Question: How JNC license novels?

c933103

When JNC license a novel, do you guys get all the novel volumes in the same series as part of the licensing deal, or would the initial license deal only cover the first few volumes and then increase the amount of volumes licensed as you guys release those volumes?

Terabyte

I remember reading somewhere that they go volume-by-volume. I think I read it on Curious Cat but I'm not completely sure.

Rahul Balaggan

@c933103 If its a short complete series they will license all the volumes.

If it is a long series they will license some volumes upfront and then license more as they get closer to newer volumes.

If its an ongoing series, depending on how many volumes are out they will license all available volumes and then continue to license newer volumes, if its a long ongoing series they will license some and then just license more later.

All of this is based off of over a year's worth of various questions & posts the owner of the company has done on twitter these forums and reddit

myskaros

To provide another example, I remember that Seven Seas only licensed the first... 6?... volumes of the Arpeggio of Blue Steel manga series, so when it turned out to sell well there was a gap in the release since they had to then license more.

Rahul Balaggan

@myskaros there was also viz media who straight up said that they licensed the first 4 Volumes of legend of the galactic heroes and if it doesn’t sell enough they won’t license the rest.

TremorC

@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.

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.