[...] demise were circulating as early as 2008, and they went through a difficult patch in early 2009, cancelling many planned books and losing Kodansha titles they’d licensed to Del Rey and Dark Horse, 2010 appeared to be [...]

[...] for instance, had a tough first half of the year. In January, bloggers started circulating lists of manga solicitations that had been cancelled from Diamond’s Previews catalogue. Then in August, [...]

“Del Rey doesn’t seem to belong in the “manga companies” category any more than Drawn & Quarterly or NBM belongs there. It’s a science fiction and fantasy company/imprint of Random House that publishes novels by Terry Brooks, Harry Turtledove, etc. and puts out some manga titles too.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I disagree ;-)

“Del Rey” is indeed the name of Random House’s long-lived and well-known science-fiction and fantasy book publishing imprint.

That notwithstanding, Random House has for the past five years also published manga under the imprint name “Del Rey Manga.” I don’t particularly pay attention to such things, but Del Rey Manga has been called the U.S.’s third largest manga publisher, which distinction may still be accurate. In any case, it’s not the case that the manga published by Del Rey Manga are somehow just incidental titles that the publisher happens to put out. Del Rey Manga is an actual publishing program dedicated to manga; just one that exists under the corporate umbrella of Random House, Inc. (under which umbrella also exists the sibling Del Rey science-fiction/fantasy imprint.)

All that aside, to the extent that the point is that it can be difficult to determine what exactly defines a manga publisher, then I don’t disagree. There are plenty of publishers who have published a book or two that can be considered manga, but who you wouldn’t necessarily think of as a manga publisher. (Similarly, there are plenty of publishers who have published comics/graphic novels and yet probably wouldn’t come up in anyone’s immediate list of graphic novel publishers.)

But Del Rey Manga? Yeah, we’re a manga publisher.

hm..not too many manga publishers.. It may be that manga, by itself, may not be enough to sustain a publishing house,
especially in this horrendous economic time, and yet..

I have noticed that my local Barnes&Noble is doing this as well, being very tight on doing the “new books vs. shelf space” dance.
When I asked the clerk about new books and promotion, she said it’s partly corporate, and partly store mgr input. I asked how could the store do that weird dance between keeping new books and keeping some books that aren’t so new, but still popular, given the public’s thirst for new books, and on, and on..

She responded, with a grin, that when I worked that out, to go ahead and open my own bookstore…Cheeky lass…lol

The problem would be, where would they find them? Part of Tokyopop’s decline, I think, is that without an inside track with a big Japanese publisher, like Viz, Del Rey and now Kodansha US have, they don’t have an edge when it comes to acquiring titles, and the competition’s increased.

I do believe that this economy will shake out a few more companies before all’s said and done. As per manga companies, though, I can think of TP, Viz, off the top of my head..(There must be more! I hope not too many are lost!)

If Kodansha moves into the US Market, which seems to be their direction and intention, I’d say they become a big fish in a small niche pool. (This is just my uninformed opinion-) I know
I’ve seen TokyoPop in the direct market, and also in Barnes&Noble..Borders..Of the two, I’d guess that the big chains
would mean the bigger volume, hence, bigger $$.
If TP is ready, how would they plan to meet Kodansha in the
marketplace? Only way I could see that happening if TP boosted their production with some BIG sellers and covered both direct market and bookstores, and internet also.

(As an aside, I did read that some institutional bookstores are looking real hard at print-on-demand as a technology/distribution tool..If that catches on, how would such a distribution tool/delivery system rearrange the current book delivery system
continnum?)

And just how the heck would a manga look on a Kindle handheld?
What’s up with that?!!??

Sorry..I just have a lot of questions…lol

Hmm.

I was watching the TV show “Shark Tank”
the other night, and the mentality on display by the Sharks…hm.
Any aspiring creators should watch this show to see how businesspersons
look at the work of creative endeavors..It is simply product to be sold
for money. Not saying all business folks deal this way, but..
You have to know what you’re dealing with, and what you gain/lose
when you sign a business contract, what your rights mean,
now and in the future.. Be prepared and read a contract..

VERY

VERY

CAREFULLY.. you can’t be overprepared in this area, I think..

[...] know there has been a lot of speculation about vol. 5 of Aria, so when I got this news I figured I’d pass it along right away: [...]

So Erica Sakurazawa’s The Aromatic Bitters vol. 2 and Angel vol. 3 (Angel Town), Mari Okazaki’s Suppli vol. 4-7, Mitsukazu Mihara’s The Embalmer vol. 5, etc. could come out in English after all? :D

In the case of original titles like King City, Tokyopop’s contracts gave them partial ownership of the titles, so they can effectively stop anyone from publishing them as long as they exist (or longer; I really have no idea how things would work out if Tokyopop goes under).