The plan is to create an legal and legitimate translation of a manga title. The manga would presented primarily online in a "scanlation" format. Utlizing the web comic standard three day a week update schedule the manga would presented a page at a time. At the end of a designated period of time a "dead tree" or paper compliation would be produced and offered for sale via the web. Time periods could be in 1, 3, 6 or 9 month intervals or perhaps offered annually.

Costs Involved:

Production Costs

License\Royalty Costs: Unknown
Translation Costs: Unknown
Printing Costs:
(All costs assume we will be starting with an annual production which hopefully will be quite lengthy. It is also the most expensive format, so if we end up doing a smaller production the costs will be lessened. Projected page count is 80, projected run is 2,000 since that is the minimum order for most of the places I researched)

Final Printing Costs:

Low (newsprint with B&W cover): $1,728
High (premium with 4 color cover): $2,398

Shipping costs: Unknown, until we know where the product will be shipped we won't be able to get an accurate quote.

Web Costs:
The comic could be hosted for free via keenspace an online webhost and automation service for webcomics. End cost to both producers and end consumer is $0.

To take orders of the "dead tree" version we have a couple of options that need further exploring. We could go with a S.A.S.E option via orders through email. We could go with a shopping cart option as well, which I would find preferable. The ability to take multiple forms of payment (credit cards, paypal, ect) would be a plus. This may require a merchant account.

Variations on the idea:
We could try to aquire the rights to doushinji and translate them the same way. Since they are created by fans they might be receptive to seeing their work get a broader audience. One problem I forsee with this is if we try to get the rights to doushinji that have commercial (in the US at least) manga/anime characters featured we could run into U.S. Copyright violations. We might need to stick to non-commerical doushinji or seek out ones that are parodies or original stories.

What we still need to know:
1. Costs and procedure associated w/ obtaining a license for a manga
2. Costs for translating an average manga title
3. Costs associated with an online shopping cart
4. Costs associated operating a merchant account

If you think you know the answers or where to find the answers to any of these questions, please email me at merrow@randomfandom.com or comment on the message board.

What I've glossed over and why:
I've pretty much skipped over the whole manual part of scanning and applying the written translation to the manga pages and readying them for print. I've skipped over it because I know that I can do that part of it on my own. Its pretty much the same process as coloring a comic which I have done freelance in the past.

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