ICv2 has a bit more detail on the Tokyopop no-longer-exclusives. After noting that three titles, Dragon Head, King City, and Heaven!!, will no longer be sold only online, they bring up one aspect I hadn’t heard before:
In addition, Tokyopop is also moving toward a preorder system for comic stores for the titles available as Web exclusives. “Please note that details are still being worked out,” Tokyopop publisher Mike Kiley told us, “but in early 07 we hope to provide stores the opportunity to purchase online exclusives during the same limited pre-order window offered to consumers.”
I’m no retailer, but it looks to me like Tokyopop would be cutting out Diamond, the middleman, which might be a smart move for them. It depends on the terms, but with the pre-orders, they will have a rough idea of how many copies to print, and because they have cut out the middleman, they make more money per book. Two questions loom: What sort of discount will they offer retailers? And will the online manga be returnable? No info yet, but as Mike Kiley says, the details are still being worked out.
but in early 07 we hope to provide stores the opportunity to purchase online exclusives during the same limited pre-order window offered to consumers.
They possibly expect just to use that “pre-order window”, and mind you that’s the first I have heard of that (is that the only way to order these titles??), to establish a count.
Cutting out Diamond is not a bad idea, but when Diamond also helps with getting the word out through Previews (as useless it can be for some manga publishers) where will the shops get info about the books?
Considering they announced this at the Diamond Open House, I think they are not cutting Diamond out of it.
This is how Diamond usually works, their stuff is usually sold non-returnable. You order issue number 3 of a series right around the time you receive the first one. So for the DM retailers, nothing for them has changed.