Good Idea: Putting manga on the Barnes and Noble Nook.

Digital Manga Publishing has announced that titles from their catalog will start appearing on the Nook and B&N’s newest e-reader the Nook Color. They already have titles on the iphone/itouch and Kindle. Just as they had with those other devices, they are starting with their adaptation of Vampire Hunter D volume 1. The book will be available in black and white or color (for the Nook color) and will be split in half, each half going for $3.99. I don’t know about the splitting the book in half, but getting their manga on as many of the digital platforms as possible is making them the most versatile manga publisher.

Bad Idea: Selling Subscriptions to Scanlated Manga

Two years ago I wrote an article about hacking the Kindle to view images, which could be used for digital manga as well. This article has attracted a lot of views and some comments about other programs people have created to make image viewing easier. I let a lot of these side since the technology can be used for legal images, but I have to draw the line somewhere, and the latest comment I got was that line. The link that appeared in the comment was for the site Manga on the Kindle, which claims to have over 100 manga volumes formatted for the Kindle, which are available for a $5 monthly subscription. Um….no. This is worse than the aggregator sites, since it’s soliciting money directly from people. Now, if publishers were to do something like this, that would make it a good idea.

Good Idea: Updating Your e-Reader For More Functionality

Barnes and Noble has said that the Nook Color, which is currently running on an older version of Android will be getting the 2.2 update in January. This update will give Nook Color owners access to the Android Market as well as other features. This is fantastic news for comics and manga fans, as apps come out for the Android, they will be available to use and read on their Nook Color. It will also give them the option of using their Nook Color as a full tablet, at half the price and more convenient size than the Apple iPad.

Bad Idea: Censoring e-books you’ve already sold

From the “I Wanna Be Like Steve Jobs” Department

Word has come from writers on blogs and on the Amazon forums, that Amazon has started removing erotica fiction from the Kindle store, which includes deleting the book from people’s accounts that have already purchased the books. This is one of the reasons I am hesitant about joining the e-reader revolution. When I purchase I book, I don’t want to be told somewhere done the line that I can no longer read the book I purchased. It doesn’t say “rent” on Amazon. It says “purchase”, and that should mean it’s mine until I decide to get rid of it, not when Amazon decides to back pedal on their “no censorship” stance that they claimed to have, but seems to have changed their mind about. This is especially frustrating for both writers and readers as Amazon has not clean statement about what is appropriate for the store and what is not, and they seem to be choosy about who gets to stay and who goes. Just like Apple and their Apps Store. Not a good model to emulate, Amazon.