Industry- "People Aren't Reading What You Think They Are Reading"- Beat article about NYTimes List
David_D
Posts: 3,884
Given that we often talk about sales and trends and the book market readership around here, I thought this piece from the Beat made for very interesting reading.
Here's the lead:
Here's the lead:
The New York Times has been running weekly bestseller lists for graphic novel hardcovers, paperbacks, and manga (the latter segregated out to keep them from overwhelming the domestic titles) since March 2009. Comics journalists rarely mention it, and aside from authors using it as an honorific (“New York Times Bestselling Author”) just like prose authors, most people don’t even know it exists. Comics shops don’t merchandise bestsellers like Barnes & Noble, and publishers rarely issue press releases about their titles hitting the charts.And the article continues on to break down the paperback and hardcover lists and observations about them. An interesting read.
But, there’s something interesting happening, a shift in what people are buying and reading.
Here’s the graphic novel trade paperback list for September 30, 2012, the latest...
Comments
I never muse about what other people might be reading. Just glad that people ARE reading. Still.
Good to see Yotsuba was on the manga list for September. I agree with the assessment that where manga is concerned, most fans buy it the month it comes out and then it drops off. Often once we're "married" to a series it's a case of slavishly waiting for that next release, scooping it up, then beginning the process of waiting some more. Occasionally you'll pick up a series that's been out a while, and then you have the fun of picking up existing volumes when you can, but once you've caught up to the run, it's just sitting at the dog food bowl waiting waiting waiting... :)