Thanks to the anonymous poster on my last post I was pointed to an interesting post where Jason DeAngelis had this to say:

Of late, there’ve been unconfirmed reports about the financial health of the company. According to DeAngelis, who’s now the President of Seven Seas, “First off, there seem to have been rumours started about our financial health by an angry blogger in the UK who has it in for us. Please don’t place too much credence in his ranting’s, which are not based on fact. For whatever reason, he doesn’t like our company, and has been trolling the boards berating us every chance he gets and spreading misinformation.

“In the meantime, we’re still publishing titles each month, from licensed manga to OEL to YA novels,” he continued. “Our big upcoming title that we’re really excited about is the Tor/Seven Seas release of the Afro Samurai manga, in September.

I nearly bust a gut laughing over this, hurt my ribs again >.<

Now, where did the financial trouble rumours come from? Three guesses, was it me? Nope. Was it another blogger? Nope. Was it the SSE forum? DING DING DING WE HAVE A WINNER!!

Yup, the original was over on the Seven Seas Forum and it said this:

Richard J:-

I’ve recently read some things that disturb me about Seven Seas’ financial situation. Maybe the retailer’s opinion is wrong but I trust the instincts of people who are in a position to know far more about the fiscal stability of companies than I am.

With all the problems that seem to have come out of the shift to a different distributor, a number of cancellations and numerous long waits for new volumes of various series, I have become extremely concerned about the health of Seven Seas.

Clearly something is wrong and I would like to know if it’s just a temporary situation or if Seven Seas is going under. I don’t really expect an answer that’s jam packed with facts and figures, I just want to know when you expect to finally have the distribution problems worked out and if you plan to still be around next year. Right now, not only your customers but your friendly neighbourhood retailers are starting to worry.

I’d really hate to find out I’ve wasted my money on series that won’t even be completed.

After reading this, both myself and a load of other people tried to get some sort of answer. All we ever got was a ‘no comment’ or a variant. In the end we went with what we had, the rumour (and stated it was a rumour) and the fact that SSE were stonewalling.

Next he accuse me of trolling. Now, hell I’m the first to admit I can go OTT when I get passionate about something. I’m a typical red blooded guy after all. However I always try and keep my trolling to a bare minimum, in other words none. I don’t troll forums, that’s what I have a blog for I can rant and rave here as much as I like :p So lets go look at what I posted on the SSE forum shall we:

1. My first post : The anime isn’t bad, but it’s weak when compared to the manga. They changed to much, just like they did with SP. In this post I talk about the difference between the manga and anime of Kashimashi. Yup, supper troll there!!
2. My next post is asking what happened to Kashimashi vols 1 and 2, and I thought I was being polite:- I’ve been trying to buy volumes 2 and 3 for near 2 months now, and no where has it. They all say the same thing, out of print at the publishers. Amazon.com takes my money, then a week later refunds it saying out of stock, so do all the market place sellers. My local stores can’t get it either.
3. Next post is a short post on Light Novels:- light novels were initially released in magazines a few chapters at a time. Think Shonen Jump or Shojo Jump, but with chapters of novels rather than stories. And then later released in volumes, which are usually the same size (roughly) as the manga, and interspersed with illustrations.
4. Next I gave a recommendations on where to buy in the UK, after another UK resident asked where to go:- If you’re in the UK I highly recommend that you use the Book Depository for all manga purchases. They’re the cheapest supplier in the UK, even more so since they don’t charge for posting. And since they have a branch in the US as well, they’re very quick at getting new releases. Usually I get my stuff within a few days, a week at the most if it comes from the US. for example I got Strawberry Panic Vol1 for £4.49, instead of the usual £6.99, got it the day after I ordered, and had free delivery
5. Next I tell of my Right Stuff misadventure:- Also make sure your ordering the right one Volume 1 of the manga was released mid February, but volume 1 of the light novel isn’t out till march. Both are simply called Strawberry Panic Volume 01 as well, so confusion can result. Check the ISBN numbers. That said, RS are notorious for screwing up just about every order they process >.< I’ve only used them once, and for some reason my $150 order some cost me $1500. Got an instant refund, but meh, first and last time I ever used them.
6. I recommend Amazon:-  I suggest you go to another site then, since EVERY other one I just checked have it in stock and ready to ship. However remember that SS have moved distributors, which could be why TRS has run out of stock as well. Best bet is to use amazon or something
7. And today’s post, the only one that could possible pass for trolling….at a push:- Love to, except 99% of the titles are out of print. If these titles haven’t sold well enough to break even, where’s all this extra stock, and why isn’t in the hands of the shops who want to sell it, and on the way to fans who want to buy?

See all seven of my posts by doing a search for my username on the SSE forum

As for my ranting’s, well this is a blog Also, when ever I make a post about a publisher (including this one) I send a copy to the publisher and invite them to respond. If I’m wrong about something I pull it and change it. I’ve already done this twice on SSE posts when they used to reply. Since they no longer reply pointing out where I may be wrong, it’s tough shit, I post and leave it up. I give them the same chances I give every other publisher I write about and they choose not to reply so they’ve lost the right to bitch about it.

Also, unlike DeAngelis I take info direct from the horses mouth, in other words either from the staff directly or their forums. However I ALWAYS offer them a chance to say my post is wrong. I do it for every publisher I’ve written about. Whether it was Tokyopop, Viz, Tanoshimi or Yen Press, ALL were written to and told the post was coming and asked for comments. If they don’t reply they lose the right to bitch.

Finally, good ol’ Jason going on about all their up coming releases. This is great, release away, problem is fans aren’t going to be buying it in the droves they’re (SSE) seem to be expecting. For all their up coming releases there’s still a huge surplus of old orders yet to be filled. Almost all of their Yuri line is out of print, and this is a line that has apparently failed to sell out. So as I said in today’s post on their forums:

(quote=”Richard J.”)Well folks, if you like the Strawberry line, you need to start getting other people to buy it fast.  Raise awareness of the titles on line and in public!(/quote)

Love to, except 99% of the titles are out of print. If these titles haven’t sold well enough to break even, where’s all this extra stock, and why isn’t in the hands of the shops who want to sell it, and on the way to fans who want to buy?

And I’ve still to get a good answer for this. If none of these titles have broken even where is all the excess stock? Okay I’ll accept some may have been lost in the distributor move, but lets face it, thousands of books don’t go missing.

Do I have it in for Seven Seas, oddly in a way, no I don’t. As I’ve said in my reviews of the few titles I’ve been able to get, their work is superb. At one point I was as gung ho about them as I am about Yen Press.

So what happened? Simply put, SSE stopped caring about the fans. Can they recover? Hell yes!! It’s never to late to do a turn around. They just need to realise that fans won’t buy volume 5 of a series they can’t get volumes 1-4 of. Nor will shops carry titles from a publisher that never has stock. Manga is given limited shelf space, and getting on that shelf space is a fight to the death. Sadly because of SSE practices they’ve lost the battle before it even begins.