they don't then they are just ripping off the readers and the probably the authors too. The publishers have been slow to adapt to the online revolution and they are reeling. Who needs a bloated mid-tier organization if you can self-publish. I believe in author co-ops with a light management layer to help with running site and keeps the authors focused on their works.
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egoist
 Posts: 7762 |
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Meh. I wouldn't pay that much to read a manga online. Quite disappointing. |
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Hemen
Posts: 5 |
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And how can you guys be sure that it will cost money? Maybe they want to stop ilegal and the best way is to have it free in a legal way. Yes, i think that site will have manga for free there or i hope so. Last edited by Hemen on Sun Mar 27, 2011 10:16 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Paploo
Posts: 1875 |
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The problem with that is assuming that print is a major part of the cost of comics- it's actually just about $2.00 off the cover price. With online, distributors still have to take their cut [%30- Apple and Kindle do this, and I imagine Comixology, Graphic.ly and others get their cuts as well], and there's still costs involved in formatting the comics for the different - formatting comics for the PS2 is apparently very timeconsuming. "the probably the authors too" Artists [especially manga artists who generally request a higher royalty rate on digital editions] want to make the same they usually do off a print copy, seeing as many people just want the digital one. The fact that digital's messy issues are impacting their income (either by cheap digital prices cutting into more profitable print sales, or the fun that is piracy *now wait for someone to make a rant about how artists shouldn't get all uppity about piracy*) makes them want to play it as safe as possible. As such, they have to be priced at a certain level to make the same amount for the creators. Most manga are creator owned, so they're the group who help decide the pricing. Even with company owned stuff at Marvel/DC, digital royalties were a big issue recently in contracts and used to negociate exclusivity deals. http://forums.millarworld.tv/index.php?/topic/96375-my-big-concern-with-comic-downloads/ There's also the fact that digital sales aren't where they should be- there's tons of hype, but as Mark Millar points out, not a lot of results yet [and in his case, he's referring to his creator owned properties which he'd get a bigger cut of], even with generally positive reactions to some digital offerings. Another thing to keep in mind is that that's a test site, so things may not be final- though I imagine they'll likely be in line with what Digital Manga, Seven Seas and VIZ are selling stuff for- between 5 and 8 bucks a volume on assorted platforms. And honestly, I think people'ld see digital prices as more fair if they weren't used to getting digital editions for free illicitly. Also surprised this thread didn't get more buzz given how often people cite a demand for digital offerings- there's a lot of major titles and numerous publishers participating in this site, so it looks to have a lot of potential to be a game changer in the digital market. I look forward to the day when digital becomes more of a viable resource and less of a vague promise of potential [ my experiences in webcomics have shown me it's had the most success for cartoonists as a source of a smaller income via ads or subscriptions, with books being the biggest draw merchandise-wise as a bigger $$$ maker- ebooks are a different realm that could change things, but even with the current massive push things are still foggy] |
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Hemen
Posts: 5 |
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But again it's no evidence that if this site will cost money. Just because VIZ version cost money dosen't mean this will.
We don't know anything for what we know it can be free. And i don't think digital price is fear because everyone isn't 18 year and everyone isn't allowed by their parents to buy manga online like this. "The first ever official Japanese comic site is coming to you in 2011! Read the hottest manga! Connect with the manga community! I mean we have emanga, so what it means by first offcial japanese comic site (i think) is that it's free. Get to know your favorite authors!" I think it will be more free than having to pay money. Well it seems like that for me. I will not believe that i will have to pay money for jmanga.com until i see evidence and proof of that 
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Paploo
Posts: 1875 |
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Maylo's the one who broke the news, and has looked at the site, so I'm assuming her quotes were right- it's very similar to http://www.emanga.com
Mind you, VIZ is also running assorted free online manga sites like http://www.shonensunday.com and http://www.sigikki.com that run chapters online then take them down when the print volume has been released, relying on ads and sales of the books to keep online offerings free. They publish Rumiko Takahashi's Rin-ne simulataneously this way, and have put up a lot of other Sunday titles like Cross Game. I think they're targetting adults with the paysites, and teens with the free sites- and with the Ipad, adults AND teens [as in, teens whose parents own an ipad and let them buy apps on it] There's also the ShonenJump subscribers digital section w/chapters of Nura, Toriko and Bakuman- which targets teens and kids with cheap, mailorder subscriptions for the print magazine their parents can buy, with the digital stuff as an extra incentive. They seem to be coming up with a wide array of digital offerings to target different subsets of fandom, while also using them to market their print books (which are available at any bookstrore/comicshop] at audiences. I kind of assume that they use the free previews to target the kids who can't buy things online to check out their books in bookstores. [there's also libraries- always an option] |
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Hemen
Posts: 5 |
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And it would be strange to have the point systems and stuff in the BETA. AND : Does anyone have a free beta account that they can share with people here so they can see the site in beta? |
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agila61
 Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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Of course, its only free teaser chapters at the moment. Last edited by agila61 on Sun Mar 27, 2011 2:55 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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akoftroy
Posts: 9 |
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While this is true, it's also meaningless. It's like saying the best way to stop cars being stolen is give them away for free. That doesn't help anyone except the "criminals." What the industry cares about is turning those illegal downloads into sales. Now some think this is impossible, and that's the problem. Having the publishers spend tons of money to create a site that gives everything away for free makes no sense. If you're just doing it to get publicity/advertisement for the book release, then might as well let the scanlation sites do that for you at no cost to yourself. |
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agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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{* I'm trying to be carefully objective here in focusing on the possibility of qualms on that issue ~ which is something which would objectively undermine the financial benefits to big bootleg sites and the defraying of expenses on small bootleg sites, while not taking a stand on whether or not its right or wrong to trample on the presumed rights of the actors. Of course, achieving that kind of objectivity can be hard, and I guess its conceivable I may have fallen short in some way.} By contrast, any legit ad or subscriber-extra supported "temporary current access" site has a strong incentive to direct people who develop an attachment to a series to places where they can get permanent copies ~ whether print, digital download, or ongoing digital access ~ because the more effective they are perceived to be at generating per volume revenue, the easier it will be for them to get current access to a variety of manga titles. The long time business model for manga has been to partially fund the creation of manga with page rate payments for serials ~ of whatever frequency ~ and then the balance on per copy royalties of collected volumes. The consequence of this model is that incomes in creating manga are much like other entertainment fields ~ mostly less than you'd expect, and on rare occasion more than you can easily believe. The hope for a jackpot in volume royalties of even a moderate hit keeps substantial numbers in the field plugging away at low median rates of pay. Recreating a digital version of that would be current access with some type of either ad-supported or subscriber supported transitory access to current chapters, and then a higher royalty per copy sale of some form of permanent access to volumes. It is not yet entirely clear to me, but it may be that the collected chapter of titles in a given genre that the jmanga site describes will offer something like the inexpensive serial content, which then develops fans for specific series who will be willing to pay for more permanent access to their favorite titles. In any event, whether that "digital access equivalent of regular serials" is effectively launched on the jmanga site or it evolves elsewhere, the jmanga site looks to be a very strong entry in terms of developing the "digital access equivalent of manga volumes" half of the business model. |
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Paploo
Posts: 1875 |
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There's also the fact that both Yen and Vertical have stated that sales went up on their books after they got them removed from popular scanlation sites, so why cause your own sales to plummet? I'm assuming that's why they're sticking to either pay ebooks/subscription sites, or if they do it for free, it's a limited time offer like on VIZ's website- pull off the previous chapters, so if fans want to read em again they have to buy em, or so if they like the current chapter/sample chapter, they'll run out and buy the previous books. |
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