First of all, I'd like to apologize for being such a quiet administrator and not being able to answer all of the questions sent my way.  Everyone at Go! these days has multiple responsibilities, so we don't get much free time just to be friendly and welcoming anymore. 

Second of all, I didn't want to sit around any longer waiting for some sort of definitive news before giving you an update of SOME sort.  It's been way, way too long for me to wait any longer!  

Go! Comi is riding out a pretty tough storm in the publishing industry right now due to a combination of economic downturn and digital theft, both of which have had a devastating effect on even the biggest publishing companies.  A lot of small-to-medium publishers (we fit into medium, at this point) have had to scale back their operations, let employees go, double up workloads, and put many of their books on hiatus or cancel them entirely.  It would not be unreasonable to assume Go! has had to do some of these things itself, though I can't get into specifics there.  :-X  

Our online store continues to be a barometer of what is currently available and what has yet to come out (and therefore is either experiencing a delay in production or has been temporarily put on hiatus with hopes of a later publication date).  If it is available on our store, it is available in regular stores.  If it is not, either it has not yet left the printers or it is on hold.  Titles that were due six months ago but are not out yet are most likely on hold.  Since licensing manga is currently an unpredictable business, what is on hold today might literally go into production tomorrow, so it's not possible for us to give you an accurate prediction of when late titles will become available.  However, I wanted to let you know that Go! staff members are working their butts off to try and get you these titles, as each and every one is precious to the staff or else they would never have licensed them in the first place!

As for older and completed series, it is customary for retailers to stop ordering and shelving manga series after they have been completed, so if you have been thinking of getting any series that is complete, I strongly recommend buying it while it is still available.  Our online store is a good barometer for this as well; when a book goes out of stock on our store, that usually means there are very few or no copies of it left to sell, and that book will not be getting a reprint.  Retailers may still have copies left, but once those are snatched up, the book is gone forever.

(This is NOT the case for 07-GHOST, by the way.  We keep running out of stock and having to wait for new shipments of it from the printers, so that one is available only sporadically due to popularity.)

Now, on to the website and online community.  It's expensive to run the site, but ways have been found to keep it alive during these tough times so far.  We are looking at the possibility of scaling it back, however, or eventually shutting it down until the economy picks up again.    IF WE DO THAT, WE WILL GIVE YOU ADVANCED WARNING!  Don't worry, we will absolutely give you time to say goodbye to friends, exchange emails, and so on before turning off the community side of the website, if it comes to that.  But hopefully it won't, because we know it really, really sucks to break up a group as friendly and devoted as you guys are!  

As a final note on this "not really news but at least you know we're still alive now!" update, please stop by our store to buy books directly from us if you cannot find them at a local retailer.  We still want to encourage you to get them from a retailer first, because that benefits more people than just us, but if you can't, the advantage of buying directly from us is that it helps us to maintain this website.  

(Also, when we screw up an order, which sometimes happens when your staff is small, we make up for it in big ways, like emailing discount codes or sending free books to make up for it!) 

Take care, everyone, and keep enjoying the community!  Hopefully I will be able to come around more often and participate in more ways than just cleaning up the spammers and maintaining a safe environment for everyone to participate in!

-Your Friendly Neighborhood Administrator

thanxxs for the update

im rooting for go comi !

So many of our fans can't use credit cards, we wish we had an alternative.  Last time we looked into money orders, it didn't seem viable, but I'll ask about looking into it again.  We also wish we could just do SMS (payments by cell phone, where they just charge the phone bill), but the fees on that are ridiculous.  For example, if you bought a 99 cent song from iTunes through a cell phone, iTunes would make NO money -- the whole 99 cents would cover the cell phone fee only.  Crazy.

Happy to here that you are still around, and just having set backs because of the economy.  I am just glad that you are still publishing books.  I don't mind if things get pushed back a few months as long as I know eventually I will be able to get the series and read it.

I used to be more impatient for wanting the next release right away but I have learned it is better to wait instead of not getting the books at all.  

So I am sorry that you have having problems, but happy that you are still around.  Hopefully 2010 things will start to turn around for the economy and you will be able to get back on track by 2011.  

Thanks for your series.  My favorites After school nightmare and Tenshi Ja Nai are done but I am enjoying Ultimate Venus and Three in Love.  I have I think all of the other series I just have to read book one

 My wish is that you had said something sooner. It's been rumored all over and I'm glad to finally hear it from you. 

You all are just the greatest . I hope things turn around and fast. I've been buying from you for a long time and will continue to support you. Thanks for bringing out all the great manga that you have and will look forward to a future with Go!Comi in it.  Best to you all.

Thanks for an update! I ordered a crapton of manga from your store a while back, btw. Hope Bound Beauty vol. 4 comes out in the near future... :)

*facial tic*

I was afraid of this. The little manga publishers always get shouldered out by the big names i.e. Tokyopop and Viz especially when the economy gets bad. I'm still feeling the hole that Studio Ironcat left when they went down. They were great people too! I miss my Vampire Princess Miyu. Sad thing is that they often get really good titles that the large companies ignore.

Good luck you guys! I'm pulling for you! Yen Press had their little down period for a while but they're doing ok again.