Brain Diving: The Ghost with the Most by Brain Ruh, _ANN_
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/brain-diving/2011-08-09
This time, though, instead of a fictional book about the supernatural I'm
going to be examining a nonfiction book about Japanese ghosts – Patrick
Drazen's A Gathering of Spirits: Japan's Ghost Story Tradition: From
Folklore and Kabuki to Anime and Manga, which was recently self-published
through the iUniverse service. This is Drazen's second book; the first one,
Anime Explosion! The What? Why? Wow! of Japanese Animation, came out in
2002 from Stone Bridge Press and was an introduction to many of the genres
and themes that can be found in anime.
I think the switch from a commercial press to self-publication may indicate
the direction English-language anime and manga scholarship may be heading in.
A few years ago, when Japanese popular culture seemed like the Next Big
Thing, there were more publishers that seemed like they were willing to take
a chance on books about anime and manga.
Unfortunately, as I know firsthand (and as I've heard from other authors,
confirming that it's not just me) these books didn't sell nearly as well as
anyone was hoping, which in turn meant that these publishers didn't want to
take risks with additional books along these lines. After all, all publishers
need to make money in one way or another to stay afloat. In the last few
years, the majority of books on anime and manga have been published by
university presses, perhaps most notably the University of Minnesota Press.
...However, this puts books like Drazen's in an odd predicament. It's not
really an academic book, since it lacks the references and theories something
like that would entail, which means it's not a good candidate for a
university press. However, since few popular presses have seen their books on
anime and manga reflect positively on their bottom lines, there aren't many
other options these days other than self-publishing. Of course, these days
publishing a book on your own doesn't have nearly the same connotations it
did decades ago, when vanity presses were the domain of those with more money
(and ego) than sense. These days you can self-publish a quality product, get
it up on Amazon for all to see, and (if you're savvy about these things)
perhaps even make a tidy profit.
--
gwern
http://www.gwern.net
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