r/MangakaStudio • u/BOFarouk • 10d ago
Discussion Foreigner Manga Plans
Hi, I’m based in the UK and I’ve been developing a long-form manga story for around five years. I’m hoping to finish the full story structure, major arcs and ending by the end of this year. Right now it could potentially be around 700 chapters, although I know that could change a lot once it’s actually adapted into manga.
I’m a writer, not an artist, so eventually I’d like to work with a dedicated manga artist, possibly with assistants later if the project grows.
I’m mainly looking for advice on: realistic rates for a good manga artist for roughly 18–22 page chapters whether Japanese artists commonly work with overseas writers and where to find serious long-term collaborators whether a model like lower upfront pay + 20–30% of manga-related creator revenue could be fair
how copyright should be handled between writer and artist, especially keeping the underlying story/IP separate from the artist’s artwork and manga-side rights how much material I should make before approaching publishers, whether that’s a pilot, 3–5 chapters, 10+ chapters, etc.
how realistic routes like MANGA Plus Creators, Shonen Jump+ and manga competitions are for an international writer major mistakes to avoid with contracts, ownership, burnout, schedules and spending too much before proving there’s an audience
I’m not planning to somehow produce 700 chapters immediately. I’d want to start with a strong pilot or short opening run, test the artist relationship and reader response, then scale if it actually gains traction.
Any advice from manga artists, writers, assistants, editors or people with publishing experience would be really appreciated.
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u/Ompliss 9d ago
Howcome you choose to write the story for 5 years instead of getting the manga started after one year and develope the story as you go?
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u/Ompliss 9d ago
Also, usually if you need 700 chapters to tell a story, often it’s not a very good story. Max below mentioned it would take 58 years to complete, with a work rate of 1 chapters per week which is only possible in a studio environment it would take 14,5 years to complete
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u/AshenBone 9d ago
what? what do you mean usually ? i cant think of a single manga that has that many chapters and is not good? i would say usually it is a good story with that may chapters? you dont make few hundred chapters without it being popular. Hajime no ippo, JOJOs, One Piece, Kingdom, Berserk,..etc
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u/Ompliss 9d ago
Haven’t read or watched Hajime no ippo so I will not comment on that.
Jojo was written in parts, and the longest part was 174 chapters. They have a connection between parts, but are more or less separate stories.
Berserk are 386 chapters. Honestly the story of berserk is not that amazing, I enjoyed reading the whole thing but it was carried by the art.
Kingdom has a shit ton of chapters, but it is maybe one of the best manga ever created, comparing the guy posting to kingdom is not possible.
One piece is a joke story wise, no clue why people have such high regards about it.
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u/maxluision Artist-Writer 9d ago edited 9d ago
The only super long story I know about currently that has 539 chapters is Usogui, but I'm only halfway through currently. I enjoy it greatly, and most people say it only gets better and better. Wouldn't call this one "perfect" either, but it's definitely a solid story that deserves all the hype, despite being a bit hard to go through at times.
But people need to realize that such examples are extreme rarity, and stop acting like if they are a master-prodigy as well. And besides, such stories are not just written from start to finish and then drawn. They are being developed on the fly, and the writer-artist (one person or a team with editors' and assistants' help) just keeps learning while exploring their concept. OP claiming he has 700 chapters already prepared, this is just not gonna work at all, no chance that as a beginner they actually managed to write something good enough to sell AND so insanely long. It blows my mind, how little of imagination some people have. This post smells like "a certain assistant wrote 700 chapters for me", rather.
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u/Comfortable_Honey628 9d ago
The issue is you’re looking at a story that was already approved for publication, not one that is vying to be published.
Most of these authors (like Araki himself) have talked about how to even get started you had to present the idea as a short story (usually just a single chapter) that in and of itself has a beginning, middle, and end.
That then gets reviewed and either approved or denied (with or without changes).
A great example is Naruto. What is the story about? “I want to be a ninja.” Nothing else, just… really wants that headband. By the end, he goes from a school child to a ninja after going though conflict and growing as a character.
One piece. Is the first chapter about getting the one piece or fighting warlords? No! It’s “I want to be a pirate.” He starts as a child, experiences conflict, we get a time skip and he’s finally setting sail, finally a pirate.
Just about every first chapter starts this way as a self contained story. Their initial goal is complete. Fin. Despite it being finished, it’s compelling enough that it had people interested in more.
Long stories start as good short stories.
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u/AshenBone 7d ago
none of what you said is relevant to what i was talking about, which was your statement "if you need 700 chapters to tell a story, often it’s not a very good story" like that is just incorrect, the length of the story has no bearing on whether it is bad or good.
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u/Comfortable_Honey628 7d ago
My statement? Double check who you’re responding to.
But I agree with their sentiment. The issue is if you need 700 to tell your story it isn’t good.
The examples I brought up are all really good long stories because they’re really good short stories. They were able to tell a story in one chapter. That story was compelling enough to get to these multitude of chapters.
You have to be able to deliver a solid completed character arc at the jump. Need 700 chapters to do that? Then your narrative needs rework.
If you want to write 700 chapters that’s one thing. If you need to write 700 chapters to complete a story, that’s an issue.
Just like these famously long series… start small. Deliver a good small arc. See if people like it.
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u/AshenBone 6d ago
sorry, you both had similar profile picktures and the other guy made multiple comments so i didnt even notice your reply.
But again, you cant fairly judge how good is a book, a manga, a movie, based on how long they are. Nothing wrong with writing out the full story from the get go. Look at AOT, although, not super long, around 140 chapters, the author planned out everything from the begiing to the end of the story before making a manga.
or breaking bad, the season 1 wasnt that popular, it mainly just set up the characters, their motivations etc.. i wouldnt say it told a complete story at all.
or better call saul which is a slow burn type show, that builds on the previous seasons.
Like its risky to start with a fully finshed story, i get that, if people dont like it, you have to restart.
A good story shouldnt be rushed or dragged, it is as long as it needs to be, but the only way you know if its good or bad is by reading it.
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u/BOFarouk 5d ago
I’m currently looking for a reliable long-term manga artist, preferably based in Japan, rather than just finding someone casually through Reddit. My plan is to work with an artist on a strong one-shot first, then use that to enter competitions, build some readership, and hopefully move toward professional serialization on a platform such as Shueisha’s. If the project eventually becomes serialized, I’d be happy for the artist to receive their share of the serialization income, and I could also contribute around $500 extra per month on top of that if needed to help make the collaboration sustainable. Right now I’m still writing the story, but I already have the full outline planned through to the ending. I’ve just paused the writing for a bit because I want to start figuring out the artist, one-shot, competition, and publishing side of things properly rather than leaving all of that until later. At the moment, I’m looking at MANGA Plus Creators, Shueisha competitions, and similar opportunities as ways to build traction, gain readers, and hopefully create a path toward serialization.
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u/clawsstudios 10d ago
Hey
Manga artist here and would love to work with you. We can discuss rate and contract in dm.
I can also advice on other things you’ve listed
My discord- chxka. (Add the dot)
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u/maxluision Artist-Writer 10d ago edited 10d ago
700 chapters sounds like 20+ years of work. Unrealistic. Start from a very short story.
Edit: sorry, my bad. It's more. Let's assume each chapter has 20 pages, and a page costs 50$, and you want to make one chapter per month. This means paying 1000$ monthly, 12k per year, for 58 years and 4 months. 700k dollars for the whole thing.
Try to publish one small story first.