February 2011 Chapters
For a little while now we’ve been thinking about doujin fan comics. Doujin, for those of you who don’t know, are amateur, unlicensed comics. In Asian countries such as Japan and Taiwan, they are extremely popular. There are entire conventions dedicated just to the sale of doujin. In Western countries, however, doujin are quite rare. A quick search on ebay shows that most doujin sell for about $30 USD, which is quite expensive, especially if you don’t speak the language they’re written in.
So we started thinking. What if we worked with doujin artists to translate their work and sell them internationally? We looked into copyright laws and what this would entail, then contacted Yu Wo and asked for her permission to translate and sell the doujin, since fan comics are considered a derivative work. Then finally, we started contacting a few doujin artists. And now we present to you our final, though still in-progress idea:
We will be translating and selling The Legend of Sun Knight doujin fan comics. At the moment we’ve reached an agreement with Yukisora to translate her LSK doujin fan comic, though we hope to work with more artists in the future. You can find some examples of the doujin’s pages below. The first doujin that we are selling is the re-drawing of The Legend of Sun Knight Volume 1 Chapter 1 into comic style.
 |
 |
The doujin is 24 page B5 size and it will sell for about $9 USD a comic, plus shipping and handling. Shipping fees will be about $2~$3 within the US, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. For readers not from the previously mentioned locations, you will be offered 2 choices: about $3 USD for un-registered post and about $4 for registered post (trackable). Please note that this is a rough estimation of shipping fees, it can be more or less depending on your location.
Payments will be done through Paypal. This will mean that you’ll be able to pay via credit card, debit card, and bank transfer. We will also accept money order and checks by post. Those who wish to pay by bank transfer should apply for a Personal Paypal account, and then nominate your bank account to verify the Paypal account. We do not accept direct wire transfers for now. For more information on linking abank account to Paypal, please go to this link: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/Marketing/general/NewConsumerLink-outside and https://www.paypal-offers.com.au/addbankaccount.asp
Before we fully go through with this, we want to get an idea about how many of you will be interested in buying the doujin. If you know that you want to purchase the doujin when it comes out, please fill out this form: Order form. Please note that this is a PLEDGE TO BUY the doujin fan comic when it is published. If you are not totally sure that you want to buy one, please DO NOT fill out the form! Additionally, we can assure you no third party will be able to access private information such as email and location info that you’ve provided.
That being said, the first 15 people who sign will be given a 10% discount on this first doujin. Additionally, Yukisora has offered to draw a new cover for the doujin if 200 people sign up! So if you’re interested, please sign the pledge!
Order confirmation page: Link (The list will be updated every 5 minutes.)
Please note that you are NOT required to pay as soon as you sign the pledge. We won’t be accepting payments until around March or so. Also, we WILL NOT be looking for more staff, such as cleaners. Because we’ll be working directly with the artists when translating the doujin, we’ll have access to images without any text already on them, and hence won’t have need for cleaners.
More updates about the store will come later. Stay tuned!
In other news, PR!H and PR!D are doing well, and we’ve also garnered interest in a few languages, namely Russian and Vietnamese. If you speak either of these languages and are interested in helping out, please apply! (For detailed information, check out our Recruitment page.) As a reminder, we also have French and Italian translations that are in the works, but not quite enough to make a subgroup.
And finally, we now have two new proof-readers! Please welcome fatum and Mustsleep!
Happy Chinese New Year everyone!
—S.R and Eilinel
Daywalker
Great News! I’m thrilled about your motivation to add extra stuff, but unfortunately i myself am not into buying manga and Doujin. Sry ;)
But I’m again looking forward to your announced translations this month.
eilinel
It’s ok XD. The translation releases should come out around 7th if no accidents happen. Please don’t take this as a definite date ^ ^;
Kira
Do we have to buy the printed copies? That will set around RM 80 something in my country, enough for a week’s food. Don’t we get the digital version option? That would only be RM 35 depends on the exchange rate. I can take 3 days fasting.
I’ll only be buying digital version, i can’t afford shipping paper version.
But i have a suggestion. Appoint someone as your representative in each major continent or country that would do the printing and posting. It’ll save money for the readers. Not to mention that representative can also gives options of language, wether the reader wants it in English or other language, even in Japan itself. No import tax or anything. No pornoghraphy association with manga at the border check like Canada i heard. Believe me, magazines imported from Japan was manually censored by the officers here. I don’t want my copy to arrive with black marks all over the pages just because its just a little bit sexy.
eilinel
Your idea is good, but it is impossible for us to carry out. We are not a global company looking to maximize our profits. However, Yukisora is a Malaysian artist, so you can order the printed copies directly from her. I will ask her the cost later and email the details to you. Unfortunately, we aren’t offering digital copies for now.
Mega
nice idea, to bad that I’m broke T_T
chicaalterego
first of all YAY 2 MORE CHAOTER OF SUN KNIGHT!!!! having said that i wish you guys luck with the doujinshin thing… i would love to buy one if i could… but i cant since im from venezuela and here the paperwork for getting online dolars is as hard as to scratch your nose with your elbow >.< and there is even a restriction in how many you can get for year (i think is about 200$)… anyway i wish you the best! thanks for bringing to the world some DJ's. i love them __ BTW herei wanted to share an image that reflected my happyness 4 the sun knight issue.
_l__l_
d(^_^)b
(l : l)
l-ll-l you see im that happy <3
chicaalterego
@chicaalterego
it kinda moved :'(
xoxo
Are we able to preview/read the doujinshi before buying it?
Shadow Rebirth
You won’t be able to read the full doujin, but we will post pictures of what it looks like in printed form and some of the pages.
Sanachan
The doujin is SO pretty. I’ve been reading the official LSK manga on mangafox, but this is nicer. I would totally buy it, but it’s a little expensive to be buying on a regular basis at $10 a chapter + shipping. When several chapters come out, are you going to make them into one volume? And maybe sell the volumes for less than $10 a chapter?
eilinel
Thanks for your suggestion. We will think about it =). We can’t guarantee it will be less than $10 per chapter though, because it will be unfair to those who bought the individual doujins.
Daywalker
@eilinel
Shouldn’t it become at least a bit cheaper, cause the printing fee per page for a larger Volume should go down with an increase of pages. (At Least that was for the printjob some of my friends had made for school long ago) The initial cost is pretty high, to start the printjob, but then you get a lower price per page down to a ceartain minimum, because it is cheaper to add pages to a job, because it is already in the work or something like that… (At least in a little larger scale jobs like 200-300 copies) And every Business course will tell you, that you do sell expensive single items and go down with the price in a bundle ;)
chicaalterego
@Daywalker
i wonder if that is going to be cheaper… i mean after all if the mayority of people is buying individual djs then when the recopilation comes out there wont be as many people, so i think keeping the pice makes sence… what i think it can come as saving money is that you only need to pay one delivery fee.
EllieT
I like this suggestion as the cost of international postage is a significant chunk of purchase price. Even if its the same price per chapter we’d save a ton on postage (if the postage is the same for a volume ($5/$15) and assuming there are 10x$8 chapters we’d save nearly 35%/27% on the total cost of doujin+unregistered post). A volume should be a tiny bit cheaper though since as Daywalker pointed out the cost of printing is generally lower. I’m sure that people who can afford to will still buy individual chapters a) to get it sooner than the rest of us and b) I assume (from the small collection I do have) a volume will not feature the individual cover art for each chapter.
eilinel
Mm we are aware that postage is a major chunk of the cost >_<, so we already tried to find the cheapest postage available. The postage for a bundled volume will be higher, because it will be heavier (more pages), but probably will still be cheaper than the total postage if you buy it one by one. By the way, I will stress it again, the postage listed is an estimate. It might be lower depending on your location. We will see what happens 2 or 3 years later about the bundled volume. The final decision to bundle the volume does not lie in our hands, it's decided by the artist. Maybe you all can start a petition 2 years later to show that you do want the bundled volume very much...XD. It's definitely easier to convince the artist if we have 300 people or more who confirm they want to buy it.
Shadow Rebirth
We should also mention the price ultimately isn’t up to us–it’s up to the artist. So while we may be able to change the price slightly, it won’t be by much.
Daywalker
@Sanachan
At least with a Volume, you would not have to pay the shipping cost for every single chapter ;)
eilinel
Yes everything you said is true. However, like what you’ve said, it need a larger scale jobs like 300 copies. I’ve discussed with the artist, and we will bundle the chapters into a volume if more than 300 people signed up at that time. If we don’t have enough, we will not print the bundle at all. Moreover, if you want to wait for the bundle, then I could only ask you to be very patient. It probably will come after 2 or 3 years as the artist hasn’t complete the drawing of all the chapters yet.
Asura_gurdeep
i would love to buy them, but i dont have the money… being a university student sucks
why the hell does the tuition have to be so high… but good luck with your venture my friends.
E
Thank you for the updates!
However, in regard to translating the novel into Vietnamese, I thought it’s already done?
eilinel
No it isn’t. The novel is officially translated into Thai, not Vietnamese.
E
@eilinel
http://www.wattpad.com/464990-1-2-prince-1-6
But I’m not really sure if that can be considered “official”. Although that isn’t “pure Vietnamese”, making it hard to understand, they do have every chapter translated.
If that’s not accepted as “official”, I’d like to give it a try. When it says that I need to submit the translated chapters, does that mean I must start from chapter 1 of vol 1?
eilinel
Uh sorry I can’t understand Vietnamese so I don’t know what that page is saying. When I said official, I mean it’s a real book series published by a real publisher working together with Yu Wo. Thai translation is such a case. They do have the paper copy of books and it is fully legal. What we are doing here and probably that page as well, are fans translation with strictly no commercial use =).
If you want to try translating LSK into Vietnamese, I will give your email to the person who’ve first applied to translate the chapter so the two of you can discuss the translation among yourself. Is that alright with you?
E
@eilinel
I’m sorry for the late reply.
And I see. I haven’t seen any like that around, and that translation was probably translated by some fans as well. So I guess there’s no official Vietnamese translation then.
I must say I’m not sure if my skill is good enough, but I’d love to discuss that with him/her. =3
eilinel
Alright I had email him with your email address. Have fun translating! =)
saintvalentine
@E
mhmm, wow….. It is really hard to understand even i’m Vietnamese…..
Lp
…Doesn’t this function the same way as any other normal scanlation group? As in, someone scanned in the original first, a group scanlates it and the doujin got distributed freely, some way or another :/
Shadow Rebirth
We cannot distribute the doujin for free because that would be ripping off the artist. Just as licensed manga are removed from manga sites because they would then be available in America, so this will now be available legally in English. Distributing it for free would be an illegal activity, going against copyright laws in both America and Malaysia and, frankly, completely unfair to the artist who has put tons and tons of work into the doujin. We will, however try to offer the doujin for as cheaply as we can. The entire point of why we’re doing this is so that English-speaking fans have access to doujin that they wouldn’t otherwise, and this is the best way to do so.
Lp
@Shadow Rebirth
What I’m most afraid of is the case of some one buying the translated version, scan and distributing it via the net – a very common case for doujins. With a fandom as big as 1/2 Prince, I’m afraid this may very well happen sooner or later :/
Lp
@Shadow Rebirth
Even if you’re only translating the SK doujins, majority of the 1/2 Prince fandom is into SK as well, and…Sad to say, but I’ve met people who have less tact.
erialis
@Lp
Lp has a valid point. You guys will have to figure that out, but I think there’s no way to completely prevent or dissuade someone intent on distributing the doujin from doing so. All you can do, I think, is to make it clear that you can only continue this doujin translation service for so long as people keep to the agreement not to redistribute it. That’s probably why FruiT and Icicle were reluctant to participate. :\
eilinel
Thank you for your suggestion =). I know he has a valid point, but honestly, hard to stop piracy >_<
E
@erialis
Perhaps you should have a page asking the readers not to scan those doujins, but instead support them by going to this page to order. Although I don’t think it will change this much, but at least those who are willing to buy will know this site.
Plus, it’s not like none of us will report anything to you if we happen to find those doujins floating freely on the net. =3
theresay
My proxy should be picking up my pre-orders at CWT27 today…A new cover, you say? I’m tempted…
eilinel
Hey theresay! I believe I saw you often in Yu Wo forum =p. And I think FruiT ask you to translate the anime for her right? Mm we only get the new cover if we have 200 people signing up before 28th February…sadly we only have 18 people signing up for now.
PS: I also bought loads through proxy at CWT27 XD, including Icicle and FruiT new doujins.
theresay
@eilinel
I’m more or less a lurker there…so you’re on it, too?
OMG, you saw it? (blush) I hope I didn’t mess it up too badly… I will ask my god-sister if she wants to get this–she’s been dying to have some English doujins since she can’t read Chinese that well^^
FruiT, Icicle, Rippleless, Mobo, Emily…I spent more than $200 at CWT27, and that’s just with LSK merchandises. I can’t imagine how much I’d spend if I was able to go in person and shop to my heart’s content…
eilinel
Yup I lurk there too, usually looking for the news of new merchandises XD. Nope I will say that you’ve done the translation perfectly.
Hehe I spend slightly lesser, but yeah, wish I can go there in person too. Don’t really like Emily stuff, too shiny for my taste XD.
theresay
@eilinel
Ahhh, The shininess is why I liked them…and they’re cute^^
theresay
@eilinel
Oh and thanks. I’m glad you think so [regarding the translations] You guys are doing a great job here! But now I wonder how are you going to do with the nicknames (and baby names XD) in later volumes…
eilinel
Yeah they are giving me a big headache >_< I'm considering changing some of the names in order to fit the nicknames in….or maybe not, footnotes are enough….? Anyway, you can see my dilemma here XD.
Blizza
There is already a scanlation group scanning and translating the real sun knight manhua. Wouldn’t this just be a waste of time?
Not that the doujin art isn’t pretty in it’s own way.
eilinel
We merely want to offer our readers something different. If you prefer the real sun knight manhua, you are welcome to read that.
Blique
Not sure where else to post this, but here’s a 1/2 Prince doujinshi I found, if it’s any use to you:
http://blog.yam.com/fruit5127/article/9891453
eilinel
We did ask her, but she has reservation about working with us. We will see if we can get her permission in the future.
Blique
@eilinel
Okie, and I found some more if ya haven’t already found them:
http://pinkcorpse.org/viewthread.php?tid=9863
Ayumi
Do you plan to release a Tankōbon (volume) version? I think shipping would be more affordable this way.
eilinel
We can’t guarantee that a Tankōbon will be printed as the author will only print it IF there are a large demand for it (>200 copies).
RedTears
Anybody else think that the artist drew the people closer to the novel covers. I wanted to ask does the dj somewhat follows the canon LSK with some slight changes or does it completely diverage from it so far that the only similarities are the people in it?
eilinel
This doujin follow LSK story strictly. Some of the other doujins do diverge so far that only the characters remain the same.