"The date's been set October 20."
"That's just a week away!"
Haruka gave a small nod. "Right. To tie in with the release of the first volus, . Echo Shroud and Kazanami are organizing a fan et and signing event. I'm here not just to collect this week's chapters, but also to talk to you about the event. Let know if you can make ti that day."
"October 20… that's a Wednesday," Haruki murmured, thinking it over.
"Yeah, I can do it. I'll get ahead on my drawing to cover both series."
Then he hesitated. "Still… what if no one shows up? That'd be kind of embarrassing."
Haruka stared at him, exasperated.
"What are you talking about? You really have no sense of your own popularity, do you? You're currently the second most popular author in Shroud Line's entire roster."
"And with Natsu being such a hit among female readers, there's no way a signing event would be empty."
She paused, then added with a smirk, "Actually, there's more. The publisher looked at projections based on similar titles, and they're printing 400,000 copies for each of the first three volus. That's 1.2 million copies total, right out of the gate. They're clearly confident, and you're here worrying no one will co?"
"Wait, that many people would actually show up to a signing just for so manga volu?" Haruki frowned.
He couldn't relate. Even if his favorite manga author held an event right next door, he doubted he'd go. That kind of thing just wasn't his style.
Still… 400,000 per volu? That got his attention.
After all, that ant serious money.
And now with so much cash tied up in the ani production, he was nearly broke.
"So… based on previous releases, what do you think Natsu's volus will actually sell?" Haruki asked, trying to sound casual.
Haruka gave him a long look. "Finally asking sothing a normal manga artist would care about."
"Assuming the quality stays consistent, sales can be projected with so confidence. For hits like this, the eventual total tends to be around three tis the first-week sales."
"For Natsu, even our most conservative estimates say it'll clear a million in total. Could be more we just don't know the ceiling yet. That's why we're starting with 400,000 per volu, and we'll scale based on performance."
Haruki ntally did the math.
In the parallel world's Japanese manga market, the absolute ceiling for print runs belonged to juggernauts like One Piece, which had reached 4 million copies per volu. But aside from a few exceptional cases, most top-tier series topped out around 2 million.
That was the upper limit.
In this world, though, the market scale was larger. A top-tier manga could sell more.
Take Dream World, for instance Airi Tanaka had serialized that for three years. Thirteen volus had been released. The series had sold over 31 million copies.
That kind of performance would rank her among the all-ti greats in Japan.
Here? It was just enough to put her among the current top-tier artists.
And that didn't even include the legends who'd retired.
Still, for Natsu's, even the conservative projection looked promising.
Haruki calculated quickly. If he could serialize enough for five volus a year, and each sold around a million copies, that would an 5 million volus annually.
At 500 yen per volu and a 10% royalty, that was 50 yen per copy—aning 250 million yen a year, just from volu sales.
That, plus his magazine paynts and bonuses, would ease the financial strain from the ani project.
And that was just the baseline. If the ani aired alongside the volus, the numbers could jump even higher.
The show was set to air next April. Only six months to go.
If everything stayed on track, the ani could boost volu sales even more after broadcast.
"Anyway," Haruka said, breaking his train of thought, "you better prepare yourself. Right now you're worried no one will co but I think you're going to be overwheld. Your hand might fall off from all the signing."
She gave a dry laugh. "Airi did just one of these a few years back. Ever since, she's flat-out refused to attend any fan events. Says she'd rather stay up all night drawing than deal with that again."
"You're exaggerating," Haruki muttered.
"I'm not. You'll see."
With that, she gathered the draft pages and left, leaving Haruki alone with his thoughts.
He let out a breath.
Fan events like this were about connecting with readers. If he agreed, it would be only his second public appearance since debut.
The first was when he received the Aurora Manga Award.
He'd avoided the spotlight ever since, mostly out of habit but also because he didn't want people around him recognizing him. He liked keeping his life separate from his work.
Still… this was a joint event from Kazanami and Echo Shroud. Skipping it would be rude.
They were helping him make money it wouldn't be right to play the recluse now.
"Whatever," he sighed. "I doubt anyone's coming just to see . If it's quiet, all the better. Just go, get it done, and move on."
Feeling slightly reassured, he got back to work.
(TL:- if you want even more content, check out p-atreon/Alioth23 for 55 advanced chapters)
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