Quote from Grumpy
@Crenshinibon
Yes, I am male. And yes, cash flow feasibility is questionable. But what business on earth isn't questionable when you start out? Gotta take risks. And I'm not about to quit my day job just yet.
I agree, publisher does more than just 'publish', they manage lot of factors such as promo, qc, etc. But what I think is that they've grown beyond their necessary size much like in the music industry. The recording companies are huge and trying to hold onto their size, but with digital publishing, their current size is way bigger than what's needed and are having difficulties just to stay where they are. While it's not exactly equivalent, manga publisher aren't far off from it. Other than japanese publisher, many publishers have taken steps to change but these steps still don't consider the international reach, only local. What I want to do is extend that reach.
I don't want to get too off topic here, but you should really be careful about comparisons to the music industry. It's true that there are a number of parallels, but what studies are continually confirming is that, with books, the physical, tactile component is vital to at least half the industry's audience (amazon's "sales numbers" are a little misleading in this regard, as the quantity includes a number of essentially free public domain texts purchased by a small audience). The result is that companies need to be able to manage both physical and digital components well, and while that may involve a fair amount of contraction, it's not going to be anywhere near the same scale as the music industry simply because a much smaller percentage of the audience is inclined towards the digital equivalent (the post above mine is a good example of this).
The publishers do seem to be working on internationalizing things- I seem to recall English chapters of shounen jump comics being posted by Shueisha a while back- but we're still in the early stages, as you say. The thing is that my skepticism largely comes from the fact that I believe these companies are going to either handle that themselves or use alternative routes of distribution- channels like itunes and amazon, mostly. If you're lucky, you might end up like crunchyroll, but you're going to have to get your foot in the door quickly for that to happen.
Like I said, best of luck and all that, and you're not wrong about taking risks, but I still wouldn't be an investor.
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Reviews of my Work:You are kind of boring - Blackorion
Congratulations! Ur an asshole! - tokyo_homi
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NightSwan also said that she wanted to peg me, once, but I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or a threat...