flemmings | (no subject)

I continue to be puzzled at bk1's total lack of Sugiura Shiho. They have nothing of hers at all. Zilch. Nada. Rien. Meanwhile Kohri is out in bunko and Silver Diamond has reached the 20s, but as far as jp1 is concerned she doesn't exist.

While I of course discover that the vol 20 of Kohri I have is neither vol 20 nor the end of the series. It's vol 23, so I lack 18-22 and 24. *Always* check one's manga before going to New York. But now what to do? Buying the two last bunko from amazon will cost me $80 CDN, which is ridiculous, quite apart from being bunko. Yesasia and fujisan and kinokuniya seem never to have heard of Kohri. Why, jp1, why you do this to me?

ETA: Rather as E guessed, according to someone who knows more than I do:

The publisher Tousuisha has a limited distribution circle. I don’t know the specifics of who they are aligned with, but they don’t have a deal with the major retailers like bk1, Rakuten, etc. Even amazon.co.jp is a fairly new deal–they’ve been there for only about two years. I was ordering from MangaOh before that.

It’s a bit of a vicious circle: they aren’t as popular because of a limited distro, but their distro doesn’t widen because retailers don’t have a deal with them, with small circulation numbers likely being one factor. Potential readers have to really dig around to stumble across their books, usually by word of mouth. Sugiura Shiho is fantastic and needs to reach more fans. I wish there was a way to petition bk1 to carry their stuff.

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I wonder if Silver Diamond is worth reading ...

I really need to find a new importer from Taiwanese comic publications.

I couldn't get into vol 1 for some reason. Keep meaning to give it another try, but it just felt scattered and train-wrecky.

I know, I know! It's so frustrating! I suspect it's an issue with the distributor? That publisher's books don't seem to be that easily found even in Japan (though I wish I'd remembered to check Animate and the doujinshi stores in Ikebukuro).

I'd assumed jp1 was a used book franchise too, given the odd things one can get there. But it has to be a distributor issue, given the complete absence of her stuff. Very odd, whatever. (And picky picky BookOff had an almost complete run of Kohri, so there's still a market for it.)

The distribution issue is clearly explained at the Tōsuisha web site (http://tosuisha.co.jp/shop/index.html): "当社で発行しております雑誌・コミックス等は取次店（日販・東販等）を通さない「直販」形式をとらせていただいております。"

Simply, Tōsuisha doesn't use distribution companies such as Nippan (日販) or Tōhan (東販). Typically, book stores get their stuff from these distribution companies, but if a shop wants to get stuff from Tōsuisha, the shop needs to have a deal directly with the publisher, meaning extra bureaucracy. A few shops, such as Amazon.co.jp, Bookweb.Kinokuniya.co.jp, Mangaoh.co.jp and Junkudo.co.jp, have deals with the publisher whereas other shops, such as Books.Rakuten.co.jp and BK1.jp don't. The problem with the shops that *do* sell the Tōsuisha stuff is that they only offer express shipping, which is very expensive. Amazon offers the most expensive shipping for low amounts of volumes, but Kinokuniya's shipping costs increase a lot faster than Amazon's, at least when shipping to the "F igai Ōshū" area (http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/guest/cgi-bin/faq.cgi?FILE=f_howtoorder#A06). Junkudō offers slightly cheaper EMS shipping, but most volumes seem to be sold out all of the time.

If enough people contact BK1 at the "otoiawase" form (https://enq.bk1.jp/form/form.php), maybe they will start offering Tōsuisha issues. I don't know what category to pick, though. "Goiken" obviously fits, but the following text (henshin ga iranai baai) is less promising: if no reply is required, they aren't required to read the messages.

I wonder why Tōsuisha won't deal with the agents? It seems more likely they'd sell more books that way, which ought to offset the agent's fees.