This is a new series of articles that will help English manga readers understand how to suggest manga to English manga publishers.
Whether you're wanting a series like Kimi wa 008 or Team Medical Dragon, there are publishers that take title suggestions from fans and readers.
Why Write This?
What I have noticed online is that English manga fans are not fully aware of how to suggest manga to publishers. While some like 7 Seas Entertainment will mention how to suggest manga to their company, other publishers don't mention how.
This causes a lot of confusion, miscommunication, and repeat asking of the same question to the same publishers at various convention panels (Kodansha's Sakura-con panel says hi). So, I thought to document the process to suggest a license to a manga publisher.
Our first publisher up is Viz Media!
Suggesting Manga to Publisher Viz Media Process:
Viz Media has a series suggestion form you can fill out to suggest an unlicensed manga title for them to pick up.
To access the survey, you can follow these steps:
Go onto the Viz Media website.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Contact Viz"
3. On the Contact Viz page, you will see a drop-down menu. Click that menu and select "Series Suggestion"
4. That will take you to a Google Form where you will then enter
The manga title you want to suggest
The author(s) of the title
The Japanese publisher of the title
5. Once filled out, just click submit and you're entry is in!
Things to Note
Some things to make people aware before submitting titles to Viz:
Viz Media is co-owned by Japanese publishers Shueisha and Shogakukan. While they have pulled manga series from Kodansha in the past, they don't do this anymore (I think all their Kodansha license pulls were before Kodansha USA existed).
While Spider-Man: Fake Red ran in Kodansha's Magazine Pocket, the copyright on Viz's website only lists Marvel, not Marvel and Kodansha.
Some JPN publishers Viz pulls manga from nowadays:
Shueisha
Shogakukan
Hakusensha
Akita Shoten
Kadokawa (they have licensed series from them in 2018 or 2019 so I'd say they count here too)
You can only submit unlicensed manga series in English to them. Requesting a series like Ashita no Joe or Odd Taxi will not be considered by them.
Viz doesn't explicitly limit how many submissions you can send. Last I emailed Viz Media about this, they said: Hi, Thanks for writing in! You may submit suggestions whenever you come across a title not currently published in English by another company.
The image of this is below:
Hopefully, this helps English manga fans suggest titles they want to Viz!