So no online sales rankings yet. Yep. Sorry; working on it.

What’s up?

Have I complained recently about Amazon? No?

First, let me just point out that Amazon uses a flexible system of keywords derived from publisher-provided info, along with previous customer search criteria (apparently; though this is just a guess on my part) instead of a rigid category heirarchy. This system works very well in theory — a single item, or series, or the total output of an author with a number of items (some/most of which are in a particular subject) should all come up in generic, general searches, so long as they are at least incidentally related to a given topic — ideally presenting the customer with options she may not have thought of but which apply at least in part to the keyword(s) she’s currently using.

Like the elastic on a 13-year-old pair of sweat pants, which are now carrying a load much heavier than what they were initial intended for, what was ‘flexibility’ in the original design has become much less elastic, and the waistband may even be separating from the rest of the pants. er, site.

That is to say, Amazon ‘broke’ last week.

Right now (and presumably for some time to come) a ‘manga’ search on Amazon returns a number of business, fiction, and self-help titles that, to say the least, aren’t manga. As near as I can figure, somehow Amazon has gotten into it’s scrambled electronic head that if an author’s first name is “Ken,” then any of Ken’s books must be manga. Specifically, shonen manga. I have absolutely no frickin’ idea why Amazon may have suddenly come to this conclusion, particularly since for the life of me I can’t think of a single manga with Ken in the title, though there may be a manga-ka (or several dozen) with that name — starting with Akamatsu and working our way down. (Or up, depending on your opinion of Hina and Negima)

My ability to link to searches on ANN isn’t meant as an explanation or an excuse: Amazon dropped the soap on this one. There is *no* excuse for not knowing if a book is really a comic or not. (or freakin’ Japanese for that matter.) I’ve overlooked (though also duly noted) Amazon’s mistakes in the past, but this goes past a typo-level-mistake into the realm of gross negligence.

To be fair, direct title searches still work fine. A determined customer can find what they need; it’s only the casual browser of a sub-sub-category that is affected by this particular glitch.

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One error is understandably human. Two errors is a sign of negligence, and perhaps a point we should look at correcting. Not even knowing what a book is… and I have to ask you to pass the blunt, that’s some premium shit you’ve got there and if *I* have to deal with your new, messed up version of reality, then I can’t quite take it stone cold sober.

[those without a stomach for heavy sarcasm should skip the next 5 paragraphs]

I know manga fans also like the anime. Gods know I am guilty guilty guilty of that particular predilection myself. But that doesn’t quite excuse the current state of the “comic” “books” bestseller list at the moment.

Amazon, it’s great you guys also sell videos for download. A number of us are aware of your “Unbox” service (and the limitations you put on said downloads, and DRM and proprietary video players, and all kinds of crap you are trying to pass off as new technology and ‘features’ rather than restricted and half-assed access to media that you’re charging real, ramen-buying money for, and a number of other things which I’ll likely cover when I finally get around to the fansub op-ed post).

…And videos are great and all…

But if I’m clicking a link marked ‘books’, and were indeed looking for ‘bestselling’ ‘books’ very much like a customer who sought to buy one of these mythical books might — perhaps because I’d heard of them in rumours on the street but knew they’d have to be purchased online because there is no way an item as fine as ‘books’ would be available through normal retail channels — [*throaty chuckle*] I mean, for such a new media there’s no way anyone has thought to open a ‘book’ store yet, let alone a dedicated ‘comics’ shop, perish the thought –

Oh, look. Even though I wanted books, all I can find are videos. Alas. It’s a right shame that there isn’t a dedicated industry for the production, distribution, and sale of books. A physical object made of paper and ink is still just a pipe dream, beyond current means of technological production. Maybe I’ll see if some digital version is available via free, illegal download.

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I’ve said it before: Amazon doesn’t sell books. They sell stuff. There is a difference, and it looks like they’ve finally forgotten (abandoned?) their roots as an online bookseller. Sure, it’s a small category (Manga is only a $210M business, after all) but as an online bookseller the whole point is to use the easily scalable-and-expandable capabilities of a web site to serve smaller markets forgotten by the major chains. Except, of course, the major chains are on graphic novels & manga like a half-starved chihuahua on a box of milkbones so the inexplicable drop (dropping the ball twice in the same week) makes the minor blip even more inexcusable.

If only there were some obsessed fan-boy who would write you sternly worded emails pointing up your deficiencies… I mean, other than myself. I sent Amazon that email this past Saturday.

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On top of Amazon’s catastrophic failures this past week, Borders finally went past beta into ‘inaccessible’ — one hopes the beta site is off-the-market because they’re preparing the real deal to launch soon. Borders.com still points to Amazon, though, while the beta.bordersstores.com merely loads up a placeholder.

Comparing Borders to a similarly sized competitor (yeah, that’d be B&N) then a theoretical, well-integrated online component would be able to generate sales to match a tenth of their brick-and-mortar dollars:

…that’s about $370 million a year, given Border’s 2007 sales of $3.77 billion — or roughly One Million Dollars a Day.

I don’t know what the commissions from Amazon are paying, but *if only* to build my own brand, I’d want those million dollar days for my own company. Just sayin’.

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Unfortunately, this online mess has not only delayed my weekly sales rankings but also distracted me from that 2007-year-in-review-bit that I’ve been writing for the past month — else I’d be able to post additional tasty chunks of corporate sales data today.

Honestly, I’ve been working on it.

Now, though, I have to figure out some work-around for the lack of data for this past week (given that a third of my expected input for last week just isn’t available) and a way to deal with the new status quo at Amazon.

I’ll try to get some sort of temp/provisional sales chart up by Wednesday.
And 2007 is 4 1/2 months dead and not getting any fresher — but I’ve got 2/3 of that post in the can; once the present ‘emergency’ is dealt with the remainder of the review post is next on my list.

Oh yeah, and this week’s new releases. Hm. Well, maybe I can get up early tomorrow morning before work…