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 Words of Truth and Wisdom: Support the Industry!
Written by Alethea and Athena Nibley
I've been thinking about angry fans a lot lately, because there seems to be so many of them right now. Not that I have any right to say anything about that--we've been known to get plenty angry as fans, and it's not uncommon for us to stay up late ranting and raving about one infuriating thing or another. I guess sometimes fans just thrive on anger. We're trying to get over that (sort of), because when I sit down and think about it, I realize that being a happy fan is much more fun than being an angry one.
The other day, someone told us something that I thought should be addressed, because we have a very sad volume of Nosatsu Junkie on our shelf, waiting for the day it will be translated into English--a day that may never come. I wasn't sure it would make a good column, but in light of the recent further downsizing of TokyoPop, I decided it's appropriate after all. But first! because learning new things is fun, let's explain a common(?) idiom!
Our mom tends to use the phrase “preaching to the choir” a lot. We didn't know what that meant, so we asked her, and she explained. Apparently it refers to a story or something where a preacher was having problems because no one would attend his sermons, except for the choir, because they were there to sing every week. He wanted to teach his congregation about the importance of coming to church every week, but because no one ever came to church, when he gave that sermon, he only preached it to the choir--the people who already heeded the lessons.
That's what I think I might be doing with this column, because everyone we talk to who reads the column is already aware of what I'm going to say, and quite possibly so does everyone we don't talk to who reads the column. But we could at least spread the word? So here goes.
A friend of ours told us that sometimes angry fans will declare that they shall never buy a new series from TokyoPop again, because they can't know if it will be dropped and they'll never get to see the end of it. First and foremost, we would like to point out that there's no guarantee you'll get to see the end of a series anyway, as we're sure any X/1999 fan can tell you. And second of all, if there's a way to guarantee never seeing the end of a series, it's to not buy it. In other words, if you refuse to buy a series, that's a sure-fire way to make sure it gets dropped if a publishing company needs to cut back on expenses.
It's very logical, really. It costs a lot of money to license a series, have somebody translate it into English, have somebody make sure the English makes sense, edit it, put all the sentences in the right places so they match the pictures, edit it, edit it, and send it to print. (I'm guessing on all the steps involved, but we're pretty sure it's something like that.) If nobody buys the book, they don't make the money to do all that stuff, and so the series becomes nothing but a burden. On the other hand, if everybody buys the book, then they make all that money and more, and they're happy to publish the next volume, because it means big money for them. I mean, when the big TokyoPop restructure was announced, was anybody really worried that Fruits Basket would be cancelled? Seriously.
So that brings us to our next point. What if my favorite series has already been cancelled, and I'm a sad, lonely fan, with no more (for example) Nosatsu Junkie to fill the void of my empty heart? Well, chances are, I've already bought that series. But if I only checked it out from the library, I can buy it! (Actually, everybody's having money problems these days, huh? So make sure you can afford it first!) And I can tell all my friends to buy it! (Hear that, everybody? Go buy Nosatsu Junkie!!) And I can buy it for them as a gift! ('Tis the season, after all!) Or maybe I can't afford it, but if I check it out from the library and get all my friends to check it out from the library, then the library will know it's popular, and the library can buy some copies! (It's not much, but it's something, right?)
And then, like with... those titles that TokyoPop cancelled but I hear they picked up again (like I can't go look it up, oy), maybe, eventually, somewhere down the line, TokyoPop will get enough money that they can pick up (for example) Nosatsu Junkie again. And then instead of being a sad fan or an angry fan, staying up late ranting and raving about the latest outrage, I can stay up late fangirling over the latest development in (for example) Nosatsu Junkie and speculating what will happen next, and be a happy fan. And being a happy fan, by definition, is much, much happier. There's no guarantee of course, but there's always hope.
In the meantime, we wish all the best for those at TokyoPop who have been laid off, and for TokyoPop in rebuilding. Gambatte ne!
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