Yen Press starts translating Koeran Novels(announced on 11th August) when will j-novel will start
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Announced both novel and manga of solo leveling
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Kinda goes against the very name of the business, unless they branch off into K-Novel Club or something like that. :P I don't know that there's a ton of demand for it though.
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See https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/3003/korean-fantasy-romance-novels-why-don-t-they-ever-get-licensed for a previous discussion of this topic.
Arguably the fact that Yen Press has got into this field makes it less likely that JNC will license Korean novels as they may have scooped the best series and could make licensing more expensive. It'd only be if sales were significantly above expectations that it would be likely to encourage others to get into the market.
It could be a good opportunity for Korean to English translators to prove themselves, but they would need enough spare time to also work for other publishers too so it depends on the circumstances.
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solo leveling is the only novel/manwha worth translating at moment so the amount of material is very low
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it's an interesting situation. In the USA I believe there are more Korean-speakers than Japanese-speakers so I'd think to pool of possible translators is relatively untapped, but also it isn't a developed market (how many Korean Light novels have been translated to date, as a relative proportion of the Japanese language- translated to English market? I don't know of many) so is the talent pool of editors/proofreaders robust?
I've said before that if the work is good, I'll read it (Chinese, Korean, Bantu, whatever)
Yes, part of the appeal with JNC is a affinity/ fascination I have in particular with Japanese culture, but my brain/tastes are somewhat flexible -
Well some Korean stuff is decent. And in General I approve of more new stuff to read...
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It is great news from a reading stand point, as there have been a few Korean novels which have developed a good following, the ones off the top of my head are:
Solo Leveling
A Returner's Magic Should be Special
Lucia
Priscillar's Marriage Proposal
Beatrice
A Capable Maid.
A Stereotypical Life of a Reincarnated LadyBut, it is more of a niche market still and would be effectively where translation of Japanese lights novels were about 2 decades ago. It would probably be about 5 years before it grows into anything truly resembling what we currently have at the moment. Yen Press is big enough to take the risk, other companies are not.
It is also interesting that the majority at the top of my head would be aimed at the female market, being romance novels primarly.
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It's arguable Yen Press is even translating Solo Leveling; more likely they will just be touching up the already present translation on webnovel and then printing it. As far as I can tell, they won't even be offering an ebook option (since webnovel probably has exclusive digital rights). So they don't even need to worry about K->E translators. For a primarily digital publisher such as J-Novel Club, they would have to license Korean web novels that don't have an official TL, go through the trouble of KR translators/editors, commission cover art (and optional insert art) unless there is already official art, and then break the web novels into light novel sized volumes to sell on the usual stores, which may not naturally flow as well as in WN format. All for an audience that may not even be receptive to it and then JNC never makes a profit (and certainly wouldn't print unless an anime/cartoon were in the works). That's a lot more risk than Yen Press simply printing it.
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I've heard that the Solo Leveling Novel is really bad (from people enjoying the webtoon) so I can only see licensing it as a cash grab for everyone that's enjoying the webtoon but doesn't realize.
If J-NC started up K-NC, I'd probably want Everyone Else is a Returnee (Completed) and The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor (Ongoing). Maybe Overgeared too although it hasn't really drawn me into a re-read yet.
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@Aruseus493 said in Yen Press starts translating Koeran Novels(announced on 11th August) when will j-novel will start:
I've heard that the Solo Leveling Novel is really bad (from people enjoying the webtoon) so I can only see licensing it as a cash grab for everyone that's enjoying the webtoon but doesn't realize.
I haven't finished reading the web novel yet, but I enjoyed it just fine and find the manhwa to be a more or less faithful adaptation. Not sure why people feel this way; maybe they dislike the ending, which I've heard isn't great?
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In terms of Solo Levelling, it was the only one I saw which I recognised as Korean the series plot line was okay. The prose was written to a decent standard, it would depend how well it was edited for release as I would be disappointed if it was a straight transition from Web to light novel, those usually have many follies.
The end of Solo Leveling is much improved with the after stories. Just like Arifureta so I'm hopefully it continues to that.
Would I put Solo Levelling as a priority buy? Honestly no. Would I add it to "I'll buy eventually?". The answer is yes.
Note there are very few novel series which I add to must buy.
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@crowdcontrol I also like "Dungeon Defense"
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Dungeon Defense is really good although it seems like it's stalled.
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