Why I think DLsite's Translators Unite is a great way to go legit with doujinshi scanlations now

[Orio]

I'm not an employee of DLsite or anything but I've been freelancing using their Translators Unite program for awhile now (OCD Translations) and just thought it's a shame it seems to be so under the radar, and thought I should share my experiences with it after going at it for over a year now.

For those who don't know, Translators Unite is a platform launched by DLsite in around November of 2021, integrated into their main website, where any manga or ASMR hosted on DLsite can be registered by its author to be translated. The author sets a reward for the translator at either 20%, 50%, or 80% of their cut of the sales, and earned revenue is sent monthly by DLsite.

Registered translators can then pick any eligible work to translate, finish it up, pass it onto an editor and revise as necessary, and then have it go up for sale within a week or so on average.

I just see a lot of potential for this in letting scanlators go official with their work, without getting tied down to a company assigning work to them they might not care to do. The model gives a high degree of freedom allowing you to pick and choose from all registered works, so it has great synergy with the whole fan-translation community.

I'm under the impression that Translators Unite started off with giving a really bad impression to readers/translators, particularly with how translators were made to use a clunky browser-based editor for cleaning and typesetting manga.

Most critically though, TLU now allows translators to just upload their own edits directly instead, allowing them to tap into whatever tools they usually work with and finally putting them on even footing with traditional scanlators. (They reaally should've advertised this update more)

...unfortunately, atm they do require you do get 6 works completed before they trust you enough to use that feature, but there's speed run strats like picking really short manga/ASMR to edit.

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Key points

Strengths:

• Fully legal and resume-friendly (well, as far as R18 content goes)
• Revenue earned by commission with pretty insane rates available (up to 80%), builds up passive income.
• Simp for your favorite authors and actually support their work (revenue is split between translator/author)
• Authors often willing to send you textless raws, resulting in higher quality releases and no need to clean/redraw.
• Editors work with you
• No hard deadlines, you just pick and choose your own projects and do them at your own pace.
• Staff reliably respond to feedback from translators etc. to improve the program
• Entry-level friendly, low barrier to entry (but the editors won't let just any MTL garbage ms paint edits through ofc)
• Cute little bonuses/incentives like DLsite points for the value of each work you translate, 100% off coupons for eligible works, dank certificate they send you in the mail after 12, then 60 works (with a fabled inscribed shield at 120 works released o-0)

Weaknesses:

• You only earn as much as it sells (so don't quit your job for this anytime soon)
• Most people will still read your work for free anyways (10k favorites on NH, less than 100 sales on DLsite, I crie)
• Editors work with you
• Can't make a meme-filled credits page or use shamelessly use stolen fonts, only open license stuffs (but there's plenty tbh)
• Competing with other translators on the same work if you're unlucky*
• No de-censoring works, since it's based in Japan.
• Currently just a thing for doujinshi, and your favorite author may not register their works for the program (though you can kindly beg them to and I successfully have before heh)

*Up to 10 translators can technically pick up the same work. Multiple translations can be released for the same work. In practice, this rarely happens, as most translators avoid picking up works that have already been claimed, but some juicy targets occasionally prompt competition.
It's rare enough, with only 3/42 works of mine being shared like that. It sucks when it happens, but... I guess it's an unfortunate side effect of a system that prioritizes freedom/flexibility. Scanlator drama 2.0, if you will.

Other criticisms:
My only other real gripe with how translations are handled is that there is a degree of pointless censorship when it comes to lolicon works. That is, like many official publications these days, they make us dance around details that imply anything to the contrary of "all characters are 18+" etc., such as censoring out specific ages or avoiding phrases like "middle schooler" etc. to be replaced with generic words like "student".

I've had the same experience with an eroge localization company I've worked with too, and it's an unfortunate and rather stupid trend imo of companies playing it safe in odd ways, but I guess it's not tooo huge a factor for me. Still want that to change though.

- - - - -
Anyways, I just think it's a cool way for scanlators to earn fair money for their hard work without turning to any shady methods or being exploited by scummy employers at garbage flat rates.
The authors don't get screwed over, and the readers have more direct control/information over which translators they buy from (and even leave ratings for) instead of being stuck with a big publisher gacha and just hoping for the best.

I really do think the sales-based revenue is a generous deal unheard of for entry-level translators, but in practice, it is held back by having disproportionately low sales compared to JP sales and actual global readership. Official/legal translations have just taken waaay too long to catch up, so people just aren't used to having options aside from piracy and what I guess are technically "black market" commissions lol.

It's far from perfect, but I think it should be enticing to scanlators from both a moral and financial perspective, and I'm hoping this sees success and similar models may catch on more to make a healthier environment to support more "official fan translation" works for people who want to make this into more than just a hobby.

And to be clear, I don't think official translations will ever outright replace scanlations anytime soon, but as far as official translations can go, this really seems like a good step in the right direction.

Anywhoo here's their official page about it for more info: https://www.dlsite.com/modpub/lp/overseas/translator/index_en_us.html
(also SMH they still haven't updated the info page to explain you can just upload your own edits now)

 

[KanzakiYuu]

Thank you for the info! Appreciate it!

 

[Orio]

Update: They no longer require translators to complete 6 works before being able to directly upload their own edits.
They instead have you sign some agreement which AFAIK holds you responsible for not using unlicensed fonts, so uhh just stick to commercial free fonts & free blambot ones.

I also neglected to mention you can also translate ASMR/audio through the same program.

 

[CyanHide]

I don't have a knack for learning another language but that was interesting to hear about. I'll try to spread word of it.

 

[WarpspeedSCP]

man, if only I was into TLing ecchi stuff...

 

[daruna]

99% of TU content that I see get reupped onto panda is barely tolerable slop written by people who clearly have a less than stellar grasp on the English language, not even getting into their grasp on Japanese (i.e., SEAsians, as usual). DLsite claims they have editorial oversight but it's painfully obvious that it is selectively applied at best, and entirely absent at worst.

Combine this with the absolutely pitiful slave labour wage they offer (recall that the program started with the laughable practice of "paying" the members of the program with DLsite points instead of, you know, money) and it's no wonder that people from developing countries are the only ones who bother going through with the whole sham.

On week 1 of TU's existence my group released a book that simultaneously appeared in the first wave of TU releases (ignore the MD date discrepancies, we uploaded it here late). Even just comparing their sample images with the corresponding ones from our version, the difference in quality is obvious, and I'm sorry to say that this is still the norm even to this day, two-ish years later. About the only thing going for TU is that it's legal. Everything else about it is on par with or even worse than the pirate scene. At least when I decide to work on something I'm not hamstrung by being forced to use something like Mantra, nor am I being insulted by being paid peanuts for my work.

For a company with as dominant a market position as DLsite, there is no reason my commercial translations with a much smaller publication pay me more than 5x the rate that DLsite offers. They can and should do better than glorified slave labour IF they actually cared about providing quality translations of the wealth of content found on their platform, not to mention all the other headass problems I pointed out. But they don't, so they won't.

 

[Bel-Shug]

99% of TU content that I see get reupped onto panda is barely tolerable slop written by people who clearly have a less than stellar grasp on the English language, not even getting into their grasp on Japanese (i.e., SEAsians, as usual). DLsite claims they have editorial oversight but it's painfully obvious that it is selectively applied at best, and entirely absent at worst.

Combine this with the absolutely pitiful slave labour wage they offer (recall that the program started with the laughable practice of "paying" the members of the program with DLsite points instead of, you know, money) and it's no wonder that people from developing countries are the only ones who bother going through with the whole sham.

On week 1 of TU's existence my group released a book that simultaneously appeared in the first wave of TU releases (ignore the MD date discrepancies, we uploaded it here late). Even just comparing their sample images with the corresponding ones from our version, the difference in quality is obvious, and I'm sorry to say that this is still the norm even to this day, two-ish years later. About the only thing going for TU is that it's legal. Everything else about it is on par with or even worse than the pirate scene. At least when I decide to work on something I'm not hamstrung by being forced to use something like Mantra, nor am I being insulted by being paid peanuts for my work.

For a company with as dominant a market position as DLsite, there is no reason my commercial translations with a much smaller publication pay me more than 5x the rate that DLsite offers. They can and should do better than glorified slave labour IF they actually cared about providing quality translations of the wealth of content found on their platform, not to mention all the other headass problems I pointed out. But they don't, so they won't.

Honestly whenever I buy something that is translated officially, be it in my native language or English, mostly they suck.
Like once upon a time, I bought eroge that is translated officially and I also bought the artbook too, to my surprise the artbook is just way way too disappointing.
I would rather buy untranslated physical artbook from Japan for the Japanese version instead if I knew better.
Not to mention, I had some PTSD from dealing with Kickstarter and English translated eroge.

As for manga, it's usually censored heavily too if I bought the one translated officially in my country.
And even if I ignoring the price, the one translated officially in English also feel inferior compared to Japan volume.

So I'm not too surprised that the TL quality in Dlsite is disappointing too.
Not that I have any experiences, cause I usually only buy Japanese RPGmaker games (or ASMR) from Dlsite.
Most of time now, I'm just buying Japanese stuff to support the original maker and play/read the pirated version.

 

[Orio]

99% of TU content that I see get reupped onto panda is barely tolerable slop written by people who clearly have a less than stellar grasp on the English language, not even getting into their grasp on Japanese (i.e., SEAsians, as usual). DLsite claims they have editorial oversight but it's painfully obvious that it is selectively applied at best, and entirely absent at worst.

Combine this with the absolutely pitiful slave labour wage they offer (recall that the program started with the laughable practice of "paying" the members of the program with DLsite points instead of, you know, money) and it's no wonder that people from developing countries are the only ones who bother going through with the whole sham.

On week 1 of TU's existence my group released a book that simultaneously appeared in the first wave of TU releases (ignore the MD date discrepancies, we uploaded it here late). Even just comparing their sample images with the corresponding ones from our version, the difference in quality is obvious, and I'm sorry to say that this is still the norm even to this day, two-ish years later. About the only thing going for TU is that it's legal. Everything else about it is on par with or even worse than the pirate scene. At least when I decide to work on something I'm not hamstrung by being forced to use something like Mantra, nor am I being insulted by being paid peanuts for my work.

For a company with as dominant a market position as DLsite, there is no reason my commercial translations with a much smaller publication pay me more than 5x the rate that DLsite offers. They can and should do better than glorified slave labour IF they actually cared about providing quality translations of the wealth of content found on their platform, not to mention all the other headass problems I pointed out. But they don't, so they won't.

A lot of slop does make it onto there, it's pretty sad.
That said, you can at least search things by translator and see their ratings to avoid the slop.
They also finally seemed to fix their problem of being short-staffed and I have noticed reviews being a bit more strict again, but yeah they don't give a shit about visual editing much, just the translation itself.

Also, by low pay you must be referring to the option to work on commission, right? I avoid that like the plague and only go for the revenue share system, where the translator receives a set percentage of revenue from the work's sales, set by the author.
Plus you can just pick and choose what you want to translate that way, there's really no reason anyone should take the commission route.

They can set it to 80%, 50%, or 20%. 80% is crazy, 50% pretty fair, 20% would be worth it if translations received a comparable number of sales to JP, but realistically it won't amount to anything worthwhile as the current market stands.

So, how well it pays all depends on the success of the work. It's an amazing deal in theory but in practice it's stunted by the relatively small number of EN sales (at best breaking into 3 digits). Sad when you see someone's work with tens of thousands of faves on sad panda having less then a 100 sales on DLsite.
EN users aren't used to supporting their doujins much so it kinda stunts this sort of translation work...
But at least high-rolling an 80% work can be very well worth it so it's not totally dead in the water.

 

[Orio]

Also, just a general update after working with them for awhile. My overall assessment of the program remains unchanged, but the main glaring flaw I'm seeing and disadvantage compared to scanlations is that they enforce censorship on translations.
The specifics have changed a lot over time and will continue to change in one direction or the other, as things tend to go with Japan and censorship, but...
Mostly thanks to pressure from pissa/masterchief, along with how they started censoring tag names on DLsite, they also make translators remove any mention of ages below 18 and language describing or even implying that characters are underage. So yeah, trying to translate loli works with them is a real headache.

They're even more strict and absurd on translating titles/product descriptions, where words like "hypnosis" aren't allowed, or anything else implying non-consensual sex. Thankfully that cancer hasn't spread to the actual content of the translations themselves, but I'll give an update if they ever do.
It's silly cause you can't even put "hypn*sis," they insist on replacing it with "trance" and other dumb-sounding words that will confuse the user.

On a positive note though, TU haaas been a very good way to put yourself on the radar to JP creators and in my case has led to direct commissions from them, so I'd still highly recommend it for breaking into that market and gaining lotsa experience! (best paired with twitter etc. or any SNS japanese users frequent).

 

[Manko-sensei]

Unless this helps you as reference material to get into a proper English publisher or earning some needed extra income that sounds merely butchering. The most hypocrital guideline from their part, but maybe their objective is for people to stop reading at all, let alone buying. I wish you the best to get a well paid job either in translation or elsewhere, but that company can simply go under and be review-bombed so they don't try to mess with manga anymore.

 

[Orio]

Unless this helps you as reference material to get into a proper English publisher or earning some needed extra income that sounds merely butchering. The most hypocrital guideline from their part, but maybe their objective is for people to stop reading at all, let alone buying. I wish you the best to get a well paid job either in translation or elsewhere, but that company can simply go under and be review-bombed so they don't try to mess with manga anymore.

The sad thing is it's become the norm for your "proper English publishers" to subtly censor away things like a character's age. I've already spent time working for some, but I guess they're under legal pressure to do so.

Free-lancing honestly seems to be the way to go if you want that kind of censorship to fuck off.

Still, DLsite has set up the first real way for individuals to actually work with doujin authors instead of leeching off of them, by actually bringing them more income too.

Ideally they can grow a spine regarding pointless censorship of words, or another website can step up to set up something similar with more integrity.

 

[Manko-sensei]

It's been a few years since last time I spoke with professional manga translators on a regular basis, so if nowadays all of them are doing so then I could make that statement extensive to the rest of them, last time I purchased an English translation was in 2021 if I recall properly, since then I only buy things in Japanese. Luckily it's not only the great four manga publishers anymore, so I doubt the censorship is enforced on the minor ones too. I know some people that wanted to make a doujinshi publisher (not only English translated) and maybe now they're in the process, when it comes to the expected quality they didn't want under any circumstances compromise the accuracy of the translation, just making it in a way that can be legally purchased. If they bring me the good news I'll let you know.

 

[Orio]

Guess I should also specify it's 18+ works in particular that make most publishers nervous and skirt around details. Hate it but I guess we're stuck with that for the time being. Main disadvantage against scanlations that will probably come to bite them in the arse.

Anyways, it's by no means ideal yet and would benefit from more competition, but I do want this sort of model to succeed mainly cause:
Instead of official translations being locked behind only big publishing companies and hired employees, it becomes accessible to any no-name freelancer (scanlators, really).

• Nicely compatible with the scanlating/fan translation community, gives them another option for supporting themselves (+ the author) besides just relying on donations or underground commissions (plus I doubt that will ever die out regardless).
• Lets translators freely pick and choose what they wanna work on, versus when working for most publishing companies.
• Better suited for picking up large numbers of shorter works, while larger companies/teams might be better suited for things like long eroge translations.
• Lets more niche/fringe genres get picked up too, instead of say a big publisher prioritizing only the most popular or safe stuff.

While the main drawbacks I see are:

• limited pool of works to translate (the authors have to register it first)
• kinda poor quality control? Then again, same goes for scans, and this does at least have QC for every work and a rating system to filter out poor ones.
• some rules do exist, like JP censorship laws so no decensoring, and the usual all characters are 18 we swear jazz (this is what competition can take advantage of, or perhaps they could branch out a separate non-japan site)

Anyways, not like scans will disappear anytime soon and people upload TU stuff all the time so it won't make a difference for those readers, so I much prefer we have more systems like TU and less shit like f*kku around. The more options and variety the better.

Sorry for the wall of text I had a coffee and am in a brainstorming mood lol, just wanted to get more thoughts down for people to consider.

It's been a few years since last time I spoke with professional manga translators on a regular basis, so if nowadays all of them are doing so then I could make that statement extensive to the rest of them, last time I purchased an English translation was in 2021 if I recall properly, since then I only buy things in Japanese. Luckily it's not only the great four manga publishers anymore, so I doubt the censorship is enforced on the minor ones too. I know some people that wanted to make a doujinshi publisher (not only English translated) and maybe now they're in the process, when it comes to the expected quality they didn't want under any circumstances compromise the accuracy of the translation, just making it in a way that can be legally purchased. If they bring me the good news I'll let you know.

Thank you, will do likewise if I hear of something (I die a bit inside when I have to write around NG words, though I fight for every inch of nuance I can get away with... and probably give the editors a headache, poor guys). Something that can ignore the credit card companies playing at being the moral police is sorely needed...