It takes a little while for the Bookscan results to come in, but since I'm not rich enough to subscribe to the entire Bookscan list, I do the next best thing and subscribe to The Book Standard web magazine so that I can get the Bookscan top 15 for comics and graphic novels every week. The top 15 isn't nearly enough for me. When I was Editor-in-Chief at Viz, I used to receive the top 750 comic and graphic novel report. That one was nice! It really told you what was selling, but more importantly, what wasn't.

Still, getting the top 15 isn't so bad considering that some of my titles appear in it. The downside is that you sign an agreement that you will not reveal the information on the chart. I'm cheating just a little and revealing that something I worked on came in pretty high. Let's cheat a little more. A little less than two months ago, Tsubasa debuted on Bookscan at number 1, and stayed on the top 15 chart for a month. This week xxxHolic debuted on the chart at number 5, which is an excellent position for a seinen manga.

Don't get me wrong. I am in no way implying that my translation made it climb up to number 5 on the chart. Nobody buys a book because they like the translator. (Well, my Mom, maybe...) But what I feel like celebrating is that my translations didn't drag the work down! It may seem like a small victory, but for translators, those are the kind of victories that you savor!