What I don't understand is, why they don't just release the books SLOWER. I mean, if they take a lot of time during these hard times, at least we WILL GET the books, but just alot slower. I mean, I think that Seven Sea's needs to take light novels a bit more seriously.

Like....

There is a online magazine in JAPAN that publishes FREE japanese light novels for people to read online. WHY hasn't Seven Sea's picked up on these titles? I mean, the money needed to buy the rights to a FREE series must be.....pretty low. lol

In fact, why not buy the rights to these FREE series and then make a LIGHT NOVEL MAGAZINE, or MANGA/LIGHT NOVEL MAGAZINE to publish them and some of their own manga's in.

I think they need to come up with a new and better strategy, otherwise, fans will regard Seven Seas' with the reputation of TokyoPop, which would be about the worst thing their company could suffer.

-Matt

It's due to current market conditions. Right now, most light novels can't make back their high production costs no matter how slowly you space them apart because there just aren't enough manga fans out there that are willing to read a niche product that will only appeal to them.




You'd be incorrect in that assumption. You still have to pay an advance and then royalties based on the number of views that the book gets online. So the idea that they are giving out the books for free in Japan isn't totally true as the costs are being offset by some form of advertising.




Licensing costs. Royalties based on the magazine's sell-in rate (not sell through). The insanely high translation costs. The costs to rewrite and copy edit massive amounts of text. The costs to layout said light novels into a magazine. And on top of that...the insane costs involved in just printing said magazine. If light novels don't sell in today's market as it is, then this kind of idea is just suicide. No one would buy this.




As much as we would love to please every fan out there, that's just not possible in today's market. We are manga fans ourselves, but we are still a business that has to make a profit so we can keep doing what we love.

Are there not some fans out there who do wish to see the novels translated into English who themselves have attempted to translate? That is, could you not simply use the assistance of fans with knowledge of Japanese to help reduce the amount of money needed to be spent on translation, as at least a few of said fans could be likely to work on the translation for free, or at least for a low price.

For Japanese light novels, our translation standards are pretty darn high, and they have to be as we want to ensure our novels are as accurate as possible. We can't afford to have a translator totally miss the point of a line or just make something up in a pinch. So for novels, a lot of experience is required as quality is key.

I see. So the translation costs come more from the fact that you use very experienced translators than from simply needing translators.

EDIT: Just noticed. I'm a barnacle! XD

Waiting and seeing if the economy turns around maybe? That could take some time...

Is there any way with current light novels out to try a test ballon of some sort of marketing crossover I still think would work to see if the wait and see should turn into a ready all weapons and fire type of moment? Though if it is the current economy that could take a change in administrations and some time after that to get things somewhat back on track.

Technically, Tokyopop tried to do just that with their Pop Fiction line and it failed. The issue is really the books themselves. Boogiepop, Ballad of a Shinigami, Pita-Ten and Strawberry Panic are only going to be of interest to manga fans, and the only way to make them marketable to a wider audience would be to alter the content of the books themselves to make them less Japanese...and then manga fans wouldn't even bother picking them up at all. So no, there really is no crossover potential for some of the titles.

I wouldnt say that the issue is the books themselves.
Its the ignorancy of "ordinary" book readers and the ignorancy of mangafans when it comes to innovative LNs and not Yaoi-Novels or Novels to popular Shounenmanga...

Korea had the same bad start with LNs like america or germany but after a few years they were "accepted" and became more and more popular.


I really hope that the market will get bigger and that the ignorancy of some manga/anime-fans will fade, especially when you look at the current anime-seasons. A lot of anime are based on LNs...

I dunno Adam. I'm not a manga reader, but I really enjoyed every single Light Novel I rewrote. The stories are awesome, and I think you do a disservice to readers by not putting them out there where they could try them.

I think they'll even appeal to the reluctant reader market, since the stories tend to be a bit more simplistic than most YA books. But I see younger kids reading manga like Case Closed and think they'd enjoy something like the Pita-Ten books.

I think there are readers out there you can tap into if you market the books to non-manga reading YA readers. I think Gun Princess, for example, has great appeal to those who usually read fantasy. And while I haven't read Zero's familiar, it seems like the kind of story kids would like to read.

Maybe try sending out some ARC's to some of the YA review bloggers out there, most of whom are actually YA's., and see how they like it. Many of the ones I've run across like graphic novels already.

Just a suggestion.

We've considered Gun Princess and Zero's Familiar for the youth reader market, but they'll never work there. Zero's Familiar's content is too fan service-y and would have to be toned down and the art censored just so so that buyers would consider it. As for Gun Princess, having the story be about "guns" kills any of its chances of being a youth title, fantasy or not. So the only place for those books is in the manga section.

What about something like Vamp though? I mean that is about vampires right? Isn't a best selling youth or teen novels now about vampires?

Browsing the local young adult section today at a local store (after reading this) I saw far worse for 13 and ups in the young adult section in terms of violence in a lot of the stories then "guns" including a few that brazenly talk about genocide as if it is nothing to bat an eye at... so would the "guns" really be a problem or just the title that could cause well meaning but unneccesarily overly protective people to judge it before they read it as some groups did with titles such as Harry Potter?

If voilence or the thought of it in young adult titles is their concern, then along with the series that brazenly dismissed genocide they totally missed a New York Times bestselling series in which the main female lead in the first book actually has to kill someone to save the people she is loves and guards, or do they consider that "justifiable" (and by default "okay") violence?

As to Zero's Familiar, can't similiar be said? I am not familiar with young adult romance novels by any means but don't they have just as suggestive fanservice in them, albeit with the written word (which can be far more tantalizing) instead of pictures but nonetheless fanservice of a type?

At least I can always find most of the novels in the manga section. I need to get the last two Crest of the Stars books. And I'm still going to wait for the other SS light novels.

even series that are in print right now?
like strawberry panic
my barnes and noble said strawberry panic vol 3 would be out in october

Yes, the entire line is on hold. The sales just aren't there, sadly.




It won't. See above.

This is very sad news. I hope you will try again in the near future.

I honestly hope that you DO release them. I've been looking forward to ZnT's release for nearly a year now, and yet, I see yet again that another series I'm looking forward to buying has been put on hold and/or canceled...

I mean, I know companies don't want us pirating and what not, but... When they license, but don't deliver, there's not much choice in the matter.

I sincerely hope that this 'on-hold' status ends, as I honestly prefer a hardback copy to a digital one. It's really sad when companies drop or just hold the license without actually bringing it over, because even though many people would love to buy it, the companies couldn't care about the fanbase, and only care about the money.

Which is one reason why pirating is so bad right now...

I truly hope for everyone's sake that you remember to hold true to the fans, and deliver on your promises. Too often have companies opted to break a promise just because "they weren't making enough money". So then, until I can get the option of purchasing a hard copy, back to pirating I go...

It's not because we don't care about the fanbase...we're fans ourselves! (And that's not an exaggeration on my part.)

The issue is that there is just not enough of a market for the books. And on top of that, these are very expensive books to translate and produce, so when they don't sell... they don't break even.

So it's not that we only care about money, it's that we want to stay in business. The market is in a different place now, and we've had to adapt to it just like everyone else.





Pirating of light novels isn't something that is that big of a concern as the quality of the translations just isn't there. The reason for this is that the translators are inexperienced, so you get uneven quality in the writing and passages where the translator just made stuff up because they were stuck due to a lack of experience with the Japanese language. In a novel, this is a cardinal sin that impacts the accuracy of the translation and clouds the author's original intent. You can't just have a kid fresh out of Japanese class doing a novel, you have to hire a professional translator to do it. The quality just won't be there otherwise.

@Adam Arnold


Yeah. But as fans it seems the only choice other than learning japanese to get a hold on LNs.

I really dislike reading things on my pc. I rather have a real book in my hand than read it on a PC-monitor.
And ebook-readers are too expensive imo.

So what other choice do we fans have?

There is no other choice than reading the fan-translated ones. And even that is hard since there are few people who translates them...



And yeah. I can understand that the LNs are not selling well in the western countries besides france.
But hopefully more readers will get used to them like in france. Even in Korea the LNs had a really bad start and now they are selling well.
I really really hope that the development of the market will show that there is a market for LNs besides the Yaoi-ones and mainstream-ones.

I do believe that this situation is very similar to the situation that manga was in. Back several years ago, manga didn't have a place in bookstores. Now? Light novels are just grouped with manga, even though they're not manga. I believe that similar to the situation with manga, should the Light Novels start to get their own section, they might catch on more.

I mean, think about it. Most people know about manga and anime, but hardly anyone's ever heard of a light novel. This is in large part an awareness thing. Many people who aren't interested in manga who might be interested in Light Novels don't bother, since light novels are just stuffed together with the manga.

I believe the first thing that needs to happen is that companies such as Seven Seas and Tokyopop and others need to work with the bookstores, and have them separate Manga and Light Novels. Doing so would most likely increase the sales of the Light Novels.

Of course, if you just go the "safe route", and look after your pocket book, there's no way of knowing. There is a bit of a gamble involved, but without risks, there won't be reward.

The least you can do is just stop licensing new Light Novels and deliver on the one's you've already promised the fans. I mean, nobody likes a slap in the face, this really does feel like one to me.

They had the Kino no Tabi novel in with the young adult section at my local Borders. But yeah, if they were in with other novels, they might get noticed, while as they're relatively easy to find in the manga section. For me, at least, that's convenient. But it doesn't stop me from checking the other novel sections to see if they have any light novels there.