question for the scanlation group

which job, in your experiance, is the most hardest to find the staff for?

share your stories

You're missing one position that might as hard to find as a jp tler: An editor willing and able to redraw. You've listed cleaners and editors, but in most cases they either can't or won't do any redraws. Personally, I'd split off capable redrawers from other editors for better accuracy.

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Active translations list
Completed translations list
Dropped translations

Jap/Kor translator>Raw provider (good one)>Redrawer>Editor (Cleaner/Typesetter)>Cleaner>Typesetter>Quality Checker>Chinese translator>Proofreader

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You can PM me if you need a temporary (freelance) cleaner/redrawer for some project. Especially if it's something with nice art.
Being the lazy person that I am, I'm not likely to accept anything long-term though.

Honey, what exactly are you trying to achieve with this poll?
Everybody knows that the most sought after role is that of a J-E translator.
Especially a good one.
Followed by a raw provided who will buy and scan in HQ,
but even those people are not as scarce as J-E translators.

I'm sorry to say this, but there is no actual point to your thread.

I won't even touch the subject of redrawers.


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Hrodulf and Bjornolfr, you will not be forgotten.

And if the world were black and white,
you would be my rainbow in shades of grey.

Click 'n Play!

If I had a fantasy self, it'd be a tentacle monster.

Raw provider. When you don't use other people's scans without permission it's hard to find people willing and able to provide high quality raws. You can learn to fill any position with practice, but you need money to purchase the original books, assuming you can even find a seller willing to ship outside Japan. Of course with online-only comics that isn't an issue. I'm talking about manga and djs here.

[NOTE: I started as an unwanted raw provider and turned myself into a one-person scanlator. So getting access to the original books is a bigger deal to me than it is to those who just use any raws they can download off the net without worrying about credit or permission.]

To be honest, I always considered redraws to be part of cleaners or editors job (well, "job"). Redraws sure can be annoying but if one's willing to sacrifice some time and put imagination into some action it can be done even without drawing tablet and stylus.

From my experience, the hardest job to find is always the one you need at the moment. Need skilled Japanese -> English translator for some project you want to do? Then you can bet you'll have trouble finding one. Need proofreader? Oh my, nobody got time.

Nah, enough of lame jokes (even though it is partly true). Hardest job would be proper "scanner" (sounds stupid). I mean, raw provider can simply take some raws from Share and bam! That's it. (Not that I'm against it.) Scanners pay for books, tear them up and scan them providing better quality and less work for cleaners, editors or just redrawers if you want. No, seriously, it really makes a lot of difference when you have to join double-pages with centimetre margin between pages and when you have like two-three millimetres of blank space between them.

well i'm sorry, I've only been a korean translator for scanlation group that did both manga and manwha. I never realized there was such urgency for japanses translator. at least, I never felt it. all the scanlation group always recruit all positions anyway

I think we just want to know more about the process without actually joining.

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Elitism? If I am not elite, then who is?

I started out in the scan scene with translations (thereby translators) and never found a cleaner or typesetter - I had to try and make collaborations to try and get some of our things worked on. A few weeks back, I taught myself how to typeset, which was easier than I thought, but time consuming. So I would have to say cleaner. To this day, I have not found a cleaner.

Originally, I started out in the anime subbing scene over six years ago, so finding translators now is not as hard as it was then. In fact, over the last year, I have had over 10 translators* e-mail me. Some lasted a day (didn't reply back or didn't pass our translation test), while others went on to complete their designated projects.

Raw provision was probably the easiest role to 'find' thanks to a subbing buddy (also a translator) that is in Japan now and has been there for the past two years. I just pay for the book, while he does the rest - including post-processing.

*Keep in mind, I don't scanlate or subtitle any Korean content, only Japanese.

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http://rayout.org/ - ray=out anime and manga services

This is very easy.

It's the raw provider.

I can count on one hand the amount of groups who have people who buy, debind & scan volumes/magazines for them.

I've been scanning stuff for my group for six full years and I've never received one single person who applied as a raw provider. Not one. Translators, editors, proofreaders, they all come and go.

Raw Providers, though...



Strongly, strongly disagree. I've had over 50 Japanese translators apply for my group over the years. I've never had a single raw provider ever apply.

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-GGpX

I run Illuminati-Manga. You're welcome.

wow...

anyway, I'm actually curious about this topic too. I would think that translators would be the most needed, but I see that isn't always the case. I have no skills in anything whatsoever so I cannot help out a scanlation team, but if I did I certainly would. I really never have enough words of appreciation for what they do and at least try to support them by subscribing to their website/blog and reading from their reader if they have one, and leaving comments.

I'm always curious about how it all works though, especially with these really good teams that whip out great translations hours after the raw is released.

So because of this thread I learned that there are other really great needs other than translators. It's interesting to know. (:


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WEBTOONS ヽ( ★ω★)ノ

As a freelance scanlator I'm glad you made the thread. I'm curious to see what different groups are missing and how they go about filling those positions. Because you're right, the recruitment section is full of people trying to fill all positions. It makes me wonder if they just want to lead a group of workers, or if they already have a base group and want to build a few more so they can do the work of multiple groups.

I work primarily in doujinshi, so even if you can get the books it's very hard to find anyone willing to touch certain genres and pairings. I know groups who buy translations and still can't get things done because they're missing cleaners and typesetters. They're forced to collaborate in order to fill the roles they're missing. I think collaborations are a good thing that we should have more of. I had to stop buying books after killing a credit card, so I'm all about getting access to projects I'll never own. I work with a French scanner who provides great raws in exchange for an English translation she can use for her own French version. I have similar collaborations with a Spanish scanlator and a Russian one. Working with non-English scanlators is a pleasure compared to trying to negotiate a collaboration with an English group. Some of them act like doing a 'joint' is dirty and unthinkable. When you go to them asking about a one-time collaboration for a specific book, they tell you to join the group if you want access to that project - and then a few years later you see them still crying about how they have no cleaners/translators/typesetters for that project. Yeah, I wonder why. Raw hoarders kill me.

its J-E translators , they are just like in the stage of extinction. A rare species.
If you are starting a new group then hardly u can find a OK translator in 2 mnths.

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hey

I might have come off as too abrasive, but I didn't see what a seasoned scanlator such as the OP had to gain from such an inquery. As things stand, I'll treat this thread as a general discussion.

Being a scanlator myself and having worked with various groups, a raw provider and or a scanner were always present and were much less a trouble to find. It just requires a different and much more easily aquired skill set, as opposed to a translator.
Or maybe my luck's been different?

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Hrodulf and Bjornolfr, you will not be forgotten.

And if the world were black and white,
you would be my rainbow in shades of grey.

Click 'n Play!

If I had a fantasy self, it'd be a tentacle monster.

Honestly I don't see the benefit of huge groups. There is nothing like the independence of being able to work on projects you enjoy, and freelance grabbing anyone who naturally approaches you because they like the subject matter. Asking a shoujo translator to translate a totally different series, for example a hentai, just because you've worked together before is....

You can avoid pricks and willl be happier if just avoid the drama and do your own thing.