If you're referring to the amount of influence that internationally outsourcing manga has on Japanese publishers and the mangaka's themselves, then you're right.

Buying any manga volume or magazine outside of Japan has basically zero influence on what a Japanese publisher does, since they are only licensing out the rights to redistribute the material. If a series "dies" in Japan, the Japanese publisher would just cut it right then and there, regardless of any foreign company overseas that has licensed it. No overseas licensing company can just "tell" a Japanese publisher, "no, don't cut it." It just doesn't work that way.

If anything, buying a licensed manga volume probably just convinces the licensing company to want to keep the license going. That is to say, if some series is dying out here, the company won't see a point to keep licensing it, and will just drop it, similarly to a scanlation group that looks for whether one of their series is popular or not, and if not, they drop it. It's just that their popularity is determined by the amount of revenue they get from sales.

Shounen Jump is probably an extreme example of a high-tier publishing company, but if you're considering a not-so-big magazine publisher in Japan, they usually look to see how popular a series in for at most a month or two after each chapter. They then increase (or decrease) their demand for more chapters and/or quality from the mangaka after that.

Japanese people who actually do illegally read manga online still contribute, since their own hearsay and fanservice helps improve the overall popularity of the series, since the people they introduce it to may possibly purchase it, since they may not like the whole idea of reading it illegally.

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Would you rather take on the alternative? And have nothing but what the manga companies in the US decide to license out of an unclear demand?

I'll take my chances, for the greater good.

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ミレニアム・マ スター１８

I know, it's rediculous isn't it... A couple of months ago I decided to support the mangaka of my fave story ever, by buying the original Japanese tanks, I figured since it was just 3 volumes it wouldn't be very expensive... And it wasn't. They also look so much better than anything I've seen from the english publishers. Now I'm going to learn Japanese so I can switch over permanently.

I'm more than willing to pay for manga, but they should: A. Publish the stuff I like (they generally don't) B. Improve the quality (it often sucks compared to scanlations, which sometimes suck too) C. Sell stuff onlime for a decent price and allow downloads (I don't want to read online, I don't have internet on the bus or train D|) D. Allow the use of paypal (I wanted to join emanga, figured I'd make screenshots to reread, but they only accept creditcards, how stupid is that? What kid has a creditcard?)

I know scanlating is pirating, but the publishers are just acting like idiots. Who's gonna pay for something of bad quality if better is available for free? And they're making the same mistake as the rest of the ebook community, charging way too much for some bytes you can't even hold D|

Forgot to say: I do actually own 40 volumes of english manga, so I'm not just making excuses, I really do buy stuff I like, even after reading scanlations. But some of these translations greatly disappointed me. I love oneshots and short series, but these don't get published often...

It seems the publishers still don't know that this is the 21th century, people have more demands in this century. If they just follow Daum and Naver, it would solve a lot of their trouble.
And don't blame it on the reducing birth rate, even if the sales drop in Japan, they raised a lot overseas( In my country you couldn't find any manga at all 10 years ago). In the USA it's another matter, their is the source a lack of trust in the publisher a major reason (most series are never completed, dropping quality, lack of information (the publishers don't give much info with their releases, only the release date, summary(incomplete sometimes), an unfinished front page and off course the price.

Another problem with the publishers in the USA is.... why do they license that? Oh please, license good series, the ratio between good and bad dropped a while. On the end of last year, it became a bit better but the major problems are still the same.

An other problem lately is a lack in plot in most manga, and most of them with a good plot won't even be published.

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Even after dead, we raise from the ashes for the sake of manga.

I agreee totally thi s will be a solution and I can say I buy manga when I can, But its no so simple I tend to read manga not-so-popular I have no problem whit it being in english (it may be even better) but still I cannot buy them even in english and when I can just the shipping price is twice or even thrice the cost of the manga and that just US-Mexico somethimes you need to ship it from europe and that is not a solution.
I think the solution will be to simply Host them online and like you said if you pay see it imediately and if you dont pay then a week or even until the next chapter comes Out an whit lots of advertisement
Or YOu know I would Like to make our own hosting site where using adds we could pay for the rights I Know its really hard but you know if lots of scanlation teams group toguether we can make it and scanlators may even get a profit for it (not a lot).
I will make a Post about this.

All the Republicans like to say, it's the Free Market. And it is. Just like before the big companies are making things too difficult so people came up with their own way. They made it cheaper, faster, and better quality than the big guys and the big guys want to kill off the 'competition' instead of upping their game and actually working to put out good stuff.

In the 80's MAFIAA worked to kill the VCR and Home Taping. Called it theft and piracy. We called it innovation and sharing and they eventually relented once they realized they could still make money. What we are seeing now is the last push back in our era of the old dinosaurs way of doing business which is ruthlessly attacking any and all competition even if it comes from your customers.

Just like in torrents and other file shares the PIRATES are the biggest CUSTOMERS. They learn of titles and series and follow them via the internet and if they like it, really like it, when/if it comes to them they buy it up.

But then again because of DVD Region and DRM and such and all the frecking warnings on the dvds and blurays you buy...you gotta wonder why you put with them calling you a thief all the time when you could just get the stuff online with none of that crap.

Which is why Hulu and iTunes came around.

Now the book publishers need to do the same.

But they gotta keep up with the paper publishing. DMP went the KickStarter route. Bring up a series they want to do, let people know about it, and take in the donations and confirmed sales. They raised three times the money they needed for their first product within the first week. That is how you do business in this generation for a small title.

Data is corruptible. Viruses wipe out hard drives and servers. Paperback is always better for something your truly want to own and share and love.

But data is good for a quick read.

I'm in publishing, small press, not manga translations. Look at the current book business you have only 6 different corporations who push 80% of the book business. We only have about 2 major printers left in the nation. And you hear about how badly the big guys are doing. Layoffs and what not. Guess what, the small indie presses aren't failing. We are expanding into the market.

It also helps that we don't screw over the authors in their contracts.

DRM and locked-in devices are the problem with e-books now. Not to mention the formating wars. It's beta vs vcr bluray vs hdvd vs dvd out there now. You don't own an e-book they license it to you. That's what their contract says. And they can revoke it.

Which is why a lot of people like me are wary about buying ebooks and why a LOT of people are jailbreaking the ebooks.

This is old business model vs the internet with no real new business model except those on the internet who are creating it.

It's a revolution in the works and the money hungry owners do not like it and like how big oil is keep trying to kill climate change and environmental science so they can keep making their money is how the content OWNERS (not creators, big difference there) ie COPYRIGHT OWNERS (not creators) are at war with their customers. Be it the MPAA, RIAA, MAFIAA, IPF, or the manga and book publishers it is all about the money and all about controlling THEIR product and how to make money off it and enough is never enough. So they want to kill off ALL competition including the fire sharers who are their customers and the scanlators who help create monetize their business.

You could say it is the rich corporations against their poor customers who are sick and tired of being given the shaft. So they buy off congress, make up new laws, pay the police to hound them and shut them down. Because they know the tide is turning because the internet generation is getting older and we are about to be get into political office and start to change things by booting out the old foogies who made up the damn stupid overly complicated and arduous copryight laws in the first place.

In ten years, things will be changed. We just need to keep up the fight for privacy and civil rights online and they won't be able to stop us.

That's how the Civil Rights Act got passed. You wait for the old people to get kicked out office. It's how gay marriage will be passed throughout the major first world nations. The racists and bigots are dying off and the younger more accepting generations are getting to voting age and age to serve in Congress and Parliament to actually change the laws and make things better.

Online viewing is the way to go. The Korean market is certainty aware of the change. I don't know what is going on with Japan.
Webtoons viewed online at naver.com such as Noblesse, Cheese in the Trap or Utopia are rendered with beautiful color and if I'm not mistaken actually free! I would pay a premium to a legitimate site for all the manga/manhwa that I read, if it was all in one comprehensive place.

They don't want too share their manga space with rivals!? What are they in high school? I search genre and categories, when I look for manga not publisher.

Then we talk lost of profits in America. It's certainly the publishing company fault.
If Corporations are "people" then they can certainty take the blame.

The American publishing company biggest issue (IMO) Is how they sterilize the stories. I've read manga for many years now; so I understand that using -san, vs -chan or -sama could mean a great deal in story plot. All which is usually lost in translation.
It's the biggest reason I stopped watching dubbed anime (that and slow release times).

Translators and Scanlators have their own problems too.
Biggest of all. Most of these guys do it for free. Manga does not come cheap (which I'm sure everyone knows). Sure some may donate for website up-keep or actual manga. But a lot don't want or need that help.
Plus they have personal live which can (and often does) interfere with actually getting fresh manga put out. That's the QC'ers, Editors, Translator, and Typesetter (just to name a few positions) all with there own personal lives.
They are not getting paid for this. Still sometimes I do have to catch myself from bitching, especially when only 5 chapter are out, But 7 volumes are already out in Japan.

It's forcing me to try to learn Japanese/Nihongo in my very small spare time. All of that so I don't have to wait on either water down Americanized manga. Or slow translation, often with years between new chapters. *sigh*
Yeah online is definitely the way to go.

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"I knew I didn't like these guys. They're Papists! Man I hate fanatics!'

~Sargent Major Kosutic~
March to the Stars
~By: David Weber and John Ringo


deadLights' Manga List

Data is corruptible. Paperback wears out overtime (doesn't any physical object does? especially with paper). Paperback is better for collectors, but Data can always be backup with over thousands of copies and distributed faster than a printed book. Plus, Data doesn't wear out over time. It keeps its quality timelessly.
Data is not just good for a quick read. Data is perfect for storing information that you want to keep for tens of years. I used to buy comic books back when I was 10 but now I'm over 20 now and those books are so old I have no other use but to throw them away. Now if I was to keep over 100 volumes of manga on a USB which I pays around $10 for which is about less than the price for a printed manga in the US, I won't need to worry about it being worn out for 20 years later. PLUS I can make copies of it on more than 10 USBs and keep them, OR I can share those files among my friends and therefore the backups keep increasing. You can even upload them online and let people around the world anonymously download them and create more backups, then people upload those files and more people download them.
Data is actually much more secured, reliable and safer way to keep a digital media file intact. Plus it's lightweight and convenient. Right now I'm reading several manga on my tablet devices with PDF or JPG/PNG format, and I don't actually have to worry about carrying over 100 books around with me all the time

Aside from that, I agree with everything else you have said.