The cover of the first volume of the Fruits Basket manga released by Tokyopop on February 10, 2004 in North America. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Chuck Austen speaks about Tokyopop and everything else
Ok, if you have not trotted over to Robot6 to see what Chuck Austen has to say about his experiences with Tokyopop and everything he has encountered in his career, stop reading this, and trot on over there. You can read the rest of my opinion later on.
Oh good you are back, so here is the deal, I am an Anime/Manga fan from many moons back. So I have been unhappy with how the Anime/Manga markets are going as evidenced by the near impossibility of finding cool Anime stuff to sell, let alone selling it for any price once it hits the market place. But here comes Chuck telling us that he is making money off the industry, which warms my dark flabby heart. Because while I worry about an industry that has contracted 66% over six years, it is good to hear anyone that has survived and thrived post Tokyopop melting down.
The most amazing thing he says is:
Instead use it. Use what you did, what you achieved, and build something for yourself. You’re not just a one-trick pony. You’re an amazing, energetic, imaginative creator who can do something even better. So get over it. Stop complaining and wishing for miracles, and let go. Take the good you got from the experience with the unctuous Stu Levy and make something else, something better, something fan-frickin-tastic for which you retain all rights, rights that Tokyopop, Marvel, DC, and every other corporate sphincter in the world will wish they could take from you, editorially digest into a flavorless pablum for the masses, and poop out to their audience. Source: Robot6
This makes me happy. Because he is dead right.
And that is one of the things I think we consistently miss as we look at the market place. We all learn really cool things along the way. We learn what it is like to crank out a novel, a Manga book, a comic book, or heck even manage and maintain a web site like this. We have the things we learned, and we can apply those to new situations, new places, and in many cases make a couple of coins of it. I have also self-published a couple of technical books, no marketing, and they make about 100 dollars a month. They are not best sellers, but people hunt them down and at 4.99 they seem to do ok. I am sure they would do much better at 99 cents, but there is some pride in there as well, so 4.99 helps cover the costs of developing the darn thing.
You really should listen to what he has to say, it is beautiful, and wonderful, and so full of hope for the future of the industry that you can’t help but pause and stop for a minute. North America and its market is not the only place in the world. You might want to localize it, but you know my books do better in India than they do in America. That is something to think about, and something you might want to check out as an independent artist. It looks like it will be totally worth your time.
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