We asked three retailers about their experiences with webtoon properties: Jennifer King, owner/manager of Space Cadets Collection Collection in Shenandoah, TX; Shannon Live, President/Owner of Bat City Comic Professionals in Bradenton, FL; and Sam Lee, Assistant Manager of Comicopia in Boston, MA.

Which sorts of webtoon-based books are the most popular in your store?
Jen King: We sell so many Lore Olympus that we have a permanently located spot for them right inside the front entrance. I'd say romance has the biggest following, because recently people have been picking up Mafia Nanny as well.

Shannon Live: Lore Olympus, Solo Leveling, and Jeff the Land Shark are all different formats when they hit the shelves: Traditional graphic novel, manga-style, and single issue. So, in terms of actual format, it's hard to say. I'm definitely going to sell a ton of copies of a $4.99 Jeff the Land Shark to kids, teens, and adults, so that's going to have a great number in terms of volume sold, but I think that overall what sells the best for us are webtoons that target our strongest webtoon shopper demographic no matter the genre or format.

Sam Lee: The most successful genre by far are the gay/yaoi titles such as On or Off and, more recently, Semantic Error and Wet Sand. We have two bookcases for yaoi/yuri/LGBT manga (as well as manhwa and manhua now) and there is a dedicated fanbase that wishes to support authors whose works they've read online. The next most popular ones are the action/adventure (most similar to battle shonen) like Solo Leveling and I'm the Grim Reaper, which mimics general manga and anime trends, and the DC x Webtoon ones (in particular Batman: Wayne Family Adventures). I've noticed that many customers will come in and recognize a lot of the romance titles like Business Proposal and What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, but the price, while justified for the quality of the paper and the full color, deters them. I believe the DC ones do well particularly because it has a fanbase and audience that are used to paying for full color trades.

Are there particular titles that do really well?
Jen King: Heartstopper and Lore Olympus are standout favorites.

Shannon Live: We see a lot of success with the big names, Lore Olympus, Solo Leveling, and DC titles (especially Wayne Family Adventures), but we are starting to hear more and more requests for titles out of the blue that customers have discovered recently and want to know if there's a way to add them to our inventory. It's really interesting to hear the term webtoon become such a common phrase, and I love that the readers are so excited to get them in print format as well.

How about publishers - Ize Press, Wattpad/Webtoon, Rocketship - do any of these have a noticeable presence on your shelves?
Jen King: I'll be frankly honest about my naivety about webtoons. They are something I've just discovered a few years ago through customers asking after titles like Lore Olympus. I also read quite a few while judging for the Eisners, and also recently, publishers have been handing me/ sending me comp copies, which I have read and helped me make decisions about carrying them. It's how I discovered my favorite, Deeply Dave (see “ICv2 Interview: Creative Director Kirk Benshoff on Designing a Vertical-Scroll Book”). It's amazing. So, this is to say that my shop is just a fledgling webtoon carrier and we are expanding the line as we find ones that stand out/ are requested.  

Shannon Live: All of these have a presence in our store at the moment. We actually have a display table between our Young Adult graphic and Manga sections that features webtoons on it, making it easy for people to find the fan-favorites and maybe some they haven't heard of.

Sam Lee: We have a dedicated Manhwa bookcase and a separate Webtoons (non-Korean) section. IZE, Wattpad/Webtoon, and Seven Seas are the biggest publishers on these shelves.

Are you seeing a range of different customers buying webtoon titles, or is it one particular group of fans?
Jen King: It feels like for Lore Olympus, its everyone. For the rest, it definitely is older high school and college age buyers. It feels like it sways toward more female buyers, but that could be observational bias (just who buys them while I'm selling them).

Shannon Live: There's a pretty decent range of people that pick up webtoon titles, but the largest group that we are seeing asking for them at the moment is the late teen to early twenties crowd. A lot of that college-aged reader. They seem to be the ones that know the titles and have favorites coming into the shop, whereas some of the other readers discover them more from being here and seeing recommendations or displays highlighting them.

Sam Lee: Yaoi readers are our most noticeable customer group, followed by Shonen readers, DC fans, and a small population of the romantasy fans. While only some titles sell consistently in the store, we sell a larger variety of titles at Anime Boston. Again, I think this is tied to the higher price tag of the books; at the convention, people often have saved up to buy certain titles and are prepared.

Do you think customers are aware that these books are webtoons, or are they simply buying more of what they like?
Jen King: Most of them are really hooked into that culture and watch a ton of them. Even though they have watched all of the episodes, they want the books as well. I think that is super cool. 

Shannon Live: There's definitely an awareness of them overall. Right now I think the one that we are seeing the most wide range of people come in and ask for is Wayne Family Adventures. There's a lot of buzz around it and the Bat Family in general right now, which I think is leading to more people discovering it online when they are searching for more titles they would enjoy. We're also hearing from a lot of our college-aged readers that there's a lot of chatter on Discord channels about it, which is helping to drive some of the new readers to stores to find it. However, our younger readers picking up things like Jeff the Land Shark have no idea that it was a digital comic first, they just really want the book because they think Jeff is cute or they played Marvel Rivals and they know the character now. 

Sam Lee: Because of the nature of how we shelve these books, yes. Although webtoons are mixed in with Japanese yaoi, customers for yaoi are usually buying comics they have already read on sites like Lezhin and usually know what they are getting.

Have there been any particular promotions that have worked well for these books?
Jen King: We just post reviews about them when we read them. I think that personal connection is better than any "buy one, get one" incentive.

Sam Lee: We have series binge deals (4+ in a series gets 10% off, 8+ gets 15% off, 12+ gets 20%) which occasionally will get people buying more volumes, but customers tend to stick to the volumes they want since the price tag is higher than the average manga.

What do you think publishers could do to help you sell them?
Jen King: Keep sending those galley comps. Seriously. It is everything in terms of getting it attention and sales. 

Shannon Live: I think something that would really draw even more customers to buy the print version of these books would be bonus features or special editions. When someone already has access to the story, it helps to make them want to pick up a physical version if there's something unique that they can't get with their web version. Things like sprayed edges, back matter interviews or extra pages, even a nice built in bookmark really go a long way to really get a customer excited to keep picking it up in other formats.

Sam Lee: There are often different versions of many romance webtoons based on age ratings and even different sites will have different mature versions (i.e. 18+ versions will still have different levels of censorship). With Wet Sand it was a big seller that it was completely uncensored! If more of these versions were published or if the information was given to retailers with solicitations, it would really help with how we market/influence our orders.

Are there any types of books you'd like to see more of?
Jen King: Because I love Deeply Dave, I'd love more that live in that sci-fi, off-beat space. I do love a good romance, will they won’t they, tale, so I guess more like Mafia Nanny (some action and butt kicking along with the "she shouldn't fall for him, but clearly that's also what we want to happen" space). 

Shannon Live: My answer to every publisher every time is romance. There is such a HUGE market for romance, rom-com, romantasy, etc in the traditional prose and the manga markets right now, that it is surprising how few we have in American comics and graphic novels. I get asked daily for options like that in our store, and yet we don't see it coming out. With so many webtoons, I know there have to be some successful properties that could make the transition from digital to print, and I would love to be able to stock them. If I could build an entire romance section with new titles in my shop that would be amazing!

Sam Lee: Many of the straight romances that have been published aren't as steamy (maybe rated 14+ at the highest) and I wonder if this genre would do more similar sales to yaoi if steamier titles got published. Lesbian/yuri titles might also do well, although I am not as tuned in to what is being released.

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