IcV2 has a big two-part interview with Tokyopop Associate Publisher Marco Pavia about the company’s recent reorganization and their plans for the future:
Drilling down into Tokyopop-specific questions, you mentioned earlier about cutting back on the number of titles. Can you tell us where you are on that in terms of monthly output, and what are you looking at for 2009 for release flow?
We’ve adjusted our publishing program. We had been publishing around 40 or so volumes each month, and we cut that down to closer to 25 volumes per month. We adjusted the release frequency of certain series, so instead of publishing bi-monthly or every three months, we’ve been stretching them out a bit to maybe every four to six months so we’re not shoving so much product out each month.
Just to be clear (I know there have been a lot of Internet rumors), we have not cancelled any series; we’ve really just adjusted the release pattern of certain series. This allows us to have a more narrowly focused and fiercer list. I was just looking at the BookScan report from last week and we had a pretty healthy growth over the prior week with titles like Loveless,+Anima, and .Hack and even some of our more niche-y products, some of our yaoi, books like Junjo Romantica have charted in the top 50 in BookScan and we’re seeing great success with our Warcraft and Starcraft programs. Our Gothic and Lolita Bible has really taken off; it’s something a bit different for us, but through our various marketing efforts we’ve really been embraced by the Gothic and Lolita community.
Pavia goes on to state that the company is pulling in a profit, and that they plan to publish two new series by Fruits Basket creator Natsuki Takaya in the coming months: Phantom Dream and Tsubasa: Those With Wings.
October 14th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Tokyopop hasn’t cancelled any series?
Tell that to the people who’d like to see the remaining 2 volumes of Boys of Summer and say it with a straight face.