Editions IMHO

So, professionnals of the manga world did a meeting and they are worried about a lot of things: ▶️Manuscript fees are too low. Of course they are! 1 man/page, from which you take 50% off because of all the taxes. 10 hours to draw a page, which means mangaka are paid 500 yen/hour. Big companies making millions of dollars are paying their freelancers (mangaka) 500 yen/hour. 💀 ▶️The number of people wanting to become mangaka is decreasing, while the number of those drawing as a hobby (doujinshi and internet) is increasing. Well, for sure. Because: 1) Manuscript fees are too low so it's impossible to make a living with it. 2) Working conditions are horrible (number of hours, no breaks, no work life balance etc.) 3) Doing free work with no guarantee is mandatory. Editors ask mangaka to do big retakes without paying them more money, and can refuse projects though freelancers have worked months on it with them, under their supervision and TAKING THEIR ORDERS. I assure you I can't do that with designers for example and I wouldn't EVEN THINK ABOUT DOING IT. It would be totally UNETHICAL to do so. When I ask a Japanese mangaka/designer/illustrator to work with me, I do everything I can to try to create good working conditions, though I'm just a single person with limited means and not a big company with a lot of money. Can you imagine doing with a house what publishers do with manga? You ask the building company (designer of the house) to build you a house and then you choose to not buy it at the end because it's not to your liking. Or you say "build me 3 houses and I will choose one from them". WTF? 4) Mangaka are only paid at the end. Mangaka have bills to pay while making manga. If an editor ask to work with a mangaka, giving him instructions to alterate the manuscript, then it's a contract. Can you imagine paying for a house only at the end? No, you pay some of the sum at the beginning of the work, then some again when you have the structure of the house achieved. The last part is paid when you get the keys of the house. Some veterans mangaka say it's ok to work without being paid, because then you can bring the project to another editor, but I disagree with it. The project should be PAID AND PUBLISHED by the publisher, for one year at least. After that, if the publisher wants to take it down because it's not to its liking, then he can. Publishing the result is a proof of work with this publisher for this freelancer. Manuscript fees are "publishing fees". So mangaka can be paid with other fees (preparation fees, 拘束 fees etc.) while working on the project. We are talking about big companies, they CAN do it. If they are serious about creating new profitable IPs of course. Big pharmaceutical companies pay their research teams to develop new pharmaceutical IPs (drugs, patents etc.), regardless of the result. 5) Opaque contract terms and sometimes conditions DIFFERENT from what the editor said to the author. Impossible to discuss the terms of the contract because "it's standard". Like "if you don't sign, there are tons of other mangaka wanting to take your place, you know? *evil grin* So don't be surprised that young Japanese prefer to become illustrators or designers instead of mangaka, or even prefer making manga as a hobby while having a stable job, with a good work life balance. People drawing as a hobby are not paid either for their work, but at least nobody tells them what to draw, or to respect the deadline even if they have to jeopardize their health to do so. They are worried about other things, but my post is already too long. Ranting a lot, sorry.😂