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NEWS: Digital Manga Guild Program to Launch With 23 Titles




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einhorn303



Joined: 20 Nov 2006
Posts: 1180
PostPosted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 8:01 pm Reply with quote
So, is this all yaoi/BL?
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DOS_Lemos



Joined: 10 Jun 2011
Posts: 8
PostPosted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 4:05 am Reply with quote
So it does..., *sigh* why o why?
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Ashen Phoenix



Joined: 21 Jun 2006
Posts: 2947
PostPosted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 12:11 pm Reply with quote
I'm really not sure what to expect from this just yet. A few things are still unclear to me.

Will the series under the Guild's name be published into physical hardcopies? Or just digital downloads?

Is each title being handled by a different group/independent translation team or person? And lastly, does DMI check the translations' accuracy before giving the go-ahead? (Basically, how do they go about quality assurance?)
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samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 2248
Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 1:19 pm Reply with quote
Okay, so let's do the math.

Not sure how much one of these downloads will cost... Let's say $6 a volume (that's a bit pricey, perhaps?).

A volume of manga costs, professionally, around $10 a page to be translated typeset edited and proofread as a minimum (more like $15-20 for anyone other than the now defunct Tokyopop).

So that's a good $2000 or so worth of "work" to finish a book.

Therefore, assuming these localization groups actually get the 12% they claim to (it's unclear whether the 12% is off "profits" or "revenue", meaning do costs like bandwidth and distribution costs (or printing costs for physical books) get taken out before the 12%? Most likely...
Anyway, let's go ahead and be generous and assume it's 12% of $6 a sale, meaning... 70 cents a sale.

Therefore, to make up the "absolutely cheapest professional rate" cost of translation, the DMG would need to sell about 3000 copies.

Will these titles sell 3000 copies digitally at $6 a pop? Especially the later volumes.

And what happens when a group that's translated volume 1 gets a check in the mail for $50 and are asked to start work on volume 2?
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einhorn303



Joined: 20 Nov 2006
Posts: 1180
PostPosted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 1:23 pm Reply with quote
Ashen Phoenix wrote:
I'm really not sure what to expect from this just yet. A few things are still unclear to me.

Will the series under the Guild's name be published into physical hardcopies? Or just digital downloads?

Is each title being handled by a different group/independent translation team or person? And lastly, does DMI check the translations' accuracy before giving the go-ahead? (Basically, how do they go about quality assurance?)


Right now I'm not sure even digital downloads will be offered. The way DMP's eManga site works now is you can only buy access to titles, which you have to be connected to the internet to read through their own application. It's extremely DRM-ed and restrictive: something I have no interest in supporting financially.

We'll see if that changes, though.
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