[Thread]

So I mentioned a while back about making a thread about book & comic book distribution, how it relates to "Copies Sold", and what it actually all means in response to the Demon Slayer: KNY bonkers sales news...before deleting it entirely. Well, here it is.

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If you've had any experience on the publishing side of books & comics (referred to as Single Issues), you may know this info. For those that don't, this thread will cover manga sales, US book distribution, & Direct Market (single issue sales) & how it relates to COPIES SOLD.

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The term COPIES SOLD will be used & is used a lot by publishing as a whole. The term can be misleading in headlines because it may not actually refer to "copies sold to customers," it refers to copies sold bookstores & comic shops through distribution partners.

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Looking at Single Issues, the term COPIES SOLD tends to be a misnomer, only accounting for the copies that were purchased by individual accounts through a distributor and not purchased by customers.

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When you see a single issue of something sell 100K (or even 75K/20K/etc), chances are that means 100K copies were purchased by individual comic shops, e-retailers, etc and are in stores -- not that 100K copies were purchased on day of release.

The potential demand is 100K.

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So when you read an article about a title selling out before it's release, it's most likely sold out at the distributor, and copies can still be found either in your local shop or online.

Seriously, don't panic. This is a HUGE argument for preordering your comics.

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And we have to breakdown these massive sales bc 100K copies is a lot at face value bc how can something with such a large number sell out day one?

Look at the covers for the title. Were there a lot of ratio variants? Were there retailer exclusives? The number is inflated.

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So again, that 100K copies could be something in the realm of 1-3 Main Orderable Covers and several INCVs and retailer exclusive to boost the COPIES SOLD number. And, in most cases, INCVs are ratio'd and not reorderable through the distributor.

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If you're looking for the number of copies actually sold to customers, you're looking for Sell Through or Point-of-Sale Customer data, which is not something that is available from the Direct Market. This data will actually tell you how many copies are sold to customers.

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Additional inflation for single issues (and book market) can be attributed to the increase of returnability. Returnability has been a HUGE factor to independent bookstores and comic shops, especially this year. It's not new. It's not a bad word, and let me tell you why.

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While yes, returnability DOES mean that sellers can return product back to the distributor for credits, & it DOES factor into the copies purchased number after the headlines are cold, it's what allows retailers to take chances on books & order more to anticipate demand.

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Will copies be returned, yes.
Does it mean the book performed poorly, no.

What it does allow is for retailers (esp comic shops) to find their sales ceiling, be able to have copies on hand for new customers, & build readership in their store.

Readership is the goal here.

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Now let's shift over to the Book Market because COPIES SOLD actually means what it should mean. Copies SOLD to customers.

The numbers reported by NPD Bookscan actually use the POS data from over 16K locations including e-retailers, chain & mass market, indies, etc.

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While it only covers 85% of the US trade print market (the other 15% could be attributed to markets that purchased copies but don't share POS like Direct Market), it's a good indicator of what's ACTUALLY being purchased by customers.

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Looking at the recently released Top 20 Superhero GNs for DEC2020, the top spot is held by BATMAN: THREE JOKERS, which sold over 12K copies. This means that there are truly 12K that were purchased during that month from various retail establishments. W I L D.

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When you see news about sellouts in the Book Market, the item is, in most cases, sold out at the distribution level but not necessarily unable to be found in the wild.

But sometimes they are true sellouts & reprints are triggered, which brings me to why I wrote this...

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Oricon recently reported that Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba sold 82 million copies (across all available volumes) since it's initial 2018 release.

EIGHTY TWO MILLION COPIES.

First this bonkers.
Second this is the number for JAPAN sales only.
Third it's ACTUAL sales.

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Oricon is similar to NPD Bookscan, and it collects the monthly & weekly POS sales for comics, specifically, in addition to collecting ranks of other various mediums.

Due to notes on Oricon articles related to copyright, I'll be citing other sources.

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So I'm going to go off the rails a bit so unless you want to see into my data abyss or you're interested some deepish data for recent US manga hits, please exit the ride now.

TL:DR - US Retailers, you should be selling manga, but you're late to the party & we're out of dip. (19)

Demon Slayer: KNY has sold 82+million copies in Japan per Oricon (& Anime News Network) as of Nov. 18, 2020.

This is for 22/23 volumes that were available at the time. They took the top 22 spots on the top 30 list & each volume sold upwards of 3 million copies.

IN 2020.

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Since Oricon started reporting in 2008, this is the first time that a singular series has dominated this many slots consistently on the yearly list.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-11-29/top-selling-manga-in-japan-by-volume-2020/.166844

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This series has exploded in Japan. On my 2019 trip, we had to navigate crowds of people who were purchasing merch & the new release.

The 1st season of the anime had premiered and aired from April-Sept of that same year. Photos are an advert in Shin-Osaka Station.

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At this time, I was barely convincing retailers to stock My Hero Academia (we'll get to that in a sec), let alone this manga that had just barely begun to be dubbed in the US.

Nov 2019:
: 12 mil copies sold (yr)
: Vol. 1 485 copies (Comicchron) | 3.5K (NPD) (Nov Only)

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It's important to note here that Demon Slayer Vol. 1 doesn't appear on the Comichron Top 500 GNs January- October of 2019. Vol. 7-9 make minor appearances, but uh...here's the thing

Demon Slayer KNY premiered on Toonami Oct 12, 2019 (24)

In November 2019, Comichron reported sales of DS: KNY Vol. 1-3 & the newest release (Vol. 9) on the top 500 list. Vol. 9 was ordered the highest by comic shops at 490 copies that month.

There are roughly 2000+ comic shops in the US any given day.

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I'm not saying comic shops are bad at purchasing manga. I'm saying they aren't aware of the sales impact some of these series are having nor is manga news at the forefront of their minds. They are amazing people w/ a lot on their plate who need dedicated staffers for this.

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Just like comics, not everything will be a hit. Manga is tricky especially since there is so much out there. But we're in a new manga boom.

With the explosion of the Mugen Train movie, Demon Slayer's profile will begin to grow. It's already difficult to order in the US.

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But DS isn't the only series experiencing this explosion.

Jujutsu Kaisen sold 10 mil copies this year after its anime debut in October.

My Hero Academia - 30 mil. Season 5 hits March.

Chainsaw Man - 6.5 mil. Anime 2021

Spy X Family - 1 million copies. No anime.

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Shueisha (Viz) is a powerhouse right now of comic gold, and we're going to be seeing this with MANY more series from different manga publishers now that anime is more accessible than ever before via streaming services.

Stock manga. Period.

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If you're a retailer and has questions about what to stock, hit me up, but please follow reps from actual manga publishers. Happy to point you to them!

I've ranted too much. Thanks for hanging out.

Sources:
Oricon JP
NPD Bookscan (via ICV2)
Anime News Network
Comichron

Actually one more thing:
The fascinating thing about Japanese publishing is that it is entirely based on building readership. Weekly publication magazines & collections are meant to be affordable (270¥ to about 440-600¥, respectively).

This is real readership.

I have so much more I want to say about this topic, but Twitter is not the space for that rn. There are sections above I can expand at length.

I want creators and retailers to be successful esp with the immense amount of creative storytelling that is out there rn!