Question: How JNC license novels?

c933103

humm... In this case, would it be possible for JNC to announce how many volumes they have licensed and provide some sort of monthly updates for how many volumes licenses they have topped up from time to time?

Cynigami

@c933103 I don't see it as necessary since J-Novel Club doesn't drop series. So they will keep licencing 1-2 volumes at a time until they finish the serie

Rahul Balaggan

@c933103 I mean perosnally it’s not a big deal to me. As long as the volumes keep coming out it doesn’t matter if they have only 1 volume on top or no buffer at all.

Otherwise I don’t see it happening cause it’s there are many many many other things that have higher priority.

Sam Pinansky

@c933103 None of your business frankly.

Our usual MO is to license 3-4 volumes at a time.

LegitPancake

I’m with Sam on this one. Just because we are paying members doesn’t mean we are entitled as to how the business works and what their contracts say. J-Novel is one of the most transparent companies I’ve ever seen, they will tell us if something has gone wrong at their own discretion.

Thomask

@legitpancake said in Question: How JNC license novels?:

transpare

As a business owner real life, I have to agree with this. There are articles online about licensed anime, licensed manga, licensed light novels and how to do it so you can get a better idea.

Me? I'd just be happy if they licensed what is reasonable with a 'OPTION' to purchase future volumes on top so my price (or membership fees) are less likely to change.

"keep em coming 'boys'"

c933103

@sam-pinansky said in Question: How JNC license novels?:

@c933103 None of your business frankly.

Our usual MO is to license 3-4 volumes at a time.

I see.. Thanks anyway. I was asking simply because publishers here have been used to do this so when English publishers does not do the same it give me some sort of cultural clashes.

Terrence

@tremorc said in Question: How JNC license novels?:

@rahul-balaggan Must be doing well enough since up through volume 7 is listed at Amazon. Seems some small miracle considering Viz's history of dropping titles across all mediums.

They did drop the audiobooks of Galactic Heroes though. T.T

Rahul Balaggan

@c933103 there are no English publishers that tell us how many volumes of a series they have licensed.

They may put up a number of pre-orders for a single series but that doesn’t mean they don’t have more licensed.

If Yen Press licensed 10 volumes of RE: Zero they wouldn’t put all 10 up for pre-order right away they will at most go 8 months to a year out.

Paul Nebeling

@rahul-balaggan Totally agree with you. I'm almost certain YP has open ended licence agreements for certain titles (such as SAO) but you'll never see more than two volumes available for pre-order and that's only when the first release date is approaching.

myskaros

@paul-nebeling said in Question: How JNC license novels?:

@rahul-balaggan I'm almost certain YP has open ended licence agreements for certain titles (such as SAO)

Considering SAO is "complete" I'm not sure that was a great example :P

Paul Nebeling

@myskaros Ok. How about The Devil is a Part-Timer? Almost as many volumes, not sure if it's complete or not, same situation. Lots of untranslated volumes, only one or two on pre-order. (I'm picking on those two titles because they're the only two YP offerings that I buy.)

myskaros

@paul-nebeling Most of their licenses are ongoing, I just thought it was funny that you chose the only one that wasn't haha.

DoubleMangekyo

@myskaros Um, isn't SAO still publishing? Pretty sure Kawahara's writing more of it after Alicization.

Sam Pinansky

We are limited in the number of preorders we can put up by Amazon's kdp rules: can't be longer than 90 days away.

Paul Nebeling

@doublemangekyo I know there is a two volume Alicization side story called Cradle of the Moon, and I've heard rumors that Kawahara is going to write a new arc with a new VRMMO game. Honestly, I just hope he doesn't wait until the very end to have Kirito and Asuna get married in the real world.

myskaros

@DoubleMangekyo @paul-nebeling I may be mistaken, I just looked at the release schedule. I was under the impression that Alicization was the end of the web novel adaptation and there was not any more planned content afterwards.

paulnamida

@myskaros it was, but the author had started writing another arc called "Cradle of the Moon" though it was stated to be sort of a spin-off of SAO, but it stopped after a few chapters. Lots of years later, when the last parts of Alicization were being officially released, Kawahara updated Cradle of the Moon on his website and added a few more chapters, and then announced that SAO's official release would continue with that arc. Alicization finished on vol 18, vols 19 and 20 were released as "Moon Cradle" following the events in Cradle of the Moon, but they were now a side story to be taken to happen before the finale of Alicization. According to the author's twitter, vol 21 is in the works, and when his editor was interviewed, he implied it will be about a new game, so SAO is far from finished.

LegitPancake

@paulnamida so is the publisher pulling a Boruto?

paulnamida

@legitpancake well, you could think of Accel World as SAO's Boruto. When AW was picked up by the publisher it went something like "I heard you also had another crazy popular web novel series" "ah, yeah, there was that" "we'll publish it as well" "eehhh??!!". Later on, there's been quite a few hints that they occur in the same world, with AW being basically quite some time in the future of SAO's timeline. Haven't been up to date with AW (only got up to Vol. 7) so I'm not sure if these hints were debunked or confirmed as canon by the author though, but the Nerve Gear certainly existed in AW's universe as the first true full-price VR system, and the Neurolinkers are basically quantum computers, which is as well the system behind the developing of the Soul Translator featured on the Alicization arc on SAO.