Chapter 2: I Want To Become The Manga King!
Three days, 25 pages.
Mikazuki Haruna contentedly held a stack of manga draft paper, counting it carefully several times like counting money.
The matter goes back to noon the day before yesterday.
After waking from her nap, some strange memories suddenly appeared in her mind.
In those memories, she was in romance with a man, then discovered that man was two-timing three women.
She teamed up with the other two girls to kill that man…
She could even recall the feel of the knife stabbing into the chest; it wasn’t that easy to insert, getting caught by the ribs…
For no reason, why would she kill someone?
But then again, if she really encountered that kind of thing from the dream, discovering her emotions betrayed by a scumbag, she might really get extremely angry…
Fortunately, it was just a dream.
She had a deep impression of that man’s appearance; he was indeed very handsome, completely matching her aesthetic.
After all, it was a dream; the man seen in the dream being her dream lover was normal.
Everything except things about that man was very blurry; she couldn’t recall the specific appearances of the other two girls no matter what.
These weren’t important; what was important was that the man in the dream was a manga artist.
And Haruna had carefully read his book many times, even remembering every brushstroke.
Right after waking up, she searched on Google, but found no such book.
So, she drew it.
《Young Lady, Sniper Rifle, and Pantyhose!》.
Haruna particularly liked this work she had just drawn.
Youth, romance, and… punishing the protagonist harshly with pantyhose.
The heroine in it made her feel like she was seeing herself.
See, this is the story Lord Benzaiten sent me in a dream for me to draw.
I’m the woman who’s going to become the Manga King!
Haruna happily took her manuscript downstairs, went around the long corridor to the lobby.
A middle-aged beautiful woman sat on the sofa, flipping through a literary work.
“Mom! Look!” Mikazuki Haruna excitedly sat on the sofa with the manuscript and put it on her mom’s lap.
Mikazuki Aiko saw this stack of manuscripts and showed a warm smile: “Haruna, you’ve been drawing this these past few days.”
“Yeah, Mom, didn’t you publish a book when you were young? I also want to be a writer.” Haruna sat next to her mom and said.
“Hmm… it looks interesting, but Mom rarely reads manga.” Aiko picked up the manuscript, looked at it, and said, “You know, becoming a writer isn’t that easy, but Mom supports you.”
“Mom, I mainly want to ask, remember a few years ago our family cooperated with a publishing house; do you have any editor’s contact info? I want to submit.” Haruna said.
“You mean Ichihashi Group? They have ties with President Aiga’s family; wait, let me find the contact.”
Mikazuki Aiko picked up her mobile phone, opened her email to search keywords, flipped for a moment, and found the email from back then.
“Here, President Aiga’s phone number is here.” Aiko showed the screen to Haruna.
“For such a small matter, no need to contact the president directly; the chief editor of a publishing house under them should be fine?” Haruna said.
“It’s fine, it’s fine; your dad is very familiar with their president; they were drinking together just two months ago.”
Aiko waved her hand and directly messaged her husband: Haruna drew a manga; I saw it, she has talent; you’re familiar with Ichihashi’s president, help make a connection.
Ichihashi Group, a large family enterprise, owns the prestigious publishing houses Shogakukan and Shueisha under Shogakukan.
Aiko smiled with curved eyebrows, resembling Haruna by nine points: “Haruna, you just draw well; when the time comes, they’ll pull all resources for you; our family is going to produce a genius manga artist.”
“Then thanks, Mom~” Haruna was very happy.
In Japan, to publish manga, it’s generally submitting to magazines for serialization; if popularity is high enough, there’s a chance for volume publication.
Magazine space is limited, so competition is quite fierce; it’s very hard for a newbie submission to get direct serialization.
But Haruna didn’t want to go through those detours.
Connections shouldn’t go to waste.
Her family does business; she clearly knew the importance of resources; manga quality is important, but promotion is sometimes more important.
She was in high spirits now, with a full manga’s memories in her mind; this was completely divine inspiration; she just needed to replicate those illustrations.
Haruna immediately returned to her upstairs room and continued drawing with pen in hand.
……
Sakamoto Ken prepared the first two chapters of 《Chainsaw Man》 for submission.
After the entrance exam, he didn’t need to go to school every day; Sakamoto Ken also knew he would definitely be admitted.
This week, he discussed with the store manager of his part-time convenience store, switching work to night shifts, and staying home during the day to create.
Part-time work was necessary; otherwise, rent and electricity bills wouldn’t be covered, since hefty royalty fees were still an expected state.
Flipping through the manga under his pen, he was very confident.
This was the work that won first place in 2021 《This Manga is Amazing!》 in later generations, with sales over 30 million.
Now the problem was, how to publish?
In the previous life, he casually searched a magazine’s submission address on Google and directly mailed the manuscript.
He hadn’t researched that small publishing house’s background at all and directly signed the contract.
Although he kept publishing later, there was basically no promotion, and that magazine’s circulation was poor.
This time, he definitely had to find a major publishing house.
However, for a new author to get a serialization chance in 《Shonen JUMP》 magazine was quite difficult.
After all, Tatsuki Fujimoto had gained some fame with 《Fire Punch》 and numerous short stories before publishing 《Chainsaw Man》.
Of course, at this time point, 《Fire Punch》 had not yet been published.
Sakamoto Ken first went to the convenience store to scan all his manuscripts into electronic documents.
The easiest currently was submitting to 《Shonen JUMP+》, the online manga platform launched just last year.
After all, online manga platforms don’t have page limits like magazines and give more newbies a chance to publish.
The first method was WEB submission, sending scanned original manuscripts to the editorial department; a response within a month.
The second was booking an appointment with the editorial department to meet an editor face-to-face with the original manuscript.
Besides direct submission, one could also enter various manga awards; winning works also had chances for serialization.
On the submission webpage, Sakamoto Ken saw it was currently the 《Shonen JUMP+ Manga Award》 period.
The top grand prize had 1 million yen bonus, second prize 500,000 yen, and subsequent honorable mentions and special prizes also had bonuses and serialization contracts.
Sakamoto Ken quickly filled in the information on the submission page.
【Attachment: Chainsaw Man.ZIP】
Clicked send.
Sakamoto Ken believed that as long as the editor properly read his manuscript, it would definitely get published.
This time, starting from 《Chainsaw Man》 to become the Manga King!
