Of anthologies and iPods

September 20, 2006 by

Queenie Chan has a great livejournal post about anthologies and how they could succeed. In the process, she discusses e-readers (a possible medium for manga anthologies) and explains why the iPod succeeded where a lot of e-media failed. She includes anecdotes of her family’s reactions to technology that I have to say correspond pretty well with mine. Go check it out.

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Comments

  1. Jarred says
    September 20, 2006 at 11:51 am

    I like how she makes the point that anthologies are supposed to be disposable. I’m a big e-reader proponent, especially with the e-ink technology that doesn’t cause LCD eye-strain, but whenever I brought up discussions about e-anthologies, everyone was quick to respond about how they want to hold their books and that I was physically trying to take them away from their cold, dead hands. No, no, anthologies are just meant for easy reading, like a magazine! You flip through, check out a couple stories, and the recycle or give it away. When a tank/book comes out that you enjoy from the magazine, you buy!

    As far as her eloquent and awesome diagram goes, in THEORY that’s how the Sony Reader should work.
    Accessibility: Sony Connect store
    Computer: Sony Connect program on desktop, like iTunes
    Affordability: Buy the reader for $300 from Borders, buy Gift Cards for Sony Connect as well
    Portability: Sony Reader, e-ink technology makes it feel like real paper rather than the PDA LCD screen which is hard on the eyes.

    When Sony annouced their e-reader, TOKYOPOP was listed as one of the publishers contributing content to their connect store, but I haven’t heard much more on that and the Reader has been often delayed. But man, I’d love to pile in a few custom-made “anthologies” on this and take it with me on the go. Not to mention it would make getting review copies a real snap as publishers could just send us PDF files. ;)

  2. Ed Chavez says
    September 20, 2006 at 12:13 pm

    And with the potential of eBook.Japan expanding into other Asian nations and maybe other continents altogether the potential is there for e-Anthologies which eBook provides in Japan (they also do eMagazines).

    But Jarred don’t go sharing MangaCast trade secrets before we have our IPO up. ;)

  3. Adam Arnold says
    September 20, 2006 at 12:42 pm

    “I like how she makes the point that anthologies are supposed to be disposable.”

    That’s a vaild point, but it isn’t exactly how the majority of American’s work. They tend to hang onto magazines more than every now and save them. We’re in an ebay world now, so anything in your house could make you money if you save it.

    “Not to mention it would make getting review copies a real snap as publishers could just send us PDF files.”

    Oh, PDFs are easy, but about 90% of the time… they make manga look like utter crap due to moires. Blame it on the very thing that makes manga unique—the tones. Moires are hard to deal with as it is in print, but they’re especially difficult to deal with in most compressed file formats. I think that’s a valid concern that no one had brought up yet.

  4. Tivome says
    September 20, 2006 at 12:47 pm

    anthologies in Japan are disposable; people read them and toss them. No one keep them around. Queenie really laid out what all the points I was trying to address, so hopefully poeople will listen to her.

  5. Jarred says
    September 20, 2006 at 1:59 pm

    I’m not sure I agree with “the majority of American’s” holding onto magazines. All my family and friends that buy mags, they throw them out within a couple months. Now, with manga readers, it might be different. This whole collector’s mentality has been fed and raised because of the direct to GN format releases. That’s not to say that can’t be broken . . in some cases! Are there series out there I wouldn’t mind reading, but not collecting dust on my shelves? You bet, and I don’t think I’m alone.

    From what I’ve read, manga doesn’t look so hot in the e-ink format at the moment, but that’s to be expected with 1.0 products. But I also think that people who are buying e-reader manga aren’t necessarily concerned about it looking 100% like paper. It’s like MP3 vs CD. Audio purists will buy the CD or Vinyl. Those who just want music to take with them easily and in compact fashion on the go will go with MP3. I wouldn’t buy DMP’s Robot on e-reader format, but I would consider buying the 15+ volumes of GTO I haven’t read just so I can read them.

  6. Lyle says
    September 20, 2006 at 4:21 pm

    whenever I brought up discussions about e-anthologies, everyone was quick to respond about how they want to hold their books and that I was physically trying to take them away from their cold, dead hands. No, no, anthologies are just meant for easy reading, like a magazine! You flip through, check out a couple stories, and the recycle or give it away. When a tank/book comes out that you enjoy from the magazine, you buy!

    When I talk about wanting to hold an anthology, I’m strictly speaking of the physical package. I don’t care about archiving my Shojo Beat magazines, but it’s in an inexpensive, easy-to-read and easy-to-carry product that I can read on the bus or in a hot bath. And, until an amazing ebook reading device comes along, online-only anthologies are highly inconvenient products that will be read only by those who’s interest is greater than the inconvenience.

    A further hurdle to ebooks: customers have always needed a device to listen to recorded music no matter how they were packaged. The average person has never needed to purchase a device to read a book.

  7. Tivome says
    September 20, 2006 at 4:26 pm

    People are buying e-manga to read them on their cell phones in Japan. People do everything on their cell phone in Japan. It’s a small but growing market, because space is at premium everywhere, including your backpack. Books of all sorts has been shrinking in Japan due to size restrictions. It’s only matter of time before e-distribution will be a major part of manga distribution in Japan. There are worries that young people are reading less manga and are getting more into properties based on visual novels/games, light (prose) novels, so the manga publishers are doing everything they can to keep the eyes and the spending power of the young with manga, and e-distribution is one of the ways. Manga’s no longer the top dog in term popular entertainment and mindshare. Several hot properties are not sourced from manga, and if this continues not only manga will lose sales there’s also possible creative brain drain to other industries.

  8. Jarred says
    September 20, 2006 at 4:36 pm

    Lyle, have you checked out the Sony Reader, yet? Yes, it’s not out yet and I definitely won’t guarantee it will be “amazing” (it is Sony and a 1.0 product, so I’m sure there will be hiccups), or “inexpensive” for that matter, but it’s definitely bus and bath ready. :D

    Won’t argue with you about needing a device to read, but what about a device for us big readers who like to carry about a few books at a time? I can load up a tech manual, homework, RSS feeds, manga, and maybe a couple of the local newspapers or entertainment rags, all on something the size of one single book. And when I’m done with them I can just set them back into the digital ether, rather than finding shelfspace or taking the time with ebay/half price books.

  9. Ed Chavez says
    September 21, 2006 at 8:15 pm

    People are buying e-manga to read them on their cell phones in Japan. People do everything on their cell phone in Japan. It’s a small but growing market, because space is at premium everywhere, including your backpack

    Well, people are reading eManga on their cells and that is a fact but they are not solely doing it there. I did an entire show detailing that many of the newer publishers are not only making anthologies and individual series for cell phones but the newbies in the industry and some smaller publishers (Gentosha and Kodansha two decent sized publishers) do a percentage specifically for computer monitors. Magazine Spica is a good example of an online ePhonebook for PC (and its also in English).

    Then there is the growing market that is coming from eBooksJapan. For the longest time this project by Matsushita/Panasonic was mainly back catalog titles and some ero-magazines. However, as the hardware/software gets better this publisher has begun to release more current titles as well. There is obviously a licensing issue for a second/third party online publisher but if trends are any indication there is a definite place for people reading manga on their PCs.

    Sure space is an issue and that is why there are anthologies in Japan. That is also why there mangakisa too. Save money and save space and get free internet triple play!!

    But seriously for those who cannot see an eAnthology doing well here, let me say this… look at the paper, look at the printing, all the annoying ads (well maybe the ads will still be there) but phonebooks are generally pretty cheap anyway. I’d personally rather RSS subscribe and get the same cheap quality on something even more portable and more versitile (I love reading manga while listening to mp3s!!).

  10. Chris McDougall says
    September 22, 2006 at 1:19 pm

    I think that e-paper is the way of the future, but honestly, until someone markets a reader that reads almost like a book (two screens on opposite sides that closes like) then I don’t think it will take off just yet. You need to make the transition as simple as possible for those who aren’t technologically savvy.