Would you pre-pay extra to get a favorite title added to JNC?
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@raitoiro said in Would you pre-pay extra to get a favorite title added to JNC?:
@harmlessdave Go on JNC curious cat, you're not the first to have that kind of idea so there allready a number of similar question there. But even for something as big as Highschool DxD it doesn’t seem possible. That said Sol press do quick starter for VN so it may not be impossible.
Thanks, I think I've seen curious cat mentioned once or twice in the forums before but never did the Google search to see what it was about.
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VN or game are possible using this kind of scheme because the basic of their publishing is software.
and sometimes VN company is just small scale company (under 100 people) so negotiation is easier.LN on the other hand is full of old school player/book publisher and mostly is big company with strich rule and relationship.
I don't know how the license works but from what I know it based on bid and proposal.
like how much money you willing to pay to get it.
this kind of system will makes any kind of KS campaign goes bad with larger company stealing license or bidding bigger money.its not like its not going to work, its just hard and potentially disastrous.
its different story tho if JNC or any campaigner directly collaborating with the author. especially on title that the copyright is not yet on any big publisher name. like how Spicytail or Sekai Project directly collaborating with author of Spice and Wolf and create derivative work from the title (not the LN itself).
also WN is another story so you might want to looks for potential WN. I don't know if JNC want to work on WN tho.
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@shyevsa said in Would you pre-pay extra to get a favorite title added to JNC?:
also WN is another story so you might want to looks for potential WN. I don't know if JNC want to work on WN tho.
They said they didn't want to go for WN since the jap publisher would likely see it as "stealing" author and series plus there's more work and it's more dangerous.
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@sinnoaria said in Would you pre-pay extra to get a favorite title added to JNC?:
There are some exceptions, particularly with VNs, but that is more just a difference of industry standards due to variables. For example, many VN companies do their own VNs.
Visual Novels are a great comparator. For VN it is a big project you really want to do but need pre-orders for to help fund it, so you are willing to invest resources in promoting the Kickstarter in the hope of getting a big payout. That is different to using the system primarily as an interest gauging measure for an existing community.
Secondly, a VN might have sequels but it is a single high priced standalone product. A LN is the first in a series, and so is a long term commitment on the part of JNC as they do not like to drop a series that they have licensed for reputational and other reasons
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I support (in addition or instead of) VOTE with your premium credits
pledge your support for a title by adding a premium credit to your vote
if the title gets picked up within "x" days/weeks credit will get you volume 1 when published + something
if it doesn't, credit goes back into your accountIf JNC is 'on the fence' if a title will sell enough to make it worth their while, this is a way to gather market data from enthusiasts as well as lowering the risk somewhat
these is a 'cost' to members, the premium credit wouldn't be available to use for anything else while the voting period is ongoing, so JNC would know that members really want that title, on the other hand the risk to members is low.
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@jon-mitchell that's nice idea there. the whole vote can be made secret and only JNC knew how much. and from there they can know how much they willing to spend on the license too.
however considering how much people vote on the license suggestion sub-forum I think the amount would be too small to make it works.
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not secret, that's the power of influence....(you don't need to say WHO voted for what but that title X has 27 premium votes and title Y has 53 might make people take a look at title Y more...)
there could be a quasi-formal 'election'
"which of these 10 titles do you most want to see translated? would you buy copies or just read the pre-pubs?" voting with credits has more weight than just a survey.
of course Sam might not want to show his hand (i.e. revealing 10 titles that he is considering) or it might be considered rude in publishing circles (I really don't know, but I deal with RFP's for projects all the time where customers basically do this exact thing)
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I see that this could happen moreso in the case of single volumes. Something like the Mari Okada (sp?) bio perhaps could have been done this way, but a series? That would be tough.
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@raitoiro said in Would you pre-pay extra to get a favorite title added to JNC?:
That said Sol press do quick starter for VN so it may not be impossible.
Even Sol Press' Kickstarter project sounds like it was already licensed / will happen no matter what happens with the Kickstarter. If it fails, it's probably still happening, albeit maybe slower.
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For some reason I think one of the other publishers (Sol?) are doing it this way... Kickstarter or equivalent to get a series up and running.
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@thomask not for LNs, they do that for VNs.
For all their LN licenses they have had to do just that, license it announce a sale date and sell it. (Although they have been doing a really bad job with all steps after license it)
They did say that if they sell a certain number of digital editions they will do a physical release, although the speed at which they announced Battle Divas and strongest gamer physical makes me think that it was all just a publicity stunt to make more people buy the digital and then double dip and get the physical edition, and that they had the physical rights from the getgo.
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@rahul-balaggan said in Would you pre-pay extra to get a favorite title added to JNC?:
@thomask not for LNs, they do that for VNs.
For all their LN licenses they have had to do just that, license it announce a sale date and sell it. (Although they have been doing a really bad job with all steps after license it)
They did say that if they sell a certain number of digital editions they will do a physical release, although the speed at which they announced Battle Divas and strongest gamer physical makes me think that it was all just a publicity stunt to make more people buy the digital and then double dip and get the physical edition, and that they had the physical rights from the getgo.
Makes sense then, I can see how that would be beneficial.
Maybe it’s my confusion that others are having too?
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Do we know how many prospective sales JNC has to know they’d make before it becomes worth while in licensing something?
Put aside if it’s possible or not (already licenced, wrong COO, difficult authors etc)
My problem with it is how would they make the choice? I mean I’d toss in extra for probably a dozen series, while wanting say Legendary moonlight Scultpor and Magi Grandson be at the top and others to be at the bottom, hows that fair from the others who have a list that are opposite to mine and how does JNC decide?
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@thomask The number of prospective sales for a title to be potentially profitable would vary from title to title, since factors like the license asking price and length of the series would vary.
And I think OP is suggesting individual fundraisers for each title, not one fundraiser for a bunch of titles.
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@thomask said in Would you pre-pay extra to get a favorite title added to JNC?:
Do we know how many prospective sales JNC has to know they’d make before it becomes worth while in licensing something?
Nope, and it's probably going to vary from title to tile depending on how much money the Japanese publisher wants for the license. I'd expect the translation cost to also go up a bit for longer novels.
Base cost = $x per license + $y to translate (translator, editor, management) + $z for any retailer listing/misc setup costs
Digital version break-even = (base cost / gross profit per sale) books sold <=== 7.95 * 70%? for Amazon, etc.
My problem with it is how would they make the choice? I mean I’d toss in extra for probably a dozen series, while wanting say Legendary moonlight Scultpor and Magi Grandson be at the top and others to be at the bottom, hows that fair from the others who have a list that are opposite to mine and how does JNC decide?
Perhaps they are offered in small enough batches like 1-3 titles at a time, that if they all succeed then they all get worked on.
As mentioned by others this kind of project probably won't happen because a publisher won't want the embarrassment of having the attempt fail, so it's more of a "wouldn't this be nice" thread.