I need to rant about these authors man

I'm sorry, I've tried to be so understanding towards these authors and knowing that what I am doing is wrong and trying to rally for physical English translations as well as better online official translations but the authors are making it harder and harder for me to keep trying to support them in any way I can.

I can't buy chapters cause I am dead broke (like I don't even have enough to support myself but such is life), but so many korean authors are turning me away with their attitudes towards people who genuinely can't afford their works but have been asking for physical release or cheaper prices.

I know it's not every author, but the ones who are the loudest are the most aggressive and off-putting about it, it's hard to defend their (understandable) frustration.

I understand that there are people that they've been describing, pirates who will pirate anything because they don't "care" about the authors and supporting them. But they're lugging EVERYONE who does this in the same category.

For me personally, I don't like buying anything that I can't physically hold in my hands. I dont pay subscriptions services, I have physical bank cards, I have books, cds, DVDs etc. cause you don't actually own anything that you buy online that you cannot physically hold.

When I am financially able to, I buy the physical releases of old manhwas that I used to love reading in highschool, but only recently became available physically in the last few years or so.

The thing is about me, I've never pirated a novel, because all the books I love have always been available to me at nearby stores. I've pirated a couple tv shows and movies, buy the majority of the cinematic media I love I have on DVDs and hard-drives.

Manga and manhwa have been a bit different, I used to only pirate these cause up until recently, there were no physical prints available of the manga/manhwas i liked. Now it's different. But because of how expensive they are, and how little I earn and can save, I can only buy 1 piece of physical media once every few months (that might change soon hopefully, but that's just my situation right now).

But thing is, I know that I'm doing is wrong, but I don't wave it around. I'm not loud and proud, but I'm aware of it, and try my best to support their work in any way I can.

But the thing, some of the things they mention when advocating against piracy (and what annoys me the most) is how much they describe in detail about how gruelling their schedules are and how regularly sick they become and the health issues they have whilst working on their manhwas, taking regular breaks during the season serialisation. And then they say knowing their work is being pirated make it worse and I sit there after reading these detailed accounts and I'm like, no where in this thesis I've read is their any mention of the companies and publishers they work for. They go on about how sick they are and how horrible their work schedule is, and blame it all on the pirates. Like I get that without people purchasing their work they don't have the money to pay for healthcare, but we aren't the ones who have you working around the clock. All the reader do is give you their money and words of affirmation, we aren't responsible for your deadlines.

All the while the people who actively say they want to support them but don't have access to it (like at all, there's no translation in their language), the authors are saying "no, the fuck, if you want translations, buy the original (that you don't understand) and maybe, on the off chance, you might get a translation... someday. No guarantee, that's up to the publisher who couldn't care if I live or die, just as long as I make them money"

It's just getting so annoying, and their only rebuttals to people saying they genuinely don't have the money neither do they have access to the authors work, only for the author to turn around and say there's no logic behind these arguments, and that pirates are put on this earth only to torment innocent authors like themselves. And it's always the same ones kicking up all the fuss, and it's always the ones the most popular series, that have WAY more money than they lead their readers to believe.

That being said, I do want to say that their has been an influx of SO MANY disrespectful new gen readers who think it's okay to wave that they read illegally ON THE AUTHORS SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE. Like what is wrong with you. This isn't something you should be proud about.

And something else that annoys me too is the fact that scanlation teams don't wait 2-3 days before publishing the next chapter, after the author posts the next chapter on official platforms anymore. I think that's also part of the reason authors genuinely aren't making the money they used to, because chapters get posted to illegal sites almost immediately after it drops officially.

The old 2-3 day wait used to make the impatient people go buy the chapters, and allow authors to generate a bit of money, before it would hit illegal sites. But now that format is completely gone. And it wasn't even that long ago that they used to do that. Scanlaters had a completely different publishing schedule than the authors, by 2-3 days, but now there's no longer a wait, which I think has increased a lot of authors irritability towards illegal sites. And don't think for a second that authors were never aware illegal sites and their uploading schedules. There were the occasional authors who would take out the bomb squad if a slight wiff of illegal sharing caught their attention, but most authors, I'm gonna say tolerated for lack of better word, but they never rallied as hard as they are now for so long, so much so that the KOREAN GOVERMENT got involved.

It's just all so annoying to me that a bunch of assholes had to ruin it for the rest of us who are just trying our best out here and really trying to support our favourite creators in whatever way we can, whilst also trying to support ourselves in this hellscape. But because it's happening everywhere in almost ever field, hopefully this obnoxious bubble will pop soon.


Also just realised that during this whole pirating debacle, I have not heard a single thing from korean manhwa publishers, I've only ever heard about korean authors. I've heard nothing about compensation towards authors affected by illegal sites, that have since been taken down by said publishers, absolutely nothing.