Doujinshi a self-published magazine that caters to a group of specific people, although only a few people take interest in such groups. Many aspiring mangakas used this as a stepping stone and leverage to gain popularity and get serialized to the known publications.
We at the mangaka club decided to take a step in this battlefield to make our way to the dream. Doujinshi means Doujin 'same person' and zashi or shi for short means 'magazine' then it is separated by two categories the ichiji sousaku 'original' and the niji sousaku 'parody'.
We decided to take on the originals category and try to make our way to the top of the well-known doujinshi circle. And then use this as leverage for getting a serialization to SHOKUNEN JADE, and face our rival.
"Yosh, it's finally here!" I excitedly stacked our papers and make scanned copies of it to distribute to the other club members.
"Ah! It feels like a real manga now!" Fumi excitedly read it page by page.
"It's not yet done, once we get the paperback cover for it then it'll feel more like a manga." I implored.
"I hope this would sell, let's plan on advertising this to the school. So that we can get some attention." Kozue suggested.
"Yeah, but given a bad history to the school, I guess no one would bother looking." I implored.
"Everything is worth a try." Yasu proudly stated.
"Yeah, we won't know until we try!" Fumi excitedly agreed on Yasu.
"I guess we can try," I replied.
"That's the spirit!" Kozue patted my back.
We then started to make the posters to post on the school's bulletin board announcing our first manga and to check our club if they're interested in joining us.
'Hello, Fellow Students
We are the mangaka club, announcing our very first original mangaka entitled 'SECRET SCHOOL CLUB' to be released in COMIKET if you're interested in grabbing fresh copies for 750 YEN, you may drop by our club room.
We are also looking for aspiring mangakas to join our club, feel free to check us out.
Yours Truly,
The Mangaka Club'
That's what is written on the poster apart from my illustration for the SECRET SCHOOL CLUB.
The next day,
"Kenji, we got trouble!" Yasu came in the classroom exhausted.
"Why, what happened?" I ask,
"Our clubroom…" Yasu is breathing heavily,
"Calm down, tell us what happened" I patted Yasu's back
"Our clubroom is packed with people waiting in line!"
Yasu shocked us with this exciting news. I called Kozue, to lend us a hand to deal with the people in the clubroom.
"Excuse us, everyone! We didn't expect a lot of you to come and visit us. Sorry for the wait!" I apologized for the inconvenience,
"It's fine, we were just excited about it." A student implored.
And thus we opened our clubroom door and prepare our manga copies.
"We are open to serve!" I declared.
People coming in line getting a copy of our first manga, I'm just glad we make a bunch of printouts for it. We also have given them freebies like a bookmark made by Fumi herself.
"Here you go! Thank you for your purchase!"
I manned the counter while Fumi accommodates the people in line and Yasu checks the copies we have left.
"We are almost out of copies!" Yasu reported,
"How many people do we have left in line, Fumi?" I ask,
"I'll start counting and close the line." Fumi implored.
"Thank you! I wonder where Kozue go?" I ask,
"I don't know. She said she will come here to help." Yasu implored.
And then she came with some staff from their restaurant and a bunch of boxes.
"I knew we would be running short of copies! Here you go! 5 more boxes of SECRET SCHOOL CLUB! SIGNED EDITION!" Kozue proudly announced.
"Signed edition?" I ask.
"Yes, it has our signatures on it! That's 800 YEN though." Kozue implored.
"So that's why you asked for our signatures." Yasu finally understood.
"Whoa! I want the signed version!" A student implored.
"Yeah, me too." Another student implored.
On that day, we sold about 300 copies for the normal prints and 200 for the signed prints and earned a lot of money.
"So that's a total of 500 copies sold, let me calculate the profit." I calculated the profit and I was shocked by the amount we earned in one day. "We earned about 775,000 YEN!"
"7-7-5,0-0-0??!" Fumi, Kozue, and Yasu were shocked by the amount of money.
"Yeah, so how do we share this? Let's also talk about putting some in the club funding for the next prints and upcoming activities." I implored
"I'll let you hold onto it, for the time being, Kenji, I trust you won't do anything stupid for our money." Yasu implored.
"Yeah, I don't know what to think if I had my share," Kozue as well says the same thought as Yasu.
"How about we use only a little amount for celebrating our success today?" Fumi suggested.
"Indeed, I feel exhausted coming back and forth from class to the clubroom to manage the people." Yasu implored.
"But we still have copies, I want one for myself can I get for free?" Kozue smiling and getting one copy.
"Yeah, sure I'll get one for myself too," I answered.
"Maybe people will still come tomorrow, so I guess we will be earning more than what we have now." Fumi mused.
"Yeah, I agree," Yasu replied.
"Everyone was positive and excited as I can see by their reaction." Kozue implored.
"I know right, however, no one came to ask about joining our club." I implored.
"I noticed, everyone just went and bought our manga but no one inquired about joining the club," Yasu replied wandering and thrown into deep thought.
We concluded our day and gone separate roads, I'm still wondering why is that a huge amount of people fall in line to get our copies, yet no one is interested in joining the club. Maybe they are testing out our skills before inquiring to join us.
Then I got a text,
"This is the school director, congratulations on your success! I have good news for you guys tomorrow. About transfer students from one of our members in the mangaka club before. I will let you meet them soon!"