After Gardena, California-based manga publisher Digital Manga Publishing announced their plans for crowd-sourced translation / adaptation of never-before-available-in-English manga via Digital Manga Guild in Fall 2010, they've been busy screening translators, editors and adapters. They've also been hard at work getting manga for these translator/adapter teams to work on. And now, they're ready to provide an update on their progress.
Last week, DMP sent out notice that they secured the rights to 487 titles for Digital Manga Guild, and added that "(this) number is expected to grow exponentially, as publishers have shown an increased interest within the past few weeks to be a part of DMG." They also added that they now have over 1,100 members in Digital Manga Guild who'll be taking on the challenge of adapting these titles, so they'll be available for readers worldwide to read and enjoy online via DMP's eManga website.
While it was great to hear that Digital Manga Guild secured so many manga titles to work on, they weren't ready to reveal the names of the Japanese publishers had agreed to work with them, nor any sample titles. However, they were ready to share a few additional details.
According to DMP marketing peeps Lanny Liu and Yoko Tanigaki, manga readers can probably expect to see the first titles from Digital Manga Guild to be released in mid-to-late Summer 2011. DMP is shooting to release up to 10-15 new titles per week, give or take a few, depending on the translation/localization teams' output.
According to Liu, the manga that DMG will be releasing will definitely be a mix of "old, classic, and new titles." Tanigaki broke down a rough estimate of the composition of the initial batch of titles:
- Less than 3% published between 1992-1999
- 47% published between 2000-2005
- 47% published between 2006-2010
- the remainder (less than 3%) are new and published 2011
Liu also revealed that translator/localizing groups are still being formed and agreements are still being drawn up and signed, but her guesstimate was that DMG currently has 40 or so groups formed, ranging in size from two to six people per team. Most of the teams are based in North America, but there are several from other parts of the world.
I guess you could say that DMG is kind of like a duck -- it's sailing along, but underneath the water, there's a whole lot of swimmin' going on. It should be interesting to see what happens when DMP is ready to release their first titles produced from this experiment in crowd-sourced comics, and whether it really will shake up the manga publishing business as much as DMP CEO Hikaru Sasahara hopes.
Interested in joining the Digital Manga Guild? Visit their website to learn more about how to qualify to take part in this very different approach to manga publishing.
Image credits: © Digital Manga Inc.
Comments
Not good. As a localizer, I see this as the death to real wages for those who try to make a living as translators. Just awful. Shame on DMP for using other people to do their work. Too bad these translators who cannot see what harm they are doing to the field. I imagine all they really care about is seeing their name in a translation credit. Too bad they will realize too late that it doesn’t work like that.
I see this as a way to gain experience that I didn’t have before. And we don’t know what kind of money can be made from this; if it’s pennies, then I’m sure more people will drop out. We’ll see how professional and lucrative this is when the work actually starts…
I don’t think it’s a bad thing for translators at all. It actually produces a lot more work they can do. DMG is not about handing over all the work of other localizers to other people, it’s about having everyone work together to produce a mass amount of titles in order to make them available legally.
I see it as a kind of App to Programmer relationship. DMG is like the App Store, they have to screen and edit (actually they also have to acquire titles and then make it digital). The Programmers are all the localizers, and the Apps are the manga. Sure, DMG will get portion, and a large chunk will still go to the original publisher & digital production (good!), but even with that, it’s a potential gold mine for localizers if done right.
So, according to you, as manga fans, we’re obliged to sit on our asses as the manga industry in the US flounders in order to keep life good for you? Now that’s an unappealing proposition.
Insane number of titles to translate.
There has to be something insanely good that comes out of all this for the localizers. I wish them the best of luck on this huge project.
Manga is already a field that doesn’t pay what it should for translation, and unauthorized scanlators are everywhere. This isn’t going to do anything to the field of localization that hasn’t already been done.
I think you are jumping to conclusions Made In DNA. As a localizer manga pays a usually small lump sum amount. This project actually has the potential to provide a much larger amount in the long run. Yes it’s a gamble but it’s also steady work, which in this economy is fantastic for us freelancers (and I’m sure some in-house translators).
Also I believe that because of the pay structure it will force many to do perhaps better jobs than they would in other situations. Currently if I translate a manga for what ever pay I have no stake in how well it does in the market after that. In this case all the groups do. Our names will be on them and with the rate they are going to be going out I sure the fans will soon learn who does a nice fluid translation and who doesn’t. This will impact that particular group’s sales and in the end impact the revenue stream.
Both of these I think are fantastic for the localization business. We all know that in every language pair there are a ton of unprofessional unqualified and just plain bad translators out there that give the rest of us a bad name. This is a chance to prove the marketability of our translations. If I tell a future client I have say 2 top 10 sales titles vs another person who is maybe in the same project but has none. Who do you think they will want for their translation, specially if it’s in the same field.