Alternative Means of Future Licensing
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I don't think this is a good idea. I can obviously only speak for myself, but I would not buy volume 1 (or even read the prepub) of a series that wasn't guaranteed to continue.
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Thanks for the vigorous debate!
I think it's a worthy idea to discuss.One more thing to consider: Hobby Japan publishes a lot of series that go... 1 volume. Or maybe 2-3. Things get cancelled all the time and aside from a couple examples we publish, I try and avoid those.
But if we did V1s there's no guarantee there would even BE a V2 ever in Japan for that matter. -
@sam-pinansky tbh I’m down for either choice.
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@sam-pinansky Yeah, I don’t mind the possibility of a series getting dropped- it almost feels like how the LN industry should work (as I pretty much assume it’s aleays been that way in Japan).
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Fan translators dropping a series whenever they feel like it was one of the reasons I now try to avoid them. So I'm against the idea.
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Wouldn’t it be better to do a sampler like a few chapters kinda like a trailer to a film then get feed back on the forum
I don’t know about others but me if I can’t get into the story after a couple of chapters I give up reading the rest of the novel -
@syko We could probably get permission to do ~20-30 pages worth equivalent to the free preview Japanese publishers give themselves, but more than that we'd have to license the entire volume I'm sure.
There are a lot of people who wouldn't bother looking at things with just a chapter and would want to buy the full volume though,.
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I'm really unsure about this. I mean, sure, it highlights the series that would be popular - people voting with their wallets... but...
I know if Magic Too Far Behind was only one volume, I would have never looked at volume 2... and I'm glad I actually checked out volume 2. I don't actually think of the series really starting at #1.
I'm sure it's probably an exception rather than the rule, but yeah... because it has happened, I'm a bit leery about the vol 1 only releases... hmmm...
If this was done, I certainly wouldn't be waiting for the ebooks to be published and would be consuming these as they are released, and only purchasing the ones that really stand out to me, as opposed to my current way of buy everything I read.
From how I currently use the site (mostly to only buy premium ebooks), I think that, true, I would be benefiting the most as I would have more to read, but I would also hurt JNC profit-wise as I would actually be buying less.
But that's just me, a minnow in a big river.
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@sam-pinansky Bluesteel Blasphemer got cancelled after 4 volumes. There are no guarantees in the LN industry.
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Like I said I’m down for anything that leads to future licensing. I personally think the 1 Volume or the 30 pages sample would be a good idea.
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The 30 page sample with the normal story synopsis would work for me. If you combine that with a voting system to bring a new series on board every month or two, rotating in new series each time and bringing other series that had a following but didnt make it, then we could probably hit a decent middle ground for getting interesting series next to the mega popular and hit up some hidden gems as well.
Or maybe 5 sample chapters come out in Jan, with voting in Feb. March we get 3 new samples with the top 2 who didnt make it returning for another try?
I'm doing the whole throwing things out there.
And maybe this would work for some of the people who don't like the idea of picking up book 1 only for 2 to never appear.
Edit: Quarterly voting would probably be a little less stressful for Sam, the translators and editors. -
@legitpancake said in Alternative Means of Future Licensing:
https://curiouscat.me/jnovelclub/post/594203743
Do you think there's room in the light novel market for sample licenses, where you only license a single volume of a series for a test run before committing to the full series? Something like what Viz does with Jump Start.
The idea might be difficult to market to both fans and publishers, but it could result in some interesting pickups that would otherwise be seen as being too risky to license.
That's an excellent point.Like, I could image us putting out every v1 that Hobby Japan publishes on a trial basis in some kind of deal.
I think as long as the readers are clear that we aren't committing to continuing unless the readership/sales numbers warrant it, I think it could work.
Especially since 1 volume is only $7. It's not that much of a commitment to buy it even if we don't end up continuing.This is an interesting idea.
It would be interesting to see what titles would be presented as a result, and I might do more “licensed” reading instead of using certain less valid sites to read the content I want. I’d probably also buy more credits to download the books I want...
Tbh, there IS a huge list of what I read and WANT to support (if it’s licensed).
However, I think the one volume test should be a one or TWO volume test, as some stories really don’t get their game on until the 2nd volume... while I read the first couple chapters of, for example, “ magic is to weak in this world” I have read the scanlation manga and it was extremely slow for the first ... wait, it’s still slow.... the mc isn’t the one that right off decides to be a hero for them...
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@jampodevral The problem is that those 30(?) page samples always come with the option to immediately purchase the full volume. If applying that to a translation, you and up with a "chicken or egg" situation where the publisher of the translation has to pay to license and translate the entire volume or the purchaser has to wait for the entire volume to be licensed and translated. Neither situation is ideal.
Another thought occurs to me. Every JNC title has part 1 available for preview reading. While there have been some rather contentious discussions concerning membership and availability of prepubs, these previews serve the save purpose as a preview on the purchase site.
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No, it's not just you @fozzedout, I do the same thing. I only buy the premium ebooks rather than read the prepubs because I like to read the book all in one go rather than piecemeal. The exception though is all the new titles. I've been trying to read the prepubs of all the new first volumes once they're finished to help me decide what series to continue in order to maybe save myself some money. If I knew there would possibly be only one volume of an ongoing series, I would read the prepubs rather than buy the ebook. I wouldn't be contributing toward the sales whatsoever if that would be the only factor of whether they would continue the series.
Can JNC see how much traffic a particular series' prepubs is getting on their site not just from comments on discussion posts? Cause maybe JNC could do something along the lines of what Sol Press did but instead of determining to print it, it would signify whether to continue it? I guess it's similar to the crowdfunding idea but restricted to their site. Whether sales numbers, traffic numbers from prepubs or number of comments on discussion threads or a combination thereof, we would see a progress bar and if it reaches 100% within a certain amount of time, the series will be continued.
Don't know if that's feasible or not. I'm just thinking out loud.
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I like the idea- I think something else that would be interesting would be to publish a quarterly "magazine" / Bunko? articles, one and done stories, samples, reviews, - is there a publisher in Japan that would want to license content? (or a straight up entire volumes) of a periodical? you could include alternate content/ multimedia/ audio whatever - I would use credits to pay for that
I mean I know it's j 'novel' club but, to me, JNC is my source for light novels/the LN industry in the USA (and I don't read/speak Japanese)
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Personally I like how J-Novel is licensing and translating books right now. I would hate it if they translated just the first book with no real intention to continue translating more books. It would really suck if the novel I really liked didn't get the sequels translated.
Because I believe that once J-Novel starts a series they are most likely going to continue translating at a breakneck pace, sharing their translations with their subscribers as they come out is why I subscribe.
However J-Novel is free to change how they do things but to me it wouldn't make them stand out as superior to all the other light novel translation companies. I still like the other companies but I really love J-Novel.
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@Sam-Pinansky I'm not entirely sold on the idea, it might send the wrong signals to both the consumers and the licensing entities and be interpreted as a lack of commitment on J-Novel Club's part.
My primary reason is that we've been burned too many times by LNs being dropped after only one or two volumes by companies like Del Rey, Tokyopop and Viz (Zaregoto, Kino's Travels, Shakugan no Shana, and so on) angering and frustrating readers, and this would bring back echoes of those days and lead to a potentially severe trust deficit on both sides. Whatever negative things one may have to say about Yen Press, at least they committed to a series once they began, even a series like Book Girl which sold perhaps a dozen copies was completed, and this creates trust. Dropping a series after one volume citing poor sales (even if this was made clear as a potential outcome from the beginning) will undoubtedly be interpreted by frustrated readers as callous and money-minded and damage brand goodwill and PR.
There are other ways to gauge customer interest in a title such as surveys, Kickstarters, and generally paying attention to what's getting fan translated.
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@microdynames said in Alternative Means of Future Licensing:
There are other ways to gauge customer interest in a title such as surveys, Kickstarters, and generally paying attention to what's getting fan translated.
Yes, but those ways tend to cater toward the genres and authors that are already popular. The expression "If you build it, they will come" works best in reverse here: "If you don't translate it, it will never be popular".
Fan translation is unreliable since it barely covers anything other than the top web novels, while the LNs that Hobby Japan/Overlap release are frankly, almost never fan translated when they are volume 1s of new series.With our built in platform of ~4000 members translations of a much wider swath of what's getting published would definitely expose people to more works that could get an audience they otherwise wouldn't.
But in the same way inevitably that will lead to some people getting disappointed when a series they personally enjoy doesn't do well and we don't continue it.
It's a tradeoff between publishing more "diamonds in the rough" but at the same time allowing for a possibility of cancellation. Obviously the end-game is like what we have with anime now: publish everything. Wouldn't it be nice if there were 2000 people who would buy every ebook? Then I could basically publish ALL THE THINGS (up to translator capacity). -
@sam-pinansky said in Alternative Means of Future Licensing:
Yes, but those ways tend to cater toward the genres and authors that are already popular. The expression "If you build it, they will come" works best in reverse here: "If you don't translate it, it will never be popular".
Fan translation is unreliable since it barely covers anything other than the top web novels, while the LNs that Hobby Japan/Overlap release are frankly, almost never fan translated when they are volume 1s of new series.To what extent is it possible to predict what new titles will become popular and commit to them based on similarities to existing popular translated (fan or otherwise) titles?
But in the same way inevitably that will lead to some people getting disappointed when a series they personally enjoy doesn't do well and we don't continue it.
It's a tradeoff between publishing more "diamonds in the rough" but at the same time allowing for a possibility of cancellation.Absolutely, and what frightens me is that the mere possibility of cancellation is already going too far, on the basis of the fanbase having been disappointed so many times before on cancellations. Being known for being the only current-era LN company who drops things for not selling/holds titles hostage for sales could turn very ugly.
Obviously the end-game is like what we have with anime now: publish everything. Wouldn't it be nice if there were 2000 people who would buy every ebook? Then I could basically publish ALL THE THINGS (up to translator capacity).
At which point Netflix will swoop in and edge you out of the market, Amazon having already tried and given up. :^)
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At which point Netflix will swoop in and edge you out of the market, Amazon having already tried and given up. :^)
Hey Netflix I'd be happy to sell at a very reasonable price give me a call.
