Manga occupies its own section in most American bookstores, printed at a consistent size and read right to left. Each of those characteristics is the result of a decision made somewhere in the supply chain.
Licensing is title by title
An American publisher acquires rights to a specific series from its Japanese publisher, and the negotiation covers format, territory and timing rather than a whole catalog at once.
That is why a studio's or artist's work can be split across several English-language publishers, with no single company holding everything.
It also means a popular series can remain unavailable in English for years simply because no agreement has been reached, not because nobody wants it.
The format was standardized deliberately
Early English releases were sometimes flipped to read left to right, which reversed artwork and forced awkward retouching of every panel containing text or handedness.
Publishers moved to retaining the original orientation, which preserved the art, cut production cost, and required only a note explaining where to start.
Readers adapted quickly, and the unflipped format became standard. It is one of the few cases where the cheaper choice was also the more faithful one.
Bookstores shelve it as a category
American chains file manga together rather than distributing it through genre sections, which gives browsers a single destination and gives publishers a predictable shelf.
Because volumes are numbered and uniformly sized, a series occupies a visible block, and a reader who finishes one volume can find the next without help.
That physical arrangement supports long-run series far better than the general fiction shelf would, and it is a meaningful part of why the format sells in print.
Release pacing follows the source
Volumes are published in English at intervals set partly by the original Japanese schedule and partly by how quickly translation and lettering can be completed.
A series still running abroad will eventually see its English edition catch up, at which point the pace slows to match new material.
Digital simulpublishing of individual chapters has softened this, letting readers follow current chapters while the collected volumes continue at their own rate.
Print survived where other comics struggled
Manga's paperback format sits comfortably in bookstore and library systems that were never built around monthly floppy comics, giving it distribution most comics lacked.
Libraries in particular buy volumes for circulation, which introduces the format to readers who would not visit a specialty shop.
The result is a print category that has grown while much of the surrounding market moved to screens, largely because it fits an existing retail machine.