An Editorial on the Charts
Let’s start with the ‘manga’ thing.
Yes, I like the manga. Apparently, I can’t shut up about it.
The lack of good data on manga sales is in fact the major impetus for the past 22 months of sales rankings that I’ve posted to date (well, 20 months — since I’ve taken a hiatus or two these past two years due to, um, the circumstances).
And when a blog-of-record picks up on my meagre efforts, hell, that makes my week. I have a dozen regular readers, but a well placed link or two will pull in another two dozen — and that’s my payment, feedback, reward, and goddamn raison d‘être for the 20-30 hours I waste compiling the damn thing.
I appreciate all links. It’s nice. Thanks. And I know my posting schedule is… erratic. And I know we’ve all been cruising on autopilot for at least 9 months or so, as I settled into a regular suite of reports that we could all comfortably depend on, say, 3 or 4 times a month.
Don’t know if everyone picked up on it, but starting 6 weeks ago (technically, and posting in force for the past two weeks) I took the methods and methodologies developed to track online manga sales, and broadened my focus to cover all Graphic Novels.
Which might have been a mistake (speaking purely from my personal perspective, as it has proven to be a major pain in the ass)
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A full posting (a new explanation & FAQ, actually) will follow at some point in June—when I have time—but let me summarize some of the changes I’ve made to the chart.
1. Graphic Novels. Things like Watchmen and Wolverine. Just mentioning it one more time because everyone seems to be missing it.
2. Instead of looking at the top 600 titles in the manga category of major sites Amazon, B&N, and Borders, I’m loading the top 900 titles in the respective graphic novel categories.
3. And a top 400 GNs listed at Books-a-Million.com
4. And 300 titles from Buy.com and Powell’s
5. And 200 titles from Overstock.com
6. And the top 100 Graphic Novels from Deepdiscount.com, Half.com, Tower.com
7. …and the top 100 hourly bestsellers posted to Amazon five times a week.
Data Entry Sucks. Hate it. My reluctance is one reason the charts are posting late. But curiosity burns. I have to know.
I’m looking at some serious lifestyle changes (like, getting up at 4am every day) to make sure that the charts post on time, and on a regular schedule. I know my efforts will never be considered ‘professional’ unless and until I can post on time, and to a deadline, and every week. So I’m investing a lot of hours into the spreadsheet and trying desperately to catch up, to the point where I can post a new chart every Monday morning, 4 days ahead of the USA Today and 5 days before the New York Times. Change is hard, though. And 4am sucks as hard as data entry; the two combined is suckage squared.
I Have a Goal. I want to stick it to the Man. It’s just, there’s all this beer and manga and anime and as stated, data entry sucks, so it may be a few months yet before this new pattern becomes the new norm.
