It’s that time of month again when I have to place my Previews order. But now, besides my usual problems of deciding what to buy, I have to wonder if the books I order will be canceled. Diamond Distributing has had their red pen going at break-neck speed, what with canceling the entire Yen Press solicitation from last month’s order. They’re back again and while not the only publisher to get red-lined, they just the most jaw-dropping. So, do I chance another manga order through Previews? I want to support what titles I can with pre-orders, but is it a losing battle with Diamond who seem happy to slash their catalog back to the stone age of just DC, Marvel, Dark Horse and Image?
If I want a manga to survive, and I want the publishers to know I enjoy the title by pre-ordering it, will the publisher still get my message even after Diamond cancels my order? Do the publishers see the numbers before the cancellation order comes down? Am I wasting time pre-ordering with Diamond and risking my favorite, not so popular manga to an untimely death?
I ponder these questions even as I prepare my next order. I’m playing it fairly safe, though, that’s just the way it came down, and not because I chose not to order from anyone in particular for fear of the titles getting canceled. These are my orders for this month:
- CMX – Two Flowers for the Dragon v5
- Tokyopop – Chibi Vampire v14
- Viz Media – Gimmick! v9
- Viz Media – Knights of the Zodiac v27
- Viz Media – Wild Ones v8
- Viz Media – Pokemon Diamond & Pearl v5
Chibi Vampire is a must, as it’s the final volume, and the same goes for Gimmick! Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya is on the penultimate volume, and there is no way I am missing out seeing this title finish! I still really enjoy Wild Ones even if no one else seems to, and Two Flowers for the Dragon has the double bonus of being good and having a good discount.
I hope Diamond lives up to their name, and keeps distributing the manga, not just comics, we love. I can see the divide between manga and comic readers growing if Diamond continues to feel the need to cancel manga from their catalog. And that’s something we really don’t need. There is already a wide chasm, that those of us that read both can barely straddle. We shouldn’t be forced to chose one over the other.
2 Comments
I gave up on ordering from Diamond earlier in the year. Now I pre-order from Right Stuf (during studio sales) or Amazon, and I haven’t had as many problems with canceled titles.
Unfortunately, as I’ve said many times before, Diamond doesn’t owe you anything. They are a business, their obligation is first and foremost to themselves and their stockholders if they’re publically traded. That means cutting costs where possible and one of the places they have been cutting costs is by removing comics and manga that do not sell a particular amount from their monthly magazine. Diamond pays for the costs of Preview, they also pay for the costs of warehousing these underperforming comics. Having a ton of non-selling comics and manga in their warehouse makes no financial sense. Yen Press has tons of other outlets available to them, bookstores, Amazon, etc., it’s not like they’re going to go out of business because Previews isn’t listing their manga, but honestly, they have no one to blame but themselves for producing unpopular books.
Diamond doesn’t owe you anything. You don’t have to like it, you can complain about it, but making it sound like you’ve got a legitimate beef because they’re not putting the whole world of comics and manga in your hands for free every month isn’t logical.