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Simon Hogg on a Gollancz Manga Sales Advantage
posted August 9, 2005
 

Simon Hogg
Via The Internet

"What I still don't understand is how this publishing endeavor will work in terms of English-language material available in the country's comic book shops and through on-line sites like Amazon UK. I don't recall hearing about a big purge of translated manga in the UK, but I also can't imagine Gollancz doing anything with British editions of manga if manga fans have already purchased multiple volumes of each series in their North American form."

I think the big advantage of these titles are the price. They are the first sub-£5 manga to be widely available over here. Gollancz seem to be doing a big publicity push on these titles with most of them on 3-for-2 offers, so you can get three volumes for a tenner, which actually makes each one about the same price as a magazine for the target age range. By way of contrast the Tokyopop titles, which are all that most average bookstores stock, retail at £6.99 and rarely get more than a spine-out display. Getting the imports of these new releases costs about £8 per book, so the new price just about pushes them into the range of pocket money purchases. Hopefully it will open up the market to more diverse titles.