Amazon.com
Too hot for Kindle? Amazon pulls yaoi from Kindle store
Yaoi manga is a niche genre, but like all niche genres, it has a devoted following. Yaoi readers gobble up the books like romance fans read Harlequin novels, which is not surprising as they are basically the same thing, except that yaoi 1) is manga, 2) is a love story between two men, and 3) often includes lots of sex.
It’s hard to know whether number 2 or 3 above is responsible, but Amazon has instructed at least one publisher to remove its yaoi books from the Kindle store, while allowing considerably more explicit male-female titles to remain. Digital Manga Publishing, which puts out several lines of yaoi, ranging from the fairly tame June imprint to the pretty steamy 801, posted this notice on its blog yesterday:
Recently Amazon has become more strict in enforcing their content requirements for ebooks. Several DMP books that have been available online since 2009 are getting the axe, beginning with our 801 Media titles like Weekend Lovers and King of Debt. However, in the last few days the issue has spread to the June imprint by Amazon’s refusal of The Selfish Demon King, and the removal of The Color of Love from the Kindle store. We fear that Amazon may target more of our books for removal so we’re warning all Amazon Kindle store users that providing you with our content may become more difficult in the future. However, if you purchase our ebooks before Amazon decides to remove it from their store you will still be able to access the book from your account.
All the books mentioned are already gone from the Kindle store, and several are missing from Amazon’s print book selection as well.
(Warning: NSFW image below.)
- May 4, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | Borders customer info exposed; Amazon profits fall
Borders Rewards
Retailing | Borders Group says it’s determined that fewer than 150 customer names and emails were “obtained” by outsiders when a website published a searchable database of information associated with the retailer’s Borders Rewards loyalty program. The site, apparently set up by the marketing firm that helped the bookseller design and implement the program, was shut down over the weekend after Borders learned of its existence. A spokeswoman said the company is continuing its investigation. Borders Rewards has more than 41 million members. [AnnArbor.com]
Retailing | Amazon’s first-quarter profits tumbled 33 percent, even as revenue rose 38 percent, due largely to the costs of expanding its warehouse and data centers. [The New York Times]
Conventions | For the first time, organizers of the American Library Association’s Annual Conference & Exhibition will make space available for an artists alley — for free. This year’s conference, which will draw about 19,000 librarians, is held June 23-28 in New Orleans. [American Library Association, via The Beat]
- April 27, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Kindle to offer library lending; familiar faces at DC Entertainment
Amazon Kindle
E-books | Amazon announced it will allow Kindle users to read e-books from more than 11,000 libraries, marking a reversal of the company’s policy. Previously library users who borrowed e-books could read them on Barnes & Noble’s Nook, the Sony Reader and other devices, but not the Kindle. “We’re excited that millions of Kindle customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from their local libraries,” Jay Marine, Amazon’s director of Kindle, said in a statement. The Kindle Library Lending will debut later this year. [The New York Times, press release]
Publishing | Several DC Comics staff members laid off as part of the sweeping corporate restructuring — among them, editors Mike Carlin and Pornsak Pichetshote — have been hired by DC Entertainment’s newly formed Burbank-based Creative Affairs division, which operates alongside Creative Services. [Bleeding Cool]
Legal | Japanese police have arrested a 25-year-old man suspected of using Share file-sharing software to upload about 28,000 manga and anime files without the copyright holders’ permission. [Anime News Network]
- April 21, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Hereville up for Nebula; remembering Dwayne McDuffie
Hereville
Awards | Barry Deutsch’s Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword has been nominated for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy, presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as part of the prestigious Nebula Awards. “When the nice lady from the Nebula committee called me, she said this is ‘essentially the Nebula Award for young adult books’,” Deutsch writes. Although graphic novels are specifically mentioned in the Andre Norton Award guidelines, this appears to be the first time one has been nominated. The award was established in 2005 in honor of prolific science fiction and fantasy author Andre Norton, who passed away that year. The winners will be announced May 21 in Washington, D.C., during the Nebula Awards banquet. [SFFWA]
Passings | We’ll collect reactions later today to the sudden death of respected comics and animation writer Dwayne McDuffie — Comic Book Resources has remembrances from more than a dozen industry figures — but I wanted to go ahead and point to a handful of links: The Associated press obituary; a few words from Christopher Irving, accompanied by a beautiful portrait of McDuffie photographed by Seth Kushner on Feb. 13; the origin of Static; and a look at Spider-Man anti-drug PSA comics written by McDuffie. There’s also McDuffie’s message board, where he interacted candidly with fans on a regular basis. Two threads are devoted to the news of his death and memories of the creator they often referred to as “the Maestro.” The site’s administrator has posted a message last night on the main page: “Dwayne’s family and friends would like to thank everyone for the outpouring of condolences. They are much appreciated in this difficult time.” [Dwayne McDuffie]
- February 23, 2011 @ 08:28 AM by Kevin Melrose
Today is Girl Genius Day
Add a new holiday to your calendar: Phil and Kaja Foglio, creators of the long-running webcomic Girl Genius, have dubbed Jan. 12 Girl Genius Day. “We’re hoping you’ll do something suitably mad and/or steampunkalicious for the occasion,” they write at their site. In particular, they are hoping you will buy a copy of Agatha H and the Airship City: A Girl Genius Novel, which is based on the comic and officially went on sale yesterday. The idea is to give the book a boost in the Amazon ranking, a la Machine of Death, and hopefully bring it to the attention of booksellers.
In fact, the Night Shade Books site already shows the print version as “sold out,” but that turns out to be a good thing, as Phil found out when he asked:
Everybody thinks this book is going to do well, so everybody “ordered heavy”, so they’ll have a lot of books ready to meet demand. Great. Now there’s performance anxiety. And the publisher is still sold out, but they fully expect that they will have to reprint. The question is when. Thus they are now waiting to see how quickly the shops and wholesalers “sell through’ on the books they have in stock.
There are also two e-book editions, and this is where it gets a bit sticky. The Kindle version is $7.99, but you can also buy a DRM-free e-book edition from Webscription for $6. Obviously these sales won’t count in the Amazon rankings, though, so fans might want to consider whether it’s worth spending an extra two bucks to help give the Foglios that boost. If it helps, today is Kaja’s birthday as well, and if you’re in Seattle, you can wish her well in person, as the Foglios will be doing a book signing at Ravenna Third Place Books.
- January 12, 2011 @ 07:26 AM by Brigid Alverson
Girl Genius novel out as e-book
As we reported last August, Phil and Kaija Foglio have signed multiple contracts to adapt their webcomic Girl Genius into a number of different formats, including novels, audiobooks, and an omnibus edition of the comic. Now we’re seeing the first fruits of this effort, as Teleread reports that Baen Books is offering the novelization of the story, Agatha H and the Airship City, as an e-book for $6. This is $1.99 less than the Kindle version and a considerable savings over the print edition, both of which will be released on January 1, according to Amazon. Unlike Kindle, Baen Books downloads are DRM-free; if you’re a sci-fi fan, you might want to check out their site, because they offer the first volumes of a lot of series for free.
Phil Foglio is also blogging about the process of producing and promoting the book at his LiveJournal, and he is asking readers who are planning to buy the book through Amazon to do so on January 12, Kaija’s birthday, in order to push the book up the best-seller chart (a la Machine of Death)—and also give his wife a nice birthday present.
- December 15, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | Brenda Starr to retire; women like superhero comics, too
Brenda Starr
Comic strips | Tribune Media Services has announced it will cancel the 70-year-old comic strip Brenda Starr rather than find replacements for writer Mary Schmich and artist June Brigman, who have decided to end their lengthy run. The final installment will appear on Jan. 2. Created by Dale Messick, the flame-haired reporter debuted in The Chicago Tribune on June 30, 1940, and later appeared in comic books and movies, and on merchandise. Messick retired in 1980, and has been succeeded on the strip only by women, from Ramona Fradon to Linda Sutter to Schmich and Brigman.
Kiel Phegley offers commentary, and catches a series of tweets from writer Dan Slott, who relates that his great-grandfather’s sister championed Brenda Starr at The Chicago Tribune. In related news, Tribune Media Services is partnering with Hermes Press on a multi-volume hardcover series titled Brenda Starr, Reporter by Dale Messick: The Collected Daily and Sunday Newspaper Strip. The first volume will be released in June. [press release]
Retailing | Borders Group reported a third-quarter loss of $74.4 million, nearly double the loss incurred during the same period in 2009. ICv2.com provides analysis. [GalleyCat]
- December 10, 2010 @ 08:24 AM by Kevin Melrose
Amazon announces its top comics of 2010
The Art of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets of Life and Death
Amazon.com is the first out of the gate with a year-end list, rolling out its editors’ picks for the Top 10 comics of 2010. It’s a solid selection of titles, led by Drawn and Quarterly with three and DC Comics with two.
1. The Art of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets of Life and Death, by Jaime Hernandez (Abrams ComicArts)
2. Batwoman: Elegy, by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III (DC Comics)
3. X’ed Out, by Charles Burns (Pantheon)
4. Market Day, by James Sturm (Drawn and Quarterly)
5. King of the Flies: Hallorave (Vol. 1), by Mezzo and Pirus (Fantagraphics Books)
6. 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective, by G.B. Trudeau (Andrews McMeel Publishing)
7. Hellboy, Vol. 9: The Wild Hunt, by Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo (Dark Horse)
8. Acme Novelty Library #20, by Chris Ware (Drawn and Quarterly)
9. Picture This: The Near-sighted Monkey Book, by Lynda Barry (Drawn and Quarterly)
10. Wednesday Comics, by various (DC Comics)
The online retailer also revealed its 10 bestselling comics of the year, a list topped by the sixth volume of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series. See the full rundown after the break:
- November 5, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Supreme Court
Legal | The U.S. Supreme Court appeared divided Tuesday during oral arguments on a California law that would forbid the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. Justices Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Sonia Sotomayor raised free-speech objections to the statute, with Ginsberg asking: “If you are supposing a category of violent materials dangerous to children, then how do you cut it off at video games? What about films? What about comic books?” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Samuel A. Alito Jr. indicated their belief that the state can restrict the access of minor to video games, while Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Elena Kagan probed the issues without showing their cards. It will probably be several months before the court hands down a decision. [Los Angeles Times, PC World]
Crime | A man charged with orchestrating the July theft of the expensive comics collection of an elderly Rochester, N.Y., man who was beaten and later died has been arrested by FBI agents for allegedly selling hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stolen merchandise on eBay. [The Daily News]
Crime | Police in Stamford, Conn., charged Spider-Man and Captain America with assault and Poison Ivy with breach of peace following a weekend brawl in a parking garage. [The Associated Press]
- November 3, 2010 @ 08:51 AM by Kevin Melrose
Ragtag group of webcomickers pwns Glenn Beck
Machine of Death is an anthology of speculative short stories about people who know how (but not when) they are going to die. The book is edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo and David Malki, and somehow the three of them came up with a clever idea: They asked everyone who was planning to buy the book to do so on the day it was released, Oct. 26, so they could place high on the Amazon sales charts.
“When we picked a release date, we tried to aim for a day far from other major book releases,” the authors explain on their blog. In that, they failed spectacularly: A number of potential best-sellers came out that day, including Keith Richards’s autobiography, a new Barefoot Contessa cookbook, and Glenn Beck’s latest book, Broke.
Nonetheless, the power of the internet is such that Machine of Death took the No. 1 spot on Amazon for that day.
While Keith Richards and the Barefoot Contessa seem to have taken this news with equanimity, it sent Beck into a spluttering, incoherent rage, and he went into a long rant on the air about the culture of death and Bill Ayers envying Keith Richards for snorting his father’s ashes, and not knowing what Brown Sugar refers to, and the general disrespect of “the left” for daring to buy other books on the day his book came out. (There’s a transcript and a link to the audio here.)
And as any public figure with half a brain can tell you, the effect has been exactly the opposite of what Beck intended. Rather than apologizing and buying two copies of his book, people have been laughing and pointing and, in some cases, buying extra copies of Machine of Death just to spite Glenn Beck. (Hey, it’s only ten bucks on Amazon.)
- October 29, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
The Walking Dead #77
Publishing | Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson talks at length about market share, the economics of creator-owned comics, fallout from the prolonged legal battle between Todd McFarlane and Neil Gaiman, and retailer concerns about simultaneous print and digital release of The Walking Dead: “… I was honestly a little thrown by the sheer amount of invective generated by the day-and-date release of a single Image digital title, sold at exactly the same price point as the print version of the book. Nobody was undercut, nobody had an unfair advantage, and I don’t see how it’s any different from offering the book for sale through any other storefront. Virtually every comic is available digitally on the same day it’s released to comic book shops — for free — and that has been the case for several years at this point. Publishers have slowly begun to establish a foothold in digital publishing, but I would be willing to bet more people downloaded The Walking Dead #77 for free than paid for it through our app. In fact, I’ll even go one better and speculate that more people downloaded The Walking Dead #77 illegally than bought the print comic. And you know what? The book’s sold out — we have more reorders than we can fill and we both know those reorders wouldn’t be coming in if retailers weren’t selling out of the books.” [Bleeding Cool]
- October 22, 2010 @ 07:54 AM by Kevin Melrose
Buy Scott Pilgrim on Amazon for $3.99-$4.49 apiece
Amazon is currently discounting copies of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s six-volume Scott Pilgrim series to an absolutely absurdly low price: Vols. 1 & 5 are available for $3.99, and Vols. 2, 3, 4, and 6 are available for $4.49. This means you can buy six acclaimed graphic novels — about a thousand pages of comics — for the cost of six and a half big-name superhero comics. Just sayin’.
(Via Bryan Lee O’Malley)
- September 21, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Troublemaker sells well, but fans are not convinced
One of the big trends of the past five years or so has been adapting prose works into graphic novels. It’s the sort of thing that seems like it can’t fail, since you pick up both graphic novel fans and the audience for the original work, but it has two major pitfalls with these books; one is publishers who rely too much on the writing and hire mediocre artists for the illustration, and the other is fans of the author who order the book online, not realizing it’s a graphic novel, and then complain about it.
Dark Horse’s Troublemaker, written by Janet and Alex Evanovich and illustrated by Joelle Jones, suffers from the latter but not the former. By all accounts, the book is doing well; it is getting good reviews, and it has been the number-one book on the New York Times graphic books best-seller list for the second week in a row. It’s not doing so well on Amazon, though, where the average customer rating is one and a half stars.
What gives? This excerpt from a one-star review, currently rated “most helpful,” pretty much sums it up:
- August 9, 2010 @ 07:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Comic-Con International
Conventions | Everyone who has been waiting months to learn whether Comic-Con International will remain in San Diego past 2012 will have to wait a little longer, as no decision was reached Sunday during the meeting of the board of directors. Marketing Director David Glanzer said he expects an answer within the next three weeks.
The brief article in The San Diego Union-Tribune notes a new — or least not previously reported — concession being made to convention organizers: Hotel owners have agreed that no rooms in the dedicated Comic-Con block will exceed $300 a night. [Union-Tribune]
Retailing | Amazon’s total revenue for the first quarter jumped 46 percent to $7.13 billion; net income rose 68 percent to $299 million. [Publishers Weekly]
Awards | Political cartoonist Bill Day, who was laid off last year by the Memphis Commercial Appeal, is among the winners of the 42nd Annual Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards. [Comic Riffs]
- April 26, 2010 @ 08:04 AM by Kevin Melrose
‘Trailer effect’ gives Scott Pilgrim series an Amazon sales boost
Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 6
We saw last week how the release of the movie trailer led Scott Pilgrim to overtake Justin Bieber (if only briefly) on Twitter, but are we now getting the first indications of what effect Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World might have on sales of the graphic novels?
Just four days after the trailer’s online debut, all six volumes of the Bryan Lee O’Malley series — including the final installment, which won’t be released for another four months — rest comfortably in Amazon.com’s Top 20 Bestsellers in Graphic Novels.
The first volume, 2004′s Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life, checks in at No. 8, just behind five books in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Twilight: The Graphic Novel and Kick-Ass. Yes, they all share something in common: They’re titles with movie ties.
Subsequent volumes of Scott Pilgrim hold slots No. 9 through 12 and No. 14 on the Amazon chart, a chain interrupted only by the sixth volume of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, which checks in at No. 13.
I have no idea what this means in terms of hard numbers for the Oni Press series (my chart-fu isn’t that strong). Obviously, no one expects a Watchmen-sized “trailer effect,” but if this early chart climb is any indication, could the publisher see impressive sales spikes along the lines of those experienced by Dark Horse with Hellboy and Sin City?
Heck, when O’Malley’s fifth volume was released in February 2009, many retailers sold out quickly, leaving fans scrambling for copies. Now imagine the demand come July 20, when the sixth, and final, book debuts just weeks ahead of the movie.
- March 29, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by Kevin Melrose