[SAVAN] Melty Lover: Behind the Scenes

Something we wanted to share with you today was a look into what goes into a book, as well as a peek into the little extra things we in the office tend to see as we produce a release but you as readers don't normally get to experience.

Sometimes when we release a book, you'll notice how there are chapters that have previously been released on the site through our magazine subscription service. Generally, chapters are initially released through magazines, and once an artist has released enough content within their respective magazines a book is eventually published. Essentially these book releases are an opportunity for the artist to showcase their work for their fans. And within these releases you'll see higher quality paper, a dust jacket cover, and maybe some bonus content the mangaka made specifically for the book.

In many cases, artists will go back and touch up older chapters to improve for their book release. SAVAN is no exception to this.
Check out just a few examples we noticed when we went through the book ourselves:

When a book is licensed and published overseas, you sometimes lose that high quality showcase feeling; almost as if it was lost in translation. FAKKU has always taken the approach of releasing the books as close to the original as possible to maintain that high quality feel as it was meant to be. The last thing we want is for our fans to feel like they miss out on features that the artist created specifically for you.

Here are some of the materials we prepared to send our printers:
When printing, often Japan will use more than 4 colors (CYMK) to print jackets and add additional specific colors to overlay and increase the vividness of the artwork. If you're interested in reading more about this, you can check it out here: Jacket Making Process


Would you like to see more content like this? Please let us know in the comments, and don't forget to preorder SAVAN's first book here:

I find this very interesting, and would be extremely happy to see more content from "behind the scenes" just like this.

This is way cool and helps me appreciate your work (and SAVAN's) even more. Thanks for sharing!

This is really interesting! I love knowing how the process of these books being made and work put into (especially for SAVAN to go back and add little touches) makes me appreciate the releases even more. Definitely would love to see more behind the scenes in the future.

Guess what came in the mail today!



This is generally what we receive first from the printer after submitting the files to them, the turn around was pretty fast this time!

What you're seeing above is:
A blue line of the book (or called an ozalid), proofs of the colored pages, proofs of the jacket, and proofs of the cover.

A blue line is a cheap replica of the book printed for us to go through and make sure there are no words lost in areas like the gutters of the book, any typos we may have missed, and making sure text isn't cut off around the edges. It's our last chance to make changes to the book before it goes to press.

The proofs are when I sit with the original book and compare colors to make sure they came out properly. I honestly haven't had a chance to sit down with it yet, but I wanted to show you all since the book is still on preorder and for you to see the progress it's already making!

When it comes to full color books do you have to thoroughly review every page? Or is there a point where you're reasonably confident about the color accuracy?

Every page on every book has to go through very throughly. I usually sit in another room with more lights, or I subject the entire office to have all the lights on (we like it mellow in the office) so I can sit and go through them. I have to look out for any type of error, and point out any color differences and write detailed feedback to the printer on what I need changed with color examples.

I know this example is for another book, but I've been going earliest release to latest today since I got 4 books in 1 day today, but here's an example where I'd tell the printer an adjustment is needed to be made:


Each book comes with blue lines like I mentioned earlier, has to be gone through page by page and circled for anything to be moved away from bleed or gutters and occasional errors found (ideally not). Changes have to be made, reexported for both physical and digital, uploaded to the printer with a detailed log sheet of what was changed so when they turn around and give the corrected pages back I can remember what was changed and approve it.

That's amazing, you're amazing!!

This is some cool stuff!

Thank you so much for your devotion to delivering a quality and true to original product. Fakku's dedication to working as hard as possible to create what the artists envisioned is my favorite thing about you guys. I love reading about the work you guys put into making that happen.

Key last month and now Savan, this is great.

I must say I'm proud of the FAKKU books I own not only because they are works I enjoy, but also because the physical releases are so high quality. I just love looking at them because of the quality. Thank you for the behind the scenes and all the great work you all put in!

Bless you guys, this is amazing!!!! Please show us behind the scenes from now on!

You make the porn world a brighter better place

😭😭😭😭
👌🍆

This was a really interesting read. Would love to see more content like this!

With all the work you guys put into the books, I kinda feel I am getting a deal for only $20. What do the books sell for in Japan? I read somewhere that the slipcover is not a standard thing for American books and so it costs more.

Also, are you guys printing in the US or overseas?

Japan has insanely cheap printing costs on their end, so it's much less expensive for them - this book would cost a little over $10 USD before shipping costs with the Japanese edition.

We do not print in the US, all our books have a "Printed in Hong Kong" on their credit pages because of that. Printing in Asia has its benefits too, the quality is cared about a lot more there for books, and they're more familiar with printing techniques that involve more than just the 4C (CYMK) like you see in the example above. It sucks that we have to wait for shipping, but overall our printer has been very good to us and made sure we've been satisfied with quality.

I wondered about that. I know that Icarus Comics had difficulties finding a US publisher for their stuff, due to content.

Cool to get all this info!

Well, if Asia offers better quality and knows the techniques better, it's more than worth waiting for the shipping.