Mangaka Salary

[Debezo]

japanese domestic market 2007
anime 2.5 billion dollars ($1 = \103)
manga 4.69
game 6.48
アニメ産業とビジネスの情報 (anime,manga. around middle of the article)
2007 (game)

I heard anime's overseas market was about 2 billion dollars in 2005.
and maybe, the article typing read was based on this report.
http://www.m-create.com/publishing/otaku.html
2007
this was a research of core-nerd market including anime manga game figure doujin etc.

[typing]

I know I'm resurecting this post from the dead but.

I fiund an interesting statistic from my friend who works at Jump Comics (just as a secretary but still)

She says that in Japan alone a person has only a 0.001% chance of being able to become a real "Manga Artist" (That means being able to live off their manga earnings for more then 5 years) thats one in 100,000.
These .001 are your death notes, your narutos, your Monsters and Spirited Aways. Frankly unless you can come up with the originality of Miyazaki, or the sheer dedicative girth of Inu Yasha you're just one of the many thousands.
The rest? Well a lot of them do get published. Some only go as far as self publishing doujinshi's (which just means self published comics, not neccisarily fancomics) but they'd need to work second jobs, they're not rolling in the cash.

anyway. Just some interesting numbers

Kinda makes you depressed ne? definetly not a job you can get into unless you love it.

[jadeyes914]

Originally Posted by typing

I know I'm resurecting this post from the dead but.

I fiund an interesting statistic from my friend who works at Jump Comics (just as a secretary but still)

She says that in Japan alone a person has only a 0.001% chance of being able to become a real "Manga Artist" (That means being able to live off their manga earnings for more then 5 years) thats one in 100,000.
These .001 are your death notes, your narutos, your Monsters and Spirited Aways. Frankly unless you can come up with the originality of Miyazaki, or the sheer dedicative girth of Inu Yasha you're just one of the many thousands.
The rest? Well a lot of them do get published. Some only go as far as self publishing doujinshi's (which just means self published comics, not neccisarily fancomics) but they'd need to work second jobs, they're not rolling in the cash.

anyway. Just some interesting numbers

Kinda makes you depressed ne? definetly not a job you can get into unless you love it.

I made an account just so I could respond to this thread. I honestly do not know the answer to the question at the beginning of the thread (though I have a sort of ballpark jiff of it) but I think enough knowledgable people answered it so I'm just going to put in my input about being a mangaka.

My goal is to become a mangaka. I don't want to have to move to Japan to become one. I plan to stay in the US although there is only one company manga publisher here that I know of that publishes original American works. There is only one art college that I know of in the US that offers a manga class. My parents and visual arts academy teachers have no idea about my goal and I have a feeling they won't be very supportive.

Despite all that I'm willing to take a chance and work hard to become a good mangaka. I practically grew up on manga. Before manga became really popular in the US I was already an otaku. When I was just a little kid I had already developed a very critical taste of manga and was very picky about what manga was considered good. More than a decade has passed since my obsession started and I still love manga.

I've read so much manga I started to think in manga. I dreamed up my own characters along with their own stories many years ago that even now they still pester me in my mind and will. Not. Shut. Up. But it's alright, because they've become so real to me I've come to love them like family. I'm not saying I have hallucinations about them -_-; . I just really love them. You can call me crazy. I don't care.

All I care about is that I can share them with others.

I'm currently a student of a visual and performing arts academy in the visual arts strand. I've taken drawing, architecture, graphic design, and animation classes amongst other visual art classes. I've been told I have talent and a good sense of perspective and color. I've been drawing manga since I was little and I think I can say I draw manga better than most people though there is still a lot I have to learn. It's fine because I'm willing to work hard to learn what skills I'm missing.

I'm willing to take a second job so I can become a mangaka. My sister is writing the first few manga stories I'm going to draw so I can gain some experience and exposure. She has been complimented on her writing a lot from her college professor, high school teachers, and my father (who by the way has very high standards). I think she and I will make a good team until I can finally stand on my own.

Every year my academy sends all the visual arts students to National Portfolio Day so we can have a chance to get feedback from big art colleges and universities, and sometimes some students get their portfolio accepted which means they're been accepted into their school. I plan to check out the one art college I know that holds manga classes and hopefully get accepted.

I'm aware the chances of making it big is slim especially in the US, but I'm willing to take a chance. I have so manga stories with so manga unique and colorful characters. All I want is a chance to share them and let others know them as I know them.

If anyone has any advice or a place or person they could refer me to that could help by all means please let me know.

Thanks for reading. Wish me luck.

OH! I almost forgot. If you're like me, an aspiring mangaka, I advice you to read Bokuman. It's a manga that describes how to get into the manga business and how to get popular. It's very informative while still very entertaining. Even if you're not looking into becoming a mangaka this manga is still a good read.

[jadeyes914]

Originally Posted by typing

I know I'm resurecting this post from the dead but.

I fiund an interesting statistic from my friend who works at Jump Comics (just as a secretary but still)

She says that in Japan alone a person has only a 0.001% chance of being able to become a real "Manga Artist" (That means being able to live off their manga earnings for more then 5 years) thats one in 100,000.
These .001 are your death notes, your narutos, your Monsters and Spirited Aways. Frankly unless you can come up with the originality of Miyazaki, or the sheer dedicative girth of Inu Yasha you're just one of the many thousands.
The rest? Well a lot of them do get published. Some only go as far as self publishing doujinshi's (which just means self published comics, not neccisarily fancomics) but they'd need to work second jobs, they're not rolling in the cash.

anyway. Just some interesting numbers

Kinda makes you depressed ne? definetly not a job you can get into unless you love it.

I made an account just so I could respond to this thread. I honestly do not know the answer to the question at the beginning of the thread (though I have a sort of ballpark jiff of it) but I think enough knowledgable people answered it so I'm just going to put in my input about being a mangaka.

My goal is to become a mangaka. I don't want to have to move to Japan to become one. I plan to stay in the US although there is only one company manga publisher here that I know of that publishes original American works. There is only one art college that I know of in the US that offers a manga class. My parents and visual arts academy teachers have no idea about my goal and I have a feeling they won't be very supportive.

Despite all that I'm willing to take a chance and work hard to become a good mangaka. I practically grew up on manga. Before manga became really popular in the US I was already an otaku. When I was just a little kid I had already developed a very critical taste of manga and was very picky about what manga was considered good. More than a decade has passed since my obsession started and I still love manga.

I've read so much manga I started to think in manga. I dreamed up my own characters along with their own stories many years ago that even now they still pester me in my mind and will. Not. Shut. Up. But it's alright, because they've become so real to me I've come to love them like family. I'm not saying I have hallucinations about them -_-; . I just really love them. You can call me crazy. I don't care.

All I care about is that I can share them with others.

I'm currently a student of a visual and performing arts academy in the visual arts strand. I've taken drawing, architecture, graphic design, and animation classes amongst other visual art classes. I've been told I have talent and a good sense of perspective and color. I've been drawing manga since I was little and I think I can say I draw manga better than most people though there is still a lot I have to learn. It's fine because I'm willing to work hard to learn what skills I'm missing.

I'm willing to take a second job so I can become a mangaka. My sister is writing the first few manga stories I'm going to draw so I can gain some experience and exposure. She has been complimented on her writing a lot from her college professor, high school teachers, and my father (who by the way has very high standards). I think she and I will make a good team until I can finally stand on my own.

Every year my academy sends all the visual arts students to National Portfolio Day so we can have a chance to get feedback from big art colleges and universities, and sometimes some students get their portfolio accepted which means they're been accepted into their school. I plan to check out the one art college I know that holds manga classes and hopefully get accepted.

I'm aware the chances of making it big is slim especially in the US, but I'm willing to take a chance. I have so manga stories with so many unique and colorful characters. All I want is a chance to share them and let others know them as I know them.

If anyone has any advice or a place or person they could refer me to that could help by all means please let me know.

Thanks for reading. Wish me luck.

OH! I almost forgot. If you're like me, an aspiring mangaka, I advice you to read Bokuman. It's a manga that describes how to get into the manga business and how to get popular. It's very informative while still very entertaining. Even if you're not looking into becoming a mangaka this manga is still a good read.

[Yuripad]

hi all --

just wanted to give my semi-random two cents of info as a fellow aspiring manga artist:
there are several publishers in the US now who publish OEL (original english language) manga. I also have been submitting manga stories to comic publishers in general, not just ones who publish solely manga.
if you do google searches, you can find lists of many large and small comic and/or manga publishers.

hope this info was helpful, good luck to all!

-yuri

PS: someone in the beginning of this thread asked about where to buy manga materials?
you can buy paper made for creating manga as well as professional-quality pens, screen tone, etc online. I recommend micron and copic pens (altho I have begun drawing almost entirely on the computer of late). good manga-making programs are mangastudio and photoshop.

[kenshiromusou]

Originally Posted by typing

Not much.

The average Manga Ka looks at roughly 8-10 hour days, sometimes more, sometimes less. Generally they have a 20-40 page submission to fulfill every month so you're looking at one compleated page every day, not including the time it takes to write the story, if the editor doesn't like it you having to re-do it, and extra art like cover art or graphic books.

You don't get an hourly rate but a contract based partially on sales, the average contract is usually for a beginner 500$ per 20 pg's + 10-15% royalties.

Which assuming it takes 5 hours per page about 5$ per hour.

And that's if you don't hire assistants. If you do then their cut comes out of your salery. And you do pay them an hourly rate, not a by contract.

The Manga-ka life is not one that you take if you want to get rich, One of my students makes a soccer manga, he's really poor and is learning english because he want's to make it big in America.

Oh, thank you very much for to bring this theme to light.
I remember I have read at time when Jump still had a circulation of 6.000.000 units that a famous mangaka received 1500 dollars by each page.

[Guigoo]

what's shonen jump's circulation nowadays?

[liquidfreedom88]

i see it looks like what happened in bakuman manga is more less happen in actual case huh?. like when they get notice by publisher by some award. then move to make pages for one shot manga. if interesting, got serialized.
anyone in here work as editor in manga publisher? i need some input later when some pages done.

[kenshiromusou]

Originally Posted by Guigoo

what's shonen jump's circulation nowadays?

Today the circulation declined to under than 2.000.000.

[darkchocolatejapan]

Originally Posted by typing

Honestly, and not to snuff you or anything, but tell me again after you have 200 pages.

I've been trying to do publishing for the last 5 years, my company has two comics out but I see why the big comic companies always go for people with vast amounts of experiance and alwasy produce the same crap over and over again. I hate setting a deadline for a bunch of slack artists and then having none of them meet it and then having to deal with pushing the dates back.

Hell I'm a slack artist myself, which is why after 5 years of effort I smile knowledgably at those with big dreams but very few ink stains on their clothing.

Sounds like somebody who's cranky and tired... Hey, this world needs future Mangaka. I know you weren't trying to be rude or anything, but it kinda sounded like that... All I'm saying is that I admire the person's dedication. I'm determined to become a Mangaka too.