A handsome pale young man walked out of the comforts of his home and waited outside.
It was none other than our main lead David Wilson. He had booked a uber from his home to Alton John College.
Booking an uber for college was a rare occasion for David as, typically, his dad Adam Wilson would drop him off while on his way to work.
Today he had an urgent meeting, so he had to leave early, forcing David to book a ride to his college.
It didn't matter much to David as they weren't poor. David's family was quite well off as his father was a famous Architect and his mother was a company director.
At first, he didn't understand why his parents didn't just hire a driver for him, but he eventually figured it probably had something to do with his father wanting to spend time together.
As after breakfast, he would only meet his father at eight o clock, and he would be exhausted.
Every morning ride essentially acted as a brief period where he would talk and catch up with how his son's life was going.
Seeing David lost in thought, the uber rider honked his horn and asked, "Hello, are you Mr. David or not?"
David - "Yes."
David then headed inside and sat down in the black Audi 4.
David - "Ah, sorry, I was sleepy, is all."
Max (driver) - "No problem, I remember when I was in college."
David - "You went to college?"
Max - "Yeah, I did."
David - "Oh, what was your major?"
Max - "I majored in Manga as I dreamt of becoming a big Mangaka."
David - "So what happened?"
Max - "I guess god had other plans. My Manga never took off, and without financial support, I had to drop out."
David - "Sorry for asking."
Max - "No need. I never gave up on my dream, even if I dropped out. Now I drive in the morning and draw at night."
David - "I see. What is the name of your Manga? I will try it out."
Max - "It's called Spider World."
David - "So I assume it's a take on the life of a spider?"
Max - "You guessed right, do check it out. Maybe you will like it."
David - "What website?"
Max - "Dark Horse."
David - "I will write it down and check it out when free."
Max - "Thanks."
The rest of the ride wasn't quiet either, as Max was a very chatty uber driver. Luckily before David could get annoyed by the constant back and forth, his college arrived.
David paid Max his fare and headed inside. He then connected to the college wifi and loaded his timetable to find out which class he had to attend.
David looked at the newly loaded timetable and found his first class was a two-hour lecture from 8 to 10 on storyboard writing.
He then followed the campus map and soon arrived at his classroom. Time then quickly spun its gear, and the eight turned into a ten. Making it, so David finished attending his first class for the day.
He then quickly scanned the QR code for attendance and looked to find his next class was at 12, meaning he had a two-hour gap in between.
In the first hour, David hung out with his friends, had fun, and chilled in the common room at the campus.
In the second hour, David headed for the silent study and started working on the second chapter of Shadow Realm.
Later fifteen minutes before the Monetization class in room 12-6-17, David left the silent study and headed to his class.
Monetization module MN9740 was taught by Mr. Zack. It was a compulsory module for all 1st-year students.
Upon arriving at 12-6-17, David found this wasn't some ordinary classroom but a full-on auditorium with a podium and everything.
The lecture soon began, and Mr. Zack started tutoring from the podium with a small remote in his hand, which allowed him to move from one slide to another.
Zack standing on the brown podium, "So how many types of monetization ways are there for a Manga?"
The auditorium becomes clamorous, forcing Zack to say, "Everyone, please raise your hand and don't answer aloud. I will select you."
The students followed as instructed, and almost everyone in the class raised their hands.
Zack - "Uh, you in the third row in a light blue hoodie answer."
Blue hoodie guy - "My name is Greg."
Zack - "All right, Greg, care to answer my question."
Greg - "From what I recall, there are three ways of monetization: ads, subscription, and brand deals."
Zack - "Excellent that is correct. Anyone else with a different answer?"
The hall became quiet with no hands raised.
Zack - "Come on guys, don't forget the main traditional way through physical manga publishing."
"It's still the biggest money-making method. The only difference now is that unlike before when Manga were all published through physical copies, now there is a high threshold that stops you from physical publishing."
"Does anyone know this threshold?"
Few people raised their hands.
Zack - "Uh, yes, you in the fifth row with a blue hat. Introduce yourself and answer the question."
Larry - "Hi, I am Larry. If I remember correctly, I had read somewhere that nowadays, it requires a Manga to have at least 1 million collections before physical sales."
Zack - "That's absolutely correct, and do you know about the requirement for an anime?"
Larry - "It's 10 million, isn't it?"
Zack - "That's right, and can you explain why these barriers to entry were put up?"
Larry - "Uh.."
Zack - "No problem, you have done well. I will ask the others. Does anyone have an idea?"
No hands are raised at Zack's question forcing Zack to answer his question once again.
Zack - "Come on guys, it's simple. It's to allow risk hedging." "With hundreds of thousands of Mangaka out there, it soon became hard to choose which works to produce."
"So the big publishers decided that they would only take risks on a Manga with a big enough fan base that could support it. Hence hedging their risks."