Junjo Romantica #2?

I don't know if it's the same in Japan, but in most US boilerplate publishing contracts, the 10% royalty on domestic rights belongs to the author (with a cut to her agent, if she has one.) The publisher's cut comes out of the remaining 90%. So if a book has a $10 cover price, the author gets $1.00 per every copy sold.

Sometimes foreign licenses are sold for a lump sum rather than on a royalty basis, of which the author usually gets 50%. So even though the author has sort of already been "paid" for foreign sales, it was sort of a faith-based payment. So you are still supporting the author by purchasing foreign editions because the higher the sales, the more likely both the foreign and domestic publisher are to take a chance on future works by the author. Publishers look very carefully at past sales records when acquiring new projects.

" DMP's business model sure seems to be lacking if they can't even have color pages out of all things. "

They had color pages up until volume seven. But there are other discouraging signs. I participated in their Sakira kickstarter just to get the reprint of volume one of Saezuru, which they folded into that kickstarter. Shipment was originally promised for the beginning of May, but here we are nearing the end of June and no Saezuru, no anything. The last communication from DMP said they had to reformat every volume they were reprinting for a new printer and so were running behind because they had only one person on staff doing the reformatting. I got the sense they are operating on a skeleton crew.

Aha, but I'm a cheap collector :P. Kizumonogatari was like, 16$, which is quite cheap for a novel, and I avoid collector editions that include figures and stuff like the plague. I even buy my video game used, nowadays I prefer to pay for indie games that are just as fun and beautiful but in the 20$ price range. Stuff like Crunchyroll subscriptions, I like a whole lot too.

I like quality stuff that costs cheap uhu. Generally, as long as it's about or under 20$, no regret for anything. Though if it's extremely useful (and fun!), like high quality tutorials for the field I work in, 90$ per month is a deal.

Basically, make something of quality, don't add useless junk into the packaging just to make the price higher, have a reasonable price, and I'll be a happy buyer. It's something clearly possible for many publishers. French mangas don't cost more than American ones. If anything Finder in canadian dollars costs 13.95$ in French and 18.50$ in English.

The difference may be that I consume less than the normal lad though. And even generally I'm like that. I'm the type that doesn't want to buy a car because I see it as a huge waste of money and environmentally makes me feel bad. I bring around stainless chopsticks when I plan to eat sushi because I find it ridiculous to always use one time then throw wooden chopsticks in the trash. I don't let myself be tempted by junk food, etc.

Four factors: Quality, price, practicality and environment.

Aaand I have zero debts and never had much of them. I like to use that money to travel and pay my beautiful apartment right in the middle of the city 10 minutes of walking away from my job though (=・ω・=).

But indeed, that strategy is used for animes in Japan. Owning DVDs of them doesn't interest the general public, and collectors will pay them at about any price.

Isn't that basically what I said? :)

You broke down the 10% royalty as 9% to the publisher and 1% to the author. The 10% royalty goes to the author. Publisher profit doesn't come out of the author's royalty percentage.

"It's 10% in Japan, but when you throw in DMP, Libre is probably the one taking most of that royalty." is what I said. I broke it down for the theory that there was a royalty going down for DMP's editions on top of the lump sum for both Libre and the author. I talked of the lump sum in an earlier post and did say that in Japan the author gets a 10% royalty (from Japanese copies).

Eworth's wording clarified it a little for me because I am not really familiar with foreign licensing contracts. You are very cool, but speaking as someone who gets $3.99 books (or less), I say $16.00 on one book would be a splurge for me. Manga obviously cost more--but my ideal price point is lower than that. :P

Ahaha. Never noticed any 4$ book. Well, aside from stuff like crosswords books or small books for kids.

Average book costs from 12$ to 35$.

That's because you don't read ebooks. Welcome to the dark side:

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_6_11?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=mm+romance+full+books&sprefix=mm+romance+%2Caps%2C485&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Amm+romance+full+books

We have comics!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_gnr_fkmr0?rh=i%3Adigital-text%2Ck%3Aerotic+comic+books+mm&keywords=erotic+comic+books+mm&ie=UTF8&qid=1466572095

I'm not even going to mention used paperback stores. It would only depress you.

Hmm, well I don't personally know anyone that buys digital books. It seemed like a fad to me, as I never even quite hear about it nowadays. It doesn't appeal to me at all though. I probably don't read enough anyway, but DRM are the worst thing in any case.

But hmm, Sublime do sell digital copies of many of its mangas for 5.99$. Viz is a bit over that.

Yes. Those are reasonable prices. Ebooks are selling well, but it depends on the type of book. The links I gave you were smut. There are people who will buy cheap smut as ebooks who would never put the smut on their shelves or coffee tables. Some people will also try cheap books from self-published authors on Amazon, but would never shell out of the full price for such books at the store. It's just a different market.

Also, I don't know about Canada, but I found book prices in Europe to be much higher than in the US. I swear there was a bookstore in Brussels that just about killed me with sticker price shock. Maybe it's just that I'm cheap and I know where to get cheap books where I live.

I have bought digital books (quite a few actually) but only because I have no room to add paper copies to my extensive collection. I use the iBooks app, and while it is not as nice as holding a paper copy, it does take up less space in my purse whne I want to read on the bus, LOL. An added bonus, AO3 allows you to download the works to a personal device, so you don't have to waste data time reading online.

Used book stores can help with sticker shock - prices are half or less off the cover price. (most of my books are second hand, though many are not currently in publication, so you need to find them second hand) *Wink*

I love used bookstores. Most of the Manga I like tend to be $10-15 and not show up in the bargain bin. In my mind, digital copies are for the story, and books are for the art. I have a friend who collects US comics, and he put the few manga I have in little plastic baggies on the top shelf for me so they don't get dirty. I'm afraid to read them.

I have a few comics like that myself, some semi-rare first editions, a Neil Gaiman series, and others. You can read the manga in the baggies if you take precautions - go and buy white cotton gloves to handle them and prevent body oils from wrecking the paper.

Thanks :) Do you own the Sandman comics? I used to love those but I didn't keep them.

I have the first three of them, plus every adult book Gaiman has written (I have not gotten around to getting the children's books yet) Have you seen that they are making American Gods into a TV series? I cant't wait for this, so excited. I think this will be one of the few books made into movies/shows that I am excited to watch, every other movie taken from books (with exception of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings) has failed tom impress me.

Well I take it since you haven't read any of the children's ones does that means you haven't read the Graveyard Book? One of my favorite books ever...it's awesome.

I am hoping the best for the TV series. I liked Mirror Mask, Stardust and Coraline. A TV series could allow enough time to do justice to the book, if executive meddling doesn't mess it up.

No, I have been meaning to, though. Terrific writer!