Nooo! I thought you were on the mend? ;.;

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.

It might be a US-only thing, but freelancers pay both the employer and employee parts of social security and Medicare, so if we’re bringing in the same income as someone in-house, we’re taking home significantly less, esp after figuring in health insurance

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

Some people may believe freelance should only be a side job, but we're expected to be available on call for simulpubs and to give fast turnarounds on other work as though we're full time. If we say we can't, we're taken off the series or the offer gets rescinded

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

Some smaller manga publishers might need a cash boost, but I think the large, established companies do have the funds and just allocate them to other places because freelancers are an easy target for keeping costs low/budget cuts
I've even heard of people's rates being lowered at one of the big pubs

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.

They respect you. When I ask, they might give me $100 more if I can give them good reasons (higher page counts, research, etc.). Some publishers only increase rates in $25 increments when freelancers have attempted to ask for more

I've only had a handful of successful negotiations, and sometimes the clients just rescind projects. The times I've gotten overall raises were when publishers were driven to it by social media callouts and when internal staff pushed
I think it's an issue that requires collective action

I don't even think that's the problem in this case! There are people who'll work for $1/page, but the excuse I've heard for the big print publishers is "[redacted] only pays $1200/vol." so the rest of the publishers peg their rates on that or lower

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

Obviously now! Come visit me >:D

Somtimes it's just timing rather than our own actions or abilities. You've gone viral before for your manga! You won an award for your writing (translation counts)! That's proof you can do it!
Maybe it's the trends or a matter of finding the right magazine/editor, but people are rooting for you!

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！）

A pigeon wearing Ketter's beanie and scarf holding an ICE OUT sign with a golden halo behind his head stands proud over a snowy / tear gassy blue background. Painted in acrylic

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 💛

Black and white one not taken by me, but I think those are pigeons in Tokyo from 50+ years ago

I was prepared for this moment!!

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

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!