Rocket Bomber - article - commentary - rankings - Online Gaming - Force Multipliers - Dice Rolls - and Magic Numbers

Why, in the name of the sweet gods of Beer and Comics, do I waste so much of my week on data entry, number shuffling, and long long lists of Rank Title Volume Publisher Month Year [Score] that no one bothers to read — well OK, sure you’re reading them, and thanks …but who looks at the whole list? — when I could instead spend my precious time reading comics or marathoning whole anime series or going out and meeting women?

Well, it seems women don’t like me much, but past that — there are likely some parallels between my dedication to this very odd (but coincidentally useful) hobby and the time wasted by the vast hordes that play online games, MMORPGs like World of Warcraft.

It’s called the Grind. And running the numbers every weekend is grindtastic. Is anything real produced? Nope. But I could swear I light up like a senator on a lobbyist’s bartab, 2 bars of epic music play, and flashing words of light a half-metre tall proclaim “Level Up!” over my head every Sunday night when I finish the charts.

The difference is that instead of fulfilling the arbitrary requirements of someone else’s schema, I’m spending hours in a little game of my own devising.
(hm. That’s a concise, poetic definition either of Happiness, or of Insanity)

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I must be reading too much schlock as the thought that occurred to me this week while grinding my way through the sales sites, data-farming as it were, is that certain aspects of a series can mean a lot more to sales as a whole. In the spirit of Schlock Mercenary we’ll call them ‘force multipliers’

Let’s say you just fired half of your staff — including the marketing and sales staff and maybe some of the editors with the best ‘intuition’ (for lack of a better word) of how a prospective title is going to perform in its market niche — and you were looking for a quick, cheap fix to replace that functionality within your organization.

—I need to interrupt that thought: there is no replacement for the right person who possesses the right expertise working in an appropriate position. Your first, best, second best, and in the end the only asset that positively impacts your bottom line, are your employees. [oh boy did I go off on a tangent: read the full rant ]

Anyway… Let’s say you just fired your research staff, etc etc and you were looking for a quick, cheap fix to replace that functionality within your organization.

1. Have fun digging. You’ll need to learn how to game a search engine to get it to spit out the info you need.
2. And the only free info is going to be from amateurs. (like me) There are some very talented amateurs out there (and a few charitable professionals) but if we were any good, we’d be on payroll somewhere by now.
3.. …and recognise the internet usually lies. I mean, just a month or so ago there was this dumb rumor from, like, nowhere that Kodansha was out-of-the-blue starting up a US Manga Division.
[*cough*]

So. Yeah. The information online is questionable.

On top of that: I can’t teach you how to use Google. My own methods are one part built-in thesaurus, one part non-linear problem solving, and one part beer. I can’t speak to overall efficacy, but in the past I have been able to find the information I need, even in a language I don’t read [yet] but perhaps I’ve just been lucky. (then again, the first-part internal thesaurus managed to spit out ‘efficacy’ even while suffering from the third-part beer, so I may personally be channeling something ultimately useless but spectacularly entertaining in application. And my brain is wired differently from the rest of the populace; my curse and boon.)

I doubt you’ll be able to duplicate my blend of drunken bravado and blind luck; you’ll need experts. If you aren’t an expert, why did you just fire them? Damn, Milky, I know you live in your own world but some things should be obvious, even if you drink as much as I do.

Setting that aside…

There is no replacement for expertise but if you were looking for a plug-and-play formula then I might be able to accommodate you. I’m about to give the internets (and publishers-on-the-ropes) some obvious criteria that should predict manga sales (no guarantees) and which should also be obvious but I don’t think anyone else has posted them yet.

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Manga Force Multipliers
also known as ‘intangible sales factors’

Cartoon Network Afternoon Anime Broadcast:
Instant Win. Hire another two translators to get the books out faster, and hire an accountant to count the money,

Adult Swim 10pm Broadcast
+5

Adult Swim 11pm Broadcast
+3

Adult Swin post-Midnight Broadcast
+2

Other Cable Broadcast
+1

New. (volume released in the past month)
+1

Volume Five.
The customers like longer series: part of that is the appeal of long-running stories; mostly it’s that 5 volumes take up at least 4 inches of shelf space and combined with even rudimentary graphic design a block like that will catch the customers eye. +1

Frequency.
Viz has capably proven that releases every other month seem to engage the fan base moreso than titles that slowly exit the gate at the rate of 2 or 3 a year. The average 14-year-old fan just can’t wait that long — their interests change before you can get the next book out and into their greedy mitts. If you’re Dark Horse and you’re selling to the 30-year-old-with-a-14-year-old-mindset the math is different, but most publishers need to pump the volumes out faster. Bi-monthly merits a +5, 4-a-year gets you +1, anything else is a push (or a negative).

Anime available on DVD
+2

Anime available as a Fansub
+8

Sucks. Yes. But this is our customer base. They also hang out in the aisles, reading reading reading without buying anything. Cheap frickin’ bastards, the lot of them. It is what it is, though: We’re looking to capture the percentage that buys, not the rest, and shop-wear and unwrapped 18+ titles are just the cost of doing business.

And yet, I have a dream… a GN-only store that would not only cater to these sponges, but would sell them coffee and pastries until they do come around to buying the books they read.

related:

Manga available as scanlation
+1

This kinda-sorta-helps but not for the reason you think: it’s not that online comics sap legitimate bookstore sales, it’s that we hate hate hate reading comics online. Give us the anime adaptation, or give us a book. …there is no such thing as bad publicity, though; An online manga is just a teaser: If a person is ever going to buy a book than a scanlated chapter merely whets the appetite. The rest weren’t going to buy it anyway.

Fansubs are a different model: online video might as well be DVD for most consumers. It takes an exceptionally bad sub (or shite video quality) to keep a fan from downloading. A significant fraction download anyway (and complain about the legitimate DVD dubs and subs not being ‘authentic’ on forums).

(I can’t explain that, and won’t try)

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Proofs:
Cartoon Network Afternoon Anime Broadcast: Pokemon
Adult Swim 10pm Broadcast: (historically) Dragon Ball Z, Inuyasha
Adult Swim 11pm Broadcast: Bleach
Adult Swin post-Midnight Broadcast: Death Note
Other Cable Broadcast: numerous 3rd tier titles on AZN, Jetix, Sci-fi, Starz, Toon Disney and ABC Family — take yer pick.
New: you know, I’ve started posting these weekly.
Volume Five: Vampire Knight
Frequency: Duh. Naruto
Anime available on DVD: many previously cited, also Fullmetal Alchemist, Full Metal Panic, and .hack//
Anime available as a Fansub: right now? Rosario+Vampire
Manga available as scanlation: Any. Naruto and Negima spring immediately to mind, however.

That’s only my take on it.

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And the Magic Number is 9. More on that next week.