Master of the Machete Style Manga

Chapter 92: First Printing is of Great Importance
Last week, Kenjiro Sakamoto's manga "Young Lady, Sniper Rifle, and Pantyhose!" was constantly on the verge of being canceled, with no chance of being published as a single volume. Therefore, I am not familiar with the process of publishing a single volume.

Ken Sakamoto asked, "Isn't the initial print run determined by popularity?"

Keiko Kaji said, "Popularity is certainly the foundation, but the most crucial things are two things."

"One is the pre-sale volume, which we will start as soon as possible. The other is the market assessment by the business department."

Kaji Keiko's tone carried a hint of dissatisfaction: "Actually, the latter is sometimes more important. What the people in the sales department are most afraid of is producing unsold books, which will result in a deficit, and then their performance will be deducted, and they will also be scolded by their superiors."

"Their KPI is the overall profit of the publishing business, not how well a particular work sells. Therefore, they are always very conservative about the first print run of new works by new authors. Even if a work has the potential to be a hit, they would rather prolong the publication period and wait for the first sales data to come out before reprinting."

"As for performance... they naturally have popular works as a guarantee."

"Moreover... they choose to reprint popular works, and even if they don't sell in the end, they can explain it as 'they used to sell well, but the slow sales are because the author hasn't been performing well lately, not because of me.'"

When the business department is mentioned, Keiko Kaji clearly gets angry.

After all, editors' performance is only judged by the works they are responsible for, which creates a conflict with the business department.

"Is the workplace really this scary...?" Ken Sakamoto sighed.

“Of course,” Keiko Kaji said. “Avoiding responsibility is the first principle in the workplace.”

Ken Sakamoto shook his head and said, "But then again, even if the first print run is smaller, subsequent print runs won't make a difference, right?"

“Of course there’s a difference!” Keiko Kaji said. “If the initial print run is less than the demand, what do you think readers who can’t buy the book will think?”

"Then we won't buy it?" Kenjiro Sakamoto said.

“Yes.” Keiko Kaji nodded. “Our work is serialized on the web, and many people buy the collected volumes just for collection. If they can’t even buy the books, the urge to buy them will have long since faded when they are reprinted.”

"What's even more problematic is that after the first wave of sales, some readers who have finished reading the book will sell the comics to secondhand bookstores, and comic cafes will also choose to buy them, so that customers can read the whole thing in their stores."

"So, when the second printing comes out, our new book will have to compete with cheaper used books. Even if the same used book has been circulated on the market many times, we still won't earn royalties," Keiko Kaji said.

“From this perspective, the higher the initial seal, the better…” Ken Sakamoto thought Keiko Kaji’s words made a lot of sense.

"Of course, a larger first print run is better for Sakamoto-sensei's royalties," Kaji Keiko said. "For the first print run, we pay royalties based on the number of print runs. For subsequent print runs, we pay based on the sales figures for each quarter, which means the payment cycle is quite long."

So there's a difference in royalties? Ken Sakamoto had never published a single volume before, so he had no idea about these things.

When editor Kaji raised the issue of medieval books, he also felt deeply about it.

After all, when he buys books, unless they are newly published works, he usually buys used books because new books are too expensive.

Moreover, the price is the same whether you sell a new book to a used bookstore after reading it or sell a used book to a bookstore after reading it.

There's no difference between second-hand, third-hand, and fourth-hand...

Keiko Kaji said, "Regarding the first printing, all I can do is try my best to persuade them with data and works."

Ken Sakamoto asked, "So, editor-in-chief, what do you think would be a suitable initial print run for our first volume?"

Keiko Kaji opened her palms and said, "At least fifty thousand, I hope to negotiate to sixty thousand, or even more."

"If the first print run is 50,000 copies, I'll get about 2 million yen?" Ken Sakamoto gave a simple estimate. "Haha, Mr. Sakamoto does need a lot of money. It's about what you expected, around 2.3 million yen," Keiko Kaji said.

This amount is roughly the same as the manuscript fee that will arrive this month, bringing the total income to nearly 500 million.

He doesn't need to pay his assistants a salary; that's pure income.

From this perspective, that debt doesn't seem like a problem anymore.

After all, we've already negotiated with the other party through a lawyer, and we'll repay the money after I graduate from university in four years. It will be easy to repay the money then.

As long as he has money in his pocket, and his expected royalties are increasing, even if a wealthy reader puts a pile of cash in front of him, it won't be very attractive to him.

"So, how much will the business department reduce the initial print run to?" Ken Sakamoto asked.

When asked about the sales department, Keiko Kaji sighed and said, "Unless a work is a huge hit, they always set the first print run at 3 copies."

"It's precisely because we are Shueisha that we are able to print as few as 10,000 or even a few thousand copies. If we were a small publishing house, the first print run could be limited to only a few bookstores in the three major metropolitan areas." Keiko Kaji held up three fingers and said, "Thirty thousand copies is the basic requirement for bookstores nationwide. Only with this print run can we ensure that most bookstores have at least one copy on their shelves."

“I see… I’ll have to leave the first print run to the editor.” Sakamoto Ken said very seriously.

"Not at all. As an editor, my job is to help authors sell more books."

Keiko Kaji suddenly remembered something else and continued, "For Sakamoto-sensei, Chainsaw Man is just the beginning. I think we can prepare for the publication of 'Looking Back' for you soon."

"It will probably take another two weeks for the review results to be available," Ken Sakamoto said.

“Haven’t you been looking at the reviewers’ website lately?” Keiko Kaji said. “Looking Back, it’s already in the top three in terms of reviews, and that’s because the other two books were submitted much earlier than yours. I think you’re going to take the top spot in the next couple of days.”

"Really? I haven't seen it." Sakamoto Ken was a little surprised. He hadn't checked it after uploading the work.

Keiko Kaji said, "Sakamoto-sensei has a great attitude. Some authors keep looking at the data of their works, thinking about it all the time, and can't even sleep well."

"Anyway, the manuscript is already finalized, and constantly checking it won't change the outcome," Sakamoto Ken said with a shrug.

Keiko Kaji had already finished organizing the manuscript and materials and stood up.

"Sakamoto-sensei, I have to go back to the office. I still have to work overtime tonight to compile various data, and then create the PowerPoint presentation for the meeting over the weekend, and then next Monday..." Kaji Keiko clenched her fists and gritted her teeth as she said, "The meeting to determine the print run is like a war for us editors..."

"Then, Editor-san, you must win this war for me!"

"must!"

Kajieko gave Sakamoto Ken an OK sign, then quickly went to the entrance to change her shoes, and pushed open the door to go out carrying a bag full of bags.

Ken Sakamoto watched her walk into the stairwell, close the door, and return to his desk.

Thinking back to what Editor Jiazhi just mentioned about "Looking Back Suddenly," he actually didn't care about online reviews, since it was a copy of a later work and he wouldn't change it even if there were negative reviews.

But since I remembered it, I might as well take a look.

Ken Sakamoto picked up his phone and clicked on the call for submissions page in his bookmarks.

(End of this chapter)