A studio service
Publish a manga without waiting for a publisher.
Most searches for manga publishers end the same way: a submissions page that says closed, or a form that never answers. You do not need one. A finished manga can be on Amazon in weeks if the files are built right, and the things that go wrong are mechanical: a right-to-left book that KDP paginates backwards, screentone that turns to moiré on paper, a spine built to the wrong page count. We prepare manga for print and Kindle, set up the listing in your own account, and publish our own titles through the same process.
Sample work
Sample work.
What the finished object looks like: a tankobon-size paperback and its right-to-left interior, plus the cover and page it was built from.
Manga volume cover
Ink line, flat vermilion and cream, one character reading as a silhouette, and a clean band left for the title. Designed at the size a store grid shows it.
Manga interior page, right to left
Five panels with diagonal borders in right-to-left order, screentone rain, solid black shadows, two empty balloons. The same boy as the cover, drawn from the same sheet.
The finished volume
A tankobon-size paperback and a second copy open to its right-to-left interior. Trim, spine and screentone decided before the file went to the printer.
Studio demonstration pieces made to show the process — not client commissions.
N° 01What is different about manga
Three things a normal comic does not have to solve.
Reading direction: a right-to-left manga has to be paginated so that the first page is on the right and the printer does not helpfully reverse it. Screentone: dot shading that looks perfect on screen produces moiré patterns at the wrong print resolution, and the fix is in how the file is prepared, not in the art. Trim: the small tankobon size readers expect is not a default anywhere, and choosing it changes the gutter, the spine and the price.
None of that is creative work. It is specification work, and it is why a manga that was drawn well still comes back from the printer wrong.
01
Right-to-left pagination
Page order, the opening page, chapter starts and the back cover all set so the book reads correctly in print and on Kindle, where the reading-direction flag has to be set separately.
02
Screentone without moiré
Tone density and resolution matched to the paper and the printer's line screen so the dots stay dots. Checked on a proof before the listing goes live.
03
Tankobon and digest trims
The small formats readers expect, chosen against KDP's available sizes, with gutter allowance calculated from the real page count.
04
Cover spine maths
Spine width from page count and paper stock, wrap built so the spine type is centred, with the reading-direction note on the back cover where readers expect it.
05
Kindle edition
A fixed-layout digital edition with right-to-left reading set, produced alongside the print build so both editions share one listing.
06
Categories and keywords
Manga categories are their own tree on Amazon, and most self-published manga is filed in the wrong one. We choose where a new title can rank and fill the keyword slots with what readers type.
N° 02Our own experience
We publish our own books through the same account type.
The studio self-publishes its own titles on Amazon KDP under our own ASINs. Every trim decision, spine calculation, category choice and proof review on this page is one we have made for a book of our own, which is why we can say which mistakes are expensive and which are merely annoying.
It is also why we are direct about what this is: file preparation, publishing and listing setup, in your own account. Whether the book sells depends on the book and the marketing around it, and we would rather say that plainly.
Investment
Named engagements. Quoted per project.
From a straight file-preparation pass to a series programme. Page count, the number of editions and how many volumes you are publishing set the scope, so each engagement is quoted per project.
File preparation
Quoted per projectprint-ready build
You have finished pages and need them ready to upload.
- Trim chosen and pages built to it
- Right-to-left pagination set
- Screentone prepared for print
- Gutter allowance to page count
- Cover wrap with spine maths
- Upload-ready files with a specification sheet
- Titles
- 1
- Pages
- up to 200 (longer quoted)
- Editions
- print only
- Revision rounds
- 1 on the build
- Delivery
- 10 business days from final pages
Not included
- Cover illustration (Manga cover design)
- Listing setup or metadata (Publish & list)
- Kindle edition (Publish & list)
- Redrawing or cleaning up artwork
- Printing costs or proof copies
- Lettering
Publish & list
Quoted per projectto a live listing
Files prepared and the title carried through to a live Amazon listing.
- Everything in File preparation
- Print and Kindle editions built and linked
- Reading direction set on both
- Manga categories and keywords chosen
- Description written as a pitch
- Setup inside your own KDP account
- Proof copy review before go-live
- Titles
- 1
- Pages
- up to 200 (longer quoted)
- Editions
- print + Kindle
- Marketplaces
- Amazon.com (others added on request)
- Revision rounds
- 1 on the build, 1 on the listing copy
- Delivery
- 15 business days from final pages, plus KDP review time
Not included
- Cover illustration (Manga cover design)
- Redrawing or cleaning up artwork
- Printing costs or the proof copy itself
- Advertising, launch campaigns or reviews
- Distribution outside Amazon
- Lettering
Series programme
Quoted per projectmulti-volume
An ongoing series published on a schedule, with every volume matching.
- Everything in Publish & list, per volume
- Consistent trim, spine system and cover template
- Series page and linked listings on Amazon
- Sequenced release schedule
- Back-catalogue clean-up for volumes already live
- Volumes in this engagement
- up to 4 (more quoted)
- Pages per volume
- up to 200
- Editions
- print + Kindle
- Revision rounds
- 1 on each build, 1 on each listing
- Delivery
- schedule agreed at brief
Not included
- Cover illustrations (Manga cover design)
- Redrawing or cleaning up artwork
- Printing costs or proof copies
- Advertising, launch campaigns or reviews
- Distribution outside Amazon
- Lettering
Quoted per project. KDP itself charges no upload fee and deducts printing per copy sold, so the only cost here is the preparation and publishing work. A cover, if you need one, is quoted with it under Manga cover design.
How every package works
- One engagement covers one title or the agreed volumes of one series.
- The caps on each card are the scope. More pages, more editions, extra marketplaces or extra revision rounds are quoted before we do them.
- We prepare and publish the pages you give us. Fixing art, redrawing panels or cleaning scans is quoted separately if it is needed.
- Everything is set up inside your own KDP account. Rights, royalties and control stay with you, and you can withdraw our access at any time.
- KDP charges no upload fee; printing costs are deducted per copy sold. The proof copy is ordered and paid for by you.
- Delivery runs from final pages and a complete brief, plus Amazon's own review time, which we do not control.
- We do not run advertising, buy reviews, or promise sales or rankings.
- We do not publish licensed or franchise material, fan translations, or anything the site's content rules exclude.
- Anything not written on the card is not in the package. Ask before you buy; the answer is the same afterwards.
Questions
The answers we give most often.
- How do I publish a manga without a publisher?
- Prepare the pages to a print specification, build a cover wrap to the right spine width, set up the print and Kindle editions in a KDP account, choose the right manga categories and keywords, and order a proof before going live. Every step is mechanical and every step has a known way to go wrong; that list is this service.
- Will Amazon print my manga right-to-left?
- Yes, if the file is paginated for it. KDP does not reverse pages for you; the book has to be built so page one sits on the right, and the Kindle edition has to have its reading direction set separately. Both are part of the build here.
- Why does my screentone look wrong in print?
- Moiré: the dot pattern of the tone interferes with the printer's line screen when the resolution or tone density is wrong. It is fixed in file preparation, by matching tone density and resolution to the paper, and confirmed on a proof copy.
- What size should a manga be?
- Most readers expect the small tankobon size or the slightly larger digest. KDP offers close equivalents, and the choice changes the gutter allowance, the spine width and the printing cost per copy. We decide it with you before the build.
- Do I need an ISBN?
- Not for KDP; Amazon assigns a free one for print if you want it. If you plan to sell through other retailers or libraries, your own ISBN is better. We set up whichever you choose.
- Do you actually publish your own titles?
- Yes. The studio publishes its own books on Amazon KDP under our own ASINs, through the same account type and the same process on this page. They are our titles, not client work presented as a portfolio.
Next step
Get the volume onto Amazon.
Tell us the page count, the reading direction and what state the files are in. We'll reply within two business days with the trim we'd pick, what the build involves and a per-project quote.