RIP. I don't think the translator is active on this site so they probably won't see it but thanks to them for their efforts so far. To all those who weren't aware, the TL posted on their site that they were discontinuing translations for personal reasons and planning to remove translated chapters that are still for pay in KR. I don't want to screw up their wording so I'd urge you to read the post on the site itself. Awesome story and a shame it discontinues at a cliff.
yeah but he was doing it for us for free and was feeling bad with translanting chapters under paywall so it is understandable why he stoped and he said that he may in the future translate chapters of other novels if they are free, so we might see him in the future.
Oh I totally understand why they did it and it makes sense. Not disagreeing with the decision and actually quite admirable. Just dealing with this Chirpy-shaped hole in my Fridays now...
i am sorry if it sounded not nice to you and i know what you mean since posting of the novel was like telling me it is friday so now it will be hollow in my friday schedule.
I was born with a wrong gender as long as posting on tumblr goes, but if anyone has an account there, why not suggest her to contact WW? They've been licensing KR novels (and much worse KR novels aside from SCG), and there's an opportunity for her to make money from translating. Albeit that would likely require translating more than two chapters a week.
The blog has a part where you can send anonymous questions. I passed along your idea with some context. Unfortunately, there's a lot of potential issues with going the legal route. Lots of text below on why I think so. Armchair Analysis: My gut feeling is that the TL might not be interested in going full on legal. While the translations are great to me, they themselves seem to lack some confidence in their own translations. Also, the tone seems to show the TL taking these translations as a more casual thing, especially given their plans to continue translating KR webnovel teasers. Blowing this up, even for money, might be a big turnoff. As to WuxiaWorld: if I recall correctly their agreement extends only to a particular publisher, Breathe. They do have some strong novels outside SCG in my opinion but that's obviously a matter of personal taste. However, that does limit selection. NU information lists J Plus Media as the publisher for this novel. The response to KR translation legalization from the KR side has been mixed. The only success stories are Breathe, which is a miraculous exception to the rule and likely related to their organizational scale, and Qidian/Webnovel.com, who probably used their huge piles of Chinese cash/capital to buy/partner with Munpia. Everything else has generally seen rejection, though most of them also have been from smaller groups. Edit: Forgot to add that they might be busy enough as is with existing projects without having to add on another. Plus factor in additional costs and potential difficulties negotiating a deal over the internet given the COVID-19 situation and current and likely continuing travel restrictions. J Plus Media seems to be in a grey area where they are not currently partnered with anyone. Hashing out a new agreement with them would likely take significant time and cost significant investment. I'm not sure what WW's financial position is but it's likely that their interest in adding a new publisher would depend on how profitable their Breathe partnership has gone. From my fuzzy memory, I think that licensing can have significant up-front cost from the publisher, not including purchasing already translated chapters. If we assume minimum up-front licensing costs $10K USD and cost per chapter is $50 USD/chapter (both figures are likely on the low side but I don't really know what the usuals are) you're looking at a $16.5K+ USD investment right off the bat. The above does not factor in the potential fallout of notifying the publisher. Multiple of J Plus Media novels are actively translated according to NU. None of the groups doing these appear to be official. If WW reaches out to the publisher, the publisher may get curious and start snooping around. I don't know what Korean law is like but the general rule has been for a publisher to issue cease and desists for translations they find, usually causing groups to cease translation (this I believe makes sense under a US perspective, not a lawyer but if you don't protect your rights then you are at risk to losing them). WW might create some bad publicity for themselves just by doing so. If they were being nice they could let the translators know and involve them from the get-go but I'm sure there are some that wouldn't be happy about having their quiet site off on the side fall under the spotlight. It's a big can of worms to open. The easiest, but probably more unethical, solution would be to reach out to one of the newer KR groups that have popped up and started translating previously dropped KR novels or post a request to the NU Translation Request board. Of the new groups, Woopread and Centini seem to push out good quality translations and would be my favored candidates. There are also some other KR translators doing their own thing that are awesome, particularly Chamber. Chamber has 3 projects already though so I don't know if he'd want to pick this one up on top of all that. I'm not sure how much popularity this novel has but if it has enough to be monetized by them then it could be a good candidate, either way. Of course, they'd have to figure out if they want to translate the roughly 100+ chapters themselves which would be difficult to monetize vs. just picking up from where dreamsinthesea left off. Note that dreamsinthesea has already removed the chapters past the pay cut-off, though they're likely on aggregators.
Thank you for reaching out to her! And with 132 chapters translated, it makes sense to keep the translator on board. That said, she has explicitly stated the concerns over the legal aspects of her translation. Finding a group to continue from where she left off would a) run counter to the intent of the translator who introduced this novel to us; b) invite C&D requests, which might as well be ushered by the (former) translator. Speaking of the C&D thingy, I find it to be a good sign. Despite over a hundred chapters being translated, neither the author nor the publisher took any action, which means that any foreign income from this novel might come as a surprise boon to them. Unless RWX was hong konged into some underground red guard facility, it should be possible to negotiate. In fact (and the worst case), it wouldn't be the first time when WW was assumed to be pirates (read acquiring the SCG story). There are benefits to doing payed translations as well, which can boost her confidence. You can (and generally will) get an editor, and some proofreaders if you want. All of this seems to align well with her goal of improving her language skills, and the (extra) income during the CoroNa times should be welcomed by most people. P.S. It's kind of weird that I'm not really a WW fan, yet end up pointing their way when this kind of issues come up.
Well I did imply that someone could request or start up a translation, ignoring the TL's intent. Fans and TLs alike can be unscrupulous in their desire for reading content, internet kudos, and potential income. As to C&D, I think, most times, a lack of action I attribute to lack of knowledge. You have to remember that these are Korean authors and publishers and they probably don't bother trawling the internet just to see if there's an illegal free translation. Awareness causes action, usually with a bad result for the community. Potential foreign income has historically not been enough on its own to stop foreign publishers from issuing C&Ds. There are several examples: Colossus Hunter hit 56 chapters before stopping. The group had actually worked with a few novels in a legal fashion (Main Characters Hides his Strength is probably their biggest title) and the author had actually provided permission. However, the publisher came back and issued C&D. The publisher actually came back for all the novels that group was translating and got them stopped (I think at least 3 novels total). Similar thing happened with the novel Running Away from the Hero I think a long time ago. Though I might be mistaking that one for another novel. I'm not sure how WW negotiated the deal with Breathe (or if those details were available at all) but I would assume a significant upfront cost was either necessary or made the deal much more attractive to the publisher. Even for a group of WW's size, I'd think a lump sum payment of $15K to $20K+ USD without any revenues would not be an easy sell. I'm aware of the SCG story as I've been following that translation for a while (I think maybe when it was with its first translator the first time?). However, I think they are trying to stay above board now. Some of their Korean novels are no longer accessible and that might be because they've removed the legal risk. Obviously I'm just a third party making guesses without any details. If I recall, for the original deal WW made with Breathe, RWX flew out to South Korea and met the publisher in person, with the help of a translator. My personal feeling is that South Korea is a more traditional culture and, with SK being one of the rare countries that has overcome COVID with minimal damage, I think they'd still prefer a face-to-face. Keep in mind that there is absolutely no risk for a publisher to wait a year for this whole thing to be over with before being willing to come back to the table, assuming there is one. Even with SCG, wasn't there something like a 3-6 month+ delay until it actually got posted? If COVID delays a deal, we could be looking at 2021 or 2022, when interest would have dried up (reducing revenue) or someone else could snipe it (though this seems unlikely as there just aren't as many KR translators). As for going back to WW... while I don't follow many large groups, they have been around a while and maintained their reputation through many storms. While RWX's language is sometimes not the most professional, it is clear he tries to be more transparent. Some of the details he's offered to reveal about his business are beyond what most are willing to do I'd say. The fact that they've overcome so much and been so open really shows you how good, relatively, they are within this industry. While I also am not a huge fan or anything, I have a fairly good impression of WW.
Copied the response from TL (you can find them in the hashtags section of the post): Also because somebody messaged me abt it: Actually I don't think my TLs are good enough to be authorized. And I did actually contact a group that does legal tls back when I first started thinking abt stopping to ask if they could take over esp bc I didn't want to leave you guys without a translator either. But unfortunately they weren't able to help. They were v nice abt it even tho I emailed them out of the blue and even tried looking into it for me (even tho they don't have an existing relationship w the publisher). I don't know much abt the TL community so I only contacted that one group..... Sorry;; I hope an authorized team does pick up this novel in the future so that you guys can keep on reading. [End TL Response] End of the story for now. Hopefully one day this story gets picked up again one day!
Goodluck to the readers. But let us make one thing clear, novels are not exactly profitable as people think The publisher for the webcomic for Dark Mage went bankrupt. Korea is also a lot more conservative than we think, using Japanese publishing industry as an example and given that Korean novel industry is basically government sponsored: Lezhin got their staff paid by the government the publishers are most likely more stubborn than we realize. Since they don't need to be profitable and can get government handouts, they won't exactly jump on the opportunity to partner with someone unless for ridiculous amounts of money. Japanese publishers had even gotten ADV bankrupt(anime industry example) So nothing is impossible. Legal seems nice to say but its almost impossible to achieve Many who have claimed to be legal have turned out to be frauds
@Scythe244 Thanks for trying! It feels like the translator is not all that interested in continuing even if we put legal issues aside. I find that the KR publishers are quite proactive with their C&D requests. It's true that they don't send those out if they don't know about a translation, but at times they can issue them in batches, as if they are actually looking or were tipped off. And let's be honest, all they really need is to have a staffer with a basic proficiency in English to look at NovelUpdates, and the list is minutes away from being compiled. As far as their willingness to license stuff goes, I'm under the impression that the KR entertainment industry as a whole is looking for the continued expansion (was it the Korean wave or something?). And it doesn't seem to be about profits alone, which also explains the government's involvement. That said, I won't be surprised if they grossly overestimate the value of their IP, which could be the ultimate roadblock. But some publishers might be more reasonable than the others, and some authors might have more leverage and interest in the international fame than the rest. Basically, you won't know until you try, and RWX is a quite successful negotiator. In this particular case, though, there's no longer a translator, and the following is nowhere near the SCG levels, so it might not be worth bothering with for any big portal.
AsianHobbiest is going to try to continue the translation of S classes. The chapter will be translated soon. Make sure you guys read it so that he will continue the translation.
AsianHobbiest is going to try to continue the translation of S classes. The chapter will be translated soon. Make sure you guys read it so that he will continue the translation.
I asked AsianHobbiest Directly and he said that he would get a teaser out a soon a possible (A teaser is when he releases the chapter right after the current translated chapters to see how many readers read it. If many readers read it he will pick it up and translate it)
https://www.asianhobbyist.com/the-s-classes-that-i-raised-133/ Read this so that he will pick up the novel
In the last two chapter I bet Hyunjae really had fun! Image you got a temporary amnesia ( I'm saying temporary since Yoojin promised to fix him) and being told all the fun things you did together, I bet he must have felt something like "I can believe it! Really?" especially for someone that tend to feel bored as him being the top at all. Next an amazing fight inside his mind with Yoojin using the doubled states he got from Yoohyun pre-regression and the new ability he learned with his teacher skill. It's a pity he will forget the fight once he get out since isn't often that Hyunjae get to exercise LOL Yoojin did a good job considering his fear resistant skill got lowered to C, guess you trust Hyunjae more than you think, eh Yoojin?