Ask the President!

[starlightmuse]

A lot is going to be unveiled soon, and the President wants to answer your questions concerning the Manga Guild! We're going to be taking some of the best questions, and Hikaru-san will personally answer them for you.

Please do not ask a question if it's already been answered.
Post your question here or PM me.
Please keep conversation elsewhere, so it will be easier to keep track of questions.

Thank you!

[Alterid]

Is there eventually going to be any possibility for advancement? By that I mean the opportunity for some of us to move beyond working on porn and actually help out with some of the mainstream print titles.

[Kiliana]

Question:
Hello Sasahara-san *bow*, how would You grade the quality of experience, that participants will recive from this project? Would You, personally, consider hiring someone on the sole basis of, let's say, 1 or 2 years of experience with DMG project? (And by 'hiring' I mean for a "normal", contracted job, with set monthly pay)
Thank you ^_^/

PS @Alterid: "pro tip" - referring to yaoi as "porn", especially here, is not the best idea y'know ^_~

[ZepysGirl]

In what format will DMP sell the products we create? Will they be added to eManga? Will they have some stamp signifying they were created by the Guild?

How will the titles be allocated to groups? Will groups be able to compete for the "best" translations? Or will each title go to only one group?

Will readers have the option to rate groups/translations? Would groups have the option to rate each other?

How many titles would you expect each group to produce a year? (I know there's a thread for this, but as far as I can tell we haven't received a definitive answer.)

Will there be any titles that aren't boys-love in the initial launch? If not, then how soon could we expect to start seeing some, assuming that the DMG does well?

What percentage of the profit could each person in the process expect? The Translator/Editor/Letterer positions are what I mainly care about, but I wouldn't mind knowing the entire picture.

If applicants fail the first round of testing, will we receive any guidelines on how to better ourselves for the next attempt? On that note, will anyone get clear-cut guidelines on how you want us to edit/letter the manga?


And this one's not really for Sasahara-san: Will DMP post the teleconference somewhere after it's done, so that people who were interested but not invited can still get access to the information? Even notes from the teleconference would be appreciated.


...that's all for now, I guess.

[Ariya]

How will you be guaranteeing the quality of the translations/editing of the manga released? I was surprised that there was no "translation checker" position for the groups. Will such a role be reserved for a more established employee of DMP?

[izanagi]

I noticed a lot of titles DMP puts out have already been scanslated. Have you considered the possibility of buying these scanslations or at least the translations and having someone, say a DMG translator double check the work for accuracy and then putting them out, as opposed to doing the work twice? (Of course, I don't have any experience at DMP yet so if this is already the case I apologize!) Probably this is something every licensing company considers at one point or another, but as far as I know no one has actually done it yet, so it would certainly be a landmark achievement or at least get some press...

Thank you for your time.

[ARG]

How much free reign will the translators get as far as how they translate? Are there certain guidelines we need to adhere to?

Not everyone agrees on what makes a good translation; scanlators tend toward more literal translations and the use of translation and cultural notes, while commercial translators usually lean heavily toward making it fit the culture it's being translated to; some simple examples would be things like whether or not to change the order of a Japanese character's surname and given name to the western order, whether or not to use honorifics, or whether to translate a Japanese idiom or just replace it with a similar American idiom - though it also goes as far as phrasing.

(Personally I much prefer the scanlators' way of translating, as it's more educational and can sometimes give a better understanding of some of the nuances of the story. With the typical commercial translation I've often felt like the translators assume that the readers are too stupid and/or ethnocentric to be able or willing to understand anything outside of their own culture.)

[Alterid]

Yeah, and a large majority of those scanlator/fansubbers produce some of the most stilted, uninteresting scripts around. I guarantee no normal westerner would ever read that kinda stuff beyond a few pages. You have to walk a fine line with rewriting and localization, but it does have its place.

[Laurie]

May I ask how you're planning to pick and bundle titles?
In particular, I'm sure there must be a lot of factors that are beyond what Guild members could be helpful with, but I'm wondering if since we're sharing risk, some of us who read a lot of yaoi from the companies you have contracts with might be able to suggest titles (especially if you have a large pool of potential works to pick from)?

In the interests of being up-front, and I apologize if I'm being too blunt, my team's primary incentive is being able to work on manga we consider high quality- it comes before money, resume-building, popularity of the titles we work on, or any of the more traditional things people usually work for- so if we could help in any way to assure that a lot of the early titles are high-quality, we'd be really, really happy with that.

...

Also, I'm wondering about cost to the consumer and distribution as well. I think your prices on eManga are very reasonable (especially for the American market), but I can't help noticing that part of the reason certain other...er... less reputable companies pull in readers and money hand over fist is because their product is free to the end consumer. So I'm wondering about the feasibility of different distribution models and what model ultimately you're planning on going with?

[Seeshelle]

In the email, it states "The group representative will handle all communication, projects, and
payments." Is it safe to assume all 3 actions will be performed via electronically? The group representative will be the one to hand out an equal share of payment through paypal or the like?

What are the benefits for those who passed the test and working on the manga (not to sound selfish or pompous)?
ex: Health Benefits, discount on DMG titles?

Since this guild is an experiment, say things turn out well (and let us sound very optimistic now) or even better, would the guild become permanent and everyone here will continue to work for you as they put it in their Résumé? And what if the results are not what you hoped? Can I assume the guild will vanish?

It would be better if I had the agreement form already, so I know what questions not to ask..