novalux looking for an asian languge expert (pref Japenese)
As a huge fan of light novels, I wanted to solve a legal problem regarding the translation and illegal distribution of asian stories to the western world.
A few months ago, I pitched the idea on indiehackers on building a platform for readers, authors and translators; allowing them to work together legally.
I then met two amazing people Igor (front end developer) and Dylan (designer) to get this project going.
After a few months of development, we came out with an alpha version that we're very proud of.
However, we encountered a crucial problem. We are having a hard time finding potential asian authors that would be willing to share the work on our website.
Why?
Well none of us speak any asian languages and are unsure on how to contact potential authors.
That's why today we're interested in adding a new person to the team that:
- Speaks one of the following languages (preferably japenese): Chinese, Japenese, and Korean
- Has knowledge on asian social networks
If this is something that may interest you, then we would love to have a chat with you.
Why are asian social networks of interest to you? Are you trying to attract independent authors? What's in for them? Are you only looking at contemporary works?
Looking at your current website, I'm wondering why you're trying to get into the East Asian market.
I also have no idea how you're tackling the legal issues.
Regarding partnering up... What're your metrics? What do you offer?
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Follow-up after I read some of your older posts.
I see a big flaw in that authors and translators get paid for views. You don't have any traffic. Most professional authors work primarily with publishers. They can't and don't want to just publish their work on a no-name site (where anybody can just read it for free, scrape, misuse it in many other ways) and they won't see a dime.
I think at this point you have a much bigger problem than the language or culture problem. To me it seems like you don't have a business model just yet. My 2 cents.
Hello, thanks for taking some interest in the project.
The initial step is to get some content on the website and looking for small independent authors that would like to share their work on our platform to help jump start the project.
We've never planned on contacting known authors, because we know they would never join our website at this stage, that's why we are thinking of social networks.
Why asian social networks? I'm primarily interested with asian light novels, but I have hesitated in just marketing with small independent authors in Europe.
You're quite right about getting paid for views, it won't work without any traffic which is why we've been planning to add a donation and subscription feature. We've also previously dropped the idea of implementing ad revenue.
Regarding securing the light novels, we'll be adding a security module where it'll be complex to scrape the content manually or automatically.
Regarding legality, a platform where translators know they're allowed to translate these books and share their work on the platform. They'll be mentioned in the general conditions.
What's in for them? At this very moment in time, I'll be honest not much.
Goal is to create a community of readers, authors and translators that want to work together and make light novels more accessible.
Thanks for your 2 cents.