It’s true that Tokyopop has had a LOONG history of disappointment, and are trying to change, but to me, the biggest change would be staying consistent. For thing, translating ALL the sound effects for once! It’s true, in some books they do translate the sound effects, but NOT COMPLETELY, and that is clearly, NOT of a high standard in my book. This maybe completely unrelated to the topic at hand, but I’ll say it anyway, the Tokyopop logo, printed back and forth on the spines of many books, looks VERY unprofessional. I don’t know if Tokyopop just loves itself that much to want to see it’s own name more than once or whatever, but the look of it, on the front and back cover, is kind of annoying and ruins many covers. If Tokyopop wants to change as a whole, to me, it has to go through the process of re-working and a sense of the words, “a love of
labor” Making each cent/penny count, by knowing that fans do know who is publishing the book, therefore, it’s not necessary to put, Tokyopop, on the front and back covers of each book!

I have many friends that’ve given me grief for going digital-only with ‘Games With Me’ ‘s first volume, it’s what prompted me to decided on print when collecting both volumes together – I guess the ‘real book in my hand’ love is never going to disappear.

I dislike only having the option for digital copies, especially when places only give you the option to ‘rent’ those copies.

I own only words and Gadarene from you (because they are the only ones I could find in print) and I enjoy them a lot.

I know its easier and more profitable for authors and artists to go digital (especially for the independent ones out there that are just getting started), but I don’t chose to live in a digital only world.

I own thousands of manga and have no issues with forking out the money for it, so its not a pay for content as opposed to getting it free issue.

Print copies are always going to win out for my money even if I’m the only one left out there doing so.

I haven’t read digital manga since we actually got to enjoy manga being published here in the U.S. on a constant basis.

I don’t enjoy scanlations anymore and I fear the coming of the digital age for books, movies, games, all media.

With it we are leaving the tiniest of historical footprints as compared to our ancestors. Even our historical photos of everyday life are now temporary because they are in digital form.

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?

Re: Accessibility
For those who buy books from outside the Amazon Free Postage Zones – is anyone finding it increasingly difficult to find June/801 Media stock from other online retailers?
I wish the publishers would do a deal with http://www.bookdepository.com
instead of Amazon – because these guys ship worldwide for FREE *Hint! Hint!*

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.

Wow, this comments scares me a tad. So I’m curious…do fans dislike digital manga? Or do they just dislike digital BL?

That’s weird, once upon a time, the only BL I got to see were digital scans translated by Aestheticm.com, we’re talking way back in the 90′s. Scanslations are immensely popular, so it’s not the format that might be the issue…is the issue that you have to pay for original BL in digital format?

That’s unfortunate. I truly see digital as the future playground of new titles and new talent. Many mangaka in Japan are selling just as much on sites like Digiket, then they are to publisher printing their material. I hope there isn’t a huge digital backlash.