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Digital Manga Turn To Kickstarter To Help Reprint Tezuka Manga

By Ishaan . November 19, 2011 . 1:30pm

Digital Manga Turn To Kickstarter To Help Reprint Tezuka Manga

At one point, Digital Manga published a manga by Osamu Tezuka, titled “Swallowing the Earth,” which is now out of print. Fan demand has led Digital Manga to consider reprinting the book, but they don’t have the financial resources to do so.

 

In order to gather the funds required for a reprint, they’ve opened up a Kickstarter project, where people can donate toward this cause. All of the licensing and production work is already complete, they say, and printing and delivery should only take one or two months.

 

They’re also using the Kickstarter drive as a test to gauge if it’s a viable way to publish other Japanese manga in the U.S., including premium editions of older books, as well as newer titles that otherwise wouldn’t stand a chance.

 

If you’re interested in contributing or Swallowing the Earth itself, you can find a preview of a few pages of the book here.


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  • http://tristsantithesis.tumblr.com/ Tsunayoshi Sawada

    I dont understand. People will donate so that the company can print it so that the people who donated can purchase it? They cant just print to order?

    • aoihana

      They can’t just print to order because Print on Demand is easier said than done. Not only do you need specialized equipment, you need to be a specialized business, something I assume they are not. Also, Print on Demand would mean you’d pay more for your copy of Swallowing the Earth.

      It’s not like you’re donating soley for their benefit, but rather for yours, too(For fans, of course). You’re donating so that an out-of-print manga that you love can see the light of day, again. Also, Digital Manga is offering some nice bonuses(Although, some of them are only worth it if you live in the USA) if you donate $10+ 

      If you donate $30, you get $10 credit for eManga’s digital manga library and a copy of Swallowing the Earth  (◕‿◕✿)

      I honestly wished more small publishers tried this out. Not only would this work for publishing, but smaller companies could use this method for help with licensing, too.

      • chicken_and_rofls

        “Also, Print on Demand would mean you’d pay more for your copy of Swallowing the Earth.”

        Probably about the same you’d have to pay when you combine the price of donating and later buying a copy…

        • Whoomp

          Read what was said before making stupid remarks, for $30 you get a copy of Swallowing the Earth (plus 10 dollars worth of digital manga). The list price when this was first available was $25 so add print on demand atop of that and you are way past the donation required to get the book.

          This kickstarter also makes sure that there will be a printing beyond what have been donated. Even if you didn’t pledge money and got it that way there is a chance you will still be able to purchase it at a later date.

          • chicken_and_rofls

            So apparently, they’re just giving the product away for free, if a $30 donation gets you $35 worth of material.  Seems more likely that the list price for the final product will be below the original $25 price. Or, even more likely, they don’t plan on making many sales after the initial pre-orders are shipped.

            This is basically just print-on-demand in bulk, only it takes advantage of people too stupid to donate the minimum amount necessary for a “free” copy. It also allows DMP to move of old inventory without too much price slashing, e.g., donate $70 and get $10 worth of ebooks, a $25 new product, $12 worth of old inventory, and a Speed Racer boxset (currently selling for $5 new on Amazon marketplace).

          • Whoomp

            Giving away for free? Not at all. Since these are coming directly from the DMP themselves there are no middlehand taking cuts, the 10 dollars of e-manga you get is for a service they own themselves. They are probably not going to print that many copies but they still have to reach a minimum number to print anything and the kickstarter was made to ensure that. This is pretty much just a way to guarantee sales, regardless if what you entice people with (aside from the manga itself) is leftover inventory.

  • Luzzy Fool

    The rewards are a good deal is you live in USA since some manga are cheaper through the program and shipping inside the country is free but the shipping can kill the savings if you live outside the USA. You have to add $13 to the $30 reward, $28 to the $60 reward, and $60 to the more expensive ones. 

    You can choose manga from all their imprints, but a few manga of their blacklist are out of print and they don’t accept requests for manga that are special order or limited in quantity. 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_J24UY7QAEKQY576PHZYS3EN6BA Celine

    THROWS MONEY. THROWS MONEY. I remember reading all of Osamu Tezaku’s works in Japanese when I started taking Japanese classes XD; God I loved them.

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