Forum - View topicNEWS: Tokyopop CEO Considers Using Fan Translators
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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I'm also a scanlator (don't do it so much now because of college) but I could only agree to this if the scanlators get paid for their time. I have no idea what a Tokyopop translator or typeset/graphic editor gets paid, but I'd be willing to do it for a fraction since I do it anyway as a hobby (or internship status like mentioned before would probably work), but otherwise I wouldn't feel comfortable with a company just riding on my free work. Scanlators scanlate for the fans, and though I know a lot of people don't purchase legal copies, a lot of people who do read do buy it when released, and a number of scanlators encourage it in the file release. (Hello Naruto, Gakuen Alice, Claymore, etc, and whatever I scanlate I usually buy both the Japanese edition for scanlating, and the English copy for my collection and gifts to friends)
I can see some scanlators volunteering for free just for the "honor" of officially being published, but I wouldn't be one of them. I have to wonder about how, if Tokyopop goes through with this, they plan on using scanlations. Will they just use low quality scans? Are they just planning on using the translations, or will they go far enough to ask for the original high quality photoshop files the scanlators use. (I backed up those files on CDs, like someone mentioned before. Some of those discs are missing, but I backed up a LOT, especially if you spend anywhere from half and hour to a full hour on a single page) Some title's they wouldn't be able to use the original scanlator files because those scans are from the magazine, the low quality newsprint release, versus an actual tankubon/volume release. |
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bglassbrook
 Posts: 1243 Location: Gaithersburg, MD |
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That was also one of the items they mentioned as wanting to implement in the none-to-distant future. However, publishers have been saying this for years, so I think it is starting to sound fairly hollow. Not to mention that while I don't necessarily like the single source aspect of it, as long as they are still available as high quality releases, the market will work itself out. |
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tygerchickchibi
 Posts: 1448 |
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Print on Demand?
If you're implying what I think you are, I highly disagree with it. Why would I want to print hundreds of paper copies when I could just buy the book in the store? Maybe it's just me but I think that idea is terrible. |
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sailorsarah08
 Posts: 471 Location: Houston, Texas |
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Man, I'm sick of Tokyopop. They can't manage getting paper the right thickness, so how do you think they will be at digital files? Will they sell fans corrupt files?
If I was a fan translator I wouldn't let them use my work for free. I'd sabotage it so they looked like morons. |
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rabrek
 Posts: 188 |
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That would be "print your own". POD is a delivery method in which a physical book is produced digitally as needed. One copy ordered? Print one copy. The final product isn't as crisp and sexy as a conventionally designed and printed book, but if you go back to the source article on ANN, you'll see that the context is low-selling titles. Titles that aren't likely to see a print run at all, and thus won't be available to buy in the store, are righteous candidates for POD. (Wikipedia has an article on POD, if you'd like to get more background on it.) |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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I think you're confusing print-on-demand with print it yourself. |
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tygerchickchibi
Posts: 1448 |
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n_n Thank you for clarifying. I never heard of it because I always buy my manga in the store. I'll look it up at some point, thanks. I read upon it, and that's something I probably would stay away from. xD |
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Loserbait
Posts: 3 |
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I get the feeling that Tokyopop are delving into the deep end a bit. Ironically, the manga website they are dealing with would know more about online distribution. This shows that at least a licensor is seriously considering the fans now.
And seriously, if they "steal" scanlators away, don't you think the scanlators would want their stolen time paid for? I think it's incredibly foolish to not pay for hard work and knowing a lot of scanlators, they ain't stupid. Well, I'm guessing it'll work out -- especially with the success of CrunchyRoll. Say what you want about them, they started as one of us (fansubber and/or scanlator) and now they do licensed releases. And get paid handsomely for it. Who's to say that this won't work out for our sexy scanlators? We would hold a solid chunk of power given this is our world they're invading. Home field advantage 
Still, I'd definitely risk it all just to get the experience and (legal) exposure to a global audience. |
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2231 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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Uh, Crunchyroll never fansubbed anything themselves. They streamed fansubs that other people created. |
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livingcipher
Posts: 2 |
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This is a dangerous attitude. If you were to take work from Tokyopop for a "fraction" of what they usually pay people, think about the people who are trying to do it for a living. If you undercut what is already not a sustainable rate, where does that leave the people who are trying to translate legitimately for a living? By allowing Tokyopop to do this, by not demanding a standard wage, by taking work at a "fraction", you are damaging the livelihood of people who are working within the system. |
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AkashicLibrarian
Posts: 17 |
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If I may hazard a guess...
Tokyopop likely have noticed that a few of the titles that they put on hiatus but clearly still have the license for, have been picked up by trans/scanlating able individuals/groups consisting of people who were buying and reading those particular series, who subsequently got peeved at TP putting a stop on those titles and decided to continue scanlating from the point that TP stopped. (Certain discontinued ADV manga titles received similar treatment even earlier back for those that remember) Noticing that the quality of translation/editing was equal/if not superior to what they, Tokyopop, did themselves, it makes sense to attempt to recruit the fan scanlators and a)save face b)look hip by interacting with the fan scan community (as dubious as that is) and c)possibly succeed in financially breaking even on those licenses in question. There's bound to be some poverty-line scanlators out there that would be attracted to getting a bit of extra dosh for their work of love. I must agree with livingcipher's comment on this being a dangerous scenario for the reasons mentioned. TP's definitely treading on thin ice with this, if indeed this tale is true. --- Nobody has mentioned the fact that TP already took a more plausible step towards saving the low selling titles via a PoD/limited pressing method through their website a couple years back, but reversed its decision after unfavorable response from the buying manga community. Sadly, in hindsight that may have allowed a decent amount of discontinued titles to continue being printed for those willing to use that method (I know I was ,in the end, willing to pre-order/pay full price in order to see those titles published to the end, but oh well, my forced increase of japanese literacy has now alternatively led to a few spots on my shelves having ADV/JP tank and now TP/JP tank mixed completions) I imagine that a decent amount of the manga buyers who were highly vocal against the TP PoD plan back then, are now kicking themselves for their previous unwillingness to accept that publishing model, however inconvenient it seemed at the time. |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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bayoab
Posts: 831 |
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tygerchickchibi
Posts: 1448 |
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That person can get another job. I think that being a translator is freelance work. It's going to fluctuate depending on titles, so you could get big money and then later on it could be a small project. If the work is not going to be consistent, then it would be best of the person either finds another job to help. It's nothing new, people do this all the time. I don't really think it's a matter of rate, but I'm going to have to look into this more. |
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sailorsarah08
Posts: 471 Location: Houston, Texas |
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They could hire on with a business that needs a good translator if they are fluent (speaking) and if not they can translate for somewhere where there is money or get a teacher's certificate (not that they'd get more money.) There are more job ops for people who fluently speak/read two languages. I don't think manga translators get paid that much anyway, I'd recon it's more of a job you do because you enjoy it not because you're trying to become rich. |
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