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My Manga Method, Part IV: the daily page quota
So! Now we have the translation, we have the Japanese pages, and we have our key sheet. Time for math!
This is how I determine my daily quota, or how many pages I have to letter every day to reach my deadline. I take however many pages are due by my next deadline and divide that by how many days I have left to letter them. So if I have half a book, say 90 pages, due in four weeks, or 28 days, then I have to letter 3.214 pages a day. Round that up to 4.
Now I make a quick chart of days and page numbers. Day 1 will be pages 1-4, day 2 will be 5-8, 3 will be 9-12, and so on until we hit day 23, where we letter pages 89 and 90. Now I can determine my buffer.
Buffer is how many pages of leeway I have. I only have to letter 2 pages on day 23 to finish the book, which means I have 2 pages of buffer on that day. Day 24, I have four pages of buffer, Day 25 will also have 4 pages. The buffer adds up until we hit day 28, which reveals a total of 22 pages of buffer.
This means that if I can't manage 4 pages on a particular day, I can sacrifice a page of buffer and do 3 pages instead, reducing my buffer to 21. If I can only manage one page that day, then reduce the buffer by 3 to make it 19. I try to conserve as much buffer as possible, since I have no way of knowing when I will need to use it. If I'm careful with the buffer and my editor can get me pages and scripts for future volumes before I need them, then the buffer can really add up! Which is good for when Work Hell hits and I have to stop working on a title for a week so I can try to stay sane. --;;;;
Whenever possible I do plan in days off before calculating my quota. For example, if a holiday, my birthday, or a special event will occur before the next deadline, I will not count that day as a work day in the math. So if all three things will happen before our deadline, instead of dividing the 90 pages by 28, I would divide them by 25. That gives us 3.6 pages a day, and we round up to the same 4 pages as earlier. BUT we now have 12 pages less of buffer!
Each book has its own page quota, buffer, and days off. Sometimes I'll end up lettering only a half-day, where I take the day off on one title but not the others, or only letter half of the quota of everything. Or I'll go into critical mode, which means only lettering pages that have to be done to make the deadline, while using buffer on the others. It really is a delicate balancing act! And remember thanks to the key sheet, I don't have to stay in chronological order. ^^V As long as I complete the daily page quota, I can bounce around in the books all I want. :D
Next up will be prelettering! Yay! XD
To access earlier installments of this series, use the my manga method tag.
Last tweaked 1-26-09