Digital Manga Asks Fans to Pre-Purchase for Advance Yaoi Copies

All You Need Is Love

Digital Manga Publishing has announced a “Pre-Order/Demand for Publication Web-A-Thon“. Basically, fans can get advance copies of selected yaoi titles by committing to buy months in advance, effectively paying DMP’s print bills for them.

The only title announced so far is the novel All You Need Is Love. It’s scheduled for release at the end of January 2010, but if DMP gets $3,500 before the end of September, those pre-purchasers will get the book at the end of October.

All You Need Is Love

If they get the money earlier, the “book will be printed and copies will be sent off to those who have participated in this program immediately.” If they don’t get the money by the deadline, then the book keeps the original release date, and those who pre-ordered are sent the book then.

All of this is being handled via PayPal, which makes me nervous. There are certain guarantees that protect the customer, but they’re often time-limited, and with such advance timing, the buyer may lose those protections if anything goes wrong. There seems to be no mention of refunds if the purchaser changes their mind. Or what if someone moves before the books are shipped? Brigid has some additional points, about yaoi fans being the right group to start with because of their dedication, and wondering whether the quality will differ.

DMP has reason to encourage ordering direct from them — they get the full cover price instead of having to give half of it away to distributors. And I guess devoted fans may find that getting a desired book three months early is worth tying up their money for that time. On the other hand, this seems like another example of pushing responsibility onto the customer: “You want it? Put your money where your mouth is.”

Would you be willing to preorder an anticipated book this way?



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *