Doujin Circle - Pastel Pegasus

[suzukishinobu]

Hello i am planning thoroughly to make a SFW/NSFW Doujin Circle for Manga & Illustrators

Just started working on the logo.

I didn't put much detail in so feel free to ask important questions!

If interested in joining just comment below.

Any of you got cute names for the Doujin Circle? I thought of Pastel Pegasus but you guys might have better ideas.

What will the Genre/Themes be for the Manga or Illustrations?
Lolita Fashion
Pastel Kawaii Outfits
Guro/Ero-Guro
Traditional Wear

Boy's Love/Yaoi
Girl's Love/Yuri
Shoujo
Historical

Will we need to meet in person?
Heavens no. If you are interested through your welcome to travel with me and work with me at conventions. (Only if you pay for your ticket and travel accommodations.)

What are your Social Media/Website Link(s)?
Well i haven't set this up yet till i get more people to join.

How much will you get paid?
That depends on how much you want to sell your work for.

IMPORTANT INFO:

I will need only 10% of your earnings while you get the 90% the only reason that is to make copies/manufacture Manga it cost quite alot money and also will be used for traveling to conventions, E-Commerce, Advertising, Drama CD(s), Etc

Example: Lets say you sell an Illustration for $70 I would get $7 of that.
.
I am gonna use 100% of my earnings on our doujin circle.

[kyurenai]

I like the name of the doujin circle.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Questions:

-What is a "SFW/NSFW Doujin Circle"? Do artists get to choose which projects they're part of...? For example, I'm not particularly comfortable with NSFW, and the last thing I'd need is to be happily working on a manga for a couple months and then be told "Okay, now in this NEXT scene..."

-And on that note, are you trying to get a bunch of artists together to work on pre-planned projects, or are you asking them to bring their projects to the group and get artistic and financial support in return?

-And on THAT note, what is your vision for this group, anyway? Something like "I want to form a group to create and promote this manga", or "I want to form a group to publish an assortment of manga for sale at conventions", or "I want to form a group to make illustrations for commercial sale, and possibly draw a manga together".

It's hard to want to join a group when you don't know what the group will be doing. And those who do join without knowing what they're in for will be more likely to drop out later and leave you hanging.
TL;DR: More information is needed. A lot more!

[suzukishinobu]

• Artists get to choose the project they wish to be apart of.
  I’m currently recruiting at the moment though so brainstorming and creating projects will wait till 7-8 Mangakas/Writers have been assembled.
• Bring their projects to the group and get artistic and financial support in return.
• “I want to form a group to publish an assortment of manga for sale at conventions” That is exactly what i will be doing.
  I appearicate your questions they help organize my thoughts a bit.

[MissionFailure]

1. Have you ever run a collective group like this before?
2. Have you ever used a printing service to make doujinshi before?
3. Have you ever traveled or sold doujinshi at conventions before? If so can you provide a list of conventions?

[suzukishinobu]

• As you can probably tell by my unorganized writing no i haven't.
• No I haven't i had any type of book printed before i have only done Illustrating.
• I have never sold anything at conventions.
  That's exactly why i want to start creating doujinshi now, gain experience from it and grow further.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Bring their projects to the group and get artistic and financial support in return.

Based on what you said, then, it's going to be hard to attract artists willing to entrust you with their personal projects. You have no experience; what support can they really expect from you?

You should at least have a plan in mind for marketing other people's comics, as that is probably most of what you're going to do if you get this started. You're essentially making yourself an agent; so learn those ropes. Figure out the cost of getting a comic printed and in a booth at a convention, and be ready to cover it. Get places to advertise, and make yourself well-known so that you'll be able to make your circle's comics well-known. It'll take a lot of work to get your efforts to actually pay off. ^^;

[MissionFailure]

Look, take this as some advice as a person with experience.

Run an artist alley table at a convention first with your own work before trying to take on a large project like this with other peoples work.

There's a lot of cost and legalities(copyrights) of managing a group of artists like this that you're not aware of or prepared for. I doubt you have the capital needed to cover initial print/shipping cost without having to ask the artists themselves to cover costs. There's no way you'll be able to afford printing/table/room/travel costs with 10% of sales when the averages of comic sales are anywhere from 15-30each depending on content and rarity of said content. You would be operating at a loss and the artists would never be paid despite you interests to do so.

I'm supportive of you wanting to make a doujin collective, but you need some experience before I would trust you with my work. Anybody who's run an artist alley table or done their own short run printing will tell you the same.

[yonseo]

As someone who has done this myself I can tell you that it is very difficult to do.
You have to build trust with people before they even consider submitting their work.
To do that you need experience, get out of your comfort zone, talk to people online and offline.
Stop drawing and get off the couch!

I walked into a store one day and asked the owner if they plan to sell manga. He told me they do but they need licenses, so I told them I draw manga and he gave me their business card.
Today everything's digital so there's no need for printing but if you're not actively networking and talking to people you'll miss out on opportunities.

There's also time wasters, people who waste your valuable time. You're likely to run into them. This all comes down to knowing who you are working with, knowing their experience and background. Find some good clients that are serious and you can always contact them.

Here's some questions that might help you on your journey:

What do you have to offer that tapas or webtoons doesn't have already?
Why should I join your group, team, or circle if I can publish my work on my own?
How do you plan to advertise my work?
How much do I get paid per hour/per page?
Will you publish digital, print, or both?
How do you keep track of projects?

This last question was an interesting one I got asked. I'm a web developer so 100% of the project is tracked by the app automatically.

And of course you can do several things to gain experience:
- Pay the artists per page and print your own comic magazine with several stories.

• Create a comic contest with a purpose, for example you need a banner for your website and the best banner design wins.

• Start a youtube channel under your doujin circle name and post art tutorials, comic reviews, etc and at the end of the video plug in your own brand.

• Create a 10 page manga project and split the roles for background artist, character artist, coloring, writing. You wont gain much revenue but it will show you can manage a project from start to finish and that's experience.

• Collaborate with an artist or a writer on a short term comic. Most of these are unpaid but what I often see is that people are concerned with payment and miss out on the fact that you can put this kind of work in your portfolio and therefore gain experience.

• The most important one of all is to put together a portfolio!. Nobody knows what you did unless you put all this stuff together. You have to show work! not just say what you did. Anybody can say they have experience translating, but anyone can use google translate. Catch my drift?