Tentai Books Discussion Thread
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So far, I Can’t sAy I’m alL that impressed with them. There are some reaL issuEs with the KinDle versIon, aT least. The images all have a white border along the top and bottom, and the font randomly changes color. Granted, these aren’t too noticeable unless you’re using the dark background with light color text, but it’s really obvious when you do. The page with the three heroines’ pictures has less than a third of the image taken up by actual art; the huge margin at the top and bottom makes it look like it’s missing two more rows of images. The actual localization feels really smooth, though, so credit where it’s due.
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@EmpactWB The regular .epub version has the same problem. And if you look at the source in calibre, it has a whole bunch of pointless <span>s in seemingly random places with various, weird formatting changes. If I had to guess, I would say that it was probably put together in a WYSIWYG editor like Word, and the translator and/or editor managed to leave a bunch of more or less invisible edits in the text which got translated to html in weird ways when generating the actual e-book files. They really should look at the document in a mode that shows the formatting as markup as part of their process before turning it into an epub or kindle file. At minimum though, it shows that their Q&A process didn't involve checking what the volume looked like in dark mode, since that shows the problem really fast. Overall, it's not a great sign, but it's their first book, and hopefully, they'll do better with future volumes.
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@myskaros The bug repellent thing. I was just feeling silly when I was typing. Chalk it up to not enough sleep.
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Okay, so I emailed them about the issues. It’s possible that I’m easily impressed with customer service, but I do rather like the reply I got:
Good evening Eric,
Thank you for reaching us. We’ve received feedback from other readers as well about the format of the epub. Don’t worry, this is the first and last time something like this Will ever happen. We’re currently working on an update, and will try to fix the formatting issues as quickly as we can.
We appreciate that you liked the translation of the book. Thank you for trusting us by purchasing it!
Sincerely,
Alejandro de Vicente Suárez
President of Tentai Books / Azure Books SL
https://tentaibooks.com/en/That solid declaration (even if a tad ill-advised, because accidents do happen) really sells the dedication behind them. I’m half tempted to buy the Spanish version too. Wouldn’t hurt to practice once in a while.
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Yeah, their Discord mentioned it too publicly.
Book seems to be performing decently on Amazon, seller rank was just outside top 20K in Kindle. Some JNC stuff released close to it in the top 4K, but even Boonies volume 2 is 12k rank.
(Adachi to Shimamura 2 which came out the day before is sadly 100K+ rank... Gonna need that anime bump).
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Did they hide some info on volume 2 of their books? Cos I just can't find any.
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@nichtmalda I recall reading something in their discord about them having trouble updating their website to add volume 2 for Side Character, but I don't know what the situation is.
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Tentai Books has announced some stuff. I'm summarizing because there are two posts, one in english and one in spanish, and I don't think either has all the information.
- All future digital releases will be 9€, both the English and Spanish versions
- Spanish versions will now be localized to es_ES instead of a neutral Spanish
- Spanish physicals announced, same price as English ones (14€)
- Will try to reduce shipping from their own store to free for Europe, and for the Spanish. Ersions maybe free worldwide
- There will be some sort of change to cover formatting going forward, they'll reprint dust covers for existing volumes
- Spanish and English versions might no longer release on the same day
- Working on four more licenses. First one might me announced by the end of september if lucky, other three maybe by end of year.
- Side Character 2 delayed from mid-September to October (materials were late)
- Diner 2 still waiting to finalize contract stuff with publisher
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@Nosgoroth said in Tentai Books Discussion Thread:
- All future digital releases will be 9€, both the English and Spanish versions
- Spanish physicals announced, same price as English ones (14€)
Glad they're going this route. Doesn't affect me personally since I want the English prints anyway, but the idea of the English ebook being priced higher implies that English readers are subsidizing Spanish readers' low prices, so getting rid of that discrepancy earns a thumbs-up from me. Looking forward to what they'll announce!
Whoever said nothing's impossible never tried slamming a revolving door.
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Tentai recently announced the acquisition of World Teacher.
https://twitter.com/TentaiBooks/status/1310662616012988417?s=20
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Side Character volume 2 is up
kindle version is up on Amazon, or direct from Tentai -
@myskaros said in Tentai Books Discussion Thread:
@Nosgoroth said in Tentai Books Discussion Thread:
- All future digital releases will be 9€, both the English and Spanish versions
- Spanish physicals announced, same price as English ones (14€)
Glad they're going this route. Doesn't affect me personally since I want the English prints anyway, but the idea of the English ebook being priced higher implies that English readers are subsidizing Spanish readers' low prices, so getting rid of that discrepancy earns a thumbs-up from me. Looking forward to what they'll announce!
I'm curious, Tentai sells English/Spanish for 9 Euros (about $10/USA), JNC sells for about $7 USA in most cases, Yen for anywhere from $7 up to $14 in USA...how much does a eBook cost in Japan (in Japanese)? 1000 yen? more/less? I know it is apples vs oranges (a translation is a derivative work vs the Japanese original) are translations subsidizing the originals? (which in my mind is actually a good thing) vs. just extra scraps??
I read banned books
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@Jon-Mitchell Might be different for different series, but By the Grace of the Gods is selling for 1,200 yen plus tax on bookwalker for the digital version which comes out to around $12 USD (physical book costs the same on amazon.co.jp)
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Bunko books are usually between ~600-750 yen and tanko from ~1100-1350 yen (tax included). Digital prices tend to follow physical prices.
On a side note, a LN with a drama CD goes for around 2500-3100 yen.
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I've seen a few novels approach 1600 yen digitally too in Japan. I kinda wanted to grab this novel but it's too expensive for my taste without a sale.
https://bookwalker.jp/de53729b51-24b8-42c1-b276-8f15a074bc58/
I remember Light Novel from the Welcome to the NHK author was similarly expensive, but the page count was much larger iirc.
For English stuff, I have no problem with 10 bucks a title, even digital. More, and it's definitely a bit of a push. And I'll never be against people getting a cheaper price on a product, even if it's more expensive in my territory.
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Charging and billing aside, I'm just glad to have another publisher offering light novels for our consumption. They grabbed "World Teacher", a title I've been wanting for a while now, so I really can't complain. I just hope that they don't go too far too fast and overextend themselves. But still, just glad to get more light novels to read.
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@Jon-Mitchell It varies between publishers, imprint, and ebook/print versions.
For example,TO Books
Bookworm ¥1320 (print), ¥1122 (ebook)
Tearmoon ¥1399 (print), ¥1199 (ebook).Ichijinsha Iris Neo
Marielle, Bibliophole ¥1320 (print), ¥990 (ebook)
Ichijinsha Iris
Bakarina ¥701 (print), ¥550 (ebook)Overlap
Arifureta ¥825 (print), ¥825 (ebook)
Campfire Cooking ¥1320 (print), ¥1320 (ebook)Older volumes often gets marked down, too.
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I don't know what conclusions to draw. It appears English translations are often less expensive than the Japanese original. I guess it is a case of 'what the market will bear' in Japan?
It does illustrate why some Japanese publishers are not enthusiastic about licensing outside of Japan- a percentage of a smaller unit price and hassle of contracts etc. ? I can see why some might not bother unless they think there will be A LOT of sales in English
I read banned books
