Common misconceptions about Comic Market
Japanese blog Fanta-G had a pretty good post about the common misconceptions about Comic Market so I stole it!
1. Doujin is mostly about porn
Only 30% of the circles or so in Comiket deal in adult material
2. Doujin circles sell low quality books and make a huge profit
It varies depending on when you’re printing and the number of pages, but it costs 40,000 yen to 50,000 yen (US$400 to US$500) to print 100 copies of a 32 page book with a full colour cover. And since each book is usually sold for 500 yen or thereabouts, there isn’t much profits to be made. And after you deduct the cost of participating in the event and the transportation costs, you’re looking at a huge loss of money instead. Mainly only a handful of the more popular circles + a few others can actually turn a profit.
3. Copy books are made in small quantities to drive the price up
Copy books mainly have to be photocopied, folded and binded by hand. And there aren’t any discounts when trying to photocopy large amounts unlike offset books. It takes a lot of work to make them and they don’t have much in profits. Copy books are usually last minute stuff made after the printers’ deadlines so there isn’t much time to make them either, which is why there are so little of them.
4. Popular circles get special treatment being put on the wall sides
It’s not exactly special treatment but rather special measures in order to keep the inside hall from getting overcrowded and blocking the flow of the crowd. If a popular circle is placed in the islands the queues will completely block the pathways and become a huge mess. Also, if the circle on the wall doesn’t actually have much of a queue, they get moved back into the islands in the next comiket.
5. Popular circles sell tens of thousands of books every comiket
The event lasts for 6 hours, and if one person sells 1 book every 30 seconds and 3 people go at the same pace without stopping, the limit is still approximately 3000 books. There is also a limit to the amount of books that a circle can bring into their space.
6. These big circles seem to be handling wads of cash though?
They’re mostly 1000 yen (US$10) notes and small coins, best to look at them as one tenth of the amount that you see.
7. These books sell as long as they’re doing popular genres
When doing popular genres, it also means that a lot of talented people will be doing the same genre so if the book isn’t really eye catching it gets overlooked by people most of the time. On the other hand there are cases where doing those minor genres that are popular within certain groups of people can get a number of loyal fans and actually sell better than others.
8. The comiket administration allows overnight queuing
Overnight queuing is not allowed. People shouldn’t do it. The overnight guys managing the overnight queuing guys have nothing to do with the comiket administration. There have actually been concerns that if these guys get out of hand, comiket itself might no longer be able to be held at Ariake.
9. Can I go to the event in costume?
You’re not allowed to go to the event in costume, you have to register to be able to cosplay, and you’re only allowed to change in the changing room. There are a bunch of rules regarding cosplay in the catalogue.
10. Whatever, it’s still about making money right?
If it’s just about the money there won’t be 30,000 circles squeezing into that place to make money in such an inefficient way!
Via: Fanta-G
