Danica Davidson
November 20, 2024 
How much do professional manga creators make? That varies, depending on who’s publishing, how well the manga does, and so on, but Weekly Shonen Jump has decided to up its rates. Weekly Shonen Jump is the most successful manga anthology in Japan, and its editorial department shared the news online:
“We would like to inform everyone that the minimum manuscript payment for serialized or one-shot manga in Weekly Shonen has been raised, effective as of November 2024.
“Based on sales profits received from readers of Weekly Shonen Jump (print and digital editions), we will continue to make such reservations in the future in order to produce better working environments for our magazine’s creators.”
Now an artist will get at least 31,350 yen for doing a page in color. That’s a little over $200 for a page. But, as manga readers know, most manga pages are in black and white, not color. The black and white pages go for 20,900 yen, or about $134.00.
Once someone has been working for Weekly Shonen Jump for a year, their rates can increase.
Being an artist is a notoriously fickle job, and most manga creators will not become big names. Manga creators also tend to have tight deadlines, and this means that many of them hire assistants to help with things like backgrounds. In that case, the manga creator has to pay the assistants for help, because the publisher is not going to pay for them. Also, setups like this don’t come with paid vacation time, so if a creator desires a break, they won’t be earning anything. (And this isn’t getting into the issues of not being paid enough in the anime world.)
Jump Giga, a sibling publication to Weekly Shonen Jump, likewise revealed that it’s raising its rates. Will this be a change seen throughout the manga magazine world?
Source: SoraNews24
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
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