Omnibus sales on the rise

[Yukino Miyazawa]

Comic World News has an article about the success of the omnibus manga format:

Results have been satisfying, according to Smith [Tokyopop]. “Sales on all of our editions have been great,” she said. “The ultimate editions predictably did very well during the holiday season and our various discounted bind-ups have been selling fantastically before, during, and after the holidays. We did work closely with retail while developing all of these. They, like us, are looking for ways to engage fans in new manga series and to offer existing fans of a series something new and special.”

“Everything came together as we hoped it would for Tekkonkinkreet,” Lu [Viz] enthused. “When we released it as Black & White, years ago, we knew it had an audience — which would not be your typical manga reader — but it never reached its potential. Whatever it was — the format, the price point, the anime, the critical reaction (which was tremendous), all of it together — we hit it. The numbers we are seeing changes the game as far doing this kind of ‘arthouse’ manga goes.”

It's great that not only mainstream manga is doing well in omnibus format, but artsy manga is doing well too.

That approach – introducing series in omnibus format – is one that Del Rey is ready to embrace.

“We’re using the omnibus model with some new series,” he said. “Like I said, there’s a lot of competition for shelf space these days. With two new series, Me and the Devil Blues (by Akira Hiramoto) and Mao-Chan (by Ken Akamatsu and RAN), we’re going to publish in a two-volumes-in-one omnibus format right from the beginning. We want to try this with a few different types of series (and I don’t think you could get two manga series more different from each other) and see how the audience responds. The first volume of Mao-Chan will be out in August, and it will be about 400 pages for $14.95. Me and the Devil Blues also will be in stores in July, and it will have a larger trim, 544 pages, and a price of $19.95.”

I hope more new series start out in omnibus form.

Dallas Middaugh, Associate Publisher of Del Rey Manga, neatly summarized the benefits of the multi-volume collection for publishers: “All manga publishers share the problem of shelf-space constraints, and publishing omnibus editions is a great way to address that problem,” he said. “It’s a lot easier to sell one backlist title to Barnes & Noble than it is to sell three. It’s also very useful for keeping interest in a series that has no new volumes coming out. A new volume usually bumps sales on previous volumes, even if it’s not a huge amount. Once a series is done, it’s way too easy for retailers to not restock it on the shelves when there are so many new manga coming in.”

It's frustrating when there are hard to find individual volumes in a series when it nears or reaches completion. Hopefully, this will eliminate the problem somewhat.

[bctaris]

Originally Posted by Yukino Miyazawa

It's great that not only mainstream manga is doing well in omnibus format, but artsy manga is doing well too.

Yes, awesome. No. 5 omnibus, Viz?

And I'll beat others to it (though it's already come up a couple times over the past year or so omnibuses came on the market)--if it's even helping the artsy stuff, what might it do for the old? Admittedly, the "arthouse" manga is helped by selling to comic fans beyond the manga sphere, but older material would still be limited to manga readers. Still, one of the first manga omnibuses was that big pink Lum book from years back which combined the first few volumes of Urusei Yatsura. I wonder how well that did even then compared to the later regular volumes. But if they could do it again, plus Patlabor, I would be overjoyed.

Once again, thanks for the link, Yukino. More good reading.

[Jarred]

C'mon Viz, bring us Ping Pong in omnibus format!!

Very glad to hear that Me and the Devil Blues is getting the 2-in-1 treatment. Of course this probably means 6 month releases, but I'll be getting the same amount of content in a year--no sweat.

I wonder if publishers could start doing this for titles they expected to do well, but aren't? Take for instance, EDEN from Dark Horse. They've already dropped the release schedule back to 6 months, so why not bundle two volumes for the fans?

[Andrew Cunningham]

Originally Posted by Jarred

Very glad to hear that Me and the Devil Blues is getting the 2-in-1 treatment. Of course this probably means 6 month releases, but I'll be getting the same amount of content in a year--no sweat.

It probably means 2 years, actually.
Only four volumes long, so far, and only comes out once a year in Japan.

[Jarred]

Oh, I thought it had finished. Then if it's only 4 volumes long and ongoing at a yearly pace, then I imagine we might not see the next release until the following year? Or if they stick with 6 months, then it will be two years until the third release? Or future volumes will just get single volume release?

Hmmm, I'm actually now wondering why they chose this title for this style of release.

[akcoll99]

I noticed TOKYOPOP is also doubling up on Mamotte Shugogetten by releasing it as 2-in-1 volume. Same with Futari H.

I was recently at a Barnes & Noble and I saw some girls browsing through the manga section. I overheard one lament that there was only one Tsubasa omnibus. When her friend suggested that she buy the single volumes, she refused saying she wanted the Omnibus format. It just caught my attention and made me wonder if the new 'combined' volumes wouldn't be the next big thing. It looks like my speculation is proving to be the case.

[Richard J.]

Am I the only one interested in Mao-Chan?

I'm not exactly sure what to think about the Omnibus format personally. Especially the doorstoppers that are three or four volumes. Those things are lethal.

I'm not very familiar with the format either though, so perhaps some of the things I'm worried about are unfounded. (Which would be a nice change of pace.)

How do they handle cover art for Omnibus editions? If volumes 1,2,&3 are in an edition, do they just use one volume's cover and the others are gone?

Also, some manga volumes come with cultural notes and bits from the original Japanese release like fan art, interviews, etc. How are these treated in the Omnibus format?

I do agree that there is a strong business logic to using this format, but at the same time, I don't want to have less material for a slightly thinner and cheaper book.

[HellKorn]

Originally Posted by Yukino Miyazawa

It's great that not only mainstream manga is doing well in omnibus format, but artsy manga is doing well too.

Best news in ages.

I'm ecstatic beyond any measure that Tekkon Kinkreet is doing so very well for Viz. If it opens up the door for most experimental manga, especially published in that format (for chrissakes, Viz, DO THAT FOR IGARASHI'S WITCHES!), then I couldn't be happier.

And the price for the amount of content and size for Me and the Devil Blues is a godly deal. Del Rey so far is prepping up for that release very well.

[jigoku panda]

Don't forget viz is also doing omnibus of cat eyed boy as well which is the title I'm curious about.

[adam_omega]

Omnibus are something I really enjoy seeing as well, but I've never been a big fan of pricing omnibus at a premium. My view is that they should be a way to bring back repackage previously released material in a more economical format. Essentially, I see Omnibus as needing to be the manga equivalent of a DVD slim pack release.

That's one of the things that I wanted to make sure Seven Seas addressed with its line of omnibus. In April, we're releasing Aoi House Omnibus Collection I for $10.99, which combines Aoi House Vol. 1 & 2 into one economical package. And in May, we're putting out an Amazing Agent Luna Omnibus that collects Vol. 1-3 into one volume 500 page book for $11.99.

Yes, those are OEL, but what better way to test the market than by repackaging our two best-selling originals?