Comments on: Yen + Pressure

By: Lori Henderson

Lori Henderson — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 20:00:01 +0000

And in Japan, the anthologies are cheap, printed on cheap paper. They are made to be disposable. The Japanese have had 30 years to develop and get used to that format.

That’s not how it’s done in the US. The anthologies are considered magazines, are printed on decent paper, and aren’t that inexpensive (especially Yen Plus). Yen Plus is only the fourth anthology to appear in the US, with only two so far being successful. Viz’s books have back issues available. Americans are used to getting back issues of books they read. A company that doesn’t do that is going to look lesser their eyes.

IF Yen really intended to go with the Japanese model, they should have followed in a lot closer, in paper and price. Of course, no one would buy the issues, especially casual readers.

Just because that the way it’s done in Japan, doesn’t mean it’s going to work that way in the US. Study business practices between the two countries and you’ll see that happen again and again.

By: serika75

serika75 — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 06:53:13 +0000

Yet usually in Japan there is no official source where one can obtain back issues of manga magazines. And they don’t have a subscription system either so you have to go to a bookstore/convenience store to buy each issue at it is released.

If you want back issues there, you have to scour net auctions or go to used bookstores.

Usually, at least in Japanese manga magazines, there is a synopsis which briefly introduces the series so it is perfectly doable to start reading a series after it’s started and get the gist of the story, and if you like it, you simply buy the collected volumes or you go read it doing tachiyomi (read while standing) for free in a bookstore or net cafe.

THAT is the business model of manga magazines, the selling of tankobons, not selling magazines in itself. Publishers discovered in the 70′s they could make a lot more money selling collected volumes of popular series than selling magazines. Actually most Japanese mangazines are in the red or barely make any profit, it’s just a giant promotional tool with a price as low as possible to be cheap for clients but not too low that losses are too big.

Publishers make real dough on selling collected volumes. They’d rather have you buy the collected volumes than back issues.

By: Brian Henderson

Brian Henderson — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:25:59 +0000

The problem is, you *NEED* to handle direct consumer orders for back issues, every other magazine on the planet does, why not you? As Lori says, not everyone has access to a LCS and even those that do can only buy what the LCS stocks. With the comic market shrinking, stores are buying less and less extra stock, even the largest stores will likely not have a tremendous number of back issues available for sale.

When you’re running a serial magazine where missing a single issue can make it difficult or impossible to understand future stories, it’s absurd not to have an official, ready source for back issues. That’s just bad business sense.

By: sesho

sesho — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:18:41 +0000

Yeah, it does seem a bit boneheaded to not have back issues EASILY available, but at least in my neck of the woods, the magazine is pretty easy to come by. You can find it at Barnes and Noble and Borders and the issues pretty much stay out the whole month. I’m actually a bit guilty of falling behind on it. I’ve continued to buy all the issues but I’ve only read through the second one.

By: Lori Henderson

Lori Henderson — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:04:40 +0000

Thanks for the clarification Kurt. I’m happy to hear that there are back issues and that Yen is working on making them available through other resources. Not everyone has access to a LCS, and I checked my own online comic store, and they didn’t have Yen Plus available.

But you really should have something on your website that makes this clear. One comment buried in a thread that gives the impression that back issues can not be purchased leads to misunderstandings like this.

By: Kurt Hassler

Kurt Hassler — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:35:41 +0000

Hi Lori,

Just to clarify, back issues of YEN PLUS are indeed available to anyone who wants to order them. They simply cannot be ordered on our website or through our distributor directly for the simple reason that we do not handle direct consumer orders.

The easiest way for someone interested in a back issue of YEN PLUS currently is to go to their local comic shop and place a special order for it. Diamond Comics can supply back issues of the magazine to any retailer placing an order so long as our overstock on that issue lasts.

In the meantime, we are currently having conversations with a couple of online retailers regarding the possibility of making back issues available on their site. Once that is done and we have a reliable source to which we can direct interested consumers on our site, we’ll be posting a link on our website.

Best,

Kurt