What can us fans do to to expediate the liscening process?
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So I'm here like everyone else hoping some series I like gets licensed. Aside from waiting patiently, what can we actually do to increase the odds of a series being licensed and/or expedite the process?
I imagine that for most of us, the most we could do is throw money at the problem. I sure money isn't the sole solution for every series but I'm hoping that is the hold up for a fair amount of them.
So are any of the following viable ways to help increase the catalog of light novels/manga?
- Starting a GoFundMe for a given series? My train of thought is that the Japanese publishers (or J-Novel Club?) may hesitate to to license a series for fear it would flop. And that these fears could be assuaged by voting with our wallets.
- Sponsoring/investing in or other means to front the initial cost for adding a new series (licensing fee, translation costs etc) in exchange for cut of the profit? This way J-Novel Club would be able to operate with more capitol with no extra risk.
These are just some thoughts I had with admittedly limited knowledge of the licensing process. If someone wants to share why the above aren't feasible or if a better alternative exists, I'd be happy to learn.
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@taapaye There are many potential problems with attempting pressure on the Japanese companies. Dealing with any company "under pressure", not just the Japanese, is almost guaranteed to get them to "dig in" against the pressure.
Probably the best any of us can do is to support suggested license topics, so that Sam can say, "We have people who want this." Money raised through things like Go Fund Me and Kickstarter is not the deciding factor, because I'm pretty sure JNC has enough capital available to license pretty much anything within reason.
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@taapaye said in What can us fans do to to expediate the liscening process?:
Aside from waiting patiently, what can we actually do to increase the odds of a series being licensed and/or expedite the process?
Buy series that are similar to [what you want licensed].
Buy novels written by the same author as [what you want licensed].
Growing the overall LN market would also make it more likely for [what you want licensed] to get picked up. -
@doublemangekyo said in What can us fans do to to expediate the liscening process?:
@taapaye said in What can us fans do to to expediate the liscening process?:
Aside from waiting patiently, what can we actually do to increase the odds of a series being licensed and/or expedite the process?
Buy series that are similar to [what you want licensed].
Buy novels written by the same author as [what you want licensed].
Growing the overall LN market would also make it more likely for [what you want licensed] to get picked up.I agree that 'voting with your wallet' is a thing and that @DoubleMangekyo has the right idea- if you want more romcoms, buy romcoms. Want more stuff from FUNA? buy whatever is feasible to buy. In addition I'll add that if you are not already a premium JNC member, join at that level. The more premium members the more 'votes' Sam has for his model of publishing LNs - and this also provides a wealth of marketing/research, data that informs decisions that businesses make. For example if 4/5 of premium members use credits for the Bookworm Fan Book, and the number of readers of the pre-pub is high, getting more titles like that would be a good business decision (it sells well).
Kickstarters/GoFundMe campaigns are good for publicity, starting a venture that lacks funds, or funding a project that might not otherwise be profitable. IMHO these campaigns would not be productive in 'moving the needle' to persuade Kadokawa/JNC to license a particular title.
A kickstarter for a collector's edition/limited run of something CAN be successful (is demonstrably successful i.e. Rokojouma hard copies) however, that is apples vs. oranges. JNC owned the rights, already had a translation- major hurdles were already cleared and this was a case of making a product that might not've had a mass market appeal, but sold well to a smaller/devoted fanbase.
I've commented, half-jokingly, in other comment threads how I'd like a limited edition, hand bound Bookworm fan book, maybe with inserts of examples created with the various printing methods described in the series, i.e. wood block, stencils, mimeograph, gutenberg type press ( on different kinds of paper; mulberry, hand made from various pulps with flowers etc.) --That would be a kickstarter project I'd back - a set of Kurata printed on wood as a bonus? But I can't imagine that having mass market appeal- it won't be at my local B&N for $29.95
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@someoldguy
That's an interesting perspective. I hadn't meant it as pressure, but more of just conveying that there are some significant amount of people who are interested and aren't just paying lip service.I have no notion of JNC's capitol, but imagine they couldn't license all the dozens of series available all at once. And saying "We have people who want this." seems strictly weaker than "We have people who are actually willing to pay for this."
I agree with @DoubleMangekyo and @Jon-Mitchell that buying similar series is some action that can be taken. I don't find that satisfying. Like if suppose I dislike rom-coms, but happened to find a specific one I actually enjoyed. I don't necessarily want to send a message to pick up more rom-coms, but to pick up this specific ones.
I also wounder if that hurts the chances for more unique series since one may argue there is "less evidence" they will do well.
That said, it seems the most effective of all the action that can currently be taken
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JNC has the money to license series without a Kickstarter, so I think that any LN pick up which worth doing a Kickstarter for would be worth doing without a Kickstarter and therefore without the extra costs and overheads and complexities a Kickstarter incurs.
Kickstarter only really works for Visual Novels because a VN is a single product which costs a lot to translate but that many people are willing to pay a lot for. Publicising and managing crowdfunding can be time consuming. Often such projects only get to a Kickstarter if the people doing the work are confident it will be successful and therefore worth their time promoting them.
For light novels, you wouldn't want to do it if you didn't already have an option on a licence, and a Japanese publisher would be likely to much prefer a straight license to an option, not least because it avoids the reputational risk of it not getting enough support. Furthermore, if the Kickstarter is just for volume 1 then you still have the commitment to make future volumes so you'd still only want to do it for a series which you think will keep people's interest.
As others have said, posting in the suggestions forum will help signal an interest. I expect that people are right that buying similar series and other books from the same author could also help.
Stay shiny, y'all.
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@shiny Well, a Kickstarter works just fine for anime and manga and I think it would work fine for LN but the catch is that a lot of things have to fall in place first. The biggest one being that the licensors are willing to offer up the title and it's just a matter of finding the money.
Even then it seems to mostly be a niche thing. I could see kickstarting licensing something like J.K. Haru, for example, but it wouldn't work for a longer title like Combat Waitress, to say nothing of something like Bookworm.
Or to use maybe a better analogy... anime KS in the past shoes that it works well if you are doing it for a movie or an OVA, but you don't see a lot of full series going that way, much less a long series.
Like @Jon-Mitchell alluded to, here it only really makes sense when you are wanting to release a super special version of something you already have and willing to trade a lower profit for it to reduce the upfront cost and initial overhead. I for one would love a special edition AoB set, but outside of folks that are members and hanging out on the forums I'm not sure it would have a ton of appeal.
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Growing the overall LN market would also make it more likely for [what you want licensed] to get picked up.
^ This. Get your friends into light novels. Talk about them in places that aren't already talking about them. Tweet about covers and illustrations, write blog posts, upload clips of anime adaptations. Getting more people interested in light novels means there's more potential money to be made, meaning it'll become easier/more viable for publishers to license any series.
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@myskaros
So I get that supporting the industry helps. However that seems like such an inefficient way to deal with the problem.Perhaps someone can educate me on why JNC doesn't just license everything? The theories I was working with are the the Japanese publishers didn't want to license a series or JNC was being selective due to limited resources or risk of the series flopping or something similar. (Or it got picked up/is waiting to be picked up by another company.) The comments seem to point more towards the former, which kinda baffles me as that seems like a net negative for everyone.
In terms of the other cases, it seems plausible to provide concrete evidence (not a guarantee) that a license isn't risky and or throw the risk onto someone else.
A kickstarter was an idea to show that people are at least currently interested in paying for a series.
If one wanted a stronger guarantee, why not just get an outside investor to front the cost of the entire series (licensing fee, translation costs etc). Yeah you still have to still go get the license, but am I the only one that would think this would cause more series to get picked up? -
@taapaye said in What can us fans do to to expediate the liscening process?:
Perhaps someone can educate me on why JNC doesn't just license everything?
Because we don't have infinite time, resources, budget, or personnel.
The theories I was working with are the the Japanese publishers didn't want to license a series or JNC was being selective due to limited resources or risk of the series flopping or something similar. (Or it got picked up/is waiting to be picked up by another company.)
These are all possible reasons that could be nontrivial factors in our licensing decisions.
A kickstarter was an idea to show that people are at least currently interested in paying for a series.
Companies don't like being told "we don't trust that your series will be successful so we want to prove it will sell first." They also don't like being told "we thought it would be popular but not enough people funded, sorry."
If one wanted a stronger guarantee, why not just get an outside investor to front the cost of the entire series (licensing fee, translation costs etc). Yeah you still have to still go get the license, but am I the only one that would think this would cause more series to get picked up?
If you are volunteering, feel free to email us. I don't know what Sam's stance is on this.
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Companies don't like being told "we don't trust that your series will be successful so we want to prove it will sell first."
That is insightful. I can see how it can be interrupted that way, but it wasn't the intent.
If you are volunteering, feel free to email us. I don't know what Sam's stance is on this.
Yes I was volunteering. Will send out that email.
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One additional thing that would make either crowdfunding or outside investing on light novel licenses more difficult: the fact that many light novels are ongoing series, with regular new releases.
Under normal circumstances, these new volumes are actually a separate license, not "automatically included" with the license of previous volumes. For an official licensing company, this isn't really an issue, so long as the company internally accounts for the cost of future volume licenses and commits to licensing said future volumes.
But if a series relies on outside funding, whether from crowdfunding or an individual investor, then the licensing of those future volumes may need to rely on said outside funding as well. And, well, what if that funding isn't there? What if an economic crisis happens and people aren't able to contribute enough to crowdfund a new volume? What if a volume ends up taking a story in a direction that an individual investor doesn't like, and they no longer want to invest in future volume licenses of that series?
Putting aside crowdfunding, which mainly has the aforementioned issue of trust, the idea of an outside investor putting all the money for a series up-front would only really be feasible for a series that has been completed. (And even then, there's the chance that a new volume will come up for that series anyway...)
