7 Comments

• 
  Kris February 2, 2010 at 10:20 PM

  First, thanks for some links.

  Second, Diamond is not the only distributor. I’m fairly certain book stores like Barnes and Noble don’t order from Diamond, for example.
  MY local comic shop ONLY orders through Diamond. Diamond has a pretty big strangle hold on small comic shops specifically, but on comic store distribution in general. And if I’m not mistaken, they have a distribution monopoly on Marvel and DC titles.

  Diamond’s minimal order discourages smaller companies from listing some titles (as far as I know, because I never saw it while combing through there myself, Yen Press’s Black Butler was never listed). And if the first volume doesn’t meet the minimal order, they won’t list subsequent issues (like Sarasah). Recently they stated that at least they will ship out initial volumes even if the order isn’t met, to honor orders, but still won’t carry future volumes.

  And, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that you should totally change what you used. Just that it might be helpful to do some comparisons.

  Regardless…if Diamond was a person, I would want to punch it in the face, I think.
• 
  Katherine Dacey February 2, 2010 at 10:57 PM

  I didn’t take your comments as a put-down, Kris — I saw this as an interesting challenge! Yes, Diamond does have a very strong influence on what small comic shops purchase, though retail outlets with a more manga-oriented focus (such as the two stores I list above) are obviously relying on other sources such as Baker & Taylor to obtain books from companies like Viz, Del Rey, and Yen Press.

  I’m lucky in that I have a number of places I can go to buy manga. There are definitely comic shops in my area that have little to no interest in stocking manga, and it shows: their selection is confined primarily to Dark Horse, CMX, and Viz titles, with a smattering of other publishers’ materials.
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• 
  Kris February 3, 2010 at 12:38 PM

  The comic store I used to work at, which was a local chain in the DFW area (they had around 8 stores or so scattered throughout the metroplex), had a decent selection of manga. But certainly I don’t recall seeing much, if anything, from publishers like DMP or Yen Press. And, as I think I mentioned this before, it’s because the people working at the stores and ordering from the office didn’t know a lot about manga. So it’s all Tokyopop, Viz, CMX (though, less of that), Dark Horse…. Some Vertical I think, because they sometimes had some Tezuka on the shelf.

  I don’t know where exactly they got their information from that helped them decide what to order. There was an element of…each month employees had to go through Previews and suggest 5 things the store should order. I know for a fact I’m the only person in my store (of 4 employees) who knew enough about manga to be making suggestions. And across the other stores, I don’t think there were many more. Not even everything I read was regularly ordered, so I took to pre-ordering everything.

  And, as I think I mentioned before, at the store I now shop at, I’m about the only person who buys manga there. So they don’t order much new manga; most of what’s there are older titles that don’t move. It’s not so much that they have no interest stocking it; it just won’t sell there. It’s near a (high?) school, so you would think it would…. But the kids that come in there just look, and rarely buy.

  So there are so many factors. You’re lucky you lived near a comic shop that regularly ordered a lot of different manga. The Barnes and Noble across the street had a better selection than the store I worked at.
• 
  Matt Lehman February 3, 2010 at 11:57 PM

  Even though we try to carry a full line of manga, there are a few that we’ve stopped ordering, which Midtown still does, like Baby & Me, Knights of the Zodiac and Muhyo & Roji. So even though Midtown will always have a more comprehensive list than us, it wouldn’t hurt to update our website on Thursday!

  Another problem with Diamond’s system is that they’re no longer soliciting every manga title from a publisher. When I noticed that Diamond stopped soliciting much of the Yen Press manhwa, I shifted all my Yen Press advance orders to Baker & Taylor, because I didn’t want to keep track of which titles I’m ordering from which distributor.

  That’s not to say that Baker & Taylor is easy to work with either. They’re very inconsistent in how they list titles that are part of a series, which is a real problem when ordering manga. For example, this is how One Piece vols 29-33 are listed:

  ONE PIECE 29 SKYPIEA SHONEN JUMP MANGA EDITION
  1 PIECE 30 SKYPIEA
  ONE PIECE 31 SHONEN JUMP MANGA EDITION
  1 PIECE 32
  1 PIECE 33

  Argh! And we received only four of the five books last week, inexplicably missing 32, which we did order.
• 
  Katherine Dacey February 4, 2010 at 8:39 AM

  Thanks for the retailer’s perspective, Matt! I wondered why Midtown’s shipping list didn’t include volumes 30 and 32 of One Piece, and now I have a better understanding of why that might be so.