FOR THE LOVE OF MANGA: A SHOJO MAGAZINE FOR FANS, BY FANS
Q: Will ShojoBerry be a monthly magazine? A quarterly publication... or?
Garrett Boast: This has yet to be determined and will be dependent on our team's cycle time for one magazine. We can likely reduce it to once every 2 months, and it would be ideal if we could hit the monthly rate. Until we release the promo issue, we will not be able to determine this.
Q: Will this be available only to North American readers?
Garrett Boast: The magazine will be available to both via the online store. When subscriptions come into play, that may change, but there is no reason that it cannot be offered in other countries (as international shipping can be added to the price).
If licensing would begin to play a role in this area, then we can restrict sales to the countries that the license allows for, but that typically does not come into play for printed works.
Q: What is your background in manga? Do you have any previous experience in publishing?
Garrett Boast: My personal background in manga started as a fan of Japanese culture and manga/anime. While in college, I joined the on-campus scanlation team as a translator. I also have experience in all areas of scanlation and translation including proofing, redrawing, cleaning, finishing, and type setting.
At present, I have no professional experience within the manga industry. I have about two years of experience in publishing working on different local publications. My partner has about five years of experience working with publications.
Q: You mention in your Facebook page that this is a volunteer-effort. Who is helping you to produce this first issue of ShojoBerry?
Garrett Boast: ShojoBerry is not 100% volunteer. Our designer (web + print) is paid. The only 'unpaid' staff members are the core group that started the project (although that will change should ShojoBerry become profitable). We will be hiring freelance translators if the projects we pick up make it necessary.
Q: Does the ShojoBerry staff include any manga editors / writers / creators that might be familiar to readers / who may have worked on other online / print magazines?
Garrett Boast: Unfortunately, we do not have any staffers that are well known within the anime/manga fan base/industry. We have resumes from several freelancers who have worked on well-known projects, although we have not contacted them regarding any opportunities as we do not have anything to propose to them at this point. This is something we are working on changing.
Although we may still have nothing to offer them, as one of our staff is a translator and Japanese language major, and my background as a scanlator and my own personal studies have me proficient enough in Japanese to also do translation.
Q: How many people do you have on your staff?
Garrett Boast: While we are trying to keep the tasks delegated to specific individuals to prevent the load from being overbearing, on a very small team (currently six), there is going to be crossover of work between.
Q: Where is ShojoBerry based?
Garrett Boast: ShojoBerry is based in Portage, Pennsylvania. All of our staff is within 40 miles of this location.
Q: Why debut at Tekkoshocon in Pittsburgh, and not at a larger show like Sakura-Con or Anime Expo?
Garrett Boast: We are hoping to debut at Tekkoshocon, because it is one of the closer cons to us (~80 miles) and it *is* a smaller venue. While we haven't looked into it, we figured that it would be easier to get into Tekko, and have a smaller debut and see how things move beyond that.
The promo issue won't be there exclusively, it will also be available online. Tekkoshocon is essentially a soft deadline that we set for the promo magazine. We are hoping for a slow ramp-up so that we can scale as needed, although that may not be a privilege we will be granted from the looks of it.
Q: I know you're still in the planning stages, but are you looking for writers / artists / contributors / subscribers? If so, how can these people contact you for more information?
Garrett Boast: Yes, we are looking for contributors of all sorts. We have had a few people contact us, but we have yet to publish our guidelines, provide a submission form, etc.
We were anticipating opening all of that up when our website launches, which we are looking to do within the next three weeks according to our current timeline. Currently, just sending an email to our info@shojoberry.com distribution list is sufficient.
Our mailing address is:
P.O. BOX 125
Portage, PA 15946
United States
I hope that the information above is helpful to you. I understand your concerns about the magazine, how it is being managed, and how our customers may perceive the final product incorrectly. We are hoping to mitigate that last one.
When I initially posted the comments on the anime blogs, I was hoping to reach Shojo Beat's previous fans to keep them informed, but did not anticipate the media storm that followed.
We have received positive support, and have developed some good contacts, but have also have been the target of some scathing reports (some of which came from you :) I do not hold it against you though. It's not unreasonable to be skeptical. I would be too. I would love to prove you wrong and I'm sure that you would also.) Although they do say that there's no such thing as bad publicity. Ah the wonders of social networking.
The amount of media (attention we've received) on ShojoBerry has proven beneficial. We have been contacted by interested advertisers, freelance translators, and we may have just licensed our first manga as a result.
I tried to provide you with as much information above as possible to set your expectations correctly and inform you of our project better. You'll likely still be concerned, but we will just have to see what happens in the coming months.
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ShojoBerry is still in development, but as Boast mentioned, ShojoBerry is looking for fans, readers and possible contributors. Visit the ShojoBerry Facebook page and add them to your friend list to get updates. You can also visit ShojoBerry.com.
So what do you think of ShojoBerry? Add your comments in the Manga forums. or vote in this online poll.
