...schedule out follow up projects further in advance. I'd have much less stress if I coule schedule out concretely what projects each publisher/agency will have me doing which months and not be overwhelmed one month and scrambling for work another.

I lettered this! Akari is stunning, and Kohinata's mark-making is unmatched. Such a love letter to art and the impact i can have on one's life and the bonds it can forge It's debuting at TCAF (coincidentally, I'll be there tabling too!), and I can't wait to hold it in my hands!

1. I'm definitely burnt out, having a real hard time forcing myself to do work nowadays. 2. I've been recently doing a lot of outside activities and slowly taking on less work, but that's much easier said than done. 3. Double the pay (at least) so I can work on less things and actually live.

1. Yes, very 2. l will probably never recover until I quit entirely and am a few years removed 3. I think every publisher should double their rates :) and for some even that would still be too low

1. Yes 2. N/A 3. Increase rates to at least match the minimum of other parts of the industry (for lettering, 15 USD per page instead of 3 USD or even less) so localizers don't need to overload on projects to make a living wage. Work for hire and rights handover must come with adequate compensation

1. I have been, but not right now. 2. Turn down projects (this is hard and a privilege if/when possible) 3. more money. I wanna see clients more competitive about rates. As a CE/PR a lot of my work comes from exhausted translators and letterers who can't afford to do their best work either

Since rates are often so low, I feel like people often take on more work than they can reasonably handle simply because the work is available and they need the money. With freelance work being the way it is, they have to plan ahead just in case the next project takes a while to come in.

I really want input from other industry peeps, so please share. If I use your response in my video, you can be anon if you want! I realize this is sensitive/risky to talk about publicly. 1. are you burnt out? 2. how do you combat burnout? 3. what systemic changes would reduce burnout?

On days like this I just feel like giving up and finding a new job 🫠

Freelancing has been great for me as a flexible source of pocket money as a SAHM to young children, but I've always said that I couldn't afford to work in this field if I needed to support myself. My best friend makes a stable living freelancing in PR/marketing translation, entertainment underpays.

As a quick addendum, I'll also say nearly every US-based console publisher that localizes Japanese games—names you definitely know—hasn't updated their rates in over a decade and they're often by far the least willing to negotiate. The ones still standing now do so in part through stagnant rates.

While I've been able to push for nominally higher rates with new clients/translation agencies when onboarding, work from them is vanishingly rare in this current client and the handful of regulars I've held onto more or less haven't updated their rates in anywhere from seven to ten years.

Shoutout to a certain company, who, when I said that I needed either a short hiatus or longer deadline for a series I had already TL'd almost 20 volumes of because I was getting severely burnt out, simply reassigned the series and dropped me from the roster without so much as a farewell 🙃

started manga translation in 2013 some pubs never give across-the-board rate bumps, some do, but even with those, it's rare/sporadic/doesn't keep up with inflation. the majority of boosts I get come from negotiating on a project-to-project basis Otherwise, more money has to come from more series

With manga, if a freelancer tries to make as much as an in-house employee, we have to work on 50-70+ books, and we pay higher self-employment taxes + don't have access to affordable health insurance. To keep up with inflation, we take more work. It's a recipe for burn out and getting sick

what i've learned in my four years is that we're all broke and overworked, or battling being overworked by being extra broke (shocker!) but on hard mode as freelancers

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.

Hey!! So it looks like I've got a gap in my schedule coming up, so if you ever wanted to hit up your boy for manga lettering work (or comics, in general!) now is the time 👀

I started lettering freelance a little over 20 years ago. Rates have stayed pretty much the same. I only make more money now because I went from lettering 3-4 series at a time to more than 8. My rent has almost doubled, and I need roommates to afford it.

My rate at one publisher hasn’t changed in nearly a decade, one rate for LNs lowered, another hasn’t changed in 5+ years Yen Press and Kodansha have increased rates without prompting but Seven Seas and Viz have not Other publishers started at a higher rate but have limited work available

And even being 4 years almost into lettering, it is STILL intimidating to ask for more when I know it's reasonable, bc at the end of the day we're still just contract workers with no real protection.

Manga companies, please pay us $8/page! The small and new publishers can do it, surely the big companies with owners who make $3 million+ per year can afford it too!! x.com/MangaAlerts/...

2024 Seven Seas revenue Approx. $50 million

漫画家の皆さん！「英語圏に出版されたい〜！海外のイベントに参加したい〜！」と思ったことないですか？？それについてちょっとお話ししますので、ご興味のある方ぜひRPのリンクでご登録ください！！ （漫画家じゃなくてもご参加できますよ！）

Today's bonus pigeon is 70 years old and he's fucking angry (and he's fucking right). Greg Ketter of DreamHaven Books in the Twin Cities 💛

[Kodama] Yuzuko Hoshimi's MAGICA Volume 1 pre-orders are up at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/MAGICA-Vol-1-Yuzuko-Hoshimi/dp/1966523173 B&N https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/magica-vol1-yuzuko-hoshimi/1148021204 BAM! https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Magica/Yuzuko-Hoshimi/9781966523178

Our next Kanto Manga Loc (and more!) meetup will be on November 12! If you are in the area and would like to attend, please let me know. Also, feel free to let me know if you’d like to attend one in the future!

I haven't been sitting on it long, but Cocoon's announcement is so exciting! I think it's the first time a publisher has licensed something based on my suggestion With the anime, someone would have probably gotten it, but maybe not as quickly and maybe not Viz

My mom's side is Okinawan, so this one has a place very near and dear to my heart

(PAID) - We need a dialogue editor who is fluent in Japanese. Limited series, 8 episodes.

Shocked and saddened to hear that Matt Haasch, founder of indie manga publishing company @starfruitbooks.bsky.social has passed away. His gofundme campaign for his medical and other expenses is still up - contribute if you can. www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-...

editor friends, my job is hiring an Editor - Fiction & Non-Fiction: www.viz.com/company-jobs...

Vols 1-5 of Hirayasumi by Keigo Shinzo are available now in the VIZ app! It’s such a lovely story, and I wound up reading all 44 chapters in one sitting. Translation by @jmitsu.bsky.social Lettering by Elena Diaz

VIZ Media quietly added an AI-translated manga to their app and hoped no one would notice. We did. Manga deserves better than cheap, soulless automation. This is a betrayal of translators, fans, and the art form. We don't want your AI translations!

We're freelancers. Legally, we cannot unionize "Under U.S. antitrust laws, freelancers organizing to negotiate higher pay could be viewed as engaging in “price-fixing” since they’re considered individual businesses rather than employees of a single organization." www.themuse.com/advice/can-f...

Large language models are incapable of having respect for an artist. And the people choosing to use them for the localization of art hold an active disdain for that art and the people they supposedly want to appreciate that art.

Lettering pays poorly. I work a full-time office job to support my passion of lettering manga. I don't dislike AI localization because I see it as a threat to my livelihood, I dislike it because it is profane. An essential aspect of the job is respecting the work of the artist and writer.

y'know, I've been a die-hard supporter of the Shonen Jump app, and lately the Viz app but this is literally Step One to publishers strongarming licensors to save a couple bucks on translators and letterers contact Viz... let 'em know I actually care about the quality of the products I pay for

anyone who has a viz sub they pay for, I totally suggest leaving a comment about this www.viz.com/company-cont...

I'm going to start a lettering consultancy agency and all it will say is "don't use comic sans, anime ace, serif fonts, or system fonts" "also don't left justify text" I'll personally donate $40 so you can buy a great Blambot font if you don't want to spend $130 on Wild Words!

Yen has been giving me yearly raises, pretty much, so good on them, but yeah, the dollar doesn't stretch as far, so it's really stagnant. and don't get me started on how many thousands of dollars I've lost over the years because of the yen-dollar exchange rate... 😃

Yup. I've gotten a rate increase here and there but it's nowhere close to cover cost of living increases. So by stagnation, it really just means you're making less money. The $800 I was making on books in 2017 wouldn't go nearly as far today, and I live in relatively cheap North Carolina.

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)

I also make fonts specifically for manga lettering and provide them for free because even pro letterers make very, very little money ko-fi.com/salinsley

Getting into the Japanese media translation industry, especially for manga, is a lot harder nowadays, but here are some resources for translators, letterers, and editors

A panel about legally done fantranslation would be really cool, but doing one about how to rip apart a book and distribute a fan artist's work without consulting them is so, so messed up Fan doujin are tolerated, but companies can still sue, so it's potentially painting a target on the artist's back

Last day to vote for the American Manga Awards is tomorrow (July 24, 2025, at 5:00 pm ET)! animenyc.com/american-man...

Centuria from Manga Plus/Viz mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/titles/100314 "A bitter slave. A cruel bargain. A child worth saving. When Julian trades a life to awaken an ancient god, he gains powers he must use to protect an innocent in a brutal world."

Hima-Ten! from Viz Media www.viz.com/shonenjump/c... 16-year-old Tenichi is a part-time house cleaner. Himari Yoshino, a model, transfers to his school. He is then hired to clean her apartment regularly, as contrary to Himari's public persona, she is unable to keep her place clean.

Shinobi Undercover from Viz Media www.viz.com/shonenjump/c... "Even in modern Japan, ninja still hide in the shadows. Young ninja Yodaka has received his mission--protect high school student Aoi at all costs."