The Eastern Edge

About 5 months ago I wrote about "legal scanlation" and some of the ideas people have been throwing around that would amount to a free-labor industry, or at the very least a new and riskier business model, for translated comic books. I was skeptical of the whole idea, but there was a lot of talk by a lot of people at the time.

Well, it didn't take long for Shuho Sato, one of the first big time comic creators in Japan to buck the industry and sell his stuff independently on the web, to stand and deliver.
Last week he stuck his finger in the international market's pie, while also kicking the industry in the proverbial balls, by posting the entire first chapter of Say Hello to Back Jack on his Twitpic account and then crowdsourcing for English translations. Literally within minutes (I was online to see it happen) fans on Twitter were submitting translations. The other day Sato reported that a website whose target market is overseas (he didn't give the name of the site or say whether it was a Japanese company or foreign) had offered to translate his work for free and distribute and sell it for a share of the revenue. Does that business model sound familiar to anyone?

This is the big Tweet that may be seen as the first shot fired by a new breed of creator:

「ブラックジャックによろしく」天下一翻訳会、新たに海外向けサイトさんから、無償翻訳のお申し出をいただきました。翻訳して海外配信、売り上げをレベニューシェアというモデルです。作成データを作家さんに戻してくれるなら、「漫画 on Web」ごと乗っかりたい！

8:59 AM Oct 29th via TwitBird

In a separate tweet, Sato expressed an interest in also putting the work up on his own site in Japan. I assume he's negotiating some sort of arrangement as I type this.

I think it goes without saying that there are implications for everyone from the top to the bottom of the manga industry food chain, but until this develops further and what Sato is actually going to do becomes clear, there really isn't much point in discussing it. Suffice to say that Sato is, once again, making waves. His timing is also impeccable because the industry is ripe for this kind of revolution.

Whether this is a blip on the radar, or the beginning of a new business model to really challenge the old remains to be seen. A lot of people have done a lot of talking about the industry business model, but there has been relatively little action and nothing earth shattering. I think Sato is the first to really rock the boat with action instead of just bore everyone by talking about it. But whether Sato's revolution succeeds or fizzles, I do think he's just fired the first shots.

Welcome to the age of online digital distribution, real-time crowdsourcing, free-labour, and no money down high-risk licensing.
There's likely no going back either, so please don't forget to either thank or curse Sato on your way in!