Feel free to check my bio on some information about me.
I love Light Novels.
Light Novels is the first step for a Manga/Manhwa/Anime to see light of day. It's the story without the drawings/animation.
I've become a fanatic of some of the ideas Eastern World comes up with for stories and I can spend countless hours reading.
However, there are some issues.
This causes 'rogue' translators and translator groups to appear. These people translate for free and share the work out of love for the stories.
It's an incredible situation we're in, but sharing the translated work is illegal.
Now on to the two disgusting parts of this situation.
Translation Companies let these rogue translators do the initial hard work to find out which stories actually have success in the Western World, then they partner up with the Authors in the Eastern World and hit the Rogue Translators with a cease and desist (blurghhh, how demotivating!)
Rogue translators choose the platform where they will share their stories, then you have other platforms (like https://www.readlightnovel.org/) simply copy the work and post it on their website, add some publicity and make money off the rogue translator's work (blurghhhhhhhhhhhh). Of course rogue translators can't do anything about it because well sharing what they translated was originally illegal.
This whole situation is absolutely disgusting and it drives me mad. The rogue translators and the original authors are the losers in this whole story.
Solution
My solution is to build a platform that provides a service and a partner ship with authors around the world.
Authors can publish their stories on my platform in their original language
Anyone who wishes to translate the novel (chapter by chapter) can
Readers can upvote and downvote the translations
Translators earn reputation based on the number of upvotes/downvotes on their translations
Authors earn reputation on upvotes of their original work and partial reputation on the upvotes from the translations
Authors are paid on the number of views received
Translators are paid on the number of views reveived compared to the amount of upvotes/downvotes (idea is to promote quality over being the first to post a translation to get views)
Most importantly; add a security feature where it's almost impossible to get the clear text of the work
What am I looking for?
I'm looking mainly for a solid web designer that has some knowledge of client side frameworks, and a front end developer
Where does the money come from?
Free for everyone with publicity
A reasonable subscription for no publicity (and extra minor features)
Where is the project currently?
I've spent time planning all the features
The database modeling is still ongoing
What is the tech stack going to be?
NodeJs, Typescript, Express, Svelte, Rollup, Docker, git/gitlab, Postgres, Nginx
Hey !
I am very interested in your idea ! I'm an UX/UI Designer and I had the same idea to read manga scan legally.
If you need help or want to exchange, it will be a pleasure :)
Hey, thanks for responding. I'll send you an email.
Hey,
I am front-end developer specialising in Angular 2. I think your idea is pretty cool I was a part of one "rogue" group myself back in the days. I am not super good with designing tho. Reach me out if you're interested in some kind of cooperation :)
That's great, I'll send you an email so we can talk further.
I am a WordPress developer. Can i help you?
Hey I appreciate you replying.
If you've built custom UI/UX components in CSS and have a solid understanding of JavaScript, then Feel free to send me an email so we can further talk about it.
Whats your contact email?
There should be an email icon around my profile picture on my profile.
Hi ase,
I read your post and am curious if you have heard about https://www.wuxiaworld.com ? It's a similar site to what you describe, they partner up with the original author and get the translating rights and then use their in house or hired translator to get it in english.
The owner of the sites has detailed is experience over the year making this sites and all the problem he had to face.
Might want to check it out
Hey thanks for your response. I do know wuxia and I use them daily for various light novels. They do a great job on translations.