Judi says:

I’m past worrying about price increase vs color pages. Whatever, I just want the manga. As they know we will pay price, if we want it bad enough. That maybe cynical, but I’ve decided that it is what it is. Just put out good stuff.

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Sorjei says:

Personally I see no need for color pages…I’d rather them be mini posters I can take out of the book lol. Just..seems pointless when it’s stuck in the book… :/

Never knew Borders had issues with it though..I mean I live in UTAH (cough) and they seem to have no problem at all with it XD Put them on display even! (they even started carrying Manga Sutra, which surprised me!)
They dont even give me/the covers weird looks XD
Once a male employee purred “fiesty!” at Man’s Best Friend’s cover LOL
Oh but I am kind of getting off topic…

Anyway I will still be buying, but being more selective (but that goes for every publisher as all prices have been raised) and most of my shopping will be done on Amazon (especialy goldbox deals!)

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Sorjei says:

oh! Sorry lol

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Andy says:

I think that though the price is going up , so is the quality of books. I have been into anime, and yaoi for years. Yaoi has always been a bit pricy but it is a niche genre. Those prices are what keep those companies in business. Several companies have already perished becuase of this market.
We are in an age when magazines and sandwiches cost 10 bucks, and I don’t see that 14 dollars is a lot for a book when you look at some of the graphic novels in American comics are $20 dollars, and little comics are near $4. I also have to say, I have bought Madness and the size of it alone I didn’t feel bad paying the price, not to mention it was a good solid story.
With sites like Emanga and Net comics giving net formats and the Yaoi press and others using the Kindle, I think we will see the prices change for several bound copies.
Blu doesnt release a huge amount of titles, but the ones they do are solid. And I don’t mind paying for them if they continue good stories and good work.

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Judi says:

I guess I’m the only one who doesn’t read scans. Wow, I thought there might be more than just little ole me.
So, the cost going up will drive more people to scans. Hum, the majority who read scans aren’t buying yaoi or any manga anyway. Don’t think prices make that much difference except that the consumer might be more circumspect about what they purchase.

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Jukebox says:

It’s a little difficult to believe that. They said the same thing with the last increase, and I’m hard-pressed to find a color page in some of the books that came after that price increase. As for Borders having problems, well, there’s not even a Borders where I live, so I can’t really comment. But, there are Barnes & Noble and Books-a-million. And both of them rarely put yaoi on their shelves. Besides that, the brick-and-mortar bookstores have always cost more for their manga selections anyway, vs purchasing online (and that’s before adding in tax). So, I buy almost all my yaoi online.

I have to agree with what some of the others say – I used to buy all Blu’s works (when the price was reasonable), but now I’ll be very discriminating. And it would be wonderful if Tokyopop/Blu would continue some series that have ‘stalled’ or at least communicate with the fans why those series are stalled.

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sunflower says:

@Judi, most of the people I know who buy also read scans. I read scans for pretty much everything I buy – if not that very book then something else by that mangaka. I do it because I don’t want to get burnt with average yaoi like much of what June puts out.

I didn’t used to do that. When the books were cheaper I just bought. But now, I read scans of all of it. It’s a rare day when I buy something out of curiosity just because someone recommended it. I need to see the art, see the story-telling, know if it descends into cliche or if there are things that will make me want to reread it. And if I like it, I buy it, knowing my money is well-spent.

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sunflower says:

@Tina, I bought your book at emanga.com. I really liked being able to “rent” it for such a low price, and I enjoyed reading it via their viewer where the pages were crisp and the type easy to read. To me it was akin to reading scanlations to see if I wanted a book, except it’s legal and I get to see the real translation (or dialogue, in your case), and the whole story. If more people did this, I’d read fewer scanlations.

But I’d like to always see digital forms go hand in hand with print, even if it’s just print on demand. I like having a book of my own when I like a title or series. Maybe someday POD technology will work well with manga/comics.

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Tina says:

@sunflower thanks for your thoughts on ‘Games’. I plan to release a print version, once both volumes are complete and V2 has a good run on emanga.com

My plan is to utilize emanga.com [if they'll keep having me] in order to release a proper offset print run to coincide with the digital release.

POD quality is iffy :/ Many fen still want crisp well printed erotica, and POD can’t always deliver this. Amazon’s POD program for example will only take a certain file size–which is no where near the size of a typical well made illustrated book. Novels are great with their POD program, but not manga or comics.

Keep your eye on the indy-creators though. There’s a wealth of cool stuff out there right now running as web series, and they’ve hit the mark where they can collect volume 1′s and start printing. If they get enough pre-orders, they print – and the stuff is great. To be honest, I think I ordered more GloBL and m/m from indy comikers and mangaka then I did from the pros this year. My faves were Starfighter and Honeydew Syndrome.

@yblees The Book Depository expected me to have 5-12 titles in circulation from my own ‘warehouse’ before it will deal with me. :/ I’ve heard through the grapevine they’re trying to be more Small Press friendly, so perhaps I will contact them again and give it a try. Technically though, I’m not a small publisher [yet--I'm going back to producing my own material, ISBN and all], – at this time, the only book I ship and sell myself is ‘Only Words’. All my other titles are handled by the publishers that hired me to write for them.

What title are you trying to get?

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