DMG SALES REPORT JULY 1 '11 - DEC 31 '11

[crayon]

From all of us from DMG- we want to say thank you for your hard work.
Now that our first set of sales reports rolled out, I'm sure a lot of you are wondering -
Who got paid? How much were paid? How many titles were sold...? Who were the top performers...?

So, here is some sales information we wanted to share with you:

TOTAL NUMBER OF TITLES RELEASED BETWEEN JULY 1 THRU DECEMBER 31ST, 2011 : 22 titles
THEY WERE (TITLE, localized group name, release dates) :
1. TIRED OF WAITING FOR LOVE (localized by KAWAII NEKO) August 15, 2011
2. HEALING MUSIC (Special assignment, localized by BOYS LOVE BANG BANG) October 3rd, 2011
3. THE COLOR OF THE CLEAR BLUE SKY (localized by DMG STARDUST) October 5rd, 2011
4. THE RULE OF STANDING ON TIP TOE (localized by CYNICAL PINK) October 17th, 2011
5. ATTACKED ON A TIGER’S WHIM (localized by Mi3) October 18th, 2011
6. LOVE & TRAP (localized by KOI-KOI) November 1, 2011
7. CLIMB ON TO MY SHOULDERS (localized by SINISTER HANDS) November 15, 2011
8. MY SEMPAI (localized by ACOLYTES OF ADAPTATION) November 16, 2011
9. ONLY THE FLOWER KNOWS (localized by KAWAII NEKO) November 17, 2011
10. RAINY DAY LOVE (localized by CYNICAL PINK) November 21, 2011
11. THE SONG OF RAINFALL (localized by CHAHAN PROJECT) November 22, 2011
12. HOLDING HANDS TOGETHER (localized by KAGAMI PRODUCTIONS) December 9th, 2011
13. A TRUTHFUL PICTURE (localized by Mi3) December 9th, 2011
14. KIDS ARE DOING FINE TODAY!! (localized by FUURINKAZAN) December 13, 2011
15. CURVE (localized by THE KNIGHTS OF THE EASTERN CALCULUS) December 13, 2011
16. BLOOMING DARLING V1 (localized by BOY PASSION) December 14, 2011
17. TWEETING LOVE BIRDS V1 (localized by BOYS LOVE BANG BANG) December 14, 2011
18. PRIDE (localized by STRING THEORY) December 14, 2011
19. DOKI DOKI CRUSH (localized by THE KNIGHTS OF THE EASTERN CALCULUS) December 14, 20111
20. I LOVE LOVE, TOO (localized by CHAHAN PROJECT) December 28, 2011
21. THE KNEELING BUTLER (localized by MURIARI) December 14, 2011

TOTAL NUMBER OF LOCALIZERS WORKED ON ABOVE TITLES: 49 localizers
TOTAL NUMBER OF GROUPS WORKED ON ABOVE TITLES: 15 groups
THEY WERE:
1. ACOLYTES OF ADAPTATION
2. BOY PASSION
3. BOYS LOVE BANG BANG
4. CHAHAN PROJECT
5. CYNICAL PINK
6. DMG STARDUST
7. FUURINKAZAN
8. KAGAMI PRODUCTIONS
9. KAWAII NEKO
10. KOI-KOI
11. MI3
12. MURIARI
13. SINISTER HANDS
14. STRING THEORY
15. THE KNIGHTS OF THE EASTERN CALCULUS

DMG BOOKS WERE SOLD AT THESE STOREFRONTS/PLATFORMS : AMAZON KINDLE, B&N NOOK & EMANGA.COM
TOTAL NUMBER OF E-UNITS (BOOKS) SOLD (ALL PLATFORMS COMBINED) DURING THIS PERIOD: 2,976

TOTAL NUMBER OF LOCALIZERS GETTING PAID THIS PERIOD: 6 localizers
1 person received over $300.00
1 person received over $200.00
4 people receoved over $100.00

BEST SELLER RANKING BY TOTAL
#1 - ATTACKED ON A TIGER’S WHIM
#2 - TIRED OF WAITING FOR LOVE
#3 - THE RULE OF STANDING ON TIP TOE
#4 - RAINY DAY LOVE
#5 - HEALING MUSIC
#6 - THE COLOR OF THE CLEAR BLUE SKY
#7 - ONLY THE FLOWER KNOWS
#8 - LOVE & TRAP
#9 - HOLDING HANDS TOGETHER
#10 - THE SONG OF RAINFALL

crayon

[Cavechan]

Wow. Thank you Crayon for releasing this info!

[hanged_man]

Thank you, Crayon & Good work to everyone else

[Russesa]

Big handclap for DMP, the localizers, and the readers!

[TropicanaTina]

While it's great to see this information released, I hope people realize that these figures aren't very positive. I'm guessing most if not all of the people who got paid had multiple books released during that time period. Less than 3000 copies sold of 20-some books is incredibly low. Obviously some were released close to the cut-off date so they didn't have enough time, but that would be a low amount even if we were only talking the first 10 titles. Since many localizers didn't even hit the $100 needed to receive a payment this period, what does Digital Manga have to say to them? If sales were this low to begin with and it's clear that sales taper down after the initial debut, what kind of sales will the localizers be looking at even years down the road? I mean, to get even a semi-decent amount for a single book, it would have to sell around 2000 copies, and I don't know if these books will ever hit amounts like that at this rate.

I sincerely hope Digital Manga will address this subject in an upcoming video conference or some other fashion. As of right now, it's looking like they're practically getting free labor, and while some may be satisfied briefly by the fun of it and the chance to build experience, if the future doesn't look brighter, I suspect DMG may see a mass exodus of the most talented localizers if they feel they're getting exploited and not even earning anything close to minimum wage for their work, let alone anything approaching what the average freelance translating/editing/lettering job will bring in. I'm sure no one is quitting their day job and expecting to get rich via the Guild, but the localizers do deserve fair compensation. If these titles can't generate that, then they probably shouldn't be selected for localization in the first place.

[crayon]

**ORIGINAL POST was edited by crayon**
Re: DMG SALES REPORT JULY 1 '11 - DEC 31 '11
Posted Wed Feb 22, 2012 7:27 pm by tanukichan

Crayon, thank you for sharing this info.
I just got my sales report from you too and the numbers are looking very encouraging.
I only worked on 1 book, it was sold for 1.5 months and I almost hit my $100 mark. I am looking forward to doing more work and can't wait til June for the next report! Thank you DMG!

As for [.....] EDITED & DELETED.

[Cavechan]

While it's great to see this information released, I hope people realize that these figures aren't very positive. I'm guessing most if not all of the people who got paid had multiple books released during that time period. Less than 3000 copies sold of 20-some books is incredibly low. Obviously some were released close to the cut-off date so they didn't have enough time, but that would be a low amount even if we were only talking the first 10 titles. Since many localizers didn't even hit the $100 needed to receive a payment this period, what does Digital Manga have to say to them? If sales were this low to begin with and it's clear that sales taper down after the initial debut, what kind of sales will the localizers be looking at even years down the road? I mean, to get even a semi-decent amount for a single book, it would have to sell around 2000 copies, and I don't know if these books will ever hit amounts like that at this rate.

I sincerely hope Digital Manga will address this subject in an upcoming video conference or some other fashion. As of right now, it's looking like they're practically getting free labor, and while some may be satisfied briefly by the fun of it and the chance to build experience, if the future doesn't look brighter, I suspect DMG may see a mass exodus of the most talented localizers if they feel they're getting exploited and not even earning anything close to minimum wage for their work, let alone anything approaching what the average freelance translating/editing/lettering job will bring in. I'm sure no one is quitting their day job and expecting to get rich via the Guild, but the localizers do deserve fair compensation. If these titles can't generate that, then they probably shouldn't be selected for localization in the first place.

I think one big point you are missing is that many of these titles came out sometime during this time period. I don't know exact dates and don't have time to look it up atm, but some may have only been out 1 month or less and they were included in the list.

The numbers aren't AMAZING, no, but the DMG is just starting up and many of these titles are obscure one-shots and aimed at a very specific audience. I think it can only go uphill as DMG acquires more variety of series like Erementar Gerade. I don't know much of the series but it seems fairly popular and has an anime.

This is such a new and innovative thing for the English manga world that it needs to be taken in stride. ^_^ I think it's going very well so far.

[TropicanaTina]

The first list in the opening post has the release dates for the books. I did take into consideration the dates, actually, but that's the problem. Even if you only look at the first 5-10 books, those sales are still very low. Most entertainment products get a large percentage of their sales right at debut, so 1-2 months should be sufficient. And if you follow the rankings on eManga and Amazon, the DMG releases have followed that trend, with the sales tapering down after a while.

I understand that the titles are obscure, but if Digital Manga wants the Guild to be successful, they need to provide titles that have the ability to generate enough revenue to provide the localizers with a payment that isn't a joke. Because if you complete a book and see 25 or 50 bucks for your efforts, that is a joke. And most did indeed get reports of less than $100.

I do sincerely hope that sales will improve. I wish the best for Digital Manga, the DMG venture, and the localizers involved, but Digital Manga needs to stop pretending that these sales are acceptable. Of the 49 localizers that received sales reports, I can't imagine many are very happy with what they received, so Digital Manga better do what it can to instill hope and faith in the future of the Guild. I see that an upcoming video conference is a 2011 Year in Review, so I hope that will be about this very subject.