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I guess this will never end!…And actually, I don’t mind if it doesn’t! Will always take info from people in the industry anytime, and I will post them. Because hey, people might learn a thing or two. I think.

Anyways, Abigail’s back again. As you might have learned from the lettering post, she also works on the editorial side for Yen Press, so she’s edited manga too. Since her editing credits aren’t listed, she let me know some of the manga she’s worked on, so here you go:

Soul Eater
Umineko
Higurashi
Inu X Boku SS
Triage X
Bloody Cross
A Bride’s Story
Yotsuba
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan
The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan

Since she answered the first two questions, you’ll get to read the editorial challenges for an editor from her.

What’s generally the biggest challenge you face when editing a manga series?

One of the biggest challenges in editing manga is addressing culture or language-specific references that just don’t translate well into English. Any of the four-panel books (Sunshine Sketch, Aron’s Absurd Armada, K-ON!) or comedies in particular take a lot of careful thought when we edit them. Yen tries to keep the text as faithful to the original as possible, but when it’s an idiom that doesn’t exist in English, we have to get really creative with wordplay and puns to make it make sense while keeping the meaning faithful to the Japanese. It’s especially hard when the text and the art are part of the joke. We do try to insert translation notes to explain the Japanese for these instances, but we want the reader to enjoy the punchline without having to flip to the back. Sometimes, there’s just nothing you can do…

If there is one thing an editor must keep in mind when looking over a manga, what is it?

Readability. Most of the text in a comic is dialogue, so it’s important that it feels like natural speech, that the flow of a conversation makes sense. Particularly in fantasy series or series where there are passages of explanation, the terminology can sometimes get in the way of what the character really means, even if the translation is technically correct. Thinking of how you would actually talk to or explain something to someone is critical to making the characters come to life and making the read more enjoyable for fans.

What would be the best way for an editor to break into the manga industry?

A lot of editing is being a good writer, being able to make small changes that give the final book polish. I was an English lit major, so I learned a lot about what makes an effective story and good writing there. I also took some publishing and business classes to help me understand how the book business works. If you’re entry-level, being able to write and communicate well is critical–you will learn a lot on the job. It’s also important to have some understanding of InDesign/Photoshop/Illustrator. At Yen, we work right in the files that will ultimately go to the printer, and editors frequently have to be able to design extra pages, make ads, clean Japanese out of art, letter books, etc. Again, you will learn a lot on the job, but it’s good to have looked at the program a little bit if possible. And of course, while you don’t have to be an expert in Japanese, it does help to have at least some basic Japanese under your belt.

What type of advice would you give to someone who might be interested in this venture?

Read critically. When you’re reading manga or a novel, look at where the dialogue reads well or poorly, look at how the artist uses the comic panels to tell their story, think about what makes a good character and what makes a weak one. An editor’s job is to take a work and smooth out the rough edges to make it really shine and be the best it can be, so developing the ability to zero in on problem areas and recognizing the best parts of a story are key.

Well, I ended up getting one more response back to my query for manga letterers sharing advice about manga lettering. But as you already know, I posted it last week. That doesn’t really mean I wouldn’t stop posting very important info on manga lettering. As you can see, I’m now posting Abigail Blackman’s (Inu x Boku SS, Soul Eater Not!, a few volumes of Sundome) answers to my questions. Why yes, I did add this info to the original post. But since I know some might miss it, I decided to single Abigail out. It’s punishment for being late!

…Probably. Anyways, here’s her answers.

How did you get the opportunity to start working as a manga letterer?

I started working on the editorial staff of Yen Press back in 2008. When projects came in with tight turnaround times (particularly during the Yen Plus magazine era) I started lettering internally for Yen. Generally speaking, though, interested letterers can reach out to Yen Press via their general email ([email protected]). Every potential letterer is given a guide and a lettering test, and may be assigned to a project from there.

If there was one misconception you had about the manga industry before you started working in the industry, what was it?

I actually knew very little about manga when I first started working at Yen. Most of my knowledge of Japanese manga series came through anime. I guess anytime you hear “industry,” you wonder if the people who work for the company are super-fans or just doing their day job. (I thought they were all going to be crazy fanboys/girls.) Working in manga is certainly fun, and everyone I’ve worked with is a big fan and supporter of manga. But I think learning the balance between being a fan and being a successful business would be the hardest thing to learn for a lot of people. Fans will sometimes get hostile about a series being cut or not being licensed at all. There are so many times fans request series that we personally love, but just wouldn’t be successful in the US market. There are times when we’d love to do a fancy cover treatment for a book but can’t. That’s a hard decision and it breaks your heart, but it’s the reality of staying in business so a publisher can continue to release manga. Sometimes I feel like fans think the industry is deliberately trying to screw them, but there is soooo much discussion and back-and-forth about the best way to bring the best manga to the readers.

What’s the worst thing you had ever done when it came to lettering?

Yen has a very rigorous editorial process after the lettering is turned in, so it’s rare for a major error to make it into the printed book. Still, errors do sometimes slip past, but usually they’re things most fans wouldn’t notice. (Or so we hope!) For example, there’s at least one book where a stray piece of text was left over the art. Little things like imperfect centering or bad word breaks are annoying, but at least the really bad errors can always be fixed in a reprint if they’re noticeable to readers.

What type of advice would you give to someone who might be interested in this venture?

Some people think lettering for manga is easy, that it’s just a simple matter of copy-and-paste. But all comics are about the marriage of illustration and text, and the layout of the text is just as important. Sloppy lettering can detract from the art and from the readers’ experience, so it’s important for the letterer to have a good eye for design and be comfortable with all the functions available to them in Photoshop and InDesign. Some books may also require the letterer to repair art that was under Japanese text (particularly for companies that replace all the Japanese SFX), so the letterer really needs to be skilled in Photoshop and, to some degree, drawing. Really it’s that eye for good balance that makes or breaks a letterer for me. A letterer can be taught the “house rules,” but you need to be able to see that something is centered, that the text size is appropriate for the emphasis of the dialogue or for the size of the bubble, etc.