Falling numbers and emerging markets
We had two particularly big news stories today over at Manga Jouhou, namely the 2009 Japanese magazine circulations figures and the announcement that 21 major publishers were joining together to form an electronic book organization. And it’s easy to see how they’re linked.
With the new figures revealing little good news for the biggest magazine titles, it’s obvious why the publishers are working to retain as much say as possible in the emerging e-book market.
With Apple’s iTunes dominating the digital music market these days and Amazon attempting to do the same for e-books with its Kindle, the publishers are trying a proactive approach here. Whether or not it makes a difference in the end remains to be seen.
While we’re on the subject, Simon Jones over at Icarus Publishing had some interesting thoughts on the development.
“An organization like this could influence the design of e-readers, or give publishers more leverage in pricing, but the real purpose is to lock-in digital rights, which until now have been negotiated separately from print rights, allowing authors to self-publish online if they so choose,” he said in his blog yesterday.
He goes on to talk about how this could be a bad development for Japanese writers and artists, but also points out that here in the U.S., it’s pretty much the way it goes.
Maybe I’m daydreaming, but I really hope the Japan Electronic Publishing Association will open the doors to some affordable and accessible translated manga. I mean, if they build an infrastructure that accommodates manga, how hard could it be to add English translations and sell it worldwide?
An interesting thought. Considering Kodansha is already attempting to break into the English language manga market in paper form, it’s not a huge stretch to consider that they and others would attempt to do the same in the e-book market.
It’s an interesting consideration when you think about it. On one hand, it gives them a possibility to cut out the middle man by selling directly to English speaking readers. On the other, it’s only now that we are seeing ebook sales match their physical counterparts so their would have to be some concern over cutting off their nose to spite their face, so to speak, by releasing a product that they can only sell to half their intended audience. Kodansha could do so mostly at will, assuming their US print company succeeds, but anyone else would have to rely on the existing US manga publishers to get their product out, publishers who are going to be less then pleased by being stymied in their own attempts to sell ebooks if members of the JEPA are selling them direct instead.
Mostly, historically, Japanese publishers in general are loath to make sweeping changes that affect partnerships like the ones developed with their existing US counterparts unless it’s a change forced on them or done gradually. On the heels of the news that print publication sales are down (at the magazine level) though they may be feeling more pressure to adopt a new sales model that thye might not otherwise rush into.