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Apple eBook Store to Have Manga Section

iPad
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The folks at Appsplice have ferreted out a bit more information about the upcoming eBook store from Apple that's being designed to work with their various devices. Similar to how the app store itself works, the eBook store sub-categories will be organized within 20 to 30 top-level groupings. What the blog lists of interest to readers here is that there will be a manga subsection in the comics and graphic novel category. Ever since the the reality of a tablet of some sort from Apple started getting stronger in late 2009, there has been a lot of discussion on comic book sites about how the device could help breathe new life into comics on the digital front. Publishers have attempted various things over the years, from online subscriptions on their own sites to CD and DVD compilation releases and the digital video comics that we saw for things like Watchmen.

Manga and graphic novels are no stranger to digital devices as the Kindle has had a section for quite awhile and Sony's eBookstore offers it as well. The Sony store is weaker on it than Amazon since Amazon has had more of a public push on their device with the Kindle as you can see from their selection here. Yen Press, Digital Manga Publishing and TOKYOPOP have all explored content on the device though the types you see more often than not are the original English Language releases since the respective publishers have more control over it. Japanese licensors are still tentative at best about the entire field for a number of reasons and just like the early DVD days, rights are not always available for manga and novels or they're priced too high.

We've talked with various publishers in the last couple of years about manga and light novels being offered on different devices and the general response was usually apathetic at best, either because of the new workflow created or the difficulty in rights, or the belief that everything would just be pirated anyway. And then there's the entire issue many have of even wanting to read on such devices since most people who do read tend to prefer having the physical book in their hands and not having any DRM issues.

I can certainly be counted in that group. Looking at my various media libraries, I'm at over 6,000 DVD/BD titles and probably close to twenty thousand comic books and graphic novels and manga. I like my entertainment and have accumulated a lot of it over the years. But my own habits have changed, though this applies more to the comic book world, in that I stopped buying single issues years ago and moved entirely to graphic novels. A lot of that came after the manga boom that TOKYOPOP started as I got into having a good chunk to read at a time for a decent price, never mind storage issues. But then storage issues became a problem with manga and I realized that I was only truly interested in reading the stories for the most part and had lost my collector mentality. So, I stopped buying manga. Much as I did with comics, but I couldn't shift to just buying trades for obvious reasons.

The introduction of the iPad having the Kindle and numerous other devices (I personally own a Sony Daily Reader Edition, the PRS-900) have opened up possibility for yet another revenue stream for publishers if they can actually get licensors to play in this field. The first and most obvious area to work with is novels and it's really saddening that we haven't seen any movement at all of note in this area. Light novels have the potential to make a good dent here with fans, especially since there are so many devices that can be offered through, whether it's the Kindle or iPhone. New markets that can be tapped and explored. I found myself to be in that market when I picked up a Sony Pocket Reader last August when they came out and it radically changed how I read. I barely had time or place to read a book but after getting that I ended up reading dozens of books that I would not have read otherwise. It changed my habits so hard that I no longer want to purchase books.

But I want both. I want both to flourish. I'm sure that they will when it comes to the book market as we see all kinds of radical changes going on there between publishers and sellers and consumers in how content is consumed. There's a vicious back and forth. But with the manga world, and the comics world as well, we're still seeing stagnation and rampant piracy. Whether it's scanlations of books easily available at your local bookstore from the manga world or the latest issue from DC Comics being scanned and offered online, those who want to buy (and they are a growing number who are not tied to the old model) are unable to. Sadly, most of them will go for the obvious route; if it's not available they'll get it where they can and then never contribute to the proper cycle. And most of the time, once they go there, they're lost to the retail (online and offline) chain forever more. Or at least until they realize the value of an item when they create things themselves and see their works offered for free.

I believe that the world of tablet/slate devices - not just the iPad, though it will be the most accessible - gives the manga and comics publishers a real chance at doing something new and being able to offer older works again in a new light. Offers of getting digital content and then creative ways of pushing the customer towards the physical release can work. Incentives work. At this stage, I no longer have an interest in storing hundreds and hundreds of volumes of manga that I may or may not ever read again. Even if they are favorites, I found that for me, manga and comics have become huge disposable entertainment venues. I love them, I devour them, but few of them merit a serious re-reading. These devices and the digital delivery option is something that I think will open up the publishers to whole new markets.

Would you make the shift? Would you partake of both? Or would you stick to just physical releases?

Sound off in our discussion thread here and put a check mark in the poll as well!