Tokyopop's Manga Pilot Program

[paramnesia]

Back in it's early years I looked upon Tokyopop favorably. They were, after all, one of only a few to offer translated manga in the local bookstore. Then they started to branch out into original English language (OEL) and later their Rising Star’s contest. Their next step in the OEL market is akin to DC comic’s Zuda (http://www.zudacomics.com/) where you submit a comic, it’s voted upon by the masses, and then you are offered a contract. Maybe.

I’m not clear on the details of Zuda’s policy – if anyone knows how good or bad their contract is speak up -- other than your submission is only eight pages, and as in any contest, both DC’s and TP’s, you go in accepting the possibility that all will be for naught. Your time and effort may get you nothing. So although Tokyopop’s submission is a rather long 24-36 pages "inked, toned, ballooned, and lettered" I don’t have issues with the contest aspect of their Manga Pilot program.

Nor, though it’s irritating, do I think it’s entirely unusual that the creator won’t get paid, as in TP’s case, until the project is approved and completed.

[…] please note that whatever amount they're giving you, they aren't giving it to you until they receive and accept your comic […] So, hey, what does accept mean? Does it mean that they might not accept your story, the one you slaved over for weeks or months, and then they'll be well within their rights to never pay you? Yes. Yes it does.

It also means they might just ask you to change stuff! That's okay, right? Back and forth, back and forth. You may not know it, but this editorial stuff can take ages. It can also drive a sober man to drink. Not a fun time. And PS, you won't be paid until it's all over. The dollar amount that seemed so big when you signed the contract is going to seem smaller and smaller with each passing week. But hey, you live with your parents, right? It's not like you have anything better to do, right?

” If we haven’t given you a thumbs up — our written notice of our approval — of the Manga Pilot within 30 days after we’ve received it from you, then you can consider the Manga Pilot rejected.”

They don't even have to tell you they don't like you. Isn't that sad? Waiting by the phone for the horrible corporation, and they never call... (1) (http://destroyerzooey.livejournal.com/180842.html)
The delays stink. The edits and re-edits stink. It’s your creation, but, if comments to the above post are true, Tokyopop may pressure you to change it significantly. If, however, you can tolerate all this, then fine. Some editors and publishers can be very difficult to work with, after all.

What bothers me is their stance on copyright. Here is an excerpt from the Manga Pilot program contract, which, by the way, tries to use a relaxed “yo, dude we’re your friend” tone:

“MORAL RIGHTS” AND YOUR CREDIT
“Moral rights” is a fancy term (the French thought it up) that basically has to do with having your name attached to your creation (your credit!) and the right to approve or disapprove certain changes to your creation. Of course, we want you to get credit for your creation, and we want to work with you in case there are changes, but we want to do so under the terms in this pact instead of under fancy French idea. So, in order for us to adapt the Manga Pilot for different media, and to determine how we should include your credit in tough situations, you agree to give up any "moral rights" you might have.

WHAT WE CAN DO WITH YOUR CREDIT
And, speaking of your credit, customarily we give you credit for your work as the writer and/or artist of the Manga Pilot. However, we may have to shorten or leave out your credit when the space available or the conventions of a format won’t permit it or if it would have to be too small to read (for example, when the Manga Pilot is viewed on mobile phones). You’re OK with this.

MATCHING OFFERS FROM OTHERS
If you and we can’t agree on the terms or if we’ve agreed on terms but haven’t signed the Original Property Agreement by the end of the Exclusive Period, then we’ll have the right to match any offer you receive from anyone else for any rights in the Project. That means that if you receive an offer that you’d be willing to accept, you’ll have to tell us right away what the terms of that offer are, and we’ll then have two weeks to decide whether we want to match that offer.

AFTER THE EXCLUSIVE PERIOD OF THIS PACT ENDS
Once the Exclusive Period ends and even if you and we haven’t entered into an Original Property Agreement, we’ll still have the worldwide right, continuing forever, to publish the Manga Pilot on a non-exclusive basis.

In other words, they don’t have to credit you if, for instance, they decide there isn’t space. And by forfeiting all moral rights that those oh so snooty French thought up they can edit your work without your approval.

If you walk away from Tokyopop, having signed this first "pact" but not entered into a full book deal with them, and then a better publisher makes you a sensible offer, you have to tell Tokyopop. Then, Tokyopop has the right to make an about-face and give you the same deal.

It's not clear whether you're required to take Tokyopop's copycat deal, but it kind of sounds that way.[…]

If you realize that this means Tokyopop can continue making money from different versions of your 24-36 page comic (books, magazines, ipods, online advertising, whatever), while giving you 0% of that money, congratulations. You're correct.(1) (http://destroyerzooey.livejournal.com/180842.html)
For all this work and sacrifice, for giving up your rights is a big sacrifice, what is your monetary compensation? The contract leaves it blank, but one source says the rate was $750, or $20 a page.

“We may feel it’s important to test a second installment of your story, so you give us the right to ask you to do a second Manga Pilot based on the Property. … We’ll pay you another Pilot Fee when you deliver and we accept the second Manga Pilot.”

So they can have you do another 24-36 pages for only $750, instead of signing a contract where you get better rates and more rights. $750 for 36 pages = a $20 page rate. $20 for something that can take two days? Not a wonderful deal.

I can see why they wouldn’t give a page rate– everyone would be doing longer stories if they could, adding in extra pages. But $20 for (over) a day’s work is awful. Doing one chapter at that rate is bad enough, but they have the right to request another one with the same pay? (2) (http://elae.livejournal.com/611813.html)
$20 a page from a major publisher like Tokyopop? I’m not the only one who scoffs at that rate am I? This contract is making the rounds amid the comic book community, and the majority thus far appeal to view it as a vile thing.

More On Terrible Tokyopop Contract (http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/more_on_terrible_tokyopop_contract/)
Tokyopop:Hey dude, totally bad contract! (http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/05/28/tokyopop-hey-dude-totally-bad-contract)

If you can live with their terms, and the pros outweigh the cons, maybe a deal with TP is worth it. Some have benefited, but perhaps the true test is whether these people are willing to stick with TP or not?

While the practical effect was to throw a hundred new, original concepts on the racks in hopes that something would stick, the net effect was to train a whole generation of cartoonists, including Svetlana Chmakova, Queenie Chan, Rivkah, Felipe Smith, Amy Reeder Hadley, Joanna Estep, Joshua Elder, Ross Campbell, M. Alice LeGrow and dozens more. The OEL contract was never favorable to the creators — who surrendered trademark and copyright in exchange for a low page rate. Back in the day, many of these very young, never before published creators defended the contract as a means to get in print, and it is true that many of these creators are rising stars, but none of them have stuck solely with Tokyopop. There must be a reason for that.

[Mirana]

This is probably best put in the Employment Discussion section.

Back when they first started their OEL stuff, their page rates were not much higher than the ones you list above. $36 a completed page, I think. How does someone live on that?

[jinxtigr]

I'm going to link to an analysis I did the other night of all this, to save typing it out. I'm 'jinxtigr' at the Halfpixel forums too, and the Webcomics Weekly podcast got me looking at this Tokyopop stuff. I'm working in the music industry and have spent years learning the ins and outs of that, and believed nothing in comics could really be that corrupt, but I figured I could help spot bad clauses.

I was wrong.

The tokyopop stuff makes music business contracts look like charities.

This is the full thread (http://www.halfpixel.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10770) where I took the tokyopop stuff apart clause by clause, but I'll briefly summarize it for those who don't want to go see, or for anyone who doesn't believe it's worse than letting them have rights...

Under certain circumstances, if you are unfortunate enough to submit a megahit to Tokyopop and make it worth their while to totally hose you, they can take your original work, do absolutely anything with it and adapt it in any form including video, not pay you apart from the one-time payment, not credit you, keep the exclusive period going forever, and not only prevent you shopping the project elsewhere but enjoin you from further use of it yourself.

I'm not making any of that up. I was REALLY impressed with how that agreement worked... it's very, very clever. The permanent exclusive license works like this: they do one pilot, pay you, and then are allowed to request a second. The exclusive license runs until their acceptance of the first OR the second- they need only continually ask for changes on the second pilot without ever approving it. All they have to do is stall you, forever, while they milk the first pilot. There is nothing to limit this exclusivity period to one year, it's spelled out explicitly that it's one year from acceptance of the first OR second.

This is similar to being locked into a multi-album cross-collateralized contract in the music business. Being signed to more than one pilot/album/etc does NOT help you- because if the first one is a big deal you have leverage to negotiate, which if you're already signed is moot, there's nothing to negotiate.

Major style points to them for baldly making statements like "You agree that you have no 'moral rights' to credit or a say in how your work is adapted or presented at all. Of course, you still have all of your rights as set forth by this contract." Which you've just agreed in the previous sentence is 'nothing', but doesn't it look like they said 'you still have all your rights'? Watch for words like 'except', 'or', 'and', 'as'. These guys are really impressive at using those words to totally negate or defuse what they appear to be saying...

This is worth widespread discussion, in my opinion. I don't think you can really overstate what Tokyopop are up to. For instance, I haven't seen anyone else spotting the loophole in the one-year exclusivity agreement, nor am I seeing a lot of people pointing out that not only can't you shop the project around during that period, you can't use it YOURSELF either, under the agreement. People are falling short in their ability to spot the actual dangers allowable under this contract. Of course it's not in their interest to exercise all that unless they stumble upon something really big...

What did people expect from an outfit where their REGULAR submission agreement says that you agree to allow Tokyopop staff artists make IDENTICAL, unquote, copies of your work to use as they see fit? The new one is actually worse than the one where you explicitly give Tokyopop permission to clone anything they get without compensation, because at least with that you can still try to shop your stuff around while Tokyopop is knocking it off... good luck with that, but the new one is even worse.

I mean, if you're a minor your parent is contractually obligated to not let you try and revoke the agreement, if THEY sign. I've never seen anything so thorough.

[Samari]

Tokyopop comes to my school every so often to review portfolios. I think it's good to know about these kind of traps, especially for guys like me who don't really have a great sense of how business economics works. So I'm glad a few people took the time to investigate this further. Is it like this with other companies too? Not just Tokyopop?

I suppose the most common thing to keep in mind when being a young artist is just to be careful who you trust and always look at the pros and cons of every situation, and get opinions from other people if you're not sure about something...before you sign your life away.

[Mirana]

Is it like this with other companies too? Not just Tokyopop?

Uh, no. That's what the main link is about...someone who works in comics talking about what a scam this contract is. I've heard their big OEL/Rising Star contracts are exceptionally similar to this one (directly from an editor for TP at one point). I've also talked to an editor who left TP to work for another company, and completely bashed the fact that TP tries to scam you out of your copyright on your original ideas (of which her/his company did not do).

Work-for-hire is standard when you're working on a company's project. Not so much if it is your original pitch...unless a company is small or shady. The outrage over this is even bigger because this is a large company that should know better who's taking advantage of the popularity of the manga market and the relatively young or inexperienced artists within that market.

You should pass these links along to your school department and administration and see if they think working with this company to screw-over their students is in their best interests.

[Samari]

You should pass these links along to your school department and administration and see if they think working with this company to screw-over their students is in their best interests.

Thanks I'll consider it. Really though, I'm no hero or activist. I'm kind of trying to look out for myself.

[_andreas_]

Thanks I'll consider it. Really though, I'm no hero or activist. I'm kind of trying to look out for myself.

?
what the hell?

[Samari]

?
what the hell?

I'm saying I don't think I'm going to report this to my school or anything. I'll just know that if I ever become a future artist and Tokyopop is still the same as it is now, then I'll just know better.

[_andreas_]

I'm saying I don't think I'm going to report this to my school or anything. I'll just know that if I ever become a future artist and Tokyopop is still the same as it is now, then I'll just know better.

jesus christ kid, this contract is the devil and you could help your fellow students to evade the trap!
be a good person and at least tell them that there is a discussion about it!

[Whitevillage]

jesus christ kid, this contract is the devil and you could help your fellow students to evade the trap!
be a good person and at least tell them that there is a discussion about it!

Very true. :drinkup:

I got this link (http://destroyerzooey.livejournal.com/180842.html) from a friend about yesterday and I agree it certainly stinks. But what am I reading? They take you're rights away of your story but if someone claims that you stole it you're guilty of it? This really is one way traffic or am I interpreting it wrong?

You promise to protect us from claims anyone makes that you violated their rights in connection with your Project or Manga Pilot. This means you’ll pay for all the lawyers to fight it out and all the other costs necessary to fend off those claims, in or out of court.
And, if things do get ugly and end up going to court, this means you’ll also pay for all the expert witnesses and court costs and, if the other guy or gal wins, you’ll pay whatever the court awards them, too.

[jinxtigr]

They take all the copyrights and you're prohibited from shopping the project around elsewhere OR trying to sell it yourself (not through another publisher), but you are required to pay out of your own pocket to defend Tokyopop in court if there's a lawsuit, plus you're required to pay to do whatever is necessary to fend off such claims to Tokyopop's satisfaction OUT OF COURT.

That's what 'you'll pay to fend off those claims, out of court' means.

[Mirana]

I'm saying I don't think I'm going to report this to my school or anything. I'll just know that if I ever become a future artist and Tokyopop is still the same as it is now, then I'll just know better.

I understand the feeling of "I can't do much" but I don't think it's that hard to shoot an email off to one of your professors to let them know what's going down. If it's anything like my department, all it'd only take is one email and one upset prof for the rest of them to notice and pass it on to the kids.

[jinxtigr]

Also, remain firmly aware that nothing compels Tokyopop to exercise all of these horrible options all the time on every project. If there are examples out there of pilot mangas where the artist is behaving as if they still have their rights, for instance selling merchandise or something, it doesn't stop the contract forbidding it- it just means the artist is in breach of contract and being given some rope. I don't know if this is happening anywhere, mind you.

In particular, you can't go by whether an artist signed up under this contract BELIEVES otherwise and says "yeah, if I wanted to I could put out my own books, yes I will always get my copyright back in a year no matter what". The whole point is to make them think that, erroneously. I'm thinking that if they actually tried, they'd get a call from a lawyer telling them to stop.

In particular, I doubt Tokyopop has ever had anything so good that they exercised their options to request a second pilot and then stall indefinitely... I am VERY curious if this option would work after the first year had expired. As in, stall on the second one and retain exclusivity on the first one after it had already lapsed once... you could read it to say that the contract covers both, so the exclusivity covers both again if the clause is invoked. If that was the case you'd get (nonexclusive for you) rights back in a year, and then you could have them yanked away as soon as Tokyopop requested that second pilot...

Similar to cross-collateralization in the music business where you get a several-album contract, get a hit, maybe you're going to get some money but the record company sends you into the studio to record another album, and the income from the first album must also pay for the recording costs of the second album before you'll see anything. It's like that- exercising a contractual agreement to make more content, except that in this case, it's about duration of a period during which Tokyopop has all the rights and you don't have rights to the thing yourself. After that period, you both have full rights to it.

[paramnesia]

This is probably best put in the Employment Discussion section.

I considered that; I had a hard time deciding where this belongs, so if the admin thinks it fits better there, please do move this.

There's been some rebuttals to the criticism, and, to be fair, I'm posting some quotes and links now. I'd break it down better, but I'm still reading through them all and my brain is turning to mush.

Bryan Lee O’Malley and the case of the TokyoPop Pilot Pandemonium (http://www.bradfox.com/blog/2008/05/bryan-lee-omalley-and-case-of-the-tokyopop-pilot-pandemonium/)
Brad Fox is a fan of Brian, one of the critics of TP's contract, and contends that the deal is not as bad as people think.

The Return of the Curious Case of the TokyoPop Contract (http://www.bradfox.com/blog/2008/05/the-return-of-the-curious-case-of-the-tokyopop-contract/)
Brad, after some email with insiders who wish to remain anonymous, comments on the the fact that TokyoPop has a very bad track record for exploiting new talent, which is probably why people are eyeing the Manga Pilot program with suspicion.

Tokyopop: the other side (http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/05/29/tokyopop-the-other-side/)
Heidi MacDonald of PW Beat gathered together some responses from others who think it's not so unfair as the critics are making it out to be.

Hey Kids! Wanna get screwed? Sign the TokyoPop Manga Pilot Contract and bend over! (http://www.unscrewedcomic.com/article.php?story=tokyopop)
Unscrewed gives their own opinion as to why TP's contract is a bad thing.

[paramnesia]

After reading the above links, this is how I see things. Perhaps it’s Tokyopop's own wording that makes it suspicious. What's worse, a document that's clearly a legal contract with the full "mumbo jumbo" or one that pretends it isn't?

This pact is your contract. You’ll notice this doesn’t look like your everyday ordinary contract — the kind filled with double-column microscopic boilerplate and mumbo jumbo written by Hollywood attorneys — but, nonetheless, this is a contract. It’s written in the spirit of “serious fun”, and that’s just what our Shining Stars Program is all about. We’ve tried to make this pact informative and easy to understand, so you and we will both be clear about what’s expected.
Here I agree with MacQuarrie of Unscrewed.

TokyoPop are your friends. They aren't going to rip you off, because all they want to do is "have some serious fun together". Right? I don't know about you, but when somebody tries that hard to be my pal, I tend to get suspicious. Especially when they're aiming this deal at kids under 18. (1) (http://www.unscrewedcomic.com/article.php?story=tokyopop)
It feels like when you go to buy a car and the dealer cozies up to you or a telemarketer pretends to be your buddy who's just looking out for your best interests. Ick.

WE’LL PAY FOR THE APPROVED MANGA PILOT
We promise to pay for making the Manga Pilot as long as we receive and approve all the completed work.
Once we’ve received and approved your completed Manga Pilot, we’ll submit an approved invoice to our Finance folks. Within 30 days after that, we’ll send you the Pilot Fee mentioned on page 2.
We’ll mail a check to you at the address you’ve given us on page 2. If you want the check sent to a new or different address, we’re happy to do so, but we’ll need to get those instructions from you in writing.

DECIDING IF YOUR MANGA PILOT IS APPROVED
You agree that it’s up to us to decide if your Manga Pilot is completed and approved. There’s a number of reasons why we might not approve it, and some of the most important ones are listed below. We’ll try to work with you to fix any problems, in order to approve the Manga Pilot and pay you. But if you and we don’t agree that you fixed any problems, like the ones below (and some others, since this isn’t a complete list), we won’t be able to pay you.
It's my understanding that it's not unusual for a client to reject work. As Brad stated:

[…] I’ve personally never signed a creative agreement with any writer or artist where I don’t have the ability to say “this is not good enough” or “this is not the work I hired you to do”. [...] It’s not fair to those who will be looking to pursue careers in fields which may involve freelance work to think that’s unusual. It’s not. (2) (http://www.bradfox.com/blog/2008/05/bryan-lee-omalley-and-case-of-the-tokyopop-pilot-pandemonium/)
But isn't there something called a kill fee? If you've spent your time -- and time is money -- laboring on this pilot that has won and been accepted, shouldn't TP offer some sort of compensation under this contract? Knowing at any time, even if you do all that they ask, they may change their mind at any time and give you nothing is disconcerting. Or have I misinterpreted this clause? Unscrewed sees it thusly:

In the professional world, they call this "spec work." In other words, you do the work first, and then they will decide whether or not they will buy it. Real publishing companies pay you for your work, provided you met the terms of the contract, but TokyoPop has left themselves an "out." They can review your proposal, look at your samples, decide that they want you to do a pilot for them, and then decide not to pay you for it. [...]

They can decline the project for pretty much any reason or no reason at all, because "this isn't a complete list" of specific reasons to reject it. The list that follows repeats the stuff you were warned not to do, but it also includes a general all-purpose rejection reason: ”We don’t understand the story or what the characters are supposed to be doing (yes, this is subjective, but you agree that we can be subjective).”

So your work, which they asked you to do, can be rejected for any old subjective reason the company likes. (1) (http://www.unscrewedcomic.com/article.php?story=tokyopop)
Remember that if you don’t hear from Tokyopop after 30 days you should consider the pilot rejected? As Brad states, it’s nice that TP is putting a deadline, but, in my opinion, it’d be nicer if they actually sent you a quick email or snail mail. How much time and effort does it take to drop a form letter in the post or send it off via email?

After testing the Pilot Manga with the target audience, you may get contracted to do a second. That’s fine. TP wants to make sure the first is popular enough to warrant a second, but what I don’t like is that it appears that you’re stuck with the same contract as before. This is troublesome to me because imagine your first Pilot is surprisingly successful. Maybe the possibility of that is small but it could happen. Sure, you get more “exposure” and “publicity”, but money pays the bills.

WE CAN REQUEST A SECOND MANGA PILOT
We may feel it’s important to test a second installment of your story, so you give us the right to ask you to do a second Manga Pilot based on the Property. If we want you to do a second Manga Pilot, we’ll let you know within six (6) months after you’ve given us the completed first Manga Pilot and we’ve accepted it.

Oh, yeah, we’ll pay you another Pilot Fee when you deliver and we accept the second Manga Pilot. All the same stuff in this pact that applies to the first Manga Pilot also applies to the second Manga Pilot.
Brad Fox contends it’s not so bad.

If doing one pilot makes sense for a particular creator - doing a second isn’t going to worsen the deal… and if they’ve got a better offer at that point no one can force you to make a second pilot. Just walk away and start the clock ticking on the time until the rights revert back to the creator in full. (2) (http://www.bradfox.com/blog/2008/05/bryan-lee-omalley-and-case-of-the-tokyopop-pilot-pandemonium/)
But every day that passes is one day that people may forget you. I may be misreading this clause, but it sounds like TP owns the rights for a year.
But if, instead, we do give you written notice that the Manga Pilot is approved or if we ask you to complete or fix things in the Manga Pilot in order for us to approve it, the Exclusive Period will continue on until one (1) year after we’ve told you we’ve approved the Manga Pilot (or the second Manga Pilot if we ask for one).
Does this mean that you can’t sell your idea to others for a year? If so, that’s a year in which people can forget you. Popularity is fleeting. It sounds like TP is betting on that so they don’t have to deal with bidding wars for your project.

GIVING US PUBLISHING RIGHTS FOR A PERIOD OF TIME
You give us the exclusive worldwide rights during the Exclusive Period to publish the Manga Pilot. Here are some quick definitions:
• By “exclusive”, we mean that we and we alone can publish the Manga Pilot during the Exclusive Period.
• By “publish”, we mean that we can publicly display (like on the Internet or on mobile phones, iPods, or e-book readers) and exhibit (like in an art gallery or at a comic convention) all or any part of the Manga Pilot and iManga or other adaptations we make of the Manga Pilot as well as publish the Manga Pilot in books, magazines, newspapers, and other printed publications. We may do any or all of these things and may charge for them or give them away for free. If we charge for them, we get to keep the income. We may give others (like other web sites) the rights to do any or all of these things, too.

GIVING US ADAPTATION RIGHTS
You give us the right to reformat, adapt, and modify the Manga Pilot for iManga, our motion graphics video format, as well as for other ways that we may change it in order to display, print, and exhibit it.
This could include, for example, breaking apart or resizing panels for display on a mobile phone screen, retoning panels to fix those nasty moiré patterns, adding colors, transforming the Manga Pilot into an iManga with a soundtrack, and more.
Publishing rights is fine. And you do need to allow the publisher to use or adapt your images for marketing purposes, so TP does need permission to adapt it to other services and widen the audience, but what does “and more” cover? Also, is it fair that TP and anyone they decide to grant rights to can make money off other forms of publishing, i.e. iManga, yet not pay you royalties if they charge for these services? Is it typical for a publisher or distributor to have such rights?

Never ever sign a contract that includes vague "and more" clauses, because that is simply giving everything away. "More" covers an awful lot of territory. (1) (http://www.unscrewedcomic.com/article.php?story=tokyopop)

A few other rights Tokyopop gets which I’m not sure are typical or not are:

• MANGA CREATION RIGHTS
The exclusive rights to have you create manga books and online manga based on your Project, for which we would pay you royalties from sales and an advance against those royalties
• CO-OWNING THE RIGHTS
The right to co-own with you the worldwide copyrights in the Project and manga books and online manga based on the Project, and the exclusive worldwide copyright administration rights
• ADAPTATION RIGHTS
The exclusive rights to create and exploit—including the rights to give others (including all our related companies) rights to create and exploit—other works based on the Project (like movies, TV series, videogames, and T-shirts), for which we would pay you customary royalties and give you a portion of income from third party licenses
• MANGA ANCILLARY RIGHTS
The exclusive right to manage all ancillary rights in the Project (these includes things like foreign language versions, spin-offs, and sequels), for which we would pay you customary royalties and give you a portion of income from third party licenses

AFTER THE EXCLUSIVE PERIOD OF THIS PACT ENDS
Once the Exclusive Period ends and even if you and we haven’t entered into an Original Property Agreement, we’ll still have the worldwide right, continuing forever, to publish the Manga Pilot on a non-exclusive basis.
Does this mean they own the rights to only the first Pilot Manga or the entire project/idea? The wording is confusing when they also claim you can accept other offers as long as you tell TP. Moreover, because they own it the worldwide rights forever to publishing the Manga Pilot, it sounds a lot like work for hire. Can you still resell the Pilot to anyone else?

In other words, "We co-own the property you created, but you don't get to make any of the decisions about it, because we have worldwide administration rights. We can sell it to whoever we want, and you can't say jack about it."

[…] it says they can do things "like movies, TV series, videogames, and T-shirts" but not limited to those items. If they want to do lunchboxes or toilet seats or a hentai version, you have to let them. For this they'll pay you whatever they feel like; they call that their "customary" fee.

[…] "includes things like". This clause gives TokyoPop the right to hire somebody else to do sequels and spin-offs without your involvement or consent. You will have absolutely no say in how it's written or what it looks like, but they will pay you something for it anyway. (1) (http://www.unscrewedcomic.com/article.php?story=tokyopop)
One good thing, at least there is no gag order in this contract so far, as there has been in other TP contracts. Maybe, as Brad Fox and others claim, this deal isn’t as bad compared to Zuda and Platinum Studios, but does it make it fair?

We actually received private communiques from people we respect who pointed out that contracts offered by DC, Dark Horse, Oni and so on are just as restrictive at the end of the day, retaining trademarks, co-owning copyrights, holding onto ancillary rights and so on. (That’s a blanket overview and not a universal analysis of any one company’s contracts.) The sad bottom line, as we read it, is that in comics, it is still standard operating procedure to exploit IP in a way that is vastly more favorable to the publisher. (3) (http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/05/29/tokyopop-the-other-side/)
Consider their target as well, new talent, young, possibly naïve and uninformed. It may be a better deal compared to some, but does that make it good? Does the promise of seeing your book published by a “real publisher” and in a bookstore – which won’t guarantee it actually sells well -- outweigh the cons of this contract?

*head explodes*

[jinxtigr]

People keep not noticing that the exclusive period of the first pilot extends until a year after acceptance of the SECOND pilot... that pesky 'or'. Ask any lawyer how significant little words like 'or', 'as', 'except' are.

[Jason Manley]

where can I see the contract, whole, and without all the commentary?

[eekolite]

Tokyopop's Manga Pilot Contract (http://www.tokyopop.com/ugc/tokyopop/uploads/misc/Manga%20Pilot%20Agreement%20solo%20v1_3%20(2008-Feb-01).pdf)

There's a direct link to the pdf.

I've seen so many articles on this contract, and they all seem to support the general consensus that this contract is appalling. Even if they don't exercise their power, they HAVE it.

This (http://comics212.net/2008/05/30/how-to-run-a-business/) is an interesting article explaining how they don't even have to be a publisher with this program. Instead, they can essentially sell the ideas of a submitted work, buying your idea for a small fee and selling it for a much higher price.

[Jason Manley]

FIRST, if you are going to do something like this alone or completely with your own team, you have no reason to sign this. All you must do is make what you are going to make and then submit it to the publishers, including them. It is ALWAYS best to complete your work before publishing because you own and retain all rights and can negotiate for them all because the buyer has no investment or ownership in it. However, since they are helping, providing manpower, and investing in the project, they demand rights first. This is how the entertainment industry works. Believe it or not, this doc is actually better than most of the work for hire contracts companies are using nowadays.

Simply put...you want to retain your rights...great...but be prepared to finish the job yourself before thinking you own it...if you are relying on another company for funding and manpower, then you either hire them (outsourcing) and keep your rights...or work with the company where they invest and share your rights.

That document is a mix of very standard entertainment industry agreements. They have taken a basic boilerplate work for hire agreement and worded and worded it so artists can read it. This is very similar to what the games industry outsourcing documents have in them....is basic standard stuff so I am not sure what all the hubbub is about...ever worked for a video game company before? The doc you sign there is five pages thicker at least. It may be new to the comics industry...but it is how many entertainment projects get made now. They cross all entertainment genres..not just print. So rights agreements have to be done and clarified.

If you are doing all the work yourself, you have no need to sign this agreement. If they are putting their artists on it or guiding your whole project, I can understand why they would demand rights and art direction control. Such is life.

There are key portions missing, which they are leaving open for later negotiations. That part is fine.

Simply put, if you want to own your I.P. then do it all yourself and then approach the publishers. If you want to rely on someone else, be prepared to pay for it through outsourcing, which is an industry that turns over all rights to the product in most cases, or be prepared to give up rights in exchange for funding, management, and manpower.


Jason

[Mirana]

This is most certainly close to a work-for-hire contract, and that's something standard anywhere you are hired to work on someone else's project. The problem here is TP is asking the artist to come up with an original idea , complete it--then maybe receive $10 a page, no credit necessary, and lose their rights for (ideally) a yr. The only thing TP is providing would be internet "exposure" but that could be gained ANYWHERE, and that is iffy since they aren't required to give you credit. There's the money, but $10/pg is only big to a kiddie living at home....guess that's the target audience anyway.

Which comes down to other people in the industry trying to make young artists aware that this is not good and they should do as you suggest and create and submit through normal channels.

I was about to look this thread up to post a little aside about my school not inviting TP (http://community.livejournal.com/dannysdomain/136921.html) to their Editor's Day this yr (which they've been invited to since 2003). According to that student a prof said, "we want students to get jobs, not get raped" which sounds absolutely like the profs.

[eekolite]

I suppose the one real benefit beyond the small payment and slight exposure as Mirana mentioned is the chance of getting hired. It may be how the industry works, but I simply don't like the idea of what TP could potentially do with essentially a database of fresh work that they can market to anyone. They obtained these works for a small compensation and possibly a job offer, but it seems there is the potential to gain much money from a large base of works they can sell the rights for to anyone looking. I may be mistaken about how this actually works, but it doesn't seem like a decent trade between the whole of new artists and TP.

Even if I am mistaken, I personally value portraying a work of art correctly over the benefits of the Manga Pilot program including a job. Therefore regular submissions are for me as Jason pointed out and there may be a decent use for this program, but it also seems like it could be misused by TP. Feel free to correct me. :)

Peace

[Arshes Nei]

The thing is this, if this was working with a company to produce a product I agree that the contract is standard work for hire. However, this is 100% your creation, and just want it published, which is where the contract goes wrong.

Granted they're taking a risk printing the work, but since you're submitting your own work and in then they also say they have the right to request changes but not provide you with the manpower and might pay you. I can't see how this is beneficial for someone.

The problem Jason is that you may have had your work done, and you submit it to Tokyopop, but Tokyopop for whatever reason may not like the direction f your story and tells you to change it but that's still no garauntee they're going to stick with it. I think there are enough horror stories about where the project goes fine but a bad editorial direction will kill the product.

The other thing is, that page rates for professional artists for a well established line of comics is very different than self published work that you're pitching in hopes to be discovered.

What is referred to as OEM or OEL (Original English Manga/Language) has a very low success rate. Consumers want the real thing from Japan, not America's version of it riddled with the same cliches that are actually killing Japan's market right now. Large bookstores like Border and Barnes and Nobles are often frustrated and will not re-order OEM or OEL as it sits on their shelves and collects dust, and they try their damnedest to return the product.

Anime Market has been saturated enough with works coming from Japan. A person really needs to think about their market value of producing the same kind of work when a wavering economy and saturated market where even Tokyopop is laying off about 40% of their workforce is a viable solution or direction for their work.

Mal's assessment is somewhat correct in that you're better off establishing yourself and getting exposure through different ways instead of Tokyopop.

The company was formerly known as Mixx(Zine) and was co founded with another, and then it went into another direction after the co founder stepped down. I don't want to get into personal details either, but Levy has never been trustworthy.

In conclusion this is a bad contract for trying to get "exposed" there are other more affordable ways to do it.