In their May 18, 2011 newsletter, Digital Manga Publishing announced that their online manga website, eManga.com, will no longer have the option to “rent” manga – instead, every manga purchased remains in the user’s account forever.
The majority of the offerings on eManga consist of yaoi titles (manga with a focus on male homosexual relationships). There is some variety to the selection, though, with shojo titles like Nao Yazawa’s Mizuki, classic manga like Speed Racer and Vampire Hunter D, and a large collection of Harlequin manga available for purchase. eManga also offers samples for many of DMP’s print-only manga, along with free reads like Pop Japan Travel: Essential Otaku Guide.
Manga is purchased with eManga “points”, which can be bought in bulk for greater savings (example: $5.50 buys you 500 points, but $50 buys you 5,500 points). Taking a look at eManga.com, it does look like the point cost for books has gone up. Where many of the rentals had cost 200 to 300 points, it now costs somewhere between 350 and 499 points to own a digital book. This is still less than $5.00 per book, and considering that you get to keep the book forever, versus 90 days, this is a reasonable price jump.
Learn more about Digital Manga Publishing and eManga from digitalmanga.com and emanga.com.