Finally…

FINALLY…

The magazine is (almost) on sale!!

Here’s my copy! See how thick it is!? Also, do you see the last pages are in different colors?

These colored pages are all reserved for the rookie manga artists! It’s a ZENON tradition!

Hot on print, you may think that our work is all over…

Well, our job isn’t over! There’s still lots more to do to sell the magazines, so that we can create the next issue!

1. Taking care of the original drawings

The original drawings we handed to the printing partners for scanning are sent back to us. Originals drawn on paper must be handled with lots of care. They are like the children of the manga artists – they are all equally precious!

The drawings are all kept in a secret chamber, so that they don’t get stolen or damaged. Sorry guys, TOP SECRET!!

2. Making/sending the unbound printouts (Galley prints)

After the publication, we send some unbound printouts – called “Galley prints” – to the manga artists who had their works published. In this way the artists can know what their works look like in the magazine.

It is usually the editor apprentice’s job to make these “galleys”. Making the “galleys” are super simple, but also SUPER STRESSFUL! I always felt myself going slightly mad during the process.

Here is a sample of a colored page of a galley. It is cut out from an enormous sheet with the pages printed. It is our job to cut it out, and staple it with the other pages!

We usually send several copies to the artist, and keep one for the editor in charge. That keeps us busy cutting and stapling!

The “galleys” need to be very neat. As said before, every manga on the page is all like a children of the artists! Be careful not to slice your finger off!

3. Sending the complimentary copies

You may already know that a magazine is created thanks to the contributions of so many people… of course we have the manga artists and the editors, but we also have designers, the printing partners, the sponsors, the advertising agencies who advertise our magazines… the publication would be impossible without them!

So, to notify them that our magazine is done, and to show our thanks to them, we send all the partners a copy of the completed magazine. This is also done by the editor apprentices.

The magazines are usually brought to us a few days before it is on sale. Look at all the copies on this wagon! We have to manage about five of these every month!

Comparing the size to a normal pen, you can easily see that there are tons of magazines here!!

Oh boy, here’s another pile of the magazines!

We tuck the magazine into an envelop like this…
Look! The envelope has the name “ZENON” on it!

All these magazines are sent to every partner we worked with… Better send it by the sales day!

4. Write a blog

The editor’s blog is now the best way for the editors to communicate with the readers!

So, on the sales day, the young editors write an editor’s blog on our official website.

The blog is about the highlights of the magazine- like the popular titles, the up-coming manga, and various extras.

The secret of grabbing the reader’s attention is to be personal sometimes. Gee, there’s so much for me to learn from our blog!

5. Research at books stores

Have you ever seen a Japanese book store? It is definitely a marvelous thief of time, where you can spend all day! The stores are full of effort put into the layout, with lots of signage and stuff!

The book stores reflect the current state of the society very well, so even just walking around helps editors to identify current trends. That’s why editors often visit these stores, especially when the magazine goes on sale, to know how much the magazine was able to follow the trend, and get the idea of what the readers are wanting!

What is your local book store like?

This book store has it’s own corner for the ZENON comic books!! Awesome! XD The board says: “Comic ZENON is a manga magazine created in Kichijoji”!

What a huge space! And we can see a lot of tips to sell the comic books…

Oh, they have our Silent Manga Audition book too!

Here they are exhibiting some post cards, to show off the glamorous drawings by the author!

Such a cute pop-up ! Pushuuuuuu…

This book has a sample comic for the consumers to read before buying! It’s effective for selling a serialized manga, as it introduces the first part of the story. Oh, and you can’t ignore the cute sign in front of it either!

Ah, here’s my favorite manga at ZENON… It also has a sign pasted on the shelf. A summary of the story is written on it!

Gourmet mangas are so popular in Japan! Mmm, this curry signage makes me hungry…

There’s even a poster on the side of the shelf! There is no such thing as wasted space in a book store!

Oh, here’s our magazine! Looks like it’s selling well! I’m glad.

Now, the publication of ‘Monthly Comic ZENON’ is finally over!  We repeat this whole process from the meeting to the things above, every month.

Next week, I will be answering some questions from you guys! If you have anything you want to know, please let me know in the comments!

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