So, what is scanlation. Scanlation is a term used by scanlators (aka people with so much “free” time) to scan, translate, edit a comic from one language into another. It is supposedly works of “amateurs”, but if legally published work is considered professionals, well… you get the idea.
Reasons for scanlating:
There are many reasons why we – in Ochibichan-scan- choose to scanlate.
Steps involved in Scanlation.
1. Preparing Raws – Obtained 2 ways.
Most common ways we’re doing it now. Scanning is never easy. First you’ll have to buy the tankoubon, aka completed volume from your nearest Japanese bookstore or order them online. Then, painstakingly use a hair-dryer to blow the bindings of the book till the gums at the side are soft enough for you to tear the pages out one by one. Yes you’ll hear your heart chip and break into pieces as you go through this process.
When all the pages are separated nicely, take your home collection of encyclopedias or artbooks and use them to press all those loose pages flat. Leave them pressed for a day or two.
You can start scanning when the pages are nice and flat. Another long process of sitting by the computer and your lovely scanner. Have a nice cup of hot chocolate and log into mIRC to help pass the time when you’re scanning.
Amount of time: For mioka, 2-3 volumes if the scanner’s behaving good. But usually it’s 1 volume a day… There are at least 170 pages in a volume.
2. Translating – Master both foreign language (or mother tongue for some) and English. Hard enough? Not only does translators have to type all the text that we read on the manga, they have to even type text that aren’t inside the manga to make their translations more understandable for the proofreader and editors.
Amount of time taken usually: Easy 30 pages shoujo manga (like DD) 3 hours max per chapter. Unfortunately, most shoujo manga has gazillion unnecessary text in it, so maybe 5 hours per chapter, including time surfing the net, being distracted by chats and reading other mangas.
Amount of time you’re given: A week per chapter.
3. Crosschecking/Japanese Proofreading – Checking for accuracy of scripts, mostly done for scripts that are translated from Chinese. Sometimes scripts formating too and translating sfx or missing text.
Amount of time taken usually: If the translator is very proficient in the language and for some reason the Chinese raw is very accurate, about 1 hours is more than enough for one chapter. Unfortunately, the process usually is the same re-translating, so 3-4 hours per chapter is needed.
Amount of time taken usually: A day per chapter. Or a week? I don’t know… D8
Amount of time you’re given: A week per chapter.
4. Proofreading – Managed by our grammar mama and people who makes sure the text flow properly and the right massage is sent through with the right vocabulary.
Amount of time taken usually:A day per chapter.
Amount of time you’re given: A day per chapter.
5. Editing – The slaves. Wipe away original text and puts in English text. Makes sure the page is pretty and easy on the eye. Also the one that gets bullied a lot. Poor slaves…
Amount of time taken usually: Usually 3 hours per page, max. You have about 30-40 pages so…
Amount of time you’re given: 2 weeks per chapter.
6. Quality checking – Final check for any grammar errors, flow of text, editing problems and etc.
Amount of time: Ask angelintheice.
7. Release! – Uploading files to FTP, getting our lovely distro bot to run properly, setting easy triggers for IRC, write a post for the website (our admin’s aren’t creative to write funky message though, sad…) and makes sure the release is updated in Manga-updates.
Amount of time: With Naomii’s connection, 3-4 hours. With mioka’s connection, the whole day. Malaysia connection should be hanged and killed D8!
See, fairly simple. Just add one day between those steps then you’ll get the amount of time needed for one chapter. But alas, we’re always lacking editors and crosscheckers, hence it takes months before it’ll move to the next step.
Cost of scanlation
Here’s the reason why people ask for donation and we don’t. ‘Cause we’re doing this for fun and there are no profit’s being made whatsoever. D: Money corrupts this wonderful hobby anyway.
Cost of a volume of manga
Shoujo titles are usually 7-8USD per book due to their size and paper quality. B5 sized manga from publishers like Zero-sum is about 9.50USD. Avarus and B’s-Log is so much more expensive, sometimes coming up to 11-13 USD per book. If you buy Sahara Mizu’s manga, which is published by Bunch Comics, the price may vary from 13USD to 21USD. That is the most expensive I’ve seen. Paper quality, size and colour pages determines the cost of the manga, not the thickness of the book, sadly…
Additional cost may involve shipping and handling fees. The more you buy, the cheaper the cost, even though they are counting the fees by weight. Here’s a link of price quotations for shipments using EMS (international postal express mail). It’s quick and secure.
Mandarake’s EMS shipment price (Same with other sites too)
The weight includes the box too.
Price from Amazon.co.jp, if you’re shipping from Japan to countries in Asia, it’s 1900yen (19USD) per shipment with 300 yen (3USD) handling fees. Haven’t tried ordering for Amazon, but from the help file (and experience from US Amazon) you can’t stack your shipment, so if you buy 2 books, the shipment and handling fees will cost you 42USD.
Amount of money spent per volume in OS: 10USD on average ’cause we’re lucky enough to have Kinokuniya near us. They charged shipping and handling fees into the book already. Unfortunate ones will have to spend twice the amount per book. All the tankoubon we have comes from Mioka’s own pocket-money, so indirectly her dad’s sponsoring us 8D!
Cost to have a server/site/distro.
Good server’s on separate personal hard drive is about 600USD per year. We have to thank Kuinni for hosting our releases and procyon for hosting our site. Their generosity allows us to run the site ad and donation free. Besides, we even have Lamune with us who’s really generous enough to host our releases on his bot in IRC.
Amount of money spent: None. ;D Don’t we love these people?
Finally, the prissy part
Scanlations are illegal. Hence we don’t claim the work to be our own and we don’t host licensed titles on our website, only in irc or the forum (no post needed). Redistribute anywhere you like in LJ or other online sharing sites, we actually do find it flattering and it takes a load off the server’s bandwidth. But, please don’t use our releases without our permission for re-scanlating purposes. Many other groups have already asked for our permission, so why can’t some of you (you know who you are) just get your own raw and edit on it. Not only are you making your chapter so damn ugly with our -sadly- not-so-pretty version, it’s down right rude to not ask us first before you use our releases. ;) Now be nice, and get your own raw, you’re somewhat supporting the mangaka this way because you bought the book. I’ve quoted the price on top or get somebody who lives near a Japanese bookstore, or better yet in Japan to buy for you.
Tips for people who wants to re-scanlate without asking us 8D
If you get your own raw, you don’t even need to ask for our permission anyway, it’s highly unlikely we’ll know you’re using our translated English text since we don’t really know your language. But it’s very easy for an editor herself to know her own edited page or a scanner to know her own raws. Be aware of these before you want to re-scanlate from a ready scanlated page. We know every single dot, dust and screentones that are there ’cause we spent hours staring that the same bloody page while editing. Oh, bluring the screentones doesn’t help either, typesetting tells a lot too.
Enough said, now you know what scanlating means!
You try writing a stupid funky message next time, and I’ll post it up for you ;O
Lol, touchie XD I’m not that creative either, maybe get the PR to do it =p
And slave them even more? xD
Not like they get slaved enough ;D
Get some of them to CC, then they’re slaves 8D
Not all understand Japanese my dear.
But at least some does right?