Several authors tweeted about it. Some might publish their work somewhere else (e.g. "What does the fox say") when the contract expires. Maybe we even see Sadistic Beauty again but it's not that easy to find a new publisher for a already ongoing story which has been on hiatus for a long time.
too long. bored. ヽ(；▽；)ノ~LOL.
*30 chapters is what you can write
How are they supposed to change the situation other than by quitting? Artists tried going on hiatus and arranging public protests and boycotts. Clearly it was not enough. Lezhin has no reason to change unless their bottom line suffers, and there's no way to affect that without also harming readers and fellow artists. And the problems at Lezhin go far beyond low pay, although that is bad enough with a minimum guarantee that is not an actual living wage when split between the multiple people needed to make weekly manhwa. They kept secret blacklists, have filed unjust lawsuits against their own artists for speaking about these issues, and have been systematically dismissing and putting down their female artists. These are the issues the artist of Sadistic Beauty seems most concerned with.
Having paid for every chapter I can't say I'm happy Sadistic Beauty is ending here, but I don't want to pay to read manhwa that was produced in a bad environment by an unhappy artist. Even putting aside concern for the artists as people, it's sure to negatively affect their work. I think a promise of more in three years time, whether it happens or not, is better than a garbage ending from an artist who forced themselves to draw it while enriching a company that doesn't respect them.
It's March. The protest started in December/January. That's not long enough. Not to mention that the way they protested was pretty chaotic. They only complained, sometimes about problems which were already solved, but didn't make any clear demands like "We want XY% of the profits" or "We want them to lower the amount of panels per chapter to XY" etc. They simply weren't organized enough to change anything in such a short time. Most of them only retweeted posts and articles but didn't actually do anything (most didn't even show up to the protest in front of Lezhin). Besides the SB author already posted months ago that she didn't want to work for Lezhin again.
And they don't have to pay everyone involved in creating the comic. Lezhin usually provides them with assistants. "Usually" because somebody also complained about Lezhin not assigning an assistant to them.
And again, changing publisher won't change anything. They won't get more money, they won't have less work, they'll still face sexism etc. Because this isn't a Lezhin problem, it's a Korean webcomic industry problem.
I'm running out of time (there's a lot of work waiting for me) which is why this is the last statement from my side:
I do think the creators who work for Lezhin have many good reasons to protest.
The share they get (30%) isn't high enough and the minimum guarantee should be at least a little bit higher. Publishing a chapter per week (often in full colour) is a lot of work and Lezhin should give them more time to prepare for serialisation or provide them with more assistants. It'd be better if they'd change their release schedule but because 1 chapter per week is the standard in the industry they probably wouldn't be able to compete with other sites.
I'm conviced that they could siginifcantly improve their work environment and get more money if they organized this protest better.
A well organizde protest in this case means you try to get as many creators as possible on your side. Best case scenario: More than half and many authors of popular, ongoing series.
You coordinate what you post on twitter, post everything in English, Korean and if possible in Japanese (the three languages Lezhin offers). Concentrate on the important things. Focus on what you want and why you want it, !make clear demands! and most importantly tell your readers that they should contact Lezhin.
If Lezhin still doesn't listen, set an ultimatum and if that doesn't help go on strike AT THE SAME TIME and maybe tell your readers not to buy anything from them.
You know, just do the same everybody else does when they want their protest to be successful.
The problem is, that the Lezhin authors did none of it. They didn't try to convince more authors to join them before they started to protest. They didn't have a list of clear demands and they complained about problems which were already solved. Most of their tweets were all over the place (e.g. The BJ Alex creator asked her fans to boycott Lezhin but at the same time she told them to buy her series from Lezhin. Makes you wonder if she even knows what the word boycott means)and were missing important information which is why many people misunderstood a lot.
And when they went on strike (not publishing new chapters) they didn't do it at the same time and they didn't have enough creators to hurt Lezhin financially.
The reason why I'm frustrated is not because I think the creators shouldn't protest. I was glad when they announced to protest. Comic/manga etc. artists all over the world have to face similar problems and most of them don't try to do anything against it (for different reasons) but these creators were willing to do something.
But now all I see is a huge mess and I doubt they will accomplish anything with it.
Wait...what chapter does dolphin fairy go on hiatus or end?? the English chapters are still ongoing, but was there an announcement for the Korean website?
Nevermind...I just answered my own question. I logged into the Korean
Lezhin, and after doing some digging (and google translate), I found the Korean version of Dolphin Fairy, 돌핀요정, which went on permanent hiatus after chapter 75.
For anyone else who might be reading, the second season with Ji Hunyoung and Beom (orange-haired glasses-wearing manager and the whale) seems like it ends at chapter 67, then season 3 with Rino (pink dolphin) and his partner starts at chapter 68. So at least we get full resolution of season 2 (I never liked Rino anyways, so this news isn't as bad as I thought it would be).
The artists' claims don't match up with what Lezhin put in their official statements. There's a full breakdown here: http://porifra.tumblr.com/post/168424485685/rough-summary-on-events-leading-to-lezhin-tax
The penalty for being ill is gone now, but a lot of the other problems remain. The artists have been treated incredibly badly, most notably one who was talked out of taking a break to get a checkup when she had cancer.
I know that some of them were treated badly and that they have incredible exhausting schedules. I also know about the creator with cancer.
I only corrected something in the post you quoted. Many people still think that "some creators weren't paid for oversea sales" means "no creator was paid for any sales in countries other than Korea" when only a few authors weren't paid properly for the sales through a Chinese app (even the artists say that).
There are many rumors going around and many people exaggerate what happens or happened (e.g. "one author was treated like this" = "every author is still treated like this") and I don't believe this helps anyone (the authors sale less, Lezhin earns less, we get fewer comics and nobody cares that this isn't just a Lezhin problem but a problem the entire industry has).
I simply don''t want people to spread false information. The situation as it is, isn't exactly perfect and they have some very good reasons to protest but their protest shouldn't be supported because of rumors and false information. Sooner or later it would backfire.
Alright, fair enough. Lezhin also claimed they'd paid everyone their outstanding foreign sales by fall 2017, but that contradicts a blog post one of the creators made in December: https://blog.naver.com/phm526/221156294140
I hope at least Lezhin's stopped asking the creators to do the editors' work for them.
the series is discontinued and dropped on LZ.
is it because of the protest? gahd.
shame on 'em