Please Consider Licensing Novels from Tapas
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Hello everyone!
As many of you may have heard, Tapas has announced that its platform will shut down on March 31, 2027. Readers will no longer be able to purchase Ink starting October 1, 2026, and will only be able to use their remaining Ink until the end of March 2027.
This is heartbreaking news for readers who have spent years following their favorite novels and supporting their authors. Many of us have invested a significant amount of money in unlocking chapters, only to face the possibility of losing access to these stories when the platform closes.
That is why I would like to ask J-Novel Club to consider acquiring licenses for novels currently published on Tapas!
In particular, I would absolutely love to see Debut or Die! by DS.Back receive an official English-language release through J-Novel Club.
This series means a lot to me, and I would gladly support an official release if it became available. I would love to be able to continue reading it without worrying that the platform hosting it might disappear.
Of course, I understand that licensing is complicated. Rights may be held by different publishers, and not every title will necessarily be available. I am not suggesting that J-Novel Club could acquire every Tapas novel. However, with the platform’s closure approaching, I believe it is worth asking whether there might be opportunities to bring some of these stories to a new home.
There may be other Tapas readers who would happily support official releases of their favorite series, too. If enough readers express their interest, perhaps it could help demonstrate that there is an audience for these titles.
So, if anyone else would like to see Debut or Die! licensed by J-Novel Club, please consider commenting below! And if you have other favorite Tapas novels that deserve an official English release, feel free to mention them as well.
Let’s show J-Novel Club that these stories still have readers who want to support them!
Thank you for reading, and thank you to J-Novel Club for all the novels you have brought to English-speaking readers over the years.
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@Bikabi FWIW JNC have said in the past that they're unlikely to branch into Korean novels since the internal staff they have (at least had at the time) aren't suited towards working with Korean publishers. I wouldn't say that makes it impossible for them to pick up Korean series off Tapas, but it does make it less likely, and the sheer fact that they're shutting down makes it...not look like an optimal investment.
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@GeorgeMTO
That’s a fair point, and I understand why JNC might be hesitant to enter the Korean novel market, especially if they lack the necessary contacts and Korean-speaking staff.However, I wonder whether taking over already-translated series from Tapas might be a somewhat different situation from licensing and translating Korean novels from scratch.
For series like Debut or Die!, an English translation already exists, and there’s an established readership that has been paying to read it. Depending on the contracts and who owns the translation rights, some of the work may already be done.
Of course, the rights would still need to be negotiated, and the translation might need editing or reformatting for ebook publication. I also understand the concerns about profitability.
Still, with Tapas shutting down, I think it would be a shame if these novels simply lost their English-language home. Perhaps this could be an opportunity for a publisher to pick up selected titles rather than committing to the Korean novel market as a whole.
I don’t expect JNC to license every series, but I hope publishers might at least consider individual titles with an existing English readership. I’d certainly be happy to support an official ebook release of Debut or Die!.
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I've heard that their TL for debut or die was kind of substandard (though I would love JNC to grab that if they do go into the KLN market)...
But I imagine one of the challenges with even just re-licensing the existing English translations is that Tapas was as far as I know online only. You couldn't buy finished ebooks for personal ownership, you could only unlock chapters that had to be read on their web site. If whoever owns the series wants to continue to offer that style of access, it would clash with JNC's model.
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Yeah, I agree that JNC's editing and translation style is much more polished, and the existing english text would probably need some adjustments to work as a proper ebook. But I don't think that's an insurmountable obstacle. Lord of Mysteries, for example, started as a web novel and has since received print editions, including paperback and hardcover releases in different countries. So I don't think the transition from a web novel to a traditionally published book is impossible.
I personally like J-Novel Club more than any other publisher I've tried. One of the biggest reasons is that I can download the ebooks I've purchased and keep them permanently, even if the platform itself ever shuts down. That's something I really value as a reader.
That said, I do think JNC is missing out on a lot of potentially successful titles simply because they aren't Japanese. There are so many fascinating Korean and Chinese novels that I would love to see in their catalogue.
I'd genuinely prefer to spend my money on JNC releases, but at the end of the day, I'm going to invest in stories that interest me, regardless of where they come from... even if the translation is absolute garbage and the text is barely readable. :(
And you're right that Tapas' chapter-unlocking model wasn't ideal. But I still spent my money on it because I wanted to support the stories I love. Now I'm facing the reality of losing access to all of them, despite having paid for them.
Also, Debut or Die! has already received physical book releases in Chinese, Thai, and Russian. That makes me hopeful that an official English-language edition could be possible, too. (After kakao will leave the NA market) Of course, I don't know what the author's or publisher's licensing arrangements look like, but at least the series has already made the transition from a web novel to print in other markets.
