Manga Xanadu

Every week, Viz Media and the New York Times posts the top ten bestselling books. For Viz Media, it is the bestsellers on their site, Vizmanga.com. The New York Times gets their numbers of print sales from retailers. Offered here is a listing of these books with their status this week compared with the previous week, and some way-off analysis of the activity.   Vizmanga for the week of December 30, 2014 Vizmanga didn’t send out a top ten for the fifth week. I will no longer be including them on the list until they begin posting them regularly again.   New York Times Bestseller List for January 3, 2015 Unofficial Hatsune Mix     ↑ 5 Assassination Classroom Vol 1     ↑ 3 Attack on Titan No Regrets Vol 2     ↵ 9 Naruto Vol 68     ↔ Deadman Wonderland Vol 6     ∗ Sword Art Online: Fairy Dance Vol 2     ↓ 6 Noragami Vol 1     ↵ 6 Citrus Vol 1     ∗ He’s My Only Vampire Vol 1    ↓ 1 Master Keaton Vol 1     ∗ This is one very surprising list! There is a new top title, and it’s Dark Horse’s vocaloid manga about Hatsune…

Every week, Viz Media and the New York Times posts the top ten bestselling books. For Viz Media, it is the bestsellers on their site, Vizmanga.com. The New York Times gets their numbers of print sales from retailers. Offered here is a listing of these books with their status this week compared with the previous week, and some way-off analysis of the activity.   Vizmanga for the week of December 23, 2014 Vizmanga didn’t send out a top ten for the fourth week in a row.   New York Times Bestseller List for the week ending December 27, 2014 Kingdom Hearts II Vol 3     ↑ 9 Attack on Titan Vol 1     ↓ 1 Sword Art Online: Fairy Dance Vol 2     ↑ 1 Naruto Vol 68     ↓ 2 Assassination Classroom Vol 1     ↓ 2 Unofficial Hatsune Mix     ↓ 1 Attack on Titan Vol 2     ↔ He’s My Only Vampire Vol 1     ∗ Spice and Wolf Vol 10     ∗ Attack on Titan No Regrets Vol 1     ↓ 4 Pre and post-Christmas sales and the list doesn’t change too much this week. Kingdom Hearts II Vol 3 makes a huge leap from #10…

Every week, Viz Media and the New York Times posts the top ten bestselling books. For Viz Media, it is the bestsellers on their site, Vizmanga.com. The New York Times gets their numbers of print sales from retailers. Offered here is a listing of these books with their status this week compared with the previous week, and some way-off analysis of the activity.   Vizmanga.com for the week of December 16, 2014 Vizmanga didn’t send out a top ten for the third week in a row.   New York Times Bestseller List for the week ending December 20, 2014 Attack on Titan Vol 1     ↑ 1 Naruto Vol 68     ↓ 1 Assassination Classroom Vol 1     ↑ 4 Sword Art Online Fairy Dance Vol 2     ∗ Unofficial Hatsune Mix     ↵ 2 Attack on Titan No Regrets Vol 1     ↵ 16 Attack on Titan No Regrets Vol 2     ↑ 2 Attack on Titan Vol 2     ↵ 42 Spice and Wolf Vol 10     ∗ Kingdom Hearts II Vol 3     ∗ Christmas can make a top ten list seem quite fickle. Some of the returnees from last week have already moved on, and were…

Every week, Viz Media and the New York Times posts the top ten bestselling books. For Viz Media, it is the bestsellers on their site, Vizmanga.com. The New York Times gets their numbers of print sales from retailers. Offered here is a listing of these books with their status this week compared with the previous week, and some way-off analysis of the activity.   Vizmanga.com for the week of December 9, 2014 Vizmanga didn’t send out a top ten for the second week in a row.   New York Times Bestseller List for the week ending December 13, 2014 Naruto Vol 68     ↔ Attack on Titan Vol 1     ↔ Black Butler Vol 1     ↑ 2 Attack on Titan Before the Fall Vol 3     ∗ Food Wars Vol 3     ↑ 1 No Game No Life Vol 1     ↵ 5 Assassination Classroom Vol 1     ∗ Attack on Titan Vol 14     ↔ Attack on Titan No Regrets Vol 2     ↔ Millennium Snow Vol 4     ↓ 6 There was not a lot of movement on the list this week.  Four titles, including the top two remained in the same spots. Seven Seas lost their…

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…

With the holidays rushing towards us (I saw Christmas trees at K-mart across from the Halloween costumes!!), retailers are pushing out their announcements for the coming shopping season. Amazon started with the announcement that they would be adding a lending feature to the Kindle. Kindle owners will now be able to lend their books out to other Kindle owners for a two-week period. During that time, the book will not be available to the original purchaser, and the book can only be to one person at a time, one time only. Not all books will have this feature enabled as it’s up to the publisher to enable it, just like the audio feature on the Kindle. Of course, the Kindle is only playing catch-up by adding this feature. The Barnes and Noble Nook has had it from day one. But with the e-reader market getting more competitive, the Kindle will have to do everything possible to keep itself at the top. Especially with announcements like the Nook Color. Earlier this week, Barnes and Noble announced they would be releasing a reader tablet for the holidays. It has a full color, android-based touch screen e-reader. It’s 8.1 inches tall with a…

The first shot in the tablet wars began with Apple’s release of the iPad, and technology companies have responded. At Computex, a computer and technology show several companies were showing off new devices, some to be available as early as this Fall. The big announcement that everyone is touting is from the creator of the netbook, Asus. They announced three tablets.  The Eee Pad will come in two versions. The EP101TC will come with a 10 in screen and the EP121TC will have a 12 in screen. Both devices will be able to playback multimedia, read e-books, browse the web, and with a keyboard can be used as a computer. Asus is promising 10 hours of battery life with these devices. Exact specs or release date haven’t been announced yet. The Eee Tablet is the Asus e-reader. It uses a reflective LCD screen instead of e-ink, and is in grey scale instead of color. It will include a touch screen and style for note taking. It uses Wacom’s pen input technology for more precise and accurate notes. Asus is aiming this device at students. It will include a webcam, microSD slot and USB slot. It will also have a 10…

With Mother’s Day this Sunday, all the ads lately have been about what to get Mom. One common element I’ve seen (beyond the usual of appliances, jewelry, and gardening) is e-readers. Amazon.com has the Kindle on their front page again, touting how it’s the perfect gift for Mom. It’s $259 for the 6″ screen, and includes a wireless connection to Amazon for instant downloading (and gratification). Sony, maker of the e-Reader, has been pushing it’s low end reader, the Pocket Edition, which has the least number of features. You can find this device at Office Depot, Staples and Best Buy going for $149 through Mother’s Day. You have to connect it to a computer to get the e-books on it, but it also now comes in a “special” pink edition. Ooooo…. Yeah, I’m not impressed by that either. I’ve looked over the Pocket Edition, and wasn’t really impressed with it compared to it’s price. But it’s the least expensive e-ink device out right now. Then, I found out about a new device. The Aluratek Libre e-Reader. It’s a low tech e-reader, that’s also low priced. Online it can be found for around $150, but K-Mart will have it for only…

Just days after Amazon conceded to MacMillian’s demands for an agency model for e-book pricing (ie, variable pricing), Robert Murdoch’s Harper Collins started rattling it’s saber that it wanted the same deal.  By the end of the week Hachette had joined Harper Collins.  So like dominoes, the major publishers are falling in line to continue their old publishing strategy of initial high price (hardback), price drop 1 (trade paperback) and price drop 2 (mass market paperback for digital books.  Since Amazon capitulated to MacMillian, they will have to do the same with the publishers.

One Shall Stand, One Shall Fall Last Friday night, news started coming in over twitter that Amazon had pulled the buy buttons from all of publisher MacMillian’s books from their website.  The books could only be purchased there from 3rd party sellers, and this was for both print and digital books.  This included all of their imprints such as First Second books, Tor, and Seven Seas Entertainment.  The New York Times then broke the story that Amazon and MacMillian were arguing over Amazon’s $9.99 pricing for e-books.  MacMillian, one of the 5 publishers who had signed on to Apple’s iBooks store with the tiered pricing plan, now wanted Amazon to do the same.  Amazon’s reaction was to pull MacMillian’s books.  You can get a lot of links to reactions here.  By Sunday, Amazon had posted to their blog that they would have to give in to MacMillian’s demands, and as of this writing, the publisher’s books were being made available again.  This has been brewing for quite some time, and it seems only with the advent of the Apple iPad and iBooks store that publishers seem to be embolden enough to push for the tiered pricing.  While the iPad/iBooks is…

Late Friday night, reports started coming in about a dispute between Amazon and publisher MacMillian.  According to the New York Times, Amazon has “temporarily” pulled all books by MacMillian, including all imprints such as First Second, Seven Seas Entertainment, and Tor, because MacMillian is pushing for a raise in price of their e-book on the Kindle to $15.  The grousing between Amazon and publishers has been going on for a while now, so that this has finally happened is no surprise.  Nor is it a surprise that it happens right after Apple announced it’s iPad, which MacMillian is one of the publishers that signed on to provide books for. To get a full range of the story, he’s some links to check out. Johanna Draper Carlson posts about it at Comics Worth Reading.  Check out the comments for interesting information on the breakdown of who gets what in the publishing pie. Business Insider has a look at the dispute from the Apple side of the equation. Cory Doctorow, a big proponent of e-books, has his own take at BoingBoing.  Definitely check out his post for how the whole battle affects consumers.  He’s got some really interesting insights. The Los Angeles…

We knew it was in the works, and now Sony has unveiled it.  The third e-Reader in their hardware line, the Reader Daily Edition.  Sony announced the new device on Tuesday at a press conference.  The Daily Edition is different from it’s older brothers in 2 important ways.  One, it has a larger touch screen, coming in at 7 in.  And two, it has built-in wireless capabilities, provided by AT&T.  Finally, Sony has a device that can truly compete with the Kindle!  ….Maybe.