Do you think Kadokawa will eventually start working with J-novel club? - Poll
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Wanted to know your guys' thoughts on this. I don't even know anymore, but since I'm more pessimistic I'm inclined towards a no since j-novel is in a way one of Kadokawa's and YP's main competitors. As you might know already, Kadokawa own almost every major light novel publishing label or magazine in Japan.
If you voted Yes, how long do you think it will take? And it would be nice to throw in the reason why you think it will happen as well. I'm hoping for the best, I guess...
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There is no reason to why they wouldn't. J-Novel has reached out to more than 3 publishers at this point, one of which is the largest Japanese publisher - Kodansha. Japanese publishers in general are a bit "afraid" of digital only publishing so it might take a while for Kadokawa to agree. But when J-Novel Club presents them with sales data from their other series, I am pretty sure they won't be able to say no. Kadokawa have a ton of subsidiaries. One of which - Media Factory actually licensed out one of their novels - Hidan no Aria to a digital only company before.
Why do you consider J-Novel Club as a competitor to Yen Press and Kadokawa?
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If j-novel manages to be successful, I see no reason why Kadokawa wouldn't license it's IP to j-novel, especially more niche titles. If there is money to be made, they have very little reason to reject, especially considering that YenPress most likely lacks the manpower to handle all of Kadokawa's series that might be popular. However, I don't see this coming in the next year, and I doubt that j-novel will get a license before BookWalker.
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@hakomari said in Do you think Kadokawa will eventually start working with J-novel club? - Poll:
There is no reason to why they wouldn't. J-Novel has reached out to more than 3 publishers at this point, one of which is the largest Japanese publisher - Kodansha. Japanese publishers in general are a bit "afraid" of digital only publishing so it might take a while for Kadokawa to agree. But when J-Novel Club presents them with sales data from their other series, I am pretty sure they won't be able to say no. Kadokawa have a ton of subsidiaries. One of which - Media Factory actually licensed out one of their novels - Hidan no Aria to a digital only company before.
Why do you consider J-Novel Club as a competitor to Yen Press and Kadokawa?
They are competitors though, especially since Kadokawa own a majority in YP. Before J-novel came around, there was no other publisher or company that really went in fully and dedicated themselves to light novels, so YP could relax and they didn't have to worry bout other publishers taking away popular titles or titles with potential from them(from other publishers), so they could take their time. Now, with J-novel club in the picture, YP can't afford to let their guard down and they have to outbid J-novel for some series and get whatever they're highly interested in from other publishers as quickly as possible, or there's the risk for J-novel to get that title instead. I bet J-novel wanted to get something like Regarding Reincarnated as a Slime and YP and Kadokawa knew that Kodansha would eventually open up to J-novel, so YP decided to get it finally, when J-novel appeared as a potential candidate to license the title in the near future. I remember reading somewhere that YP snatched up Magical girl raising project from J-novel club, both companies wanted it and YP won the bidding war.
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@kino Regarding Raising Project: You probably refer to https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/comments/5uq6fs/im_sam_pinansky_aka_quarkboy_founder_and/ddw34di/?utm_content=permalink&utm_medium=front&utm_source=reddit&utm_name=LightNovels, but that doesn't really indicate a bidding war, but hints rather at the fact that YP already licensed the novel beforehand.
Also, I think you underestimate how schizophrenic big corporations are. While Kadokawa is no behemoth like SoftBank, they still own both BookWalker and YP, which directly compete since BookWalker licensed that one light novel.
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There isn't any bidding war in the LN scene so I have no idea where you get that from. Everything you said is based on assumptions.
J-Novel Club's existence isn't a danger to Yen Press or Kadokawa. I would go as far as saying that it actually benefits them. J-Novel Club brings in a new wave of customers - the WN readers and makes them into paying customers which benefits not only J-Novel Club but every other LN publisher as well.
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@hakomari said in Do you think Kadokawa will eventually start working with J-novel club? - Poll:
There isn't any bidding war in the LN scene so I have no idea where you get that from. Everything you said is based on assumptions.
J-Novel Club's existence isn't a danger to Yen Press or Kadokawa. I would go as far as saying that it actually benefits them. J-Novel Club brings in a new wave of customers - the WN readers and makes them into paying customers which benefits not only J-Novel Club but every other LN publisher as well.
Jaquobus linked the thing I was referring to above. I guess I didn't remember things well enough, I was close enough though. In a way, J-novel is a problem though, because they can potentially get something YP has an interest in. Sure, there are plenty of Kadokawa titles that YP aren't interested in publishing here and other companies would like to license, those are things Kadokawa and YP don't mind going to other companies, but when it's something both companies want, it is a problem.
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@kino Yeah, I think a Kadowaka title both companies want would always go to yen press, but obscurities that Yen doesn't have the time/Human Resources to devote to - those I could see being sent to JNovel. With BookWalker I really liked Combat Baker but think they have a little work to do on editing before they have the quality of JNovel
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@the-green-death said in Do you think Kadokawa will eventually start working with J-novel club? - Poll:
@kino Yeah, I think a Kadowaka title both companies want would always go to yen press, but obscurities that Yen doesn't have the time/Human Resources to devote to - those I could see being sent to JNovel. With BookWalker I really liked Combat Baker but think they have a little work to do on editing before they have the quality of JNovel
Speaking of quality, that might be another thing that irks Kadokawa and YP slightly and J-novel's way of doing things in general. Until J-novel came around, the release schedule LN fans were used to from YP was pretty bad and slow and well frustrating (it still is). YP also tend to bite off a bit more than they can chew, publishing volumes with some pretty big errors like using the wrong illustrations and then you also have delays and adding more and more things to their library, making fans wonder if they can ever keep up +they release things digitally in a really uncoordinated manner. J-novel came around and it showed fans that things can be handled in different way, while maintaining great quality releases. This puts pressure on YP, since they can't get away with small little things(and big things) as easily any longer.
Well, basically, good to see some competition finally exists in this market.
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I cannot say Yes, or No.
I want it to happen but I have no reason to say that it will ever happen.
I say maybe
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@kino I hope this puts some more pressure on Yen Press, their release pace is glacial.
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I can see Kadokawa giving Yen Press their AAA-series while allowing JNC to pick up series they don't have an interest in on the condition that they allow them to be sold on Bookwalker as well.
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@kino I'm going to say 3-5 years. No good logic, just my gut feeling. By then, JNC will be well established and have a much larger collection of series. When they start surpassing Yen Press in having series caught up with the Japanese releases, then they will start noticing and possibly sending work in their direction.
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As quite a few have said, pacing is probably the worst thing with YP (typos and weird translations being quite close), but the other thing that I hate about them is there not being eBooks for some series I really want, like Log Horizon and the upcoming Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken, importing can be really costly after all or take as long as hell to arrive (waited 3 months for my last purchase but at least it only costed 50% extra, yay me -_-). With JNC I don't have to worry about getting hyped with a license that I won't be able to read and I really appreciate that.
I just hope JNC puts enough pressure on them so they release faster and at least let them take the series they are not planning on actually translating.
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@paulnamida I think I remember reading a while back that they said they didn't want to flood the market with too many books at once and that is understandable. However I also I think just that the current release schedule of once every 3 months is too slow. Though looking through some of their manga it looks like one every 3 months until they catch up to Japan is pretty standard with them. The problem is once every 3 months with light novels probably means we are never catching up making it feel like were are forever behind.
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@Eternal-Wanderer I could live with a 3 month difference (I prefer JNC's 2-2.5 month pacing though, keeps my thirst quenched), but Yen On releases on a 4 month schedule, and the latest DanMachi came 5 months after the last release.
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I am hopeful that JNC will develop a relationship with Kadokawa at some point, although I don't think it's the end of the world if they don't. Kadokawa is large but there are a lot of publishers out there and JNC have already shown they can find some great titles outside of Kadokawa.
I think I might be the only one here who doesn't mind Yen On's release schedule? It's fairly regular and short enough that I can read multiple volumes of a series in a year, but also long enough that I'm not getting buried under new books while I'm still trying to get through the releases by JNC/other publishers.
...Perhaps my bar has just been set low by having to wait a couple of years between releases of Quantum Devil Saga though. :sweat_smile:
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@paulnamida said in Do you think Kadokawa will eventually start working with J-novel club? - Poll:
As quite a few have said, pacing is probably the worst thing with YP (typos and weird translations being quite close), but the other thing that I hate about them is there not being eBooks for some series I really want, like Log Horizon and the upcoming Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken, importing can be really costly after all or take as long as hell to arrive (waited 3 months for my last purchase but at least it only costed 50% extra, yay me -_-). With JNC I don't have to worry about getting hyped with a license that I won't be able to read and I really appreciate that.
I just hope JNC puts enough pressure on them so they release faster and at least let them take the series they are not planning on actually translating.
The issue in the is due to Japanese publishers considering physical and digital licenses seperate.
This can end up costing too much money, especially if its a popular series. YP also said at the time that digital releases only amounted to about 25% of their sales.
Log Horizon was licensed relatively early on when YP started publishing english LNs and it likely costed too much money for a digital release. You'll also notice that most of the series they had at this time also lacked one.
Over time though, they've been slowly getting digital releases for series that haven't gotten one yet. And after their partnership with Kadokawa, they've been giving all their series a digital release. I believe Log Horizon is the last Kadokawa title without a digital release, but we'll likely see it sometime next year. (Mahouka, Accel World, and The Isolator are all getting digital releases in Oct/Nov).
As for Spider Tensei, I don't believe thats a Kadokawa title so a digital release is unlikely. The same holds true for Yahari, Rokka, and Slime Tensei.
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@village-idiot
Kumo Desu ga does actually have digital listed for volume 1. -
Frankly, Kadokawa is unpredictable and also "controlled" by Dwango. Look at the recent news about Kemono Friends and I hope everyone will see my point. That said, JNC is pretty well established and Kadokawa working with them is definitely within the realm of possibility. The way JNC releases chapter by chapter is similar to various publications in Japan so I really don't see why being digital only would be a massive turn off to any publisher given the commonality. Furthermore, Seven Seas does print versions of some JNC series so if any publisher is concerned about that I imagine negotiations are possible.
Disclaimer: This is all speculation, I'm not an expert on any of this.
