"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