ICv2 looks at graphic novel sales for the first half of 2005, and I’m a bit puzzled. I’m assuming that they’re talking in terms of copies sold, because they refer to DC’s leading dollar share later in the article, implying that dollars are a separate issue from the numbers they’re looking at overall.
Being somewhat math-challenged (and hopeless at economics), I think it would have helped me to have a clearer set of definitions of what’s being compared in the article and some more detailed figures. Is it first-quarter 2005 sales compared to first-quarter 2004 sales, and so on? And first-half 2005 figures compared to first-half 2005? (I might be the only person confused by this.)
With only the monthly Top 100 lists to reference, it’s hard to get a sense of the big picture. It has left me wondering just how much of a contribution titles from 101 down make to monthly sales. I’m guessing it’s pretty significant, but again, what do I know?
At the Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon has some reactions to the piece:
“Second, at least one big spike in ICv2.com’s chart, Tokyopop’s first quarter, suggests a boost that comes from initially carrying something, which makes it unlikely to be sustained.”
And that’s one of the reasons I wish ICv2 had offered more in the way of facts and figures, or at least some clearer context. Tokyopop’s bump could have been generated by any number of factors, maybe from more direct market outlets deciding to stock manga, but it’s impossible to tell or even speculate, really.
Math-challenged update: Okay, I compared the second-quarter Top 100 numbers to see if 101+ books had much of an impact, and I think they really, really do. The 2004 second-quarter Top 100 numbers for Tokyopop were actually higher in 2004 (100,546) than those in 2005 (79,234), meaning that there are a lot of digests moving that don’t make the best-seller list. (Second-quarter Tokyopop figures increased by 12%, if I understand the context correctly.) Of course, Tokyopop has a lot more titles in release now than they did even a year ago, plus all those earlier volumes of Fruits Basket.