I thought lawyers had better reading skills...

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The Company
[b]Batoto

This idea is really really interesting.

I'm a poor student. But I read manga, and like the vast majority of MUers I download scanlations for free online. (Only unlicensed ones.)

I don't buy many books, because I don't like paying $15 plus $30 shipping from some US suburb (I live in Canada) for ONE book of which 90% of the profit margin goes towards publishers, who in turn bitch about online scanlations, antagonizing and deriding the fanbase (most of their customers). That's pissing on the hand that feeds you; it's a really stupid stupid PR move. And then you're asking us to pay $45 for fucking 100-pages?

I don't give my money to dicks. Plus, they don't seem to be trying to open new business models that allow readers to sample before they buy.

BUT, if I can help and encourage the mangaka, while maintaining a market for his or her body of work and presence without the dickery of publishers, then absolutely -- would be willing to pay "reasonably." (My understanding of that word means something that is COMPETITIVE, affordable, and possibly negotiable with the website, where customer loyalty is rewarded, etc.)

However, I have one issue on your idea, given my ignorance of the business model. I think, for example, if a work falls under a genre with a wider market reach (shounen, shojo, etc), prices should be higher or normalized as they reflect higher demand. If a work is for smaller niche, or something more cult-y, like yaoi, for instance, prices should be lower to encourage wider consumer base. The latter can happen since the production cost is cheap for the website (as in, you pay for a server, and delivery is virtually worldwide for free).

The authors should receive the highest margins of profit either way. The system as it stands currently, where an artist has to sign a contract relinquishing their ownership to publishers is wrong. This is one reason why I hate buying manga. The industry is disrespectful to their artists, and consequently disrespectful to their customers (who are fans, not moneybags. We're selling storytellers and artists too here.)

I doubt you'll find any currently published mangaka willing to break their contract with publishers to follow this model, but if you can pan it out somehow (likely with some unknown, unpublished green artists -- you'd be accomplishing something big if you can get any big names), I'd be more than glad to support it.

Get rid of the middle man. You get cheaper manga. You get artists with proprietary ownership of their works. You get instant access (no 2-month delivery shit). AND we've got the tech tools to make it happen. I'm not sure why this isn't yet happening.

Last edited by Gijeumo at 9:56 pm, Sep 11 2010

I did read it and what you said still wont work without publisher permissions.authors pretty much sell their souls once they get signed

If it was a pay a flat monthly fee that was reasonable and the manga was interesting enough to be competitive with what is in print ( i am not expecting OP) then i would be in tomorrow. But i would be expecting a quality image with preferably a direct download capability that wouldn't require me downloading form some other file hosting site.

Don't get me wrong,I am not trying to talk your idea down just if you really want to do that,you would have to pay publishers since they own the rights to the published works and if you wanted to get un-signed artist then that would be making yourself a publisher and for a mangaka to survive they would need alot of money to pay for assistants,a studio,some reference material,and etc.But without any info it just sounds like your trying to be like Tazumo

He(? sorry, I'm too lazy to check so I'll just use this) actually did address those concerns when they were brought up earlier... It basically sounds like a digital self-publishing service like amazon provides, which would mean that the mangaka handle all of that. Like you, I'm very skeptical about this, especially given how competitive the industry is in Japan.

The advantage of having publishers is that they can actually provide those things- assistants, editors, references, in addition to publicity and, you know, print material. They exist for a reason and help improve the quality of the work, which is why the majority of published materials are better in terms of raw quality than the majority (key word here, there are always exceptions) of those who have been unable to obtain representation. That's really the problem with the model here- it's difficult to compete with all those advantages.

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Reviews of my Work:
You are kind of boring - Blackorion
Congratulations! Ur an asshole! - tokyo_homi
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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...

I'm probably gonna re-read thru this and check if what i said was accurate after i sleep cause i havent slept in nearly 30 hours so im not at my most cognitive skills right now

None, I like my books.

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<!--from_quote--><div class="quotehead"><b>Quote from Iruka-sensei</b></div><div class="quote">My magical ninja powers of magic!</div><!--from_quote end-->

Vote: Other

Well it doesn't make that muhc of a diffrence for me, since even if I payed them and they put up their works on the net, I still can't read the Asian Laungish's.

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If you want to succeed
Then you don't need Good Luck
You need the ability to overcome Bad Luck

Happines and Light needs a source to exist
Hatred fuels itself and Darkness exist where there is no Light


† Lightmare †

@Syrius
The point you are missing is that I've already said, for any published works, I would just buy the license from the publisher. What I proposed applies to areas where such contract does not already exist or where it's a little more bendable.

@Crenshinibon
Yes, I am male. And yes, cash flow feasibility is questionable. But what business on earth isn't questionable when you start out? Gotta take risks. And I'm not about to quit my day job just yet.
I agree, publisher does more than just 'publish', they manage lot of factors such as promo, qc, etc. But what I think is that they've grown beyond their necessary size much like in the music industry. The recording companies are huge and trying to hold onto their size, but with digital publishing, their current size is way bigger than what's needed and are having difficulties just to stay where they are. While it's not exactly equivalent, manga publisher aren't far off from it. Other than japanese publisher, many publishers have taken steps to change but these steps still don't consider the international reach, only local. What I want to do is extend that reach.

@Lightmare
It's in english. And only in english (for the start).

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The Company
[b]Batoto

ROFL i hope you enjoy the cost of buying those licensing and btw,i only read the first post so if you added anything on later post I did not see them

No I would not

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No one gives a shit what trite garbage you write here.

@Grumpy
Perhaps you'd be able to find better luck and interest with the Webcomic and Western Comic community?

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if you could somehow put actual books in there then i am sold. i hate reading online as it hurts my eyes.

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[img][/img] A senpai tried to violate me after hearing about my transfer. BUT I RAPED HIM INSTEAD.

I don't want to get too off topic here, but you should really be careful about comparisons to the music industry. It's true that there are a number of parallels, but what studies are continually confirming is that, with books, the physical, tactile component is vital to at least half the industry's audience (amazon's "sales numbers" are a little misleading in this regard, as the quantity includes a number of essentially free public domain texts purchased by a small audience). The result is that companies need to be able to manage both physical and digital components well, and while that may involve a fair amount of contraction, it's not going to be anywhere near the same scale as the music industry simply because a much smaller percentage of the audience is inclined towards the digital equivalent (the post above mine is a good example of this).

The publishers do seem to be working on internationalizing things- I seem to recall English chapters of shounen jump comics being posted by Shueisha a while back- but we're still in the early stages, as you say. The thing is that my skepticism largely comes from the fact that I believe these companies are going to either handle that themselves or use alternative routes of distribution- channels like itunes and amazon, mostly. If you're lucky, you might end up like crunchyroll, but you're going to have to get your foot in the door quickly for that to happen.

Like I said, best of luck and all that, and you're not wrong about taking risks, but I still wouldn't be an investor.

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Reviews of my Work:
You are kind of boring - Blackorion
Congratulations! Ur an asshole! - tokyo_homi
Your awesome!!! - Cherelle_Ashley
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...