J-Novel Club Announces New Business Partnership with Kadokawa and Bookwalker

hirei

Official Press Release is located here.

A majority stake in J-Novel Club has recently been acquired by Kadokawa. Since 2016, J-Novel Club has a digital-first strategy for publishing Japanese light novels by combining a self-developed subscription service for reading the newest chapters and the consistent publishing of digital ebooks. Kadokawa believes that the acquisition will strengthen its publishing business across all distribution channels and methods.

Moving forward, J-Novel Club and Bookwalker will work together by leveraging Bookwalker’s English-language platform BOOK☆WALKER Global, as well as the marketing potential of their subsidiary, internet influencer talent agency GeeXPlus, toward growing the size of the English-speaking world’s light novel market even further.

Comments from J-Novel Club, Bookwalker, and Yen Press can be found in the press release linked above.

hirei

FAQ by Samuel Pinansky in regards to this announcement can be found here.

Additional comments from @Sam-Pinansky:

There are no plans (long term or otherwise) to stop selling premium epubs. Having a direct way of selling our product is a crucial back-stop in case 3rd party stores go flakey.

Any series we are currently printing will continue to be printed by us (that includes ones we have announced we will be printing)

Yen Press publishing the popular titles of ours in print is a possibility for strengthening our overall print business, and at this time, just a possibility.

Regarding DRM-free premium ebooks.

Jason Maranto

I look forward to the FAQ. As long as the premium editions continue to exist I'm happy.

I wonder how much the Amazon fiasco played into this move.

lighthawk96

I'm just ready for the Q&A blog. My head is about to explode just trying to make sense ofthe possibilities of what is and or isn't going to happen.

Taedirk

@lighthawk96 Same. Bookwalker and their draconian DRM stance being mentioned as a partner moving forward just feels worrying. Seeing how digital releases work on BW when Combat Baker first came out pre-JNC was the only time I've ever wanted to refund a 99c book.

borisdrakoni

The main thing I'm interested in is if this will have any effect on the licensing for titles that don't fall under the Kadokawa umbrella going forward.

flarecde

I think the most important and frequently asked question is when the FAQ is coming out :P

Taelian

Really hoping this doesn't change the DRM-free downloads I can get on this site. I've heard things about Bookwalker and I was not impressed. The press release makes it sound like everything will be ported to BW's platform.

lighthawk96

@lighthawk96
I too am very worried. This was a complete surprise, so I don't know what to think.

grobinson2k1

First off, I am hopeful. I am hoping for the best of all worlds and the magic they contain.

I am looking at the benefits of JNC having better access for new titles. I think that this level of investment shows that Japanese publishers seem to care about our interest in light novels being translated into English. Likewise, I've purchased digital books from Bookwalker and wasn't satisficed with the platform. So, I proceeded to repurchase them on Kindle. This seems to be a 'flag' that might just mean nothing, or everything.

Anpan

I'm also very worried, these acquisitions rarely mean something good for the customers. At best, things stay the same. At this point the least I'm expecting short to mid terms is price increases and/or introduction of DRM, because, you know, big corps sure love that shit.

I can already see them trying to bring prices more "in line" with stuff from Yen Press for instance, and there have been some serious price increases and loss of translation quality (lots of typos and grammar errors) compared to the time I bought Spice & Wolf novels from them.

myskaros

The FAQ has now been posted! Please see the opening posts for the link!

Anpan

@myskaros There was no mention of DRM: Will this be introduced? Asking because this is a 100% deal breaker for me and the major reason I'm buying from JNC.

Taelian

Read the FAQ. Second the concern that nothing mentions DRM but the fact that JNC keeps its own platform makes me hopeful I can still buy here.

More licenses would be a definite benefit. I've been happy with JNC's translation quality and VERY happy with the speed, so hopefully this will just be same-but-better.

Taedirk

@anpan One would hope the "Premium epubs, credits, and other features will remain the same" would include that, but explicitly stating it would be nice.

Anpan

@taedirk Exactly why I was asking. I've had plenty of terrible experiences with acquisitions, so I like seeing explicit statements.

Sam Pinansky

@anpan We have no intention of adding any DRM to our premium epubs, nor discontinuing premium epub service. But as usual I try not to crow too loudly about it...

Taedirk

@sam-pinansky said in J-Novel Club Announces New Business Partnership with Kadokawa and Bookwalker:

But as usual I try not to crow too loudly about it...

When one of the alternative marketplaces' stance is "you can only read in our app, no sideloading onto any e-ink devices", you should totally crow loudly about it.

myskaros

@taedirk I think the idea is if it gets "too loud" then someone might come and start cracking down on it.

Raitoiro

Glad to see that everything that made JNC great will stay the same.
Also, I know it's probably included in the "nothing is going to change" but just to be sure will that deal have any impact on the printed version for the 3 series where it's handled by Seven Seas?