What makes licensing LNs so hard compared to Manga / Anime?
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laughs
You will enjoy it.
It's honestly probably my favorite of the harem genre.
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@terrence
I don't wanna sound really like villain here lol
but I think it's more marketing issue, like comparing JNC audience with the whole LN-reading audience, you will find variety of groups that ain't represented.
Like when Kokoro Connect was licensed, a lot of people commented that they didn't even hear of JNC.
I may keep looking into new licenses from everywhere but that's not the case for everyone.
Some may only know YP, Vertical and Seven Seas and ain't aware of existence of One Peace Books either.
JNC/Sam really should start look more into marketing and reach out to more audience out there.
Is it online, or conventions or whatever the best way is. -
@dtta I’m current with the released volumes, but am dreading the day when they get to releasing the “new” translations. Will it be done one volume a month (like to “old” translations) or all at once (big hit to the wallet)?
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@bloodygaikotsu I’m pretty sure Sam has been going to various cons promoting the company. Still, every LN adapted into an anime is a plus for the company. Arifureta looks like its finally going to come out in July of 2019.
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I know the collab fell through for whatever reason, but I really wonder what could have been with the Crunchyroll partnership. Could have brought in fresh eyes or voices.
I wonder if it would be worth it to advertise on Crunchyroll? Or YouTube or something? I mean, I wouldn't want sunk costs on advertisement that doesn't bring in more people.
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@paul-nebeling I think Sam has mentioned of releasing them all together. I got enough credits on the Cyber Week discounts in preparation for this.
For me, I've been following them through prepubs though, so once volume 22 is released I'll have about 13 volumes to read... I'm calling this event The Big Rokujouma Bingepalooza of 2019.
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@bloodygaikotsu said in What makes licensing LNs so hard compared to Manga / Anime?:
JNC/Sam really should start look more into marketing and reach out to more audience out there.
I remember early on JNC had had some free marketing, though in one case I know was not really free (like 2 free books for Justus R. Stone to review).
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@BloodyGaikotsu honestly I only know YP at first, then when looking for grimgar books I found JNC. Vertical, Seven Seas and One Peace Books I only know after going this forum and looking for what have been licensed.
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@paul-nebeling
He did mention he's trying to enhance the company and its marketing lately and that's why he's moving back to the states.
I am just taking about recent situation, not future plans. (Also, I am not really suggesting any certain way, I am not saying marketing is my specialty, after all)
@Terrence
I say YT is a bad idea.
Maybe, if it's through a content creator with bigger reach than Justus.
I have nothing against Justus, but anyone who knows about JNC is following Justus already. Justus only has 7.5K subscribers, there's no physical book business that can work with 7k who has different tastes as well.
Someone mentioned Amazon ad on curious cut and as Sam said, I don't think they would work with JNC case. -
Well, YP has always been there, but Seven seas and Vertical only joined the LN race recently. (While OPB is kinda obscure in general.)
Weeeeeeell, I won't really say Vertical joined it per se.
The reason people treat Vertical as LN publisher is mainly due to licenses like Monogatari more than their actual LN licenses (which are novelizations for popular Kodansha manga with one VIZ manga).
Vertical's original market is Japanese general literature with focus on mystery and horror, and if you check their licenses (new or old), you can see that.
NisiOisiN work ain't exactly LNs, Eiji Mikage's new work is not published by LN publisher, etc.
They just started to market these works towards LN readers since they have some sort of a pre-existing base in anime community.Seven Seas started to join LN market again, after JNC. They probably noticed the market changing and used Sam's proposal as way to gauge the LN market before coming back.
That's just me explaining why some people from LN community may never hear of them till recently.
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@drone205
As I said, I am talking about recent situation more than past or future.Throughout past years, JNC accumulated a certain type of audience; however it's not representative of the distribution of the whole market.
Like when I first heard of JNC was back when they announced that Seven Seas printing Grimgar.
(When I checked JNC back then, it was like full of these isekai/fantasy series that doesn't interest me, and I prefer physicals and the only interesting title is being printed by 7seas so I just ended up ignoring JNC as this digital-only, OP isekai, self-insert, harem, ecchi read thing...dunno...just representative of what I don't really care about)Fast forwarding in time, I learned that Outbreak Company was licensed from Justus. AND I didn't know that, and it seemed like old news too.
I just ignored JNC news based on that kind of brand I saw promoting.
I started to see Yume Nikki and recently Kokoro Connect and I probably wouldn't have known about such licenses if I kept ignoring JNC based on my initial impression of when it started.But here is the thing, ultimately, the main audience that JNC ended up accumulating is people who prefer digital or OK with it, like fantasy, light read or full-on escapism read.
If you wanna test what I mean, try asking on JNC forums about authors or titles that seems to be doing well for other companies but they don't fit JNC market. (Like Otsuichi or maybe NisiOisiN)So I am kinda talking more about how JNC still isn't able to reach to full market that is around Yen Press or the offbeat(?) market that is around Haikasoru or Vertical or maybe some of Seven Seas titles.
Even if Justus values JNC high in terms of number of titles (where focus on digital releases, led to have more title per year than other companies), I still think it has a long way to have the whole market as audience. -
Just throwing my two cents here, but think a large part of it has been the lack of physical copies. There are a lot of people that don't want to purchase something that is intangible. I've heard this on other forums multiple times, and can completely understand.
Another aspect of this line of thought is that there is no physical presence for the casual reader in brick and mortar bookstores. The presence of a title on bookshelves is advertising in itself. Without that, marketing is going to rely solely on word of mouth or online advertisements.
Youtube, unless it's a random blurb about a title, is not going to be effective for marketing. There are too many people trying to become the next big thing, and (in my opinion) competing for the same viewers. In all honesty, I actually subscribe to about a half dozen channels, but only really ever watch 2 of them. None are about anime, manga, LN or any other hobby related items. Other peoples opinions just aren't valuable unless they can back them up, and are generally either going to be either personal tastes or purchased advertisement paraphrased from a press release.
I expect that there will be a boon once Smartphone physical release hits shelves as more people realize the site even exists. Even more so if mention of the site is included in some form (potentially a flyer) in the book.
Having said that, the people purchasing physical and digital copies will continue to be separate crowds with only a portion really spilling over onto the online group.
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@pleco_breeder said in What makes licensing LNs so hard compared to Manga / Anime?:
Just throwing my two cents here, but think a large part of it has been the lack of physical copies. There are a lot of people that don't want to purchase something that is intangible. I've heard this on other forums multiple times, and can completely understand.
Here's the thing, JNC's main audience is still digital fans.
I am one of those dead trees lovers as some may say lol (Like I may buy a title I am not sure about if it has a physical copy but ignore it if it is only available in digital).
However, Sam won't just dive into this side of the audience without enough info, he's that kinda of guy and if his audience digitally may say this title is NG, he won't print it.
Maybe this huge uncharted dead tree lovers, kindle-haters group is actually more into this title than the digital guys here.
However, there is no data to support that cuz they won't deal with JNC till they have their titles printed and that's too much of a risk for Sam. -
@pleco_breeder said in What makes licensing LNs so hard compared to Manga / Anime?:
I expect that there will be a boon once Smartphone physical release hits shelves as more people realize the site even exists. Even more so if mention of the site is included in some form (potentially a flyer) in the book.
Sites are usually included inside the book.
If you have any physical books (including JNC titles printed by Seven seas which shows JNC title BTW), you will notice they have pages to advertise other books or their own site. -
@legitpancake Those sale numbers are pretty low but other platforms might have better than kindle sales for example I buy LN on Kobo. I prefer it since it allows you to download a copy that you can open with any e-reader that you like and there is no need to login on their app.
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@pleco_breeder Agree on your first statement, I prefer physical copies, I love seeing my collection on a shelf; however I wish they also published more hardback copies for me its worth the slight price difference.
About brick and mortar stores, it would be really nice to have such a store nearby at walking distance, it would be a place where you could also socialise with other LN fans. But I doubt that in my town (10k) people there are enough customers to support such business.
One thing I would like to add, on anime forums they are increasingly mentioning LN sources and recommend their reading. I think this could be very good exposure since anime is much more main stream.
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@renofury Last I checked, Amazon Kindle was where the majority of sales come from. 65 or 70% I think.
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There were no successful LNs until Yen ON started up a few years back so the LN translation game is decades behind manga and anime. In the past three years it’s hrown exponentially and I think it’s got room to grow before it peaks. So I think the answer to what makes LNs harder to license is that it’s decades behind, but I also think it will become less and less an issue as the industry of LN translations matures. Already Yen and Seven Seas sell more of some of their LN series than they do the manga version, so success will breed further success. In ten years I think LNs will be normalized within the world of translated Japanese otaku stuff.
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@doublemangekyo it sad because it means that the LN market is qay smallwr then I thought
