April 20, 2005
PW Notes Slowing GN Market Growth

Just to put as many people in the loop as possible, Heidi MacDonald writes on
Publishers Weekly's coverage of ICv2.com's estimation of the graphic novel market, which suggests solid growth simmering down a bit from spectacular growth last year.
Two things worth noting:
First, the belief that this remains a manga-driven phenomenon seems to support my belief that other facets of the market, particularly superhero and adventure genre books, have done little to prove themselves in the with-spines marketplace, particularly as a category.
Second, I agree with
PW's people that disparity between bookstores and comic shops is due in part that many are passing on selling manga either altogether or in much more than a limited fashion -- perhaps the adventure titles from familiar publishers or small trial shelf. This isn't the first time comic shops took a pass on a category profitable to booksellers -- you don't see a lot of strip collections in comic shops, either. My suspicion is that this goes a bit beyond resistant comic shop culture and that there's been a failure at the publishing and distribution levels to make a case to its customer shops that they need to stock these, including ways in which money can be spent not on waves of books like the bookstores but on building hits for specialty readers the way it's done in comic book stores. But I admit I know very little about this.
posted 7:28 am PST |
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