as the paper volume worth of the manga i've read is in the tens of thousands, i'd definitely prefer some kind of flat rate.

To begin with, I don't like the idea of paying for something that doesn't exist in the material world. When I buy a manga, I want to be able to put it on a shelf and read whenever I want.
What's more, it's really difficult to decide when you are so unwilling to give any further details. If it's real Japanese manga you want to put on your site, I really doubt this would work.
And finally, I don't think publishers would accept such website. They are not some evil organisation wanting to steal money from us - they are people too and they need to earn money. And, while scanlations may be called "making manga more popular and available" (there are quite a few people who buy manga despite reading scans), your website would be stealing profits from publishers in a way so obvious that it would be impossible for them to do nothing about this.

By the way, I think that the quotation mark in the second option in the poll is unnecessary.

I guess this might be possible for brand new series. I don't see how you could go directly to the author otherwise.

Hmm... Like Crenshinbon, I also have my doubts since this seems like it'd involve breaching the the contract with their publishers, that is assuming it'd involve series that are already ongoing.

However, if I have to guess (and knowing you ), it'd be more involving new works of artists/mangaka published online, in almost like a webcomic format similar to Zuda, right? Sorry if I assumed wrong, but that seems like that's the only way I can see it work, haha.


(please forgive my poor grammar, it's 5 am and I'm writting this on a very tiny touch screen )

Last edited by CatzCradle at 3:50 pm, Sep 11 2010

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heh.
catzcradle/mo-dean's guess is right.

This isn't going to try and strike a deal with authors when they're already tied to a contract. Rather, approach new ones instead and form a contract with the authors where it might seem more profitable for them.

As for already published works, the idea in mind is just plainly buy the license from publishers. Viability calculation... hopefully comes out well. Ballpark guess doesn't seem that bad for certain series. I honestly doubt there will be Naruto and such tho due to costs. So there are actually several models to cater each group. But international licensing model for which I'm thinking of, the author's barely get any royalty, if any. So, I'm also considering a direct donation option to the author as well. If I can even get in contact with them.

But I did want to test people's mentality for the new idea. Testing for existing old stuff is meaningless.

@TofuQueen
Yes, you can download and keep it. Like mp3. No sharing tho. Like mp3s............ (lots of dots required there)

Last edited by Grumpy at 7:08 am, Sep 11 2010

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The Company
[b]Batoto

Honestly I'd rather just read a scanlation and use a donation box on the author's site.

Alright. I see what you're getting at now. It's not like this hasn't been done before- even ABe Yoshitoshi experimented with putting a couple doujin titles up through amazon's digital service.

I don't mean to come across as overly critical, but I'm still pretty skeptical of the whole thing. No licenses means attracting authors who aren't signed at all with a publisher (usually mangaka contracts are exclusive for their duration, and not necessarily for a specific work either), so basically what you'd be left with would be a large scale translation service for the doujinshi market, since that's essentially what self-publishing in the manga world amounts to. This might not necessarily be a bad thing- stuff like Onani Master Kurosawa certainly hits it big (relatively speaking) every one in a while, but I'm not certain I would pay for that kind of service on a long term basis. Speaking just from what, for example, you can see in amazon's self-published annals, there's really no quality control, so you have to wade through all the slush that publishers usually filter to get to anything half-decent. If you got a big name or two, again, assuming you could obtain the capital to work out licenses with the publishes, then it might work.

I'll wish you luck, but I'll probably just keep up with what the publishers come up with in the next year or so on their own. The legal translation services that we see now through funimation and whatnot aren't too terrible a solution, and no matter what your aim might be, I don't think that just giving the mangaka a greater cut will amount to more cash for them (your rates would need to be exceptionally low to be viable in an entitlement demographic like the typical scanlation readership, and I'm not convinced the numbers would really add up to much more overall, plus, I don't really want to cut out the publishers.)

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NightSwan also said that she wanted to peg me, once, but I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or a threat...

So basically you are trying to start something to NETCOMICS?

I'm not making money so I have no money to pay them.
And tbh, if I was to pay something, I'd want a physical copy of it. (:

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♪MONSTARR~ will eat all your cookies and steal your bishies~♪ Φ_Φ

OH GOD YES.

And I'm usually more willing to part with my kidneys than I am with my money, since, well, I HAVE NO MONEY (or hardly any money), but even the little money I have? I'd gladly pay my favorite mangakas directly if it meant I could read their stuff online, without a middleman to bump up the price unreasonably.

If you aren't planning on charging anything extra as the middleman, this would be a GREAT business model; you could earn revenue through advertising, or something, instead of by charging users more.

This is excellent. I wish you the best of luck. It could be THE solution to all the weirdness/scariness currently underway about the legality of scanlations and the crapload of trouble scanlators AND readers of scanlated manga can get into. Because you would have legal permission from the mangakas, right?

Bear in mind, though, that in many cases, the mangakas wouldn't be able to give permission even if they wanted to, especially if they're currently under contract with some publisher (the publisher would have to give permission). And the publisher probably won't cooperate, since, you know, there's no money in it for them.

An amazing yaoi mangaka, Okadaya Tetuzoh, recently made this all clear in a discussion about pulling his/her scanlations offline - the mangaka said that while they themselves didn't have a problem with it, they didn't hold the legal rights to the manga's distribution, online or offline, and thus couldn't approve of scanlations even if they wanted to.

You might want to check with these mangakas about their status re: publisher contracts, before going any further. Or you could potentially get both yourself AND them into legal trouble... But that's only if they're actually bound by such terms in their contracts. Otherwise - YAY, IT'S A MANGA CHRISTMAS!

Last edited by tartufo at 8:44 am, Sep 11 2010

yeah sure!! why not?!.. that is when i get rich tomorrow...

but seriously... i really do think that they have every right to get paid by people who enjoys their works...

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oh please do click this!
The sweeter the apple, the higher the branch. The quieter the fart, the nastier the smell.
GUESS WHO??

I pay for the mangas that I really like.
I read in the Internet volumen 1 and the rest will be adquire in the shop or Internet. As Wild Ones, Apothecarious Argentum, Silver Dimond, Captive Hearth, Totally Captivated
If I really enjoy the Serie I will adquire the Manga and the Anime; as Kyo Kara Maoh or XXXHolic
Some time I read volumen 1 and 2 and continue reading the tale in Internet is good but not totally awesome.
In occation I read volumen 1 and 2 and look for the anime and continue the tale in the Anime. As Chibi Vampire, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle,
So yes I adquiere The DVD or/ and the Manga if the Tale make me

Oh wow, my guess was right!

To be honest, I think this has the potential to go either way. If you're idea is anything close to Zuda's working business style and keep quality control strict, I think this would have the potential of being great!
I mean, people were apprehensive about the lack of famous artists when Zuda first started out (see my link), but now they have a some really really good stuff, including an award-winning series (and another in which I'm planning to buy when it comes out next month. ).

And for people who are still apprehensive. You'd have to remember that a lot of popular series here such as Half Prince, Clamp and other Korean Manhwa started out from online cellphone novels, webcomics and other small-time doujinshi, and look at where they're now!


Last edited by CatzCradle at 1:46 pm, Sep 12 2010

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Meh... I'm too lazy. I probably wouldn't. For stuff like this, I'd rather not spend the extra money.
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Impratical and wont work,the whole thing that you will pay mangakas for the work is illegal.when a mangaka begins publishing a series-he is made to sign a contract which disallows him to receive direct profit from a series so t would not work unless you paid the publishers and btw i am a Lawyer so i do know this stuff