Where to find scanlation groups to hire?

[marrow]

Say I wanted to commission a series that's pretty dead. Had the budget to pay for raws (I'd offer paying for it myself but idk how to buy things from jp sites) and the scanlation efforts (which I don't mind fronting, this is a series that has been relatively dead for like 10yrs so I've saved).

Where would I find a group that is available and willing to take up a few volumes of scanlating? Is there anyone that any user here would recommend? I wanted to ask here first before trying out the nearest doujinshi scanlator ad or the first result on Google.



Edit: for anyone interested!
Manga: Inubaka, https://mangadex.org/title/23823/inubaka
I'd like volumes 18-22 (5 volumes, idk the number of chapters/pages) scanlated.
Will pay for the raws and scanlation fees!

 

[justforthelulz]

I can't help you with any answers, but you must feel really, really, really, really, really passionate about this series that you're willing to spend real money to see it translated/scanlated properly (assuming that it'll never get officially licensed in any capacity).

The MangaDex Discord might be able to direct to an appropriate group, depending on the content of the series.

 

[Afiaki]

@marrow
What is the series?
You could probably hire interested eyes browsing through this thread.

 

[Marinajk18]

I'd also would like to do the same with a shounen ai series it takes so long for a group to update, so I'll be following this thread

 

[Afiaki]

@Marinajk18
Could you please post the title of the series that you were thinking of?

The reason why I ask is because scanlators would usually evaluate the complexity of a project before they commit to the request, so if the series is right there at a glance then it's easier for potential scanlators to learn about the series.

 

[Marinajk18]

@afiaki its this one, been waiting for it to be translated for years and depending on the cost id be willing to pay for translation T_T
https://mangadex.org/title/22362/the-best-smell

 

[Mngtr]

@marrow

You can try approaching a scanlation group that you like to see if they're interested in doing that series (either voluntarily or as a commission). If the project is interesting enough some groups may even do it for free! The difference is if it's free, then the scanlator will do it on their own time. If it's paid, ideally they should commit to a reasonable time to deliver each chapter.

Some independent scanlators like myself take commissions. I think groups are less likely to do that because of the issue of dividing the money between the team.

As afiaki mentioned the cost for commissions may be more expensive if there's a lot of redrawing etc to do, so it may be a good idea to let the scanlator take a quick glance of the project.

That said, I'm open for commissions wink wink

 

[marrow]

@Mngtr Thanks for the idea! Honestly thought about the approach group thing first, but seeing their schedule and commitments to other things that fit their genre, I think I'd feel more comfortable looking for people/groups that actively say they take commissions than assume others can take on another series aha.

But I didn't know about the idea of independent scanlators taking commissions over group splitting payment, that was interesting!

@Afiaki That's part of the reason I posted this thread actually! I was between posting here or in the Groups forum, but the Manga section seemed safe for misc threads and topics like my question.

For anyone looking (will post in OP in a bit):

The manga is Inubaka, seen here: https://mangadex.org/title/23823/inubaka

I'd call it a shoujo about dogs? Definitely pulled on my heartstrings as a kid, but it's lighthearted. It's complete with 22 chapters total.

Backstory (feel free to skip to the end lol):
Viz serialized it, publishing it in 2007 to start and stopped at 2010. They only ever officially released up to 17 volumes (which I've read 10 years ago), so the remaining 5 are left abandoned. I've followed it on/off over the years as I grew up, hoping it'd be officially revisited or scanlated, and so far the final 5 chapters still aren't around either way. I'm pretty passionate about it just because it's the only manga I somehow got attached to and had access to collecting, but it just never got officially finished. I physically own half of the serialized English volumes and all of the Japanese volumes, and I can't say I did that for any other manga series I was interested in lol.

For the last 5 volumes, I'd happily pay commission prices at minimum for translations, and more for proper scanlations like redrawing and typesetting, on top of providing the money for the raws (idk how those work).

In regards to whether it steps on Viz's toes or the toes of the current scanlator who posted the last few chapters, I would like to make it a private commission so it doesn't step on any legalities or issues? (I personally own copies of the last 5 untranslated volumes, so I've always wanted to be able to complete it with a way to read them in English for myself). If there's no qualms with sharing them on MangaDex, I wouldn't mind doing that after.

I guess my next question would be who's available, and what would be the price (for 5 volumes of manga), but I guess that can be discussed if anyone was interested haha.

 

[Afiaki]

@marrow
It looks like a really really nice series.

The untranslated volumes you own are physical, right? To re-purchase digital versions of those five volumes would be about ~￥2700 (￥536 each).

There is about 1000 pages to complete which is about 50 chapters or so.

If you were thinking of commissioning a scanlation quality (not raw quality) similar to what Viz was doing, there's a lot of redrawing with all of the SFX and background text which would mean it'd take quite a time to complete it. It's also possible that the scanlation group may slow the project after some time if they find the quality level difficult to maintain, unless your commission fee is like, really high.

Well... then again, probably not. But loss-of-motivation in scanlation efforts is worth bringing up.

On the other side of things, if you found the Mangadex translations of Volumes 16 and 17 (partial) to be acceptable in terms of scanlation quality (SFX ignored, only minor cleaning), I think most groups would be able to complete that in a much shorter timeframe. I believe it would also be highly unlikely for the project to be interrupted as having almost no cleaning is a really significant chunk out of the process.

 

[Afiaki]

With your series @Marinajk18, I can't really give any suggestions for who to commission because I can't access the raws (KTOON isn't 외국인 friendly at all).
I would like to say that you could contact the scan group current doing the infrequent translations (since they have never dropped it for 2 years), but at the same time I can see them being hostile to the suggestion based on their group descriptions.

At the least, the raws (if someone has a Korean mobile number and can purchase them) are 220 won (~20 cents) per chapter and there's 33 (including 2 extra) chapters to complete the series. The cleaning is overall, easy. Even more so if you would choose to ignore SFX cleaning (they can still be translated, though!).

There are pirated raws available through to the completion of the series, but those are riddled in watermarks and overall it would really be a shame to have to translate those ones.

 

[Pika]

@marrow
Just like with R18 manga, you just pm a scanlation group that you want and talk with them and haggle the prices/deadlines and whatnot. If you don't like that group, you just try it with other groups.
But boy, 5 volumes is gonna be pricey *wipes sweat*

The price is mostly counted per page and what kind of editing you want (with or without sfx, decensoring, etc). It all depends on the group on what they can do.

 

[marrow]

@Pika Yeah, it's definitely gonna be pricey compared to a one-off doujinshi that the usual scanlator does, so I wanted to commission a group that's used to doing a longer series of things.

For what it's worth, I've waited practically 10 years for it, so I'm sure I can justify the budget! Money is a bit tight right now given the circumstances, but being personally invested in seeing it scanlated was a plan 10 years in the making, plus I don't mind making it a long term effort if I need more time to find the right group to do it.

 

[marrow]

@Afiaki
Cool, I can definitely pay for raws. Is there a way to pay for it in USD/using a non-jp email address and IP?

I think the quality of the MangaDex and the recent group's scanlations is good enough for me. At worst, I can do any basic cleaning and a novice job at typesetting if that was the delay of any group, so at the least I'd like to find someone who can provide quality, readable translations. (If it gets pricey for all the services to properly redraw/typeset everything at this time, my biggest personal priority would be the translations.)

So I guess now I'd just need to find the groups/people to translate and go from there. When I get the time, I'll join the MangaDex discord to try and find someone to hire, but other than that, I really don't have a preferred group/individual in mind, so I'm pretty undecided still.

 

[Afiaki]

@marrow
Amazon is a bit more English-friendly come to think of it. The answers are yes and sort of. It is a little complex... not very straight-forward to purchase them, and you'd also need a VPN to change your public IP address.
The initial link I gave, EbooksJapan (Yahoo), requires a Japanese phone number (which I didn't realise), so it's impossible with them. Amazon doesn't have special requirements like that, but you have to fake information with your billing address. I have previously set up an AmazonJP account but haven't used it.

To be honest... I could probably buy them for you if you wish.

Also, a suggestion for the scanlation: you might be able to achieve a more efficient scanlation if you hire a quality translator separately. Since translators are rare. On the other hand, there is a lot of parties good at finishing but not translation. Finding a group that is good at both and is free for your project may take some searching.

 

[Marinajk18]

@afiaki sorry for the late reply, but yeah i wouldnt mind the sfx being original language and all, i dont mind about cleaning as well, and I would be willing to pay for the chapters as well, just gotta find someone one day