MangaMagazine.net - $20,000 sponsorship pool

[powil]

Some of you may already know that I'm helping out MangaMagazine on a few things. Recently they announced a $20, 000 sponsorship pool for comic artists. Details here. Anybody heard of this news from MangaMagazine.net? Would love to hear your thoughts about this!



Changed the title to sound slightly more relevant. Enjoy~

[Troll]

EDIT:
If you're an active and a premium member, you instantly get $150 no matter the hits.
If you can get 10% of the traffic (dunno how much is that), instant $2,000.

I'm not into comic business so I don't know how will they make it work.

[powil]

EDIT:
If you're an active and a premium member, you instantly get $150 no matter the hits.
If you can get 10% of the traffic (dunno how much is that), instant $2,000.

I'm not into comic business so I don't know how will they make it work.

You've highlighted "10%" traffic. This refers to 10% of the total traffic MangaMagazine website got for a month.

MangaMagazine's goal is to be a platform for web comic artists to easily publish and monetize their content. This includes achieving sustainability through subscription, advertising, and marketplace revenue.

From an author's point of view, MangaMagazine tries to make it zero risks for both sides. No rights are surrendered at any point in time!

[Krazehhcakes]

thats pretty generous of them which is nice. But its a narrow pool, is that meant to be an incentive for artists to upload more frequently or something?
or do they want the artists now to actively spend their time promoting their work to bring readers in? Because if so its hard to draw so many pages and actively promote at the same time. Promoting SHOULD be MM's job.

And how will they calculate it? By comic views or something?

[Falconer]

Sounds nice of them.

If only I didn't hate their website.

[Krazehhcakes]

Sounds nice of them.

If only I didn't hate their website.

clunky website is clunky.

[DragonHat]

stares at abandoned mangamagazine account.......

dammit

[eishiya]

Because if so its hard to draw so many pages and actively promote at the same time. Promoting SHOULD be MM's job.

Sounds nice of them.

If only I didn't hate their website.

clunky website is clunky.

QFT, and these are two of the reasons that not even the (possibility of) payment has gotten me to join the site.

[Krazehhcakes]

It's still a nice offer, but there's just some aspects of the site that rubs me the wrong way on a personal level.

1. My comic was written and made to be enjoyed by everyone. I know MM is trying to support artists and function AS a business. But I dont like that after 8 chapters of premiums have to pay to read beyond the iron curtain. This could turn away so many promising readers. If i want people to support me, then i want them to support me, and maybe a chapter in the far future will do it? you never know. If paying means reading it quicker and beforehand: This is fine. But it seems like that iron curtain doesnt budge for those who cant pay. Such as younger readers who have no access to a credit card or depend on their parents for it.

2. If i do upload my comic in the future and say it does become a featured title. Then It feels rather silly that the featureds are treated like second hand citizens. If i was to hit featured, I'd like to stay featured and not premium for accessability of readers. The featured titles on there are FANTASTIC in quality and many i see dont want to go beyond to premium because they'd have to sacrifice certain rights such as printing and self distribution? (i.e: Carciphona is professional on all levels yet its not premium but the writer Shilin prints it herself. is that why? And Sakana went from premium back to featured)

3. The website is really clunky as hell. and everywhere you turn you get Premium titles slapped at your face and how you should pay to read em. I understand they want to give their starred title exposure but there's a line of "ANNOYING ADVERTISING" that bugs you. 9/10 People who sign UP for MM are aware of the premium titles without having it thrown at their faces.

4. I think MM kinda forgets their own rules. Like whole ORIGINAL content. Yet they've been putting up doujinshi's now? I know they probably have no intention of printing these due to copyright but then why are Premium authors who write doujinshi's are allowed to have them in their premium pool? Likewise how come their second titles with say 8 pages suddenly appear in the premium pool when they havent reached the STANDARD WRITTEN REQUIREMENTS.
I know in the publishing world a good reputation hooks you a second chance, but that's utterly ridiculous and completely double standard.

5. I honestly lose interest in a comic if it suddenly moves somewhere elsewhere. So many titles i dropped or forgot about because they left the community and their comics unfortunately died. Readers, i'm sorry to say arent very accepting of drastic change. I'm no different.
No offense, but for example Vampire Fetish. I absolutely loved Loom's Vampire fetish but then it was suddenly announced "Hey sorry, if you want to read content ahead then move to MM" Then chances are that throws off my expectation of a schedule and i lose interest because i already have a committed relationship of community to SJ.

Its okay to MIRROR the title however. That's wonderful, but if you abandon SJ also, then sorry... I wont follow you and your title all of a sudden. Another example was Plume. If you dont give us transition or Transition TIME then very rarely will i ever be committed enough to float to another community entirely for you.

So if MM expects authors to just abandon on their previous communities, then i have very little respect for that.


However, I brought these issues up before. And One day I may upload some comics there since it sounds like they ARE listening to criticisms of their site. I applaude their enthusiasm and their process would work fantastically in the future, but for now, they seem really scrambled and when there's ground foundation is iron clad and their site fixed up, till now i'm pretty content on SJ, money or not.

[Vervain]

4. I think MM kinda forgets their own rules. Like whole ORIGINAL content. Yet they've been putting up doujinshi's now? I know they probably have no intention of printing these due to copyright but then why are Premium authors who write doujinshi's are allowed to have them in their premium pool? Likewise how come their second titles with say 8 pages suddenly appear in the premium pool when they havent reached the STANDARD WRITTEN REQUIREMENTS.
I know in the publishing world a good reputation hooks you a second chance, but that's utterly ridiculous and completely double standard.

Actually, I was wondering about this too. The whole original content thing is the reason I won't be uploading my own doujinshi there (as much as I'd like to show it to a wider audience), just out of principle. I was quite genuinely surprised to see doujinshi in the premium pool. As someone who loooves doujinshi more than I should, I don't mind that it exists, but I'm quite sure MM isn't the place for it. It's a legal grey area anyway, so I wonder if issues could ever arise from it, especially having it within the featured/premium pool..?

Also, I understand that the shift has sort of changed the premium thing to an author status as opposed to just a status on the manga itself, which is why everything we upload is shown there regardless of content amount/etc... So pretty sure that explains why that stuff is happening.

[Krazehhcakes]

Also, I understand that the shift has sort of changed the premium thing to an author status as opposed to just a status on the manga itself, which is why everything we upload is shown there regardless of content amount/etc... So pretty sure that explains why that stuff is happening.

Yeah this is something I cant agree with however and brings up that air of elitism. Just because an author is premium doesnt guarenteee that all of their works will be up to snuff. What if they decide to drop it or its on an extended hiatus? It should NOT qualify as a premium TITLE as its advertised then.

I think Premium authors can have a spotlight and easier chance of getting their second title premium, but not until it hits the standard requirements. Till then it should be in Featured.

[Vervain]

Also, I understand that the shift has sort of changed the premium thing to an author status as opposed to just a status on the manga itself, which is why everything we upload is shown there regardless of content amount/etc... So pretty sure that explains why that stuff is happening.

Yeah this is something I cant agree with however and brings up that air of elitism. Just because an author is premium doesnt guarenteee that all of their works will be up to snuff. What if they decide to drop it or its on an extended hiatus? It should NOT qualify as a premium TITLE as its advertised then.

I think Premium authors can have a spotlight and easier chance of getting their second title premium, but not until it hits the standard requirements. Till then it should be in Featured.

I'm inclined to agree with you. The Premium status isn't revoked unless the artist asks to stand down or if they suddenly vanish. I'm not sure what happens to an unfinished, long dead manga in the pool, but the other premium authors seem to be reliable enough to either finish what they start or maybe ask to have it taken off/take it down themselves. I think (I have faith!).

But still, I suppose I could just put up a 5 page scribbly, nonsensical gag manga that I made for friends and it would instantly become a premium manga. > >' Thinking about it that way... Eh~.

I'm not sure it brings up an air of elitism, so much as the air of a slightly too lax system about things. Having the secondary titles in featured in the meanwhile seems like a pretty logical solution to me.

Still doesn't fix the doujinshi thing though ; ;

[Krazehhcakes]

Also, I understand that the shift has sort of changed the premium thing to an author status as opposed to just a status on the manga itself, which is why everything we upload is shown there regardless of content amount/etc... So pretty sure that explains why that stuff is happening.

Yeah this is something I cant agree with however and brings up that air of elitism. Just because an author is premium doesnt guarenteee that all of their works will be up to snuff. What if they decide to drop it or its on an extended hiatus? It should NOT qualify as a premium TITLE as its advertised then.

I think Premium authors can have a spotlight and easier chance of getting their second title premium, but not until it hits the standard requirements. Till then it should be in Featured.

I'm inclined to agree with you. The Premium status isn't revoked unless the artist asks to stand down or if they suddenly vanish. I'm not sure what happens to an unfinished, long dead manga in the pool, but the other premium authors seem to be reliable enough to either finish what they start or maybe ask to have it taken off/take it down themselves. I think (I have faith!).

But still, I suppose I could just put up a 5 page scribbly, nonsensical gag manga that I made for friends and it would instantly become a premium manga. > >' Thinking about it that way... Eh~.

I'm not sure it brings up an air of elitism, so much as the air of a slightly too lax system about things. Having the secondary titles in featured in the meanwhile seems like a pretty logical solution to me.

Still doesn't fix the doujinshi thing though ; ;

Doujinshis should not be there at all. Or if it is, be in a sub section underneath featured and Premium. Allowing doujins just ruins the credibility and what MM stands for which is to promote original content.
If the site is indeed run by feedback and views, doujins would really wreck the system. just. no.

I do like the subscription thing a tiny bit. Would like it a bit more if there was some benefits to it when purchasing a title also... because paying so and so a month to read it as it updates, people wont be inclined as much to buy the actual comic on top of paying subscription.
Now if it came with benefits like say a discount (unlikely tho, MM has to make money also afterall), or atleast a signed book... that may get people more enthusiastic that they're supporting the cause.

The artists themselves btw xD are in no way elitist. But the Premium seems like the first class pool where they can get away with almost anything sorta thing. And i can sense somewhere down the line in the near future a clash will happen.

[VictorVictor]

Wow, what an amazing thread. Firstly thanks for all the feedback. This is really helpful for us as otherwise we would never know what we are doing right or wrong! With that, I thought I’d jump in and answer the questions asked here! Do let me know your thoughts! I am happy to take this offline through email: victor < at> mangamagazine.net too!

So, how do we calculate the payment distribution? It is calculated based on traffic which is a combination of page views, unique visitors, and engagement on our site.

“I hate your website!”: We definitely have a TON to do on the UI design! (I won't go on record saying we hate the design, but.... yeah.... we know it's not....good....) That’s why we are working with some amazing designers right now to launch a newly designed site! It’s just a pity that the process to do it is painfully long… We expect to roll out some changes in the next few weeks and then a major revamp in probably February! Do let us know what you hate so we can make sure to fix it!!!!

“Iron curtain”: I think there is a little misunderstanding here. Our subscription wall is not an iron curtain that prevents people from reading. For all the latest content, one page is made available per week for free and if you pay you can read faster since authors publish 15 pages per month. There is some archive content behind a wall but we have a ton of opportunities to avoid paying $2.99 once to catch up… Here are just some of the opportunities. We plan on making more available in the near future as well!
http://blog.mangamagazine.net/?p=1009
We know we need to do a better job communicating this with our readers and are really trying hard to emphasize that content isn’t under a hard wall…

Featured authors as second hand citizens: I don’t agree that featured authors are seen as second hand citizens…. We created this tier to give authors a chance to see if this is something they want to do and there are definitely authors where the featured model treats them better. We do not ask for any distribution or printing rights whatsoever. Our model is a service model to help authors do what can best help generate value.

Doujinshi: Our team wholeheartedly agrees with not focusing on doujinshi. You should see an update to the site in the next few weeks hopefully. This was never our intention and more importantly it is confusing to see the non-main series highlighted at the same level. You will not hear any disagreement on this. Are we going to remove every single doujinshi on our site? No, that would be impossible, but we will definitely only highlight original content. Thanks for flagging the importance of this! We had started talking about this, but your comments shifted the priority.
Mirroring on other sites: We recommend our authors to make MM their main site to update content and keep it the most up to date so all our readers get their value, but we are very flexible in how it is implemented. A lot of our authors still maintain their own sites and so on. In the end, the way our pool is paid to authors is based on traffic on our site, so it is up to the author to decide how to balance it!

These issues have been brought these issues up before: Really sorry they were missed. Mind telling me where they were raised? Feedback is really important to us and I don’t want us to miss any of it!!!

Improving value for readers: Our team wholeheartedly agrees. We’re putting a lot of thought into this as we really want to deliver stuff that has real value. I mean we could do things like “no ads” or “5% discount” or something like that, but we are trying hard to figure out ways to fundamentally add value that lots of people find useful. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Can anybody tell I like stuff organized and structured? Thanks again for everybody’s feedback and sorry for highjacking a SJ thread.

Victor
Founder, MangaMagazine.net

[Vervain]

Doujinshi: Our team wholeheartedly agrees with not focusing on doujinshi. You should see an update to the site in the next few weeks hopefully. This was never our intention and more importantly it is confusing to see the non-main series highlighted at the same level. You will not hear any disagreement on this. Are we going to remove every single doujinshi on our site? No, that would be impossible, but we will definitely only highlight original content. Thanks for flagging the importance of this! We had started talking about this, but your comments shifted the priority.

Ah that's great Victor. I look forward to seeing what the changes are. @ @/ There's been a lot happening on the site in the last few months, I'm losing track of it all, but this sounds like a great move.

Improving value for readers: Our team wholeheartedly agrees. We’re putting a lot of thought into this as we really want to deliver stuff that has real value. I mean we could do things like “no ads” or “5% discount” or something like that, but we are trying hard to figure out ways to fundamentally add value that lots of people find useful. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

A store discount is the only suggestios I can think of... OTL I guess it's because of the site structure, there's really only so much you can do to add in extra features to what's there without taking something currently available away. I'll think more on it later.