@manganonymous.bsky.social
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
Aditya Bidikar@adityab.net · 3y agoReposting from Twitter. Original format posted by @marissadraws.bsky.social. The recommended rates for letterers (at least according to me): 15pp minimum 15-25 for mid level publishers 25-35 for big publishers 35-50 where you can get it Talk to your peers and to those who’ve come before you.
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
Sarah Cupcakes@cupcakesarenice.bsky.social · 2y agoI have a game. What were you "known" for on Twitter? I'll go first. I'm the woman who caused Dave Ramsey to mass-block Royals Twitter.
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.
Olivia Hill@machineiv.bsky.social · 5mo agoSpread for reach, please? In the past 20 years, have your wages increased more than the cost of living? Or has the cost-of-living out stripped your wages’ growth?
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.
Jocelyne Allen@brainvsbook.bsky.social · 2y agoGot an email from a manga start-up that clearly has not done its homework. They're going to publish mainstream manga in all genres, and they want to work with skilled translators for....four dollars a page. That's what DMP was offering to pay me ten years ago, and it was too low then.
Really good piece. Glad they get really specific about the (dreadful) rates that are offered to Manga Letterers. gizmodo.com/being-a-mang...
Being a Manga Letterer Is More Than Having a Fun Job
Typesetting popular manga like Dandadan, Kaiju No. 8, and Gokurakugai can be crushing for its pool of mostly freelance workers.
gizmodo.com
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/
