English publishers of Korean Novels
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Since there is a thread for the Japanese publishers (which is highly useful). I was wondering if anyone can help me find current companies which are publishing their Korean equivalents.
I have found that recent changes to Amazon search have made it not as easy to just type "light novel" and just browse.Currently aware of 2 companies which have decided to take the plunge (though some would question their business practices)
- WordExcerpt
- Meteor Strike Media.
Are there any others?
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Wuxiaworld is one I've read things from before. They used to just do online, but are now dabbling in ebooks for their more popular series.
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Well Yen Press has Solo Levelling... That's the only one though so whether it's a one off or experiment to test the water who can say...
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there is another thread for this topic here although not updated recently
I'm all for more content, and I don't know about the rest of the USA, but in my neck of the woods there are more Korean speakers/maybe potential translators, then there are Japanese speakers. So, maybe betting titles translated isn't an insurmountable hurdle. My question is are the particular Korean language (whatever the equivalent of a 'light novel' is) titles that are likely to appeal to JNC's audience? Romcom's? Action? Sci-Fi? Fantasy?
Light novels are not merely compelling stories, they are celebrations/explorations of another culture. (in addition to being good romcoms/sci-fi/fantasy/drama storytelling)
It seems to me that there is 'room' . JNC recently added some classic 'pulp' tales (translated from German, I believe) Why not Korean? (or Flemish or Bantu or Madarin or Hindi or whatever?) assuming the talent is available for translators/editors etc. and that the titles will sell
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@jon-mitchell said in English publishers of Korean Novels:
My question is are the particular Korean language (whatever the equivalent of a 'light novel' is) titles that are likely to appeal to JNC's audience? Romcom's? Action? Sci-Fi? Fantasy?
For the most part, Korea just translates and imports anime/manga/LN. There are some original Korean IPs, but that is really more of a cottage industry than a sprawling behemoth like it is in Japan. If you go to a Korean book store it is chock full of translated works.
As far as cultural exports go, Korea focuses on K-pop, K-drama, web comics, and historical dramas. Unless that changed in the last couple of years, there doesn't seem to be any push in the country to make its literature international.
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@db0ssman said in English publishers of Korean Novels:
@jon-mitchell said in English publishers of Korean Novels:
My question is are the particular Korean language (whatever the equivalent of a 'light novel' is) titles that are likely to appeal to JNC's audience? Romcom's? Action? Sci-Fi? Fantasy?
For the most part, Korea just translates and imports anime/manga/LN. There are some original Korean IPs, but that is really more of a cottage industry than a sprawling behemoth like it is in Japan. If you go to a Korean book store it is chock full of translated works.
As far as cultural exports go, Korea focuses on K-pop, K-drama, web comics, and historical dramas. Unless that changed in the last couple of years, there doesn't seem to be any push in the country to make its literature international.
There's some really good novels from Korea if villains/revenge stories are your thing. I don't know why but they tend to write those stories better than the Japanese counterparts.