Why So Many Projects?

Hello,

These last few days I've been busy with life so I haven't had time to really think and write. I decided to extend from my last post on a topic-kind of food for thought?

Scanlators don't all have such a large group of people working on projects especially since there are a finite number of people who are willing to give up the time in their lives for the many jobs required for a "HQ" scanlation~ providing raws/translating/cleaning/redrawing/proofreading/QCing (that all?).

So...I've wondered for some time, especially with one group specifically (the name of which will not be provided), why do some scanlation groups take on so many projects? This one group has like about 100 projects (give or take 10 or so that they have dropped but haven't removed from the ongoing projects list). I don't know how many people are volunteering to work in that group but even so, that's a lot of projects. With so much to do for just one project as well, it begs me to question, why bother taking on so many different projects?

Possible Reason #1--I understand that some groups seem to take on projects based on the magazines they subscribe from but in my opinion, it just seems less efficient to do that since not all magazines continue to feature a manga to its completion (or is that just American manga magazines).

Yes, Magazines have their perks. One of which would be that there are multiple mangas in each magazine. They also are cheaper in the long run I suppose when you calculate the cost of each magazine you get from the cost of an annual subscription against one volume of a manga. There's also the factor that it's a lot easier to scan from too if you do the whole de-binding method/ripping the pages carefully. That just seems like all the perks there are to me. Nothing more and nothing less. (Maybe color pages are a perk as well? I don't know if volumes in the country of origin have color pages.)

But of course, all things good also have its bad. But it's easier to compare than to simply say the bad so I'm not going to say why to me it seems better to not rely on magazines.

For me, it makes more sense to take on projects that are already completed in the country of origin. Whether you obtain the raws by buying the manga in a foreign language or online from people who upload raws on their own free time, it makes a lot more sense to do that doesn't it? This way, there is no doubt that the mangaka will drop it or put it on hiatus despite it being not very probably but also, it seems like it would be better in that a group doesn't have to wait around that long for a new chapter for a project being worked on.

I also think having a manga in volumes is better too. Similar to the idea of it already being completed, you at least don't have to wait so long for another chapter. Yes, volumes take longer to compile and be released but it gives more control over how many projects to take on right? If a group gets a magazine, I feel as though they may feel obligated to do all the mangas featured with some strange idea that they'll get their money's worth.

Possible Reason #2--Other groups have so many projects just for the sake of variety and keeping the interest alive I suppose which does make sense and would work better if you have a large pool of people you can dip into for job distributions but again, finite people.

There is one group in particular that I think works well with a large amount of projects because it has a large pool of people to dip into for work. But the largest difference is that this group also takes time to encourage and train its people to take on other jobs like from PR to cleaning. Although their PR needs some brushing up grammar and all but in general, they've created a system that works pretty well I think.

Generally though, I feel like groups should try and brush themselves up and control the amount of work they take on. Having so many and leaving most inactive for long periods of time is a pretty cruel fate for the projects as well as those who have vested their interest in those stories. It's sad to see projects drop but drawing on the exclusivity thing, by dropping projects that have less probability of reviving, it may be a better fate since it would allow the possibility of it being picked up by another group who many invest more time into working on the dropped projects.

Speaking rationally, this makes sense to me but maybe it's just to me. I can't really think of anything else to add (maybe later) but that's all.

Until next week,
tohukyo