I was wondering how, if I really liked a discontinued or untranslated manga, how can I get the attention of scanalators to start scanning it, or is this purely dependant on their personal whims? Excuse my rudeness, if I am being too rash to presumptuous here.

Send them a message, go on IRC, use their forums, etc.

At least that would be my guess as to the easiest route.

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Listen here
Livin just to keep from dyin

Trying to get a discontinued manga (that's actually good) done shouldn't be too hard if you find a group with similar projects and you can prove that the manga would be popular if it was finished. The big question when you see something that was dropped is why, ya know... if someone else didn't like it enough to keep going, then why would I want to translate it? If that question can be answered, then your odds are pretty good. Of course, there are always outside factors for every group... we rarely have the manpower to just pick up projects on a whim and still release our current projects in a responsibly timed manner.

Be sure to ask groups that seem nice or have a designated way of asking... a lot of groups are actually jackasses to people who request projects because somehow they read requests as "you're not working hard enough, so you should give me more free stuff" even when they're worded well and clearly not inflammatory.

Your best bet though is to first find yourself a source for the scans, or even find a group that already has the manga or whatever in their hands. Heck, when PKR picked up Nergal, it was because I already had it and a girl requested that we scan it so she could read it (she's actually the editor now, too). So, in the end, she actually had to help out. Though we still do the scans since I own the book...^^;

Also, find a group that would be interested in a project like that. I mean, don't take a shoujo manga to a shounen group, and vice versa, unless for some reason you see a strong connection between the work and what they have. There are a lot of groups out there that are looking for new projects, but are having the problems with getting scans for them.

But fortunately, you can still get copies of discontinued manga once in a while. Last year, I bought Rocket Princess. Turns out, the version I got was the first print, whereas the version up by Snoopy Cool is the second version. And, when I got my Gekka Kajin Lumen Lunae, I only managed to get the second release since the first version was really out of print. Still, places like Ebay, and even sometimes just LJ accounts can help you find it. And, heck, you never know when somebody will already have it and willing to offer up scans ^.-

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~Sanzaki Kojika
(Project Kurai Ryu) - (Kojika's DA Page)

Money and copies of said manga. It would also really help if hey got a ton of requests for it, so get other interested in it too.

Actually though, there are some groups that do not want to deal with more popular series and prefer it when the series is obscure, thus they don't have to deal with all of the drama and pain associated with it (after working part time with AdInuyasha on their InuYasha scanlations...I never wanna touch a series like that again, and all I did was translate sfx @_@). So, it won't necessarily do you good to go to a group and get a lot of requests for said project. Whatcha need to do is find out what kind of group it is. Smaller groups are more likely to take requests, but they are also more likely to have slower releases and even possibly drop the project or fall apart entirely. Bigger groups are a lot harder to get to take requests, but they are more likely to get them out more regularly and keep to it if it's popular.

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~Sanzaki Kojika
(Project Kurai Ryu) - (Kojika's DA Page)

Personally, having lots of people interested doesn't hurt or harm a manga's chances at getting in my short list. In the end, I still read it through and make a decision based on the merits of the story/art/whatever I usually use to choose projects.

If I have staff that wants to work on it, then that gives it points. If someone other than me would be translating it, that gives it points. If it will bring in a demographic that I don't normally get reading my projects, then that gives it points. But none of those give it enough points to get on my project list all by themselves.

how about money.....would that work?

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Money...? O.o Generally, money isn't transferred for scanlations. This is a free service that we offer because we want to, not because we are being bribed or paid to do it. Of course, many groups take donations, but that isn't really the same thing. It just helps cover the expenses of fronting the website that hosts projects directly, as well as able to get more series, or even them more regularly (ie, I'm subscribed to many zasshi, including Shounen Sunday, but I typically drive up to Chicago to get it, though this week I had to have it shipped thanks to Hurricane Ike). But, donating money might get you appreciation from a group, but that doesn't mean it will definately get the project in there.

Personally, I don't mind people giving scanlation groups donations (heck, I've done a little of it myself), but I think that using that donation as a sort of bribe to get them something is another story.

I definitely agree with Snoopy on this though. Though I wanted to do Nergal and that girl who requested it wanted me to do it, too...but, I probably wouldn't have posted it publicy (like I would have just lent her my book and given her a copy of the translation), but through a lil research (ie, google and this site), I saw that it actually had an interested audience for it.

But, coming from a small group, we take on more obscure projects than anything...though I can't resist certain series and certain artists ^^;

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~Sanzaki Kojika
(Project Kurai Ryu) - (Kojika's DA Page)

What? You get requests that are actually possible to not be a jackass in response to? Usually, it's more like:

y u not do [random manga with tits and fighting] other group hasnt relesed in a month

And while this is hardly an answer to the OP's question, at least that's the way not to do it. (As for that question, though, personally I'm with the "purely dependant on their personal whims" crowd.)

Yeah, I've actually had a good number of well thought out reasonable requests. I'm always iffy about doing anything that other groups have done before (dropped or dead or whatever), but that doesn't make a request inherently bad. We're actually getting ready to release something that was requested about 6 months ago and have another one in the pipe as a future project when workers clear up.

I'd say about half of my requests are what I'd consider 'legitimate'. The rest are just ignored (or the staff delete them before I see them or something).

Ah, as a a side note, be sure that if you are going to approach a scanlation team with a project that it is relevant to their other works. Let's say you were hoping for a shounen series, you probably wouldn't want to ask a group like Nakama. On the other hand, if you were hoping for some hardcore yaoi, Manga-Sketchbook may be a bad choice.

Now every now and then you'll get a group that seems to dabble in everything, take Aku-Tenshi for example. But these are few and far between.

Don't be a dick about it, being polite will give you the best shot at having some one respond favourable, plus it's common courtesy.

Finally, I'm not sure about other people, but it is hard to work on a project that you hate. I mean I'll tough it out if some one I know really really wants it (ugh, typesetting and editing 30 pages of Jedi buttsex is not my idea of fun) but other than that, try to find a group that really enjoys the series you want to have scanlated.

That's all I can think of to tell you, not sure how helpful it will be but, good luck.

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