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FAKKU Insight - How Magazines Get from Japan to You.

Harry · 2016-02-12T00:55:24-01:00

Hey everyone! My name is Harry. I'm the manager of the magazine team here at FAKKU and I want to give you all a little insight into our magazine release process. As you hopefully saw we just announced our third magazine, Comic Shitsurakuten! Before we jump in, here's a few numbers for ya'll going forward: Number of pages/month: 1200-1300 Number of days each editor has to work on a chapter: 2 Number of translators on the team: 1 Number of editors on the team: 5 That's a lot of work for our small team, which is why it's important to make sure the process is as smooth as possible. [color=#9D0A0A][size=18]Step 1: Data Acquisition[/size][/color] A few days before the magazine is released in Japan we are sent the print data for the magazines. This data includes: the page images, titles, editor notes, and a compiled project for each chapter. A riveting example of print data in action! [color=#9D0A0A][size=18]Step 2: Ticket Creation[/size][/color] Anyone who's worked in software development or customer service knows about ticketing systems. They let you create encapsulated tasks that can be moved and tracked between states. Simply put it lets you keep track of the things you want done. This step involves exporting a high-quality PDF for the translator, double checking the files for the editors and uploading everything to the ticketing system. Each chapter goes through 9 statuses before it's ready to go out! ("Fixes Needed" is only for chapters that are already released) Tickets! Also a small sneak peek of our content backlog! [color=#9D0A0A][size=18]Step 3: Translation and Proofreading[/size][/color] This is the first step towards actually having a finished chapter. First the Translator goes through and creates an English script. Once the script is done there's a back and forth to catch any mistakes and smooth out awkward dialog. Here's an example of some back-and forth from kiasa's My Secret Spot's Little Secret Spot: Translation: "For a free pussy, this is awesome!" Harry: I assume the implication here is that this is not prostitution since no money is changing hands. What do you think about "Woah, This is just as good as a prostitute!" or "This is awesome! I'm never paying for sex again!" Sayo: Literally, it's "Free pussy's awesome!", so yeah, the intent is that he's not paying for it. Both of these suggestions take some liberties with the original, but I'd be okay with the general idea behind either one. However, since we already have the "Ohhh!?" in the previous bubble, can probably ditch the "whoa!" and just get "This is just as good as a prostitute!". As for "This is awesome! I'm never paying for sex again!" might be a tad heavy to fit in this bubble. Harry: Changed it to "This is just as good as a prostitute!" Every now and then I sit back and think about how much time I spend trying to make Ero-Manga read well. I chuckle. [color=#9D0A0A][size=18]Step 4: Editing and Typesetting[/size][/color] Here at FAKKU we combine the traditional typesetter and redrawer into one position that we call an "Editor" (p.s. we're hiring). Although we get the files straight from the artist/publisher, there are often a lot of redraws and complex cleans that go into each chapter. Here's a couple examples of the effort they put in: This would have been easier if the image had layers! No one (wo)man should have all that power We've got a hair stylist over here For a bit more detail, editors use Photoshop/Manga Studio to do handwriting and redraws on the pages, Illustrator for chapter titles and editor text, and InDesign for typesetting and the final composition/export. Some editors prefer to typeset before they do redraws and handwriting, others the other way around. But everyone agrees; halftones on a gradient are the worst things ever. With magazines releases we translate/typeset everything that is inside a bubble or visible to the characters (this includes books, signs and other important "set pieces"). The one thing that we don't do, and its purely because we're on a very strict time constraint, is the "aaaah" "oooh" and similar sound effects that appear outside the dialogue bubbles. What's that bubbling over? It's the time these chapters would take if we had to do all of the sound effects! [color=#9D0A0A][size=18]Step 5: Revision and Release[/size][/color] The last step between ya'll and our releases is revision. Sometimes a line that sounds great in the script looks wrong on the page or there will be small spelling/grammar mistakes to fix. This is where we try to catch 'em all! This is where the translator and I go through and make any last changes we want to the chapter. The changes include everything from shifting the text around in a bubble to rewriting whole lines. Typically each chapter goes through 1-2 rounds of revision and even then we sometimes have to make fixes after a chapter has been released. That's one of the benefits of how we release content, we can make changes to the digital files at anytime! [color=#9D0A0A][size=18]Step 6: Release the Kraken![/size][/color] This is where everyone gets to enjoy it! Read and fap to your hearts content! We love being able to work on this content and love reading everyone's comments on the chapters, so keep em coming! Once a chapter is released, sometimes it needs a few fixes.. That's also why we recently added the changelog, so you can publicly see when we make a fix to your favorite fap material. (if you ever see a grammar/spelling mistake in a chapter use our contact form to report it. If you've reported an error in the past, thanks!). To put the process in perspective, Step 1-2 are usually finished within a week (all tickets made). Translation takes probably 2-3 weeks for the ~900 pages of chapters (soon to be ~1200). Finally the Editing and Revision takes ~2 days/chapter. I want to give a HUGE shout-out to the whole magazine team who put in tons of hours and effort to get high quality uncensored content to you all as fast as they can! sayo - Translator Andrew - Editor wavedashh - Editor sim0ne - Editor Romana - Editor Tyaeth - Editor

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Mr.Everwood will see you now ;)

8 years ago

The bigger your staff the more magazines you'll simulpublish?

Just thought I asked since this seems like a lot of work for a small group.

Brittany FAKKU Production Mngr

8 years ago

Mr.Everwood wrote...

The bigger your staff the more magazines you'll simulpublish?

Just thought I asked since this seems like a lot of work for a small group.

The bigger the staff, the more we can put out at a time. You gotta consider the fact that under two years ago, it was one editor, one translator, one dev, Mike, Jake, and Ben.

Now we have two teams, books and magazines, two translators, a total of 8 editors across both teams, two devs etc

We're expanding fast and always trying to keep up with the demand, but there's a lot of training that goes in for new editors so it can be tricky. :)

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