The problem is that its difficult to gain access to newer volumes in America. Not only is there too much delay in the translation and delivery, there are too less places that sells them.

From the article itself : "while they've [Japanese publishers] dicked around, scanlators have taken things into their own hands."

This says it all.

the solution is simple, keep doing the old stuff since stopping it would kill the industry but start with suing the aggregators into oblivion (millions of dollars on top of shutting them down so no one else would think to do that again sends a nice message). Once the aggregators are gone start giving the manga away for free. Ad Revenue should bring in far more money than licensing. They might even want to allow people to submit translations to them (aka scanlations) making even more traffic.

people always laugh at yaoi fans for wanting a physical copy of books and not getting with vid digital times. Not really. After emanga came along, a lot of us have started buying pretty pricey online volumes. These usually have shoddy editing, poor translations and bad grammar (read sample pages of many emanga titles). A digital volume means it dies along with the company. We can't sell it like a used copy. We can't download and keep it for offline reading and we certainly can't keep it in our multiple devices. If the company prints the title, they won't print enough copies, won't reprint out of print copies, won't give a fixed publishing date and keep changing the date as well.

Publishers and translators on twitter being high and mighty about people hunting for scanlation: without scanlators, most mangaka won't even get exposure for english licensing. The popularity of yoneda kou and takarai rihito are pretty good examples.

The world of yaoi scanlations leaves much to be desired, with the closed comms, the rules, rules, everywhere and scanlators who don't care we have a life outside manga. It's not about the mangaka or stories anymore. Just an ego circlejerk.

It's best we learn japanese and import (if we work for manga money, we don't have time for japanese learning. And japanese titles also go out of print depending on how popular a title is with japanese fans - niche genres - not bleach or something). I don't see the licensing or scanlation world getting better anytime soon. Or you could learn chinese and pirate like what's going on in a majority of genres. No one catches chinese scanners, mangareaders or forums based in china. Just look at dm5.

Part of the reason why the US manga scene sucks is that it takes 3 freakin months+ for a volume to come out. There is no weekly magazine that's consistently imported without maybe a 2 week delay every so often. One day, the publishers are gonna have to suck it up and stop hating on scanlators, and make a plan to incorporate them into the system. Scanlators only host sites and seek reimbursement on costs because they have to. If publishers ever discover the net and provide that, who knows what might come of it. But, I don't see that happening anytime real soon.

It's a pity. As a scanlator, and freelancing letterer, I do enjoy a solidly produced adaptation of a good manga. I wouldn't say the problem is piracy in itself, but despite the recent C&D actions towards onemanga and the likes, online reading sites are still too easily accessible. Every kid has access to the internet nowadays, and it can't get easier than just going to one place that collects every popular manga you'd wanna read. Plus kids don't have money, so there's that. The revenue created from people purchasing these popular manga offered a lot of space for publishers to do some more creative licensing. So in that sense it affects those looking for something a bit more "out there" just the same. Popular manga will always be out there, though, in every form.
As for people who honestly believe scanlations are better by default than published books, you have NO idea.

I still don't understand how they took so long to publish something, some random kid clean things faster, and I read an article not long ago about how the companies were paying people who barely knew japanese to do the translation (something like 6 dollars a page? and that they used to be 14+dollars a page) also, they change the whole volume form, and it's just... lame. I really don't see the point of buying chapters online :/. They should improve, there are tons of amazing manga which poor scanlation that fans would buy (because we can't really ask HQ scanlation all the time).

I live in rural America in one of the poorest counties in my state. The nearest Walmart is a 30 minute dive away; the nearest bookstore that carries manga other than Naruto is over an hour drive away, with a poor selection at that. If I wanted to buy any manga I'd have to order the physical copy online and have it shipped to my house (Can you say "expensive"?). Ultimately though I don't want to buy most American releases of manga, for numerous reasons. A lot of American translated manga has lost it's native charm; the honorifics have been taken out, they've been painfully altered to try and resemble American culture and history, or there's no guarantee the next volume (or in some cases the preceding volumes) will ever be published in English. As much as I want to support the manga industry (and I really do), I just can't justify going through the effort and expense it would take to obtain a product inferior to what I can get for free online. I do have a somewhat of a guilty conscious because of this, but I make sure to never keep any manga I download. I feel that if I didn't pay for it I don't have the right to keep a copy of it.

Apart from availability and the speed of the translations by those US publishers, one of the biggest problem in this entire thing is mainly the cost, IMO. I've always found it weird that one volume of english-translated manga costs SGD9.00 - 12.00, while the chinese-translated version of the manga costs anywhere from SGD4.50-7.00, depending on the quality.

The english publishers should really either lower the cost of manga or speed up and increase the quality of the translations so that the english versions aren't lagging too far behind their japanese counterparts.

I missed the manwha scene, of course someone could say "It's about Japan, so only manga" They are wrong, It's about the problem and the possible solutions to 'save' manga.
He should definitely have looked add or at least mentioned the format that Daum and Naver use for their webcomics.

http://cartoon.media.daum.net/webtoon
http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/weekday.nhn

Well you have to consider the fact that we are now in the digital age. Except for newspapers, weekly and monthly mangazines, and educational books no one really reads books (exuding novel addicts). Now people want everything in movie or tv series format. If it is on the internet they might read on their free time while on the internet but they certainly will not bother with it if you have to pay for each and every chapter. Plus you have to look at the availabilty, manga is not available in most areas and the limited titles in english. Look what happened to Marvel and DC comics for not getting upto date twith the newest formats both went to backruptcy and one became part of Disney and the other became part of TimeWarner. Best suggestion I have for manga publishers is translate every manga they have and adopt mangafox way where everyone can freely read manga while they earn money for amount of hits they get plus give the option to buy the print versions of the manga for those that are interested. This will also cut losses for surplus manga plus they will earn money weather people buy the print version or not.

Mixed opinions on this. Enough said.

I know someone will be bitching about scanlations not being the fault so I wanna post this reality check:

Can they blame it on scanlations?

Of course they can. I would. I mean please, why should we buy a copy when we can get it for "free"? I mean I pay for the mode, laptop, router, electricity too so why can't I use the net to read it?

In the old days only those who wanted to find the manga found it so it was kinda hard since you had to find their sites and forums....then manganews came....and then mangaupdates came....and then the nice online readers who actually advertise openly here and there where to find the manga.

The readers?
Well most of them think it's legal, rest knows it's illegal but uses the excuse "I'm poor", the last part...well they know it's illegal and can buy but why do it?

The best excuse it to blame the ones who make the manga; "If they just made it available in the proper order as we like it then we wouldn't be doing it!"

lol please stop with the excuses. It's not your work, you got no right to decide what the mangaka and/or publishers can do and can't do it. If you want to decide then make a work yourself. It's easier to excuse your bad behavior than to admit you are bad xD

/me lols as he goes to read more manga on a manga online reader that advertise free manga to him

I have no idea about the French comic/manga market but apparently, it works well - for both the publishers and the scanlators: English German

It seems to me that the Japanese publishing companies are failing to grasp the bigger picture with all the "hate" they have and direct towards Scanlators. In fact, I believe the Scanlating community has shown them "a golden egg", so to speak. The majority of scanlators scanlating these manga titles are for English readers, like myself. Scanlators have shown that the market is large and the demand is great. So why are the Japanese publishing companies not capitalizing on this? Why do they need to go through American companies? Why can't they create there own English version mangas that stays true to their materials. I mean, it is really hard to hire English speaking translators/editors. They have the original works. All they have to do is change the text. If they want to test the waters, they can digitize it and sell it on their websites. I'd definitely buy it. I would love to buy a correctly translated version of manga titles. It doesn't have to start out big. It could start out small. Japanese companies need to stop be darn stubborn and territorial. They should look at the online reader sites and find out what is being scanned. Does it have a following? If they were to produce their English version, would they attract would be buyers? Hell, why don't they use the online reader sites and advertise their own English digital version (for free of course, since these sites understand that they could be in serious trouble). The publishing companies could even release the first chapter to the online reader sites as a test and then sell the next chapters or volumes on their sites. The Japanese publishing companies can do so much. I would buy one and test it out. If it turned out better than the scanned version, I would definitely become a loyal customer and probably spend quite a bit. If this turned into a success, they could then try releasing in other languages. Why don't they see the big picture? They could create a whole new market, an international market. I just don't understand. Perhaps these ideas are just to out there.

The way I see it is they are using scanlators as the scapegoat for a failing industry. True, scanlations have played a part in dropping sales, but regardless, the the option provided here were limited. As an avid Yaoi reader, I can say that the publishers have greatky under provided teh demands for yaoi reader like myself.

A really well-made article. I hope manga artists will check it out.

And this comes as a surprise? Of course mangakas hate scanlators. Manga is dying and scanlators are partially to blame. Maybe if MF and sites like that would pay publishing companies to host their works they wouldn't be in the shit hole their in today. Sure, the economy is in a slump, but Shounen Jump published a page begging people not to scan their manga, proving that's it's having a significant effect on them.
I don't really care either way, but I'd prefer to have some manga so I'll keep supporting scanlators. I just hate it when they wont admit what they're doing it pirating. Yea, they give a lot of credit to the original artist and such, but people don't really take credit for bootlegged movies saying it's their movie either lol. You don't have to make a profit (in some cases, however, they do) to be considered an internet pirate. You're mixing up pirating with plagiarism or something. Won't matter if SOPA and PIPA(?) get passed anyways.

It is cheaper for me to ship a raw volume of manga from Japan than to buy the translated version in North America. Since I can read both Japanese and English and many English translations leave much to be desired, the choice for me is simple: I pay less for a higher quality product.

It seems the publishers still don't know that this is the 21th century, people have more demands in this century. If they just follow Daum and Naver, it would solve a lot of their trouble.
And don't blame it on the reducing birth rate, even if the sales drop in Japan, they raised a lot overseas( In my country you couldn't find any manga at all 10 years ago). In the USA it's another matter, their is the source a lack of trust in the publisher a major reason (most series are never completed, dropping quality, lack of information (the publishers don't give much info with their releases, only the release date, summary(incomplete sometimes), an unfinished front page and off course the price.

Another problem with the publishers in the USA is.... why do they license that? Oh please, license good series, the ratio between good and bad dropped a while. On the end of last year, it became a bit better but the major problems are still the same.

An other problem lately is a lack in plot in most manga, and most of them with a good plot won't even be published.

All the Republicans like to say, it's the Free Market. And it is. Just like before the big companies are making things too difficult so people came up with their own way. They made it cheaper, faster, and better quality than the big guys and the big guys want to kill off the 'competition' instead of upping their game and actually working to put out good stuff.

In the 80's MAFIAA worked to kill the VCR and Home Taping. Called it theft and piracy. We called it innovation and sharing and they eventually relented once they realized they could still make money. What we are seeing now is the last push back in our era of the old dinosaurs way of doing business which is ruthlessly attacking any and all competition even if it comes from your customers.

Just like in torrents and other file shares the PIRATES are the biggest CUSTOMERS. They learn of titles and series and follow them via the internet and if they like it, really like it, when/if it comes to them they buy it up.

But then again because of DVD Region and DRM and such and all the frecking warnings on the dvds and blurays you buy...you gotta wonder why you put with them calling you a thief all the time when you could just get the stuff online with none of that crap.

Which is why Hulu and iTunes came around.

Now the book publishers need to do the same.

But they gotta keep up with the paper publishing. DMP went the KickStarter route. Bring up a series they want to do, let people know about it, and take in the donations and confirmed sales. They raised three times the money they needed for their first product within the first week. That is how you do business in this generation for a small title.

Data is corruptible. Viruses wipe out hard drives and servers. Paperback is always better for something your truly want to own and share and love.

But data is good for a quick read.

I'm in publishing, small press, not manga translations. Look at the current book business you have only 6 different corporations who push 80% of the book business. We only have about 2 major printers left in the nation. And you hear about how badly the big guys are doing. Layoffs and what not. Guess what, the small indie presses aren't failing. We are expanding into the market.

It also helps that we don't screw over the authors in their contracts.

DRM and locked-in devices are the problem with e-books now. Not to mention the formating wars. It's beta vs vcr bluray vs hdvd vs dvd out there now. You don't own an e-book they license it to you. That's what their contract says. And they can revoke it.

Which is why a lot of people like me are wary about buying ebooks and why a LOT of people are jailbreaking the ebooks.

This is old business model vs the internet with no real new business model except those on the internet who are creating it.

It's a revolution in the works and the money hungry owners do not like it and like how big oil is keep trying to kill climate change and environmental science so they can keep making their money is how the content OWNERS (not creators, big difference there) ie COPYRIGHT OWNERS (not creators) are at war with their customers. Be it the MPAA, RIAA, MAFIAA, IPF, or the manga and book publishers it is all about the money and all about controlling THEIR product and how to make money off it and enough is never enough. So they want to kill off ALL competition including the fire sharers who are their customers and the scanlators who help create monetize their business.

You could say it is the rich corporations against their poor customers who are sick and tired of being given the shaft. So they buy off congress, make up new laws, pay the police to hound them and shut them down. Because they know the tide is turning because the internet generation is getting older and we are about to be get into political office and start to change things by booting out the old foogies who made up the damn stupid overly complicated and arduous copryight laws in the first place.

In ten years, things will be changed. We just need to keep up the fight for privacy and civil rights online and they won't be able to stop us.

That's how the Civil Rights Act got passed. You wait for the old people to get kicked out office. It's how gay marriage will be passed throughout the major first world nations. The racists and bigots are dying off and the younger more accepting generations are getting to voting age and age to serve in Congress and Parliament to actually change the laws and make things better.