Digital Manga Has First Batch of Titles for Guild Work But No Specifics Available

Digital Manga has announced that their Digital Manga Guild project, where fans translate manga for free in return for the promise of shared profits, now has some books to work on, although they won’t say what they are or who puts them out yet. Here’s the press release, complete with snazzy graphic:

Digital Manga is excited to announce the first acquisition of 487 titles from Japanese publishers for the Digital Manga Guild (DMG). That number is expected to grow exponentially, as publishers have shown an increased interest within the past few weeks to be a part of DMG.

While the names of the publishers must still be kept under wraps, the growing amount of titles has astounded everyone at Digital Manga Publishing (DMP). In addition, the genres have varied between yaoi, shojo, josei, and seinen, with more to come. DMG has been President Sasahara’s personal project over the past years, as he sought a new way to produce more titles quickly for manga fans. The Guild finally came to fruition in October of last year under the DMP umbrella, and has steadily grown with over 1,100 members joining to take part in this manga community initiative. With their help, DMG promises to be a guaranteed success.

The titles keep rolling in from Japan, further establishing the Digital Manga Guild as a serious business changing the way manga will be localized.

Without any specifics, this press release seems to me to be a way to quiet those interested in participating who haven’t gotten anything to do yet. The project was announced in October of last year, with those who signed up and qualified notified in February, which also featured teleconferences with Digital Manga President and CEO Hikaru Sasahara.

Now, the news for this month is “be patient, things are still happening.” I wonder when titles and publishers will be available? I also wonder how they expect the guild members to work on books under such secrecy. A crowd-sourced internet effort doesn’t seem to be the best way to keep things quiet. My suspicious side thinks that a “serious business” doesn’t need to put out an otherwise content-free press release to say they are one, but some information is better than none.