Questions?

[chirechan]

@Jennatar - I haven't seen any hard numbers or even allusions to them on the forum, although I think I read in an interview with the President that one of the titles brought in $800 in sales on eManga in the first month or so. I don't think that included Kindle or Nook, so who knows what the total was.

I think your best bet is to ask your questions at the next video conference. If you can't be there in person, you can write in a question from your Dashboard and they will answer it even if you're not there. I'm curious to hear the answers, too!

@Hoek - I don't think it's too late at all since they are still taking new applications. Go for it!

[Shroud]

That was 800 copies, I believe, not $800 (that manga's 1st month on just emanga)

[ZepysGirl]

Going through my notes on the Oct 14 teleconference, I have:

"Tired of Waiting for Love eManga-$800, Kindle-$800, Nook-$850, about $2400 in first 40 days"

also

"Three titles on eManga – have made $1000 in revenue on eManga (not including Kindle). They are making payments to first group this month."


I would expect revenue has increased since then.

[TropicanaTina]

I found that teleconference kind of confusing. Was it 800 copies, $800 for the localizers, or $800 in sales period? I did the math, and if it's the last option, 12% of that is pretty piddly (especially when that is split three ways in most groups). Even if you look at $2400 across three platforms, that's less than $100 for someone getting 4%. And I would assume the biggest surge of sales is in the first month, with it trickling far down after that. If this is indeed correct, then even after years I don't know if we'll ever hit the several hundred dollars that each person should get for each book, given the time it takes to complete a book, to get a semi-respectable amount compared other freelance work in the same field.

Also, if we're looking at $800 in sales on each platform, then we're looking at only about 115 copies sold on each. That would be incredibly small. A company probably shouldn't even bother licensing a book if they can't move at least 1000-2000 copies, in my opinion.

I hope I'm wrong about these things. I hope we very soon can follow our sales because right now we're going on blind faith, even for those of us that already have a book up. It's a little disheartening starting your second (or even third for Kawaii Neko) and not knowing if you're getting peanuts for your work or not.

[2old4yaoi]

Different folks join the DMG for different reasons. I will counsel that:
a. don't expect to get rich doing this - definitely don't quit your full time / stable / real life part-time jobs & always prioritize your family responsibilities & studies first
b. DMG has always been upfront that this is in someway a new "experiment" of a business model - perhaps of bringing the expertise of those fans who are doing scanlations for free into a venture that is more legitimate, supportive by the publishers & mangakas.
c. how financially rewarding it is for all involved remains to be seen - personally I feel that DMG has more cost/benefit and market analysis to do in pricing their products to increase sales volumes. All products have a life cycles: books & movies can be sleeper hits depending on their marketing

Ideally, you are in this for the hobby, passion, experience and/or any other reason other than monetary alone. I have a full-time engineer friend who is a serious potter as a hobby. She started selling her works through gallery just last year. When she began years ago, the hobby needed a budget but last year the hobby paid for itself. Only this year, she is actually making some discretionary spending cash from this hobby - she is ecstatic! But she can never quit her full time job for the hobby because the annual net would only be 25% of her current full time job. On the really bright side, she knows what she will be doing when she retires.

In my own situation, my team mates & I are on the same page that this venture will not be our road to riches. We have also discussed how to accommodate the timelines so it wouldn't interfere with our regular lives. Of course our plans will be tested when we are ready to execute

[chirechan]

@TropicanaTina - I came to the same conclusions. 800 copies sold? Decent start. $800 in sales? Not impressed. I'm seriously hoping the hours we put into these books and the royalties earned will at least equal out to minimum wage. Anything less than that, and I'll probably feel indignant on principle.

@2old4yaoi - Good call on the market analysis. I wonder if there will be any sort of strategy to releasing DMG titles now that everyone is picking up steam (e.g. Is it better to release books in a steady trickle or all on the same day?). I hope the online sales tracker they are creating is smart enough to track sales by date and price so that we can see how much of an effect things like reviews or holidays or discounts can have (I love data ).

[TropicanaTina]

Yeah, I hope no one is expecting to get rich from the DMG, heh. At the same time, I hope everyone values their work. Even if someone is coming from scanlating, I think they would be doing themselves a disservice if they think "Well, I'd be doing this for free regardless, so I'd be happy to even get 20 bucks." This is legitimate freelance work, so I think anyone who does quality, professional work should at least be entitled to the low-end rates for that field (ideally we'd be able to get average or good rates, but there's something to be said for having the luxury to not translate or edit a boring textbook or something, hehe).

Me, I'm very happy for the experience and to take on the risk of this endeavor, but I'm definitely antsy for sales data. I'd love if Digital Manga could tell us more about the history of eManga, like if they could share some info on the sales numbers for some of the BL books that have been on there for awhile, just so we could have a rough idea on what we could possibly expect over the course of, say, a year.

[ficdogg]

What happened with uploading the rest of the teleconferences. In the Oct 28 video conference you said that you will upload them, but still nothing.
Last teleconference that is up is the one from Sept 02.

[Shroud]

It is worth bearing in mind that earnings will keep accumulating for each title. You don't get paid only the once, but over and over again during the YEARS the book is likely to be for sale for.

Also, I'm a writer (actual books), not just a freelancer for DMG, and I can tell you that in publishing, thinking things like "min wage" is not the way to go Book royalties accumulate in drips and drabs. Why do you think that writers are often depicted as impoverished, living in garrets (or why many mangaka admit to living in small, rather old (and cheap)apartments)? Anyways, earnings wise, one has to take the long view, when working for royalties. I'm still earning for a book I wrote almost SEVEN years ago. Drips, drabs, and trickles, all adding up to income, from everything I ever published for sale.

As for TOWFL, I understood it to be copies...800 copies, not $. Though I am somewhat uncomfortable with people eyeballing my particular stats on their lonesome...it feels like someone's peeking somewhere private and I think since not all titles will be as popular as others, we'd get a much better idea overall if we were given total number of all DMG books sold . Anyways, I'm not in this for the money but I know some are. If you are, you need to refine it so that you can do the work at speed, and take on more projects, clients etc. so that you can earn what you need at what the market actually offers. Or realise this may be an income supplementation rather than a career. Just sayin'

[chirechan]

I don't think anyone here is expecting to make a living off of this, and I'm personally not worried about the upper boundary of hobby -> job. I'm thinking about the lower boundary of hobby -> exploitation, though that word is a bit too harsh. When I think of "exploitation" I think of MangaFox making oodles of money from scanlations. But you get my drift.

Like TropicanaTina said, this is freelance work. Experimental maybe, but still legitimate work and I think it's reasonable to hope for legitimate pay.

@Shroud - Yeah, I can see how talking sales can seem invasive. It's like asking everybody how old they are XD. Since it's already out in the open, though, I'll say congrats on 800 copies sold

While it feels taboo to discuss things like income and sales, given the experimental nature of this endeavor, I think it's important to be transparent about how it's all going.