(Untitled)

[eraine]

Holy. Shit.

Yeah, I'd rather work for myself than Tokyopop. I don't think I'll be buying any of their things anymore.

Comments

[calantha]

My ex FIL does stuff for them.

I fully support you not buying it. XD

[anibunny]

Interesting stuff there. Thank you for posting the link. I want to comment on one part of it. . .

THE ORIGINAL PROPERTY AGREEMENT
If you and we agree on the terms, we’ll send you a formal contract (it’s called an Original Property Agreement) that will include a schedule for you to create the first manga book or online manga based on the Project. You’ll have an opportunity to give us your comments to the Original Property Agreement and, if you want, have professional advisors (like an attorney) review and comment on it, too.

If you want, you could have a lawyer look at the contract. Inadvisable, 'cause if a lawyer looked at it and you listened to the lawyer, Tokyopop would be out one manga-creating cog in the machine. Also note how it doesn't say that you or your lawyer could suggest changes and have those changes made. You'd just "comment".Since Tokyopop wrote this contract in a "Hey, we are your buddy" type of format, I think the "if you want" part isn't literal. A contract I have signed with my current employer has a part that

[moonymonster]

I'm surprised you're surprised--didn't you know what happened to Erica Reis, author of Sea Princess Azuri? She won the Rising Stars contest and was forced to write a shitty ending for her second book because they didn't want to publish the third. See, the series wasn't selling enough, even though they never advertised it nor even sold it in bookstores like they did with DramaCon and their other Rising Star books. Also they won't let Erica have the rights to her own characters back, so she can never finish the story nor change it to the correct ending, not even in a webcomic format for free.

Yeah, Tokyopop likes to screw people over. It's why I prefer Viz.

[tehsongsong]

Holy shit is right. That's disgusting. There aren't any other words to describe it, it's just... downright disgusting.