manganonymous.bsky.social

anonymous manga public rates sheet forms.gle/PKRc8YtVJFD9...

Like I really don’t think people appreciate how much work you need to find every year as a freelance TL to make anything resembling a livable wage with the rates where they are rn. To hit the median US income on pretty typical manga rates you’d have to get about *50 volumes* a year

Might as well join in the party so you can see how poorly we are paid... Recommended rates for manga translators: 5pp minimum 10 for mid-level publishers 5 for big publishers 15 where you can get it Notice the disparity for "big publishers?" They pay less because EVERYONE wants to work there

My only recent notoriety was talking about how the manga publisher Comikey's freelancer rates were like $1/page with a ridiculous increase structure that resets every month (this hasn't changed btw) I have since met the head of the company in person and he was a creepy scumbag lol

I’m p sure the easiest way to get media localized faster would be to raise rates for external contractors so they can dedicate more time to individual series and hire more people on the other end of the process (typesetters/etc for manga, programmers for games, etc) to reduce those bottlenecks

Getting told your rates are too high by yet another publisher is kind of disheartening when you're trying to raise manga standards to a decent level. There are many agencies in Japan that sell lower than us and provide lower quality work, but the client will deal with it because it sells.

For manga and light novels, rates are generally determined by the publishers, so negotiation is difficult For translators, $5/page for manga and $10/page for light novels are the lower end of market rate, but rates vary from $1-$9/page or $1000-$1500/vol (manga) and $6-$15/page (LNs)

Manga lettering rates are pretty much the same as when I started 20+ years ago. 🙃

the rate I earn for game translation has stayed pretty stagnant from 2016 to now, except the yen has tanked since then, so I actually took about a 30% pay CUT, not even counting inflation and the cost of living... book/manga rates increase incrementally, but barely keep up with inflation.

This is often disproportionate to an industry's success. As manga sales rose to astounding heights--134% increase in sales in 2021--rates plummeted. Some people are working for a $1 a page. Think about that... what in your life is worth getting paid a dollar for? Highly skilled creative work for $1.

I told them their rates were below standard, aaaand of course they responded with "we're just a smol startup uwu" as a justification for initial low rates. I've worked with more than one new manga publisher, though, and they've all paid decent page rates from day one. Not paying people is a choice.

I'm not looking for work, but one question I get asked all the time is what my rates for lettering are. Here you go. It's on my website, and it's in this image. Please use this information to set your rates and budgets. sara.pizza

The Editorial Freelance Association has updated its chart for rates, and manga/light novel companies don't meet any of them. www.the-efa.org/rates/