What To Do If A Manga Goes Out Of Print?

[zaneta123]

I"ll make this short. I'm very fustrated because All You Need is Love Vol.1 (novel) (Karada dakejya)
Jinko Fuyuno has gone out of print! I was expected to buy the novel at Yaoi-Con 2010 but, the June vendors informed me that it was out of print! How could this be if the book was released in Jan 2010!?

I looked for the book on ebay and Amazon, I couldn't believe they actually expect someone to pay $70-$110.00 for a novel!!! Outrageous! All You Need is Love Vol.2 (novel) (Karada dakejya)
Jinko Fuyuno will be out on Feb 2011 and I preordered it with Border's (hopefully they'll still be in business by then).

Do I need to start a petition to get the book back in print? What can I do?

[Prettykitty20034]

June's print runs are really low, so if there's something you are interested in, it's best to preorder or buy somewhere around the release date to avoid missing out. One of the things I learned when getting into manga is that it doesn't tend to stay in print for very long and only the most popular titles get reprinted.

I've gotten to the point where if I notice that something I want to read seems to be going out of print, I hurry up and prioritize buying that title. I just had to do this for Monster. I got lucky and found some of those hard to find volumes at the local Borders, but I had a heck of a time with volume 3. I have had to do the out of print scramble at times though. I usually just wait around until one pops up on eBay. It also helps to keep the title on your Amazon wishlist and keep checking periodically. Sometimes someone will list their copy at MSRP instead of trying to price gouge. I've gotten lucky a few times that way. Anyway, good luck!

[zaneta123]

Thanks for the advice. So you think that $70 for a book is justifiable?........So confused!

[Prettykitty20034]

Well, I certainly wouldn't pay 70 dollars. I'd just wait and hope that a less greedy seller lists their copy on eBay or Amazon. You can also do a google search by the title's ISBN number and see what shops are out there that carry the title. Maybe someplace somewhere still has it in stock. Searching that way can be time consuming though. I only bother when I have a lot of time on my hands or I really really want the title.

[lore]

I do have to wonder if the manga companies don't shoot themselves in the foot with low print runs for multi-volume series, especially with these long delays between volumes.

If a reader is new to the genre, or maybe someone convinced that reader to check a title out, how likely is the reader to buy volume 2 when volume 1 is already out of print? Not very. Letting the early volumes go out of print means the publishers can't really grow the number of readers a title has. I know that they say a title sells less for each volume published, but between volume 1 and volume 2? Come on. Volume 1 OOP is not even giving a chance for a title to gain readers.

[Senyoru-Chan]

You have to learn to search around in many places. Sometimes an US published book may end up on a German site or something so don't limit yourself to local stores. The shipping and everything MAY be cheaper than buying one from Amazon. Check real life stores that you know sells manga. If there aren't many where you live you can always ask a friend or relative who lives somewhere else to look for it.

[tsukimori]

i would also go on livejournal there are alot of sale community maybe a few sellers are looking for buyers there.

[azureus]

Sometimes there is a second release. I remember this happening with Suzuki Tzuta's Strange and Mysterious Story. Volume 2 was impossible to get for ages, and then it appeared again.
I admit to paranoidly preordering everything I'm remotely interested in - for fear of the manga going out-of-stock.

If you can be patient, it pays to create a notification on Ebay and just wait. Eventually somebody will sell the book at a reasonable price. All the best.

[reader17]

I love books, I would rather have a book in my hand then an ebook but I don't know why they just don't put all titles on the Ebooks (once they are out of print). Then when the paper book goes out of stock we have an option at least to buy titles as an ebooks (Instead of paying those outrageous prices that they sometimes go to when you can not find a book).

I was so good with buying my books every month and on top of it but now I am months behind and becoming afraid I will not be able to get some them. That I would prefer to get an Ebook instead of nothing at all.

[crayon]

@reader17
We wish we can give you ebooks for all of our publications.
We don't always get digital distribution rights from Japanese publishers.
We are working on that tho.