Questions?

[starlightmuse]

My questions are in regards to the projects. If we pass muster, how much control would a translator have over which projects she chooses? Thousands of possible titles are all well and good, but unless you plan to have everything scanned up in advance for translators to choose from (which I'm highly doubting!), I'm wondering how much choice we would actually have...?

We are planning to have as many titles as possible available to be worked on. There will be a certain degree of freedom to choose which title you want to work on, the details are still in the works.

Likewise, timetable and translator loyalty. When you toss a translator a project, do you want a chapter/volume done within a certain time frame? If you give a translator volume one of the series, will you wait for them to finish it, or give volume 2 to a different translator? Would this vary by project? (ie, would you require faster work on a popular project than a less popular one?)

It would make sense to keep a translator on a series if they've started with volume 1 -- although since we are starting with mainly the yaoi genre (more genres to be added later), most of them will be one-shots. There will be a deadline, the timetable is still being discussed.

[Jennatar]

You will get to work on titles with us legally and free of copyright infringement. Again, whether or not you scanlate is not our concern. We would highly recommend you joining as a group though versus as an individual (a letterer, editor, and translator).

Thank you for answering all these questions. I saw this reply, and could use a little clarification. Does this mean that you will be creating "work groups" of individuals (if they didn't already apply as one), and having these teams of 3 (letterer, editor, and translator) work together?

If so, are these work groups going to be exclusive? Meaning, if you have a translator who can do a volume a month, but the rest of the team can only do a volume every 2 months... can the translator have more than one group?

Or are we going to have more control over who we work with, through community forums, etc...?

I do understand why you would go for groups (else editors might not have scripts, and translators might translate stuff without anyone to edit it, etc), but the issue of everyone's individual pace is always a problem...

Also, is it possible for someone to do multiple positions? For instance, translating and lettering... (or heck, all three!). Provided, of course, they could still meet your deadlines.

[Pobrecito Hablador]

A. There will be deadlines, the actual time length will be announced at a later date. At the moment we are considering that each group complete a minimum of five titles within a year. Keep in mind this is tentative, the number may change. There will be bonuses and advantages to finishing more than the minimum..

Thanks for all the clarification. It really helps.

I know it's tentative, but by five titles, do you mean five tankoubons worth of material? Five ongoing series, regardless of length and/or publishing schedule? Something else?

Sigh- I guess I appear to be out of my league regardless. My 4 person group is doing one ongoing bimonthly, one tankoubon at one to two chapters per month, and a couple djs right now, and that's pretty typical of our pace.

[starlightmuse]

I'll do my best to get to everyone's questions, there's a lot to go back to...but for now:

I know it's tentative, but by five titles, do you mean five tankoubons worth of material? Five ongoing series, regardless of length and/or publishing schedule? Something else?

We mean five tankouban worth of material. It's still something we're debating on -- if enough of you out there feel this is too much, please, give your input on what you think would be more reasonable. We want this to work for you just as much for us.

[blkingston]

We mean five tankouban worth of material. It's still something we're debating on -- if enough of you out there feel this is too much, please, give your input on what you think would be more reasonable. We want this to work for you just as much for us.

Well, a lot depends on the manga itself and how much retouching is expected of us.

On the translation side, a manga with furigana would be much easier to translate than one that is dialogue-heavy and riddled with kanji. Some manga are straightforward in terms of plotline, while others may hinge on aspects of Japanese culture that may slow down and confound an amateur translator. Some scripts may require more rewriting than others.

On the retouching side, a lot depends on how much Digital Manga expects of us. If we are expected to clone out sfx, and the manga is sfx heavy, then that's going to take longer. A manga with minimal sfx would obviously be faster. If we're only expected to add the English translation of the sfx next to the Japanese original, that would make the task much faster as well. Then again, in sfx-heavy manga it probably makes more sense to replace the Japanese with English...so I guess this will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

I've just watched Mr. Sasahara's presentation. He mentioned that we would get to choose 'packages' of manga to work on. Perhaps it would be a good idea to package manga with an eye to presence of furigana and amount of retouching required. It would be pretty rotten luck to be saddled with five titles full of kanji, no furigana, and lots of sfx to clone out!

Personally I wouldn't be confident about committing to five volumes a year when I may not know the mangaka or storyline. Maybe three volumes, with a chapter being completed every 4-6 weeks, would be more manageable. Of course, there may be larger groups out there that could easily handle five volumes a year.

How about creating a poll on this issue? That might be the best way to gauge opinion.

[starlightmuse]

Good suggestion on the poll. I will create one now.

[aka_no_joou]

Hello there.
I have no experience working with manga but I am a native Spanish speaker so I was wondering how would you approach other languages. I mean, does it have to be Japanese> x-language? I barely know Japanese so it would be great if we could work from English to other different languages too.

[Tigu]

This question was previously asked but I did not see an answer. How long should it take to expect an email from our Pre-registration? I registered sometime last week and seeing the notice that if we registered between 11 and 3 on Nov 2nd our information may have been lost. Is there a way to confirm our pre-registration or should we register again?

Thank you!

[starlightmuse]

And read more widely, I worry that DMP could potentially have expectations that I, as a registrant, had agreed to things that in fact I had not intended to agree to. While I understand it may be awkward for DMP to offer specifics in this regard, I also would hate to have someone I made a commitment to later feel I had betrayed it, or never taken it seriously in the first place.

Pre-registering now is not a final contract or commitment in any way. It's to gather interest, and for you to receive further information from us when it becomes available.

[starlightmuse]

Hello there.
I have no experience working with manga but I am a native Spanish speaker so I was wondering how would you approach other languages. I mean, does it have to be Japanese> x-language? I barely know Japanese so it would be great if we could work from English to other different languages too.

Yes, you have to be able to translate from Japan to x-language. The translation would no longer be as close to the original if it were to go from Japanese -> English -> Spanish. Sorry about that! We would still love to have you if you could letter or be an edit (perhaps edit Spanish when that becomes available?).