Sol Press AMA on /r/LightNovels

Aruseus493

AMA on /r/LightNovels Subreddit for anyone interested in the new publisher.

myskaros

Questions posted, muahaha.

Terrence

Questions posed (I pretty much am just looking for reassurance on the completeness or lack thereof of the licensed titles).

Terrence

About Audiobooks for light novels:

This is actually something we've discussed before and it's definitely not out of the question.

Terrence

@myskaros said in Sol Press AMA on /r/LightNovels:

Questions posted, muahaha.

Your questions got answered Myskaros!

Wonder what licenses are under those pesky NDAs they mentioned...

the green death

That was fun, they all seem very pleasant and I hope it goes great! I probably won’t buy the Visual Novels and Manga but I’m down for their Light Novels for sure. Wish they’d be on Nook though (it sounds like not yet for Nook).

myskaros

I feel a bit annoyed that the obvious question they could expect anyone to ask is "what kind of stuff might be coming next?" and their collective answer was basically "whoops, we didn't plan for that obvious question and therefore can't say anything, sorry."

Maybe I'm too capitalistically-minded, but these kind of mini events are a perfect way to build up hype and interest. In that respect, I came away from that AMA thinking "well, they seem like nice people, but I'm not interested in anything they're selling." Just seems like a wasted opportunity.

Drone205

@myskaros said in Sol Press AMA on /r/LightNovels:

I feel a bit annoyed that the obvious question they could expect anyone to ask is "what kind of stuff might be coming next?" and their collective answer was basically "whoops, we didn't plan for that obvious question and therefore can't say anything, sorry."

this was a question: Any hints you can give us for upcoming license announcements or other goodies in the works? :)

this was the answer: I can't talk about it, I signed an NDA.

edit: I just checked who asked that and It was myskaros. now this reply seems a bit redundant lol.

myskaros

@Drone205 There are so many ways to answer that question without sounding like they don't actually have an answer, though. This was the only somewhat conclusive answer I could find, everything else was really hand-wavy "well, you'll just have to see!"

Here are some answers that would have been nice to see:

"We have nothing coming up soon, but check back in the summer/fall/next year/when Winds of Winter comes out."
"We are working on a/a couple/a few licenses and hope to have more news soon!"
"While we can't share any details, we do have some projects in the pipeline."

Instead, what we got was:

"Sorry, I can't say."
"Follow us on social media!"
"When we know, we'll totally make a trailer for it!"

For a company that's touting transparency, they're acting oddly opaque.

Drone205

@myskaros I also think they said that they will do a poll as well for a similar question.

LegitPancake

@myskaros said in Sol Press AMA on /r/LightNovels:

check back in the summer/fall/next year/when Winds of Winter comes out."

Don’t you dare lie to me. After all these years, I’ve hardened my heart from such jokes. WoW will come when the sun rises in the west and sets in the east...

shrike_al

I'm interested in this new publisher, but I totally missed the AMA because uh, Reddit got banned in where I live.

Anyway, IMO their reply was kinda in line with the impression I got. I dunno if it's because their website or something, but in my eyes they feel like newbies who deliberately choose to play things safe.

I also get the feeling that the person who's running the business had only just recently become a LN fan. But that'd be really strange, I guess.

paulnamida

@myskaros said in Sol Press AMA on /r/LightNovels:

"We have nothing coming up soon, but check back in the summer/fall/next year/when Winds of Winter comes out."

I must admit that made me chuckle. WoW when??? I'm seriously worried Martin might just die any of these days and we get left hanging.

Terrence

@shrike_al said in Sol Press AMA on /r/LightNovels:

I also get the feeling that the person who's running the business had only just recently become a LN fan. But that'd be really strange, I guess.

The second wave of LNs is bringing in a wave of new people. I have no problem with whoever is running this being new to them if they are willing to get invested in them.

I do hope the volume 2 and volume 3 of the series they picked wrap up their stories enough in their volumes so that people don't feel burned. I'm not even talking full series conclusions, but just volume conclusions. Imagine if one of them ends with a character hanging to a ledge or a big boss in our characters' way (like imagine if Dendrogram ended at volume 4).

They said they're interested in picking up longer series, but for me, I'd be cool with a company focused on picking up short series, but short complete series. Even just looking at Overlap, they do have 3 complete series that are fairly short. There's also a lot of one volume stuff, which, again, even if there were more planned, volume 1s usually feel like a start to finish story (outside of some stuff based on Web Novels, like Spider Reincarnation).

myskaros

@terrence said in Sol Press AMA on /r/LightNovels:

The second wave of LNs is bringing in a wave of new people. I have no problem with whoever is running this being new to them if they are willing to get invested in them.

After the disaster that was the manga bubble, I'm pretty wary if the business plan doesn't appear to be that well thought-out. We don't need titles tied up in license hell because translators went bust after only releasing 1-2 books.

Terrence

@myskaros said in Sol Press AMA on /r/LightNovels:

@terrence said in Sol Press AMA on /r/LightNovels:
After the disaster that was the manga bubble, I'm pretty wary if the business plan doesn't appear to be that well thought-out. We don't need titles tied up in license hell because translators went bust after only releasing 1-2 books.

Poor Aria and the Scarlet Ammo being tied up with Digital Manga Publishing. =[

I guess that's why I think they should focus on what they're doing and publish smaller complete (or incomplete) series that other publishers are passing up anyways. Them responding that they'd like to do longer series has me more worried though.

Here was my full question where I asked about complete series, and they countered with longer series.

The two light novel series haven't gotten a new release since 2016 I believe.

Some have told me they're worried about being sad that these series end unresolved, so they don't want to invest in them. Do you have any reassurances for them?

How content complete / story complete are these novels? And why did you choose to license these?

Do you think there will be an opportunity in the future to license some completed series?

I understand the concern. I can't speak as to what Overlaps decisions or plans are for the future, however, our staff have absolutely loved the novels so far.

We chose these specific titles due to their characters, plot, themes, and artwork. The characters are absolutely adorable, as I'm sure you'll find!

And of course! We would love to work on some longer series!

paulnamida

Is be totally in for licensing short series, I'd really love if someone were to pick up Meiyaku no Leviathan (8 volumes) or Legion Chronicle (7 volumes), both by Takedzuki Jou, Campione's writer. As a mythology and history buff I really like the themes in his works, the guy does a lot of research for his works.

Sam Pinansky

@paulnamida In what world are series with 7 or 8 volumes short?

Terrence

@sam-pinansky said in Sol Press AMA on /r/LightNovels:

@paulnamida In what world are series with 7 or 8 volumes short?

In a world where "Maria Watches Over Us" is at 30+ volumes. xD

But yeah, for me, short and sweet is 1-4 volumes. I don't really trust two volume series though... So 3 is probably the sweet spot.

myskaros

@terrence said in Sol Press AMA on /r/LightNovels:

In a world where "Maria Watches Over Us" is at 30+ volumes. xD

Biased sample fallacy.