Previews Review for Today, 10/15
Previews Review is still up and running with a new
SHIPPING THIS
WEEK column (covering books hitting stores today, Oct. 15th).
There's a nice discussion about pricepoint sensitivity, focusing
especially on manga and the youngsters who devour it. Will a kid
with $20 to spend prefer two thinner manga volumes for $10 apiece, or
will he buy the thicker manga book priced at $15? I dunno, but
it's an interesting point to consider. I know I often find myself
doing a little mental math to figure out if a collection is a good deal
or not, but I don't know if other consumers do this, let alone younger
kids. I'm guessing many people simply assign threshold boundaries
to certain types of goods (DVDs should run between $20-25; CDs around
$15; $10 for a manga TPB...) and balk whenever a particular item
exceeds their upper limit, even if the item in question is "special" in
some respect (longer movie or lots of extras; bonus songs; additional
pages; etc.). I wonder how much thought publishers give to this
issue. I'd be curious to learn how publishers decide to price
their books.
Looking at the books Previews Review highlights, I'm interested in
Viz's FLOWERS & BEES by Moyoco Anno. Their description of the
book sounds intriguing, especially the notion of playing around with
masculine and feminine ideals of beauty. Viz's site lists it
under their
shôjo
books but there's no further info to be found. Guess I'll
have to check it out in the bookstore.
