Book Expo '08: Manga in Costco? At the Airport? At the PX?

Immediately following Saturday morning's Graphic Novels breakfast that kicked off Graphic Novels Day at Book Expo America 2008 in Los Angeles, the panelists for the Graphic Novels and Manga Distribution panel got down to business to talk about changes and challenges of the marketplace. As graphic novels and manga continue to make inroads into new markets, representatives from Harper Collins / TokyoPop, VIZ Media, DC Comics and Diamond Comic Distributors talked about their desire to strengthen their presence in comic shops and independent bookstores too.

With a mix of representatives from the publishing, marketing and distribution sides of the graphic novels biz, the panelists all agreed that they don't expect graphic novels and manga to continue its rate of double-digit year-over-year growth. However, they were optimistic about opportunities to make manga and graphic novels available in more places where books are sold, including military commissaries, airports and big box stores like Wal-Mart and Costco.

Mary Beth Thomas, VP, Director of Client Services at Harper Collins / TokyoPop explained that one of the challenges she had to deal with was getting a sales force that "doesn't know much about manga, much less how to pronounce it" turned on to Japanese comics. This meant getting Harper Collins' sales people acquainted with the stories, the characters and even that whole right-to-left format enough to sell it to retailers who are equally unfamiliar with manga's appeal and its readers.

Gonzalo Ferreyra, Vice President of Sales & Product Marketing at VIZ Media faced similar challenges. "We had to educate our 140 reps at Simon and Shuster (VIZ Media's distributor) to convey the passion and conviction we feel (for manga). It took time." Still, for sales people, money talks. "The learning curve increased a lot when sales went up a lot," he observed.

You can now find large selections of manga and graphic novels at most chain bookstores and a few savvy comics shops, but publishers and distributors alike agree that while they're enjoying strong sales through these types of stores, there's still many avenues yet to explore.

"Is there a place for (manga) in mass market, big box sales club stores (e.g. Sam's Club and Costco)?" asked Thomas. "How do you sell to military stores? There are families on military bases, so we know that there are customers who'll be interested in these books, but we rely on TokyoPop to tell us what these customers will buy there. Warcraft and Fruits Basket does well there," said Thomas.

Kuo-Yu Liang, Vice President of Sales and Marketing from Diamond Distribution observed that "Military bases are the second biggest seller of books in the U.S." But again, the secret to success in this market lies in sales rep and retailer education, "They need to know your titles to buy them and sell them to their customers."

Ferreyra conceded, "We can speak the trade bookstore language quite well, but I feel we dont' speak the direct market language or the independent bookstore language well. they have different needs and limitations."

"It's been a real learning curve. We've made inroads into every channel, some more successfully than others," said Thomas. "Meanwhile, we're having some success with trying different formats. For example, Gothic & Lolita Bible is doing well in special markets. We're also looking into getting into airports."

"The mass market is largely untapped," said Ferreyra, "but we're also working on improving our sales in the direct market (a.k.a. comic book shops). There's a great deal of manga from Japan that would be targeted to an older audience that is darker and edgier. we have to tap into the direct market to get the readers who've picked up Lone Wolf and Cub to also pick up Monster and Vagabond."

Another issue that comes up time and again is limited shelf space at chain bookstores and comic shops that already carry manga and graphic novels.

As John Cunningham, DC Comics' Vice President of Marketing put it, "As a long-time book person, when I hear from booksellers that they don't have room for more graphic novels in their stores, I think that I can walk through the literary books section in most bookstores, run my fingers over the stacks and get dust on my fingertips. (The booksellers) say, 'What can I do about the graphic novel section -- it's so messy!' But that means there's traffic there! People are picking them up, reading and buying them! "

While everyone is excited about the explosive growth of graphic novel sales over the past few years, the companies represented at Saturday morning's panel are in it for the long haul, and know that it will still take years for graphic novels and manga to truly be a part of the mainstream of American pop culture consumption.

"There's a lot of preconceptions of who the customer for manga is," said Ferreyra. "Being informed by the history of manga in Japan, we're well aware that identifying only a single market is wrong-headed; we're looking to reach younger readers and older readers too. We're all hoping for a day when we'll see everyone on a train, young and old alike reading manga."

Image credits: © Reed Exhibitions, © TokyoPop, © VIZ Media LLC