Is it better for companies to only go after completed LNs?
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Yeah, no, it's a completely dumb idea. Readers will want to get to these series one way or another; they'd just pirate the series and fan-translate them the same way they were before they got licensed. Only now, by the time a company gets around to licensing, everyone interested has already read the entire story.
I'm reminded of how people reacted to Netflix's model of licensing an anime, where they only put it on their site once the entire season had already finished in Japan. For shows people actually liked, fan-subbers re-emerged, and by the time Netflix had the anime on their site, all discussion in the anime community had died down on it, either because everyone interested already saw it, or because they moved on to something else after losing enthusiasm.
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I think going only after completed series is too much of an extreme. While I'd like to see more completed series, it's not like all the completed series out there would fit the market currently. For example, Gamers! might end up selling well, but Seitokai no Ichizon likely won't due to age.
I'm more in line that I'd prefer fewer licenses for incomplete series of fewer than four volumes. Cause most series that are going to get cancelled typically happen before or at the fourth volume. And while publishers in Japan never really outright say "cancelled," I think we all generally know when something is stalled/cancelled. And considering J-NC's history of having over 10 stalled series licensed at this point, I just refuse to buy anything with fewer than 4 volumes out in Japan at this point. Encourage better licensing by voting with your wallet if you have an issue.
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@purplishviolet This idea is just as silly as the idea that JNC shouldn't 'waste time' on a series that is older. Yes that did happen when Crest and FMP were announced. The only way to have a chance of the older, less hyped series translated is to support both the current series with continuing plots and the rescued series with your money.
Hopefully we can get more series that are older once the current 2 series show that they have enough fan support. Cause if that doesn't happen then I think that Sam won't waste any more time or effort, killing any chances I have of seeing Campione or any other finished series that I have been pushing for the last few years.
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Isn't this an attempt at blaming companies instead of readers that pick up incomplete LN? If you don't like incomplete LN, don't start reading it. There are some series that are 30+ volumes long. By the time that's complete, we wil wait another 10 years until english translation is done. Its absurd to wait
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I agree that if JNC only went for complete LNs it would mean they could not respond to modern tastes and there is the issue of fan translations being harder to compete with if they are given too much of a head start. I also believe that JNC should be very careful about picking up licenses where the original seems to be on permanent hiatus unless it is sufficiently episodic not to matter.
However, in terms of only picking up a novel after X number of volumes I think that while that might make sense if JNC were the only translation company, given the current market that could mean that other companies often get the best licenses.
In the end we can state our preferences that JNC should do what it can to not waste our time on doomed series and make our own decisions on what series to pick up but there is only so much we can know about what goes on behind the scenes in terms of licensing and maintaining good relations with publishers.
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@Gamen said in Is it better for companies to only go after completed LNs?:
Just want to emphasize this: Only licensing completed series means not licensing anything contemporary.
And I get the impression that for the Japanese publishers, they're more interested in promoting their "active" and "hot" titles than their back catalog, unless those older titles are ones that are proven long-sellers that still have active fanbases and merchandising opportunities.
For the bigger publishers, media mix has always been a big part of their marketing strategy, and the benefit of licensing an active title is the theoretical "rising tide lifts all boats" approach: in addition to the potential for cross-product sales, it simply increases the total revenue for the franchise as a whole. The product that they are trying to sell is not simply an individual volume of a book or even the whole series: their goal is to increase the value of the whole intellectual property.
Completed series, regardless of how good they might be as literature, are almost always going to be marketing dead-ends.
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This is a moot point as there’s no way that companies will start licensing only completed titles regardless of what some fans might want.
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I think companies should get Light Novels that get an anime or manga announcement. Especially ones that gets the anime adaption. Light novels are more likely to be bought after someone watch the anime. I didn't find out about this site and join sub, until I watched an anime series and wanted more so I went searching for manga and light novel
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@CaramelWithoutTheSalt Name a title that JNC licensed that was completed in Japan at the time of license, and has been a financial success. All I can think of is Sexiled and maybe Der Werwolf. Everything else that has sold well are ongoing. Most of the completed titles in Japan have had fan translations for years and English fans have moved on.
Edit: As has been pointed out to me on Discord, even my two examples don’t work, as Der Werwolf was licensed well before volume 11 came out in Japan, and Sexiled was licensed before volume 2 came out in Japan. So that even strengthens my point that just about every successful series that JNC has gotten were ongoing in Japan at the time of acquisition (not counting complete web novels).
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I'm mostly speaking from my perspective as a long-time member of the book general book/reading community here but I feel like a lot of it overlaps.
A lot of readers do not want to start series until it is finished. And that's fine and a perfectly acceptable preference.
However, the author does not have that luxury. In order to write book two, book one must be successful. That depends on readers buying the series as it is released. If book one isn't successful, there may not even be a book 2. A lot of the discussion centered around series happens as they occur as well. For instance, Game of Thrones was one of the biggest television series. It's over now, so people still talk about it with the same fervor, right? They don't. A lot of excitement about series happen as the story is being told. The experience ends up part of the story itself. I know my excitement about some properties has dampened due to the fanbases for them. Especially in the anime/manga community, that ongoing story experience is part of the excitement and driving factor for watching and reading it. The reading community is a little more forgiving of timelines than anime/manga but they're both still pretty entrenched in the "new stories" side of the spectrum.
In other words, it is an acceptable personal preference but in terms of selling books and being allowed to see book series to completion requires readers buying series as they release. I personally don't mind because I have so many books I'm reading (in fact, my main issue is I forget when the next book releases, causing a many "What?! It's out already!?" cries in bookstores...but that's off topic.) so if it bothers you just don't buy incomplete series. But companies should not follow that rule at all.
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I understand the sentiment behind the statement, and agree to a point.
I think OP might be more against licensing titles that have stalled for years.If it's that old and unfinished why bother?
If it's a series that's still being published/definately continuing/can stand in its own without full continuation (something like slayers perhaps?) you'd be stupid to notnlicnese it especially if it's popular and long running.Is it wrong to pick up girls in a dungeon is a good and popular example.
In fact it's the popular ones that cend to run on for a long while and it would be business suicide to wait for them to finish until an English release.Unless that's actually what op wants (completed series regardless of situation, not business suicide), in which case I completely disagree against.
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For me it's not about whether the novel is finished or not when its picked up, I would just prefer them to not pick up novels that are obviously never going to be finished, because those are a waste of my time.
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@catstorm said in Is it better for companies to only go after completed LNs?:
For me it's not about whether the novel is finished or not when its picked up, I would just prefer them to not pick up novels that are obviously never going to be finished, because those are a waste of my time.
How can you ensure that, though? How does JNC guess that a title is going on hiatus before it happens? How does a reader coming in during a long hiatus know whether it's going to restart?
There are a number of titles on JNC that had very long breaks between volumes, to the point where a lot of us thought that the series had died. Magic in This World is Too Far Behind finally picked back up. Walking my Second Path in Life hasn't. How is a reader supposed to tell the difference?
...Cats are the proof of a higher purpose to the universe.
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oh i don't know, maybe not picking up a novel with only two volumes that hasn't been updated for 3 years might be a good start though.
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@catstorm said in Is it better for companies to only go after completed LNs?:
For me it's not about whether the novel is finished or not when its picked up, I would just prefer them to not pick up novels that are obviously never going to be finished, because those are a waste of my time.
oh i don't know, maybe not picking up a novel with only two volumes that hasn't been updated for 3 years might be a good start though.
Have you ever bartered? There are ways to make deals other than haggling over the price of each single item. Not saying this is necessarily what happened here, but try thinking a little outside the box. Sorry you don't like something we licensed, but bear in mind that you aren't privy to all the details of Sam's licensing negotiations (and to be perfectly clear, neither am I).
Whoever said nothing's impossible never tried slamming a revolving door.
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I honestly don't know what bothers you all. Sure, I can understand you for being sad and even angry, if you picked up a series and then it turns out, that this series is on hiatus, or worse, cancelled in Japan (lets leave the incident with a particular light novel, where even the english translation got cancelled out for now). But if the story is really good, then I'm happy, if we at least can get all in Japan available volumes translated.
💖Always be yourself, unless you can be a unicorn - then be a unicorn!💖
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@myskaros said in Is it better for companies to only go after completed LNs?:
Have you ever bartered? There are ways to make deals other than haggling over the price of each single item. Not saying this is necessarily what happened here, but try thinking a little outside the box. Sorry you don't like something we licensed, but bear in mind that you aren't privy to all the details of Sam's licensing negotiations (and to be perfectly clear, neither am I).
To add to this, it's my understanding that anime series are frequently licensed in bundles rather than individually. A licensor will do stuff like bundle a series that's likely to be a strong seller (or at least be particularly desirable to potential licensees) with a couple of series that are likely to not be worth as much (and thus potentially would not be licensed on their own). It can make it easier for them to get less popular series licensed, and of course, it can result in series that are clearly less profitable being licensed and released in the US market.
I don't know if manga or light novel publishers ever use that same tactic or not, but they may. And if that sort of thing does happen at least sometimes, then that could very well be why a light novel series that you would think would be less desirable gets licensed. And even if bundles like that aren't at all common when licensing light novels or manga, there could very well be other reasons that we don't see why it would make sense to license a series that seems like a bad license on its own. Also, for all we know, Sam could have gotten a particular license for cheap enough that it would have been stupid to not license it even if it's not likely to be one of the best performers. Just because a series seems less desirable doesn't mean that it won't be profitable.
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@Clarabelle
Plenty of people don't want to read a series that will never have an ending. It's one thing to read a series that's ongoing (and thus potentially may never have an ending) and something else entirely to read a series that you know will never be finished. For many of us, that kind of series feels like a waste of time, though if you don't feel that way, all the more power to you.
All that being said, a series that's been on hiatus for a few years isn't necessarily dead. There could be a number of reasons why no new volumes have come out which don't mean that there will never be new volumes (especially if the author happens to be writing other series at the same time, which is sometimes the case). It's definitely not a great sign if a series has been on hiatus (especially if it has fewer volumes), but it's not a guarantee that there won't be more either. And depending on the reasons why there haven't been more, having it be licensed for translation might actually help result in more volumes being published.
In general though, if it looks like a series likely won't ever be finished, I'd fully expect that a lot of people would pass on picking it up even if they're perfectly willing to read a series as it's released rather than waiting for it to be completed before picking it up.
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Is it better for companies to only go after completed LNs?
the problem with this proposal is the word "only"
when are volumes most popular? when will sales be best? when is there the most hype?
From my selfish POV: I prefer series that get completed, I HATE when a series dosen't have an ending , I especially hate it when a series goes on hiatus mid-arc.
but to ONLY license completed LNs (I assume the original poster meant completed series) would mean leaving $$ on the table
which series get anime adaptations? ones that are done ?
In my ideal world:
JNC would focus on LN series that have ARCs that are complete in "x" number of volumes that are in print /contracted to be in print --and JNC's involvement would increase the popularity of the titles/authors so that they want to write moreAnime adaptations would be 'true' to the source material (LN), and a cour would cover compete ARCs (over however many volumes that arc takes)
Anime adaptations that I like would have translations of the source material available (so I could 'pick up where the anime left off---with a new arc)
