Rocketship Entertainment has been publishing webtoons in print since its founding in 2019, one of the first publishers to do so. Rocketship has crowdfunded most of its titles, including LeeAnn Kresic’s bestselling Let’s Play. ICv2 spoke with CEO and Publisher Tom Akel about webtoon trends, the continued popularity of romance and “romance,” and what’s next for Rocketship.
Rocketship has been publishing webtoons for five years now, what trends have you seen?
The biggest trend I’ve seen is more players entering this space printing webtoons. Since Rocketship entered in 2019, we’ve had Penguin Random House enter, Oni enter, Skybound now publishes webcomics, Yen Press has a print series around it, and of course Webtoon has started its own print series. let’s play I knew there would be much more competition and understanding of how successful digital comics could be as print, and an understanding that people don’t just want to read them on their phones.
What about the number of creators? Has it increased or stayed the same?
Industry-wise, it feels like things have leveled out a bit, but we still get a steady stream of submissions from creators, many of which are featured in the UGC sections of Webtoon and Tapas.
Love Webtoon Canvas?
Yeah, and there are still hot creators and original creators. It’s not over. But industry-wise, it feels like the curve is starting to slow down as a trend in the webtoon industry and the market as a whole. I know there are a lot of numbers out there about profits and IPOs and stuff, but it just doesn’t seem like the creator craze that was there five years ago is in the same way today.
In terms of sales, there have been some very successful titles such as: Lore Olympus, But once you get beyond that top level, what does it look like? Are there a few bestsellers and everything else further down, or is there something in-between? Is it top-heavy?
The short answer is, yes, it’s top-heavy. We look at the BookScan numbers of all the publishers that publish webtoons. Our BookScan numbers can be pretty misleading because we do a lot of crowdfunding. We can look at the crowdfunding numbers to see what’s working, but like everything else, it’s top-heavy. We’re top-heavy on our platform, so it makes sense that we’d be top-heavy elsewhere too.
I think it’s no different to Netflix, Amazon, Apple, or any other print publisher. the walking dead and Saga and Spawn, And BOOM! Something is killing our children and past and future and Power Ranger. Everyone has their hits, so I think it has a rhythm like any other form of entertainment.
That’s natural, because that’s how the publishing industry works, but with webtoons it’s just more pronounced because all the numbers are public.
But if a comic gets 10 million page views, it might sell 2,000 print copies. It’s not a 1:1 ratio. Lore Olympus is a notable exception. It was so influential on the zeitgeist. And let’s play For us, True Beauty Webtoon Unscrolled, and contract We’ve had great success with Oni, but we don’t see a lot of results. We’ve had some really great results.
Do you think bestsellers support books with smaller followings?
The title has a lot of crossover appeal. On the Rocketship side, let’s play and cry, It was named a YALSA Best Book for Teens and is a very good work in its own right.
Do you think fans follow creators or do you think they follow genres?
Fans definitely follow their favorite creators, so yes. People tend to become fans of titles. I also watch shows on different streamers. I’m not necessarily loyal to a publisher or platform. It’s all about the content.
One trend we’ve seen in webtoons is the popularity of romance and “romanticism.” Is this trend here to stay?
Romance remains strong for us. Our most successful titles are let’s play, That’s where our initial fanbase came from. You can easily see that when you cross-market titles: you wouldn’t see the sales numbers that you’re seeing with those titles unless the demand was very high. I mean, there’s obviously very high demand.
What kind of books do you think comic stores should stock? What do you think will be popular?
we, let’s play They announced an animated series at New York Comic Con last year that will be available at retailers, and they’re planning on announcing another animated series next year, so they’re clearly on a roll. contract Oni is really good and is doing really well
Speaking with ComicsPRO retailers, most retailers carry Heart stopper. So if they Heart Stopper, The next question is, “Will it sell?” If you have that customer in your store or are trying to reach that customer, and it’s a book you want to have on your shelf and sell, I would go through a list of romance titles from all publishers that retailers should really look at. It’s a case by case basis. What works for you as a retailer?
What’s next for Rocketship?
I kickstarted cinnamon roll It was published earlier this year. It’s an original romance series and we’re currently working on a hardcover edition. We’re in the middle of our first campaign. Witch Creek Road Omnibus has been a huge success as a horror webtoon. We plan to release the first volume in paperback later this year, followed by the omnibus. Apocalyptic mayhem. And many more It disappeared This year we have a number of second and third volumes of works that are already doing well.
Sanford Green’s Webtoons 1000, It won an Apple Award for Best Webcomic in 2018 and will be available on Zoop in July, where retailers can sell it directly to their current readers. DoomBooks that are sold out everywhere, and Bitterroot, And everything else Sanford has done over the years.
I would say that in all our businesses there is a hierarchy of retailers. [crowdfunding] campaigns (see “Rocketship Adds Retailer Tier to Every Kickstarter”).
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