Danica Davidson
December 1, 2020 
It takes a number of steps before a licensed manga reaches America. Someone has to translate it, sometimes an adaptor is hired, and someone needs to put all the lettering in. Phil Christie—a manga letterer for Kodansha, Yen Press, Seven Seas and Harlequin—crunched some numbers to give us a little idea of who’s working behind-the-scenes on these important aspects of localization.
https://twitter.com/PhilSChristie/status/1331596582295224323?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1331596582295224323%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.animenewsnetwork.com%2Finterest%2F2020-11-30%2Fenglish-translator-letterer-demographics-among-2020-manga-releases-revealed%2F.166731
As you can see from the small notes at the bottom, he gleaned this information from letterers and translators specifically for Dark Horse, J-Novel Club, Kodansha, Manga Planet, Seven Seas, Square Enix, UDON, Viz and Yen Press. It’s also specifically only for titles released during January through September of this year. In total, he looked at 996 books to get these estimates.
Source: Anime News Network
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, and its sequel, Manga Art for Intermediates, with professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
