JNC "co-production" (pre-license) of stalled LNs?
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Asking about Mixed Bathing 7 and seeing the Deathbound Duke's Daughter topic got me thinking about this. (https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/4048/mixed-bathing-vol-7?_=1643821913080) and (https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/4367/publication-status-of-deathbound-duke-s-daughter/18)
JNC will probably never license web novel content directly since that interferes with the Japanese publishers.
But what about a series JNC has published LNs for that is now "on hiatus" forever due to low sales, where there is enough existing web novel content for one or more additional volumes?
I wonder if the English license fees being promised in advance would make enough of a difference to make at least a digital-only release of some LNs seem like a good bet for a Japanese publisher?
They have their editorial and management expenses along with any advance paid to the author (if they still do that), but they also know they will be getting a minimum of $x in English licensing fees and possibly more if that version sells well.
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So... like what happened with Her Majesty’s Swarm, you mean?
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@doublemangekyo said in JNC "co-production" (pre-license) of stalled LNs?:
So... like what happened with Her Majesty’s Swarm, you mean?
I know that one got restarted after a long wait, which was nice. Did JNC pre-license volume 4 before release? From the "are we there yet?" ;) sticky note * the licenses for caught-up books are normally not negotiated until after the Japanese release.
- "If a series is caught up with the Japanese releases, whenever a new volume is released, the new volume needs to be licensed separately. Licensing can vary wildly in how long it takes, so there are no hard estimates on when the the next volume will start streaming, sorry!"
https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/3478/future-volume-release-schedule
- "If a series is caught up with the Japanese releases, whenever a new volume is released, the new volume needs to be licensed separately. Licensing can vary wildly in how long it takes, so there are no hard estimates on when the the next volume will start streaming, sorry!"
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Well, seeing how some of my favorite series like DDD are “on hiatus” but have many additional chapters on the web novel, I would love for JNC to somehow be able bring this to us English readers.
Now who do I have to kill to make this happenWe will have to hope and pray that we can get these somehow
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@harmlessdave Kodansha advertised how the series was popular in the English market when they released volume 4. I'm assuming that means good English sales resulted in another book getting published. I just hope that means we'll also get the final volume in book form as well.
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@doublemangekyo said in JNC "co-production" (pre-license) of stalled LNs?:
@harmlessdave Kodansha advertised how the series was popular in the English market when they released volume 4. I'm assuming that means good English sales resulted in another book getting published. I just hope that means we'll also get the final volume in book form as well.
Ah, I vaguely recall that happening with an anime series or two as well.
But that's a bit different: that's the Japanese publisher looking at volume 1-n English sales and guessing a volume (n+1) will also sell well.
What I'm saying is JNC guarantees ahead of time that they will take volume (n+1) with an initial license payment of $x as soon as it is released, and a publisher deciding that just the $x is enough to tip the balance and release a new volume even if past English sales have only been OK not great.
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@harmlessdave said in JNC "co-production" (pre-license) of stalled LNs?:
What I'm saying is JNC guarantees ahead of time that they will take volume (n+1) with an initial license payment of $x as soon as it is released, and a publisher deciding that just the $x is enough to tip the balance and release a new volume even if past English sales have only been OK not great.
I may be too much of a pessimist, but I really really doubt any amount JNC could offer would be enough to convince the JP publisher to continue a series they've decided to drop.
From what I remember of various discussions of publishing around the Amazon/Macmillan blowup, the publisher's non-printing costs on publishing a novel came to somewhere around the low five figures - preproduction costs such as proofreading, copy editing, formatting and layout, cover art, salary for the people coordinating the entire process, in addition to the advance to the author and advertising/publicity.
I'm not sure what those costs are in the Japanese light novel publishing market, but I'd be surprised if they weren't somewhere in the same order of magnitude.
In addition to the costs, there's also a fair amount of just plain work involved in releasing a novel - making arrangements with distributors, contacting all the normal press release outlets (does the Japanese market have organizations like Kirkus Reviews and Library Journal?), managing review copies, etc. etc.
In short... original publication of a novel requires an awful lot of work - not just the monetary costs, but all of the parts that need to be put into motion to take a novel from 'author's manuscript' to 'book on sale at your favorite outlets.' How much would JNC have to pay to overcome that inertia, when the original publisher decided it wasn't worth it? My guess is that it's more than JNC could afford.
...Cats are the proof of a higher purpose to the universe.
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@travis-butler We've seen it from Crunchyroll/Funimation among other places (say Family Guy and Adult Swim); Secondary (in this case the US) markets can and should impact publishing decisions.
Of course the US LN market is fringe enough that I'm not sure it impacts Japanese publishers, but it certainly could be a factor if the numbers got big enough.
Logic is out, Unreasonableness is in!
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@windsagio said in JNC "co-production" (pre-license) of stalled LNs?:
@travis-butler We've seen it from Crunchyroll/Funimation among other places (say Family Guy and Adult Swim); Secondary (in this case the US) markets can and should impact publishing decisions.
How many examples of that can you cite, though? I can think of just one off the top of my head, The Big O. Maybe Sin.
Of course the US LN market is fringe enough that I'm not sure it impacts Japanese publishers, but it certainly could be a factor if the numbers got big enough.
Maybe in some indefinite future they could get 'big enough' - but that's not the here-and-now.
The original question was whether JNC could provide enough of an incentive to get a publisher to resume a series they'd dropped. And my opinion's unchanged - I think it would take a relative lot of money to get a publisher to restart a series that they'd already decided to drop, and I don't think JNC has the resources to make a difference.
...Cats are the proof of a higher purpose to the universe.
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@travis-butler non-internationally, a few: noticeably Adult swim got several shows uncancelled because of syndication viewership which is very close to the same thing.
(Granted it's not exactly the same thing...)
Logic is out, Unreasonableness is in!
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@windsagio said in JNC "co-production" (pre-license) of stalled LNs?:
@travis-butler non-internationally, a few: noticeably Adult swim got several shows uncancelled because of syndication viewership which is very close to the same thing.
(Granted it's not exactly the same thing...)
Considering that here you're not only dealing with all the tricky details of international publishing and legalities in different countries, but you're also dealing with all the complexities of two production companies and sublicensing, I don't think they're even remotely the same thing.
Edit: Even if you do call them the same thing, it's still a drop in the bucket. A 'few' shows out of how many airing? Outliers are not good evidence for an argument.
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I'd say there's 3 barriers to this. One is the author has to be on board with writing more volumes. Even if web novel material exists, it's not necessarily going to be usable as is (and even if it is, just advancing the story a bit more just to leave everyone hanging again isn't going to cut it). Second the Japanese publisher for the series needs to be on board. If the series was cancelled due to lack of sales they could possibly be swayed with having their up front costs largely funded which leads into the third problem. Money, an English licensor would either need to be large enough to be willing to eat a loss, or they would need some sort of guarantee that they're actually going to be able to get a return on this.
Even if the first two hurdles can be cleared, the last one will almost certainly pose a problem. I don't think any of the companies who license LNs right now are large enough that they can just take a wash on series. It would need to have a substantially large paying international customer base. There's probably not a lot of series that have a following large enough for that.
I could for example imagine JNC maybe reaching out to TO Books if Ascendance of a Bookworm were to suddenly be cancelled in an unfinished state due to poor Japanese sales to get some sort of last volume to wrap up the story out because I'm fairly certain that series is selling gangbusters in English compared to a lot of their licenses. That said, how many series out there are selling enough volumes in English that would project confidence in a return that also are doing so badly in Japan that they're getting cancelled due to low sales.
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don't forget that JNC has some direct ties to Kadokawa now. The financial hurdles are much easier to clear if the title in question happens to be one published by Kadokawa in Japan
So if the author is onboard to compile/edit remaining webnovel(s) into a series conclusion, and JNC can make it profitable - in theory it could happen(I do not know who publishes/ has rights to Mixed Bathing - I'm making a general statement that the 'bar' to profitability may be lower for Kadokawa titles)
(EDIT to add) looks like Mixed Bathing is owned by Overlap so the hurdles made easier by Kadokawa partnership may not be relevant
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I honestly don't know that the ties to Kadokawa would help on the financial side at all, it's not like those costs change at all. What it might do is let them be able to actually pitch the idea rather than having the door closed in their face and maybe make a more compelling argument as they'd be able to use in house data that maybe can't be made public.
