Launched two years ago with plans to bring English translations of the best in contemporary Japanese literature to American readers, Vertical Publishing reports mixed success even as it looks to expand and tweak its publishing program.
The house, which is distributed by NBN, has published 17 titles and will publish 15 to 20 books next year. Micah Burch, marketing director at Vertical, told PW that despite "lots of good reviews and good press, we're still looking for better sales." In a visit to PW's office, Burch and Vertical publicist Anne Ishii outlined some of the house's problems and their efforts to address them.
Despite being a small house (a staff of five that includes Vertical president Hiroki Sakai), Ishii said, "we didn't act like a startup," pointing to a lavish advertising campaign, pricey hardcovers and cutting-edge book jackets by noted designer Chip Kidd. Now the house is doing some cost cutting, said Burch, and taking a closer look at the kind of fiction it publishes. Vertical's bestselling title is Buddha, an eight-volume hardcover reprint of Japanese manga master Osamu Tezuka's classic manga biography. The $25 hardcover won an Eisner, the comics industry's highest award, for the best U.S. publication of foreign material; it sold out its first printing of 10,000 copies and Vertical has gone back to press.
Koji Suzuki's The Ring, a horror story (and a U.S. motion picture), sold more than 15,000 copies. But Vertical's more literary titles, as well as TheGuin Saga by Kaoru Kurimoto, a bestselling fantasy series with 100 volumes (Vertical will publish only five), did not sell as well as expected.
Originally, Burch said, the house published "a little bit of everything." Now it plans to focus more on "general fiction, with some genre, horror, psychological thrillers and crime. We're not trying to be literary." With The Ring in mind, Burch said the house is on the lookout for titles with a U.S. movie hook, like the forthcoming thriller Naoko by Keigo Higasino, which is slated to be made into a film.
Burch said the house plans more paperback originals and more cost-conscious marketing, which will focus more on Web-based promotions ("fans of Japanese culture are all over the Web") and more in-store display (designed by Kidd). And more manga, including classic works like Buddha, Burch said.
As for its traditional prose list, this fall Vertical will publish seven new novels, among them Innocent World by Ami Sakurai, a look at teenage prostitution, and Zero over Berlin by Joh Sasaki. "We're getting great responses to the books," said Burch. "We've had a lot of trial and error, but we're confident all of this groundwork will pay off."
