Wait, That’s Really an Awesome Idea
Commentary, General March 28th, 2008Tags: barnes & noble, borders, western industry, yaoi-press
So. Borders isn’t doing so hot and Barnes & Noble is thinking of buying up their store fronts. This is bad for manga, because B&N doesn’t like manga. This is extra-bad for fans of mature titles and BL, because B&N REALLY doesn’t like them. In fact, I’d suggest that they only reason that they carry the limited selection of them that they do is to keep them competitive with Borders, so if they buy Borders…*cough* Yeah.
But wait! An idea appears! From none other than Yamila Abraham, who suggests that Borders find a way to turn itself into, primarily, a seller of graphic novels.
At first it sounds like just a happy manga fan pipe dream, but she makes the very valid point that bookstores have too much other product to really cover the fans, and so do most comic book shops.
Now, I think most Borders locations would probably be a bit oversized for just graphic novels, and I presume that they rent their space (i.e. can’t physically divide it into multiple stores and lease off the other spots), so perhaps they’d have to share it– perhaps with comic book shops, game stores, and other geek industry?
Or just regular stuff? Who knows. It’s a cool idea, but if Borders has money trouble I don’t see how they could do it unless someone invested a bunch of money for them to do so. But hey, I can dream.
| View blog authority |  Stumble it! | Share |
March 28th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Meanwhile, I go to my Books-A-Million which has an epic-sized manga section (OK, maybe not epic-sized, but they did make it bigger not too long ago)
March 28th, 2008 at 7:56 am
I prefer to get my manga mostly from online shops. But then again I don’t really buy that much manga just once a month for like one or two volumes.
March 28th, 2008 at 8:16 am
[...] admin wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt… and I presume that they rent their space (ie can’t physically divide it into multiple stores and lease off the other spots), so perhaps they’d have to share it– perhaps with comic book shops, game stores, and other geek industry? … [...]
March 28th, 2008 at 9:21 am
The fall of Borders would be a great tragedy. Besides the graphic novels, Borders has a superior selection in almost every category than B&N. There are many academic and smaller press books there you would NEVER see at B&N.
March 28th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Borders is emphasizing four popular categories in their new stores, one of which is graphic novels.
The B&N where I worked (and where I godfathered the GN section) has six wall bays of graphic novels, four of which are manga. Comparing that store (Lincoln Center) to their store (Columbus Circle), I think we do a better job. (How many comicbook stores or bookstores carry Asterix and Tintin?)
Borders has made some big mistakes in the past (such as not having a viable online retail portal), but following the suggestion above would be REALLY stupid. A better idea would be for someone like Newbury Comics to create a chain of alternative popculture stores. Some music, some comics and books, some t-shirts, some toys, some DVDs, some games and toys. A cool place to hang out.
As I said elsewhere, sure yaoi doesn’t sell well, because nobody knows it exists, and those who know about it consider it softcore porn. Remember 1998? How much manga did you see in stores then? Give it time, and the kids reading today will want something better and more interesting than ninjas and fanservice. That’s when the non-shojo/shonen titles will begin to sell.
(And B&N loves manga. Just not in a lovesick, twinkle-eye, nosebleed way. It outsells the superhero crap 3-to-1!)
March 28th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
@Torsten: I’m afraid one B&N doesn’t really cover the entirety of the franchise; the vast majority of B&N stores carry less manga than the vast majority of Borders stores, at least according to my (and others’) experiences and the words of people working at manga companies. ;)
As for yaoi not selling well…are you paying ANY attention? Yaoi sells VERY well– as a niche. I never asked about it not selling well; I suggested that it has ceased growing, which is different. Yaoi Press is proof perfect that yaoi sells well– it’s all they sell and they support a large troupe of writers and artists with it! Not to mention Digital Manga Publishing, whose bread and butter is their Juné line of BL. :)