Translate Manga for Manga bucks

Posted on 04. Oct, 2007 @ 11:45 am by in Culture, Language, Media Views: 568

Manganovel Corproation and Toshiba Corporation are using what seems to be a form of “crowd sourcing” and “Web 2.0″ to get Manga fans to translate Manga for them.

[source article on Yahoo News Asia]

The web based service is called “Manganovel” and allows readers to download manga in Japanese to read, and then post their translations back to the Manganovel. Submitted translations earn points that can then be used to purcahse more manga.

If you love manga and want to get some translation experience, but are not ready to get a serious translation job, this might be a good way to get your feet wet.

Checking the economics though, no one is going to get rich, or even get a lot of free manga out of this program.

The “Manganovel” Concept
1. Members buy Japanese version of comics for $4 to $5.
2. “Reader-translators” translate the comic to other languages.
3. The “reader translator” e-mails the “translation” to “Manganovel” and can price it at either free or 2 percent of the original comic price.
4. Readers can purchase the original Japanese comic and the translation data.
5. If a translation is purchased, the “reader-translator” gets 50% of the sale price as a royalty.
6. Readers who purchase translations can review them on “Manganovel’s” discussion board, and use reviews to select a translation of a comic from among multiple translations. The original “reader-translator” can also use the feedback from discussions to revise the text and try to improve it.

2% huh? Ouch!

I guess if you became “The Guru” who provides the best translations quickly for a particular popular manga, I could potentially imagine sustained sales continuing for a long long time… But still, it would take an incredibly high volume of sales for 2% of a 5 dollar manga to amount to anything significant. And also, it seems that you have to purchase the manga from their site to even begin the translation…

Would be fun though!

- Harvey

  • http://nihonhacks.com Thomas (nihonhacks.com)

    You misspelled “Manga” in your post title. Might want to fix that real quick :)

  • http://www.japannewbie.com/japanese_ads/ Harvey

    Thanks for the heads-up. Now I’ll have to figure out how to rebuild the URL. Probably easy, will do later ;-)

  • http://surrealu.blogspot.com claytonian

    Intriguing. If I had more free time…

  • Pingback: Buy & Translate Manga, Buy More Manga : Japan Probe

  • http://nihonhacks.com Thomas

    for rebuilding the url, in your WP admin go to Manage->Posts->Edit and then look for “post slug” on the right side. Editing the url might break some links though (like JapanProbe’s link to your site in the pingback above).

  • http://www.japannewbie.com/japanese_ads/ Harvey

    And as I’m sure you know, a JapanProbe link is not a link I’m looking to break! JapanProbe is the One Piece of JapanBlogs… because One Piece is an insanely popular managa… and JapanProbe is an insanely popular blog… okay. Strange analogy.

  • http://muteao.blogspot.com Chrissy

    Wow, cool! I just might give it a try!! That way I don’t forget my Japanese also!!

  • http://muteao.blogspot.com Chrissy

    none of the mangas they have look that interesting :( maybe if they will expand their database…

  • http://pixelscribbles.com/journal Heather Meadows

    I had an idea slightly similar to this for getting anime translated by fans, but in my scenario the translators at least got the raw materials for free :>

    It looks like the translators get 50% of the fee when anyone buys the translation, too…wonder how much the company charges people for it? But you’re right, they’re only guaranteed that 2% of the comic price.

  • http://www.japannewbie.com harvey

    Chrissy says all the manga there aren’t very interesting.. and Chrissy knows her manga!

    What everyone else? Are there any interesting-looking manga there?

  • vince in tokyo

    These guys are raping the public for translation work that they will publish and make a lot of money off of – AND they’re charging the translator for the “opportunity” . . .

    Silliness …

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