Question Supporting Authors Through Patronage

There’s this thing with some translators accepting donations. I don’t do that because of various reasons, such as how I’m not the author and just a translator.

I was viewing some threads today about donations and how Syosetu doesn’t pay their authors, which made me feel really bad for them.

That’s when I thought of setting up a Patreon where readers can donate money to but instead of those donations going to me, they all go to the author. I have zero experience with Patreon, hence why I’m making this thread. I was going to search up information on this but I thought it would be a better idea to ask for a fellow translators’ opinion because a lot of them use Patreon and know how things truly work. Please inform me on the pros and cons of Patreon. Also, is the idea realistic enough?

Basically, I want to help authors who have let me translate their work in the best way that I can. Obviously, since I’m not apart of some publishing company, this would be the best I could do for them.

 

You're doing God's work. Good luck.

 

Uuh before you going forward with this why you ask them first is they willing to accept or not, as far i remember Syosetu really different compared to Qidian in their policy that way author isnt paid, since Syosetu also didnt charge them, syosetu more like place to write that way reader also have free acces

Forgot to add not mentione many of them also write as fun in their free time thought some indeed get offer from company to publish their work

 

I would recommend looking into what the Author believes would be best in the situation. If the Author has no publishing company behind them and they say it's okay, go for it. If there is a publishing company (think Qidian (QI or webnovel) or Kadokawa (yen-press)), then there are more hoops to jump through. The publishing company might throw a DMCA at you, threatening law suits if you illegally translate the work. The Author might say it's okay, only to realize that the publishing company didn't think so and there being a hassle over the situation. Or the publishing company gives you an ok but the author doesn't get the money (or the full amount).

All in all, establish contact with the Author and try to figure out what will be the best option forward.

 

Do you mean as in if I can translate their work? I already did and they said yes. Or are you talking about asking them if they want donations?

Thank you for the advice. Does Syosetu count as a publishing company?

 

No, as far i remember syosetu not publishing company more on platform (?) Or something like that, as for my question as the author first if they want the donation or not.

 

I think Syosetu was more like a writing platform, like the Scribble Hub Tony-chan is running.

If you have a great story idea and want a platform to bring your imagination to the world, try Scribble Hub by Tony (-chan). It's easy, it is connected to a forum and index with hundreds if not thousands of users, and most important of all, IT'S FREE! You read that right, FREE!

 

Thank you for answering my question.

 

Tbh Patreon isn't that good if you just want donations, they take like %2 for doing nothing plus the %2 and stuff if you go through Paypal or another bank. So it would be better to just do Paypal donations than going through Patreon if you are not offering extra content from the donations.

 

So do all PayPal donations go directly towards whoever is asking for the donations? Based off of what you said, PayPal seems to be more of a wise option. So far I’ve only seen Ko-Fi and Patreon. Thank you for your insight. I greatly appreciate it.

 

I haven't looked at the payment style of Ko-Fi so they might be a good choice but for maximising the amount of money you get donations through Patreon is sometimes kinda sketchy, at the start of this month they started getting "delays" on sending the money through to the creators. Also, Paypal does take a ~2% cut through all transactions instead of the ~4% total through Patreon.

 

Syosetsu is basically Tony's Scribble Hub.

Got it

 

Nope, even owner(Jack Conte) of Patreon said the business is no longer sustainable.

He also uses language saying Patreon pays the creators when its the patrons (fans) who support the creators. Patreon is more like an intermediary for the payment processors. Patreon takes 10% (he even said this is generous) when Paypal takes 3% for a subscription.

Patreon CEO says the company's generous business model is not sustainable as it sees rapid growth

 

Thank you for the input. I’ll do research on other patronage sights because it seems like Patreon is really sketchy. So let’s say I replace Patreon with PayPal, would that make you reconsider and say yes? I’m asking you this because another person told me PayPal is sketchy.

 

Recently there was a huge incident with the banning of Sargon of Akkad (patreon did not even follow its own rules and regulations, Youtube didn't even remove the video he was banned for). People moved to SubscribeStar then PayPal pulled out of SubscribeStar (head of Trust & Safety team was a former PayPal executive).

Currently, YoutuberLaw is trying to build an antitrust lawsuit against Patreon and Paypal.

People are currently trying to make alternatives. I would wait a few months to see what happens.

EDIT:
Seems like SubscribeStar is working now and found another payment processor

https://www.subscribestar.com/

 

Thank you for your information. I’ll definitely do more research on online donations and such.

 

But to answer the question, I think it would be great for authors to get paid. I only hope it doesn't make them overwork out of a sense of responsibility to their fans. We have lost serval amazing authors and artists because they didn't focus on their health.

 

Syosetu doesn’t pay their Authors? I’m really shock since many novels have been adapted.. but then again we(English readers) don’t know what happens to that side of the world.

I think that’s a good idea but also a very hard one? You’ll probably need a connection towards the writer or something to reassure the readers? Normally all I see is their links towards JP Amazon page for support, of course it’s not like I can buy it since idk Japanese lol ^.^

 

This is why I translate completed series. If in the future things work out and the author can get paid, they won’t have to stress over having to complete the series in order to receive donations if their series was long completed before any translations were being published.

Syosetu is similar to Wattpad. The difference is that Wattpad only pays the popular authors while no author on Syosetu gets paid at all. As for LNs, that’s because the author got scouted out by an actual publishing company. I believe that Syosetu is just a writing platform. Not every Syosetu author can get scouted out and the ones that don’t get scouted out don’t receive any form of support for their work. I’ve read a lot of stuff on Syosetu and on the authors’ profile page, I’ve never seen any sort of link to a donation page.

 

Wouldn't it be better to split the money?

At the end of the day, translation is hard work, and your translation is technically a new (if derivative) work you've created. It might be convenient for the time being if you're in school or just doing this as a hobby, but when you've got bills to pay or you're hundreds of chapters into the story it can become a HUGE burden without some kind of financial remuneration.

One thing you'll learn is that it's good to be humble but you've got to be careful not cheat yourself out of the reasonable fruits of your own labour. Again, the author wrote the work, but you're the one translating it.