Discussion What’s up with publishing companies?

Why do some of them (mainly Seven seas) put a halt to the translation groups that are currently translating a specific series? I mean sure, money away from them, however they usually start over from scratch on the novels when they get the liscense. So why do these companies suddenly force these free translation groups to pull a hard stop and stop translating the novels they were working on? Why couldn’t our free translation groups finish an arc, or a volume, or whatever they were working on? Is there a reason?

Also, I want to make this super clear, but I’m not here to bash, scream, cry, and moan at these companies. To disclose everything, I am extremely bummed that more than 5 of my favorite novels have been licensed and thus I’ll likely never see those stories again. I am bummed and frustrated at that. But I am not here to complain, I just want to know why they put this hard stop as soon as they license it. Is there no room for fan translators? Also, I have no true issue with authors getting paid for their work, however $15 dollars for a single volume of a light novel (3-4 chapters) seems like high way robbery.

 

Hahaha, I understand how you feel, I waited like 5 years for the translation to catch up with Accel World, but hey, the wait it's worth since you can always read other novels on your backlog.
About the halt on the fan translators, it is either a DMCA or they stop on their own volition to support the author, remember, most of them translated the original work to share a story they enjoy with you.

 

The wait is probably worth it, but I’ll be a senile old man by the time seven seas gets up to chapter 300 in the reincarnated as a sword novel as they only release in volumes, not chapters.
I can see translators stopping because of a dmca request, but are they not allowed to finish up the volume they are on or the arc for wn? I mean it seems like a hard line to me, a third party viewer.

 

They clearly are allowed to stop whenever they want, lol. It's not like they offered a service which was bought so they have to translate the entire arc.

 

Honestly speaking, most of the previewing is done by the first 1 or 2 volumes. And maybe the last.

It totally sucks having a hammer dropped on you, but it's also pretty fair to remove the preexisting content so that you can start advertising and pumping up the excitement instead of having spoilers floating around everywhere.

As a disclaimer, I personally like having the fan stuff to compare against because sometimes the official translators don't translate it the way I like it.

 

Translating costs money, it isn't free. So the more fan translation chapters there are, the more money they spend on less return.

And $15 for a novel might seem expensive. But movie ticket is average about $9. So 2 tickets would be about 5 hours of entertainment $18.

Average reading speed is 200 wpm, divide that by 50,000 words per volume an you get about 4.16 hours of entertainment.

 

Well.... i do felt that it was a bummer that it(TSKD) got licensed..... not because i had to pay for it...... not because the translator stop before finished the arc cuz.... well.... they are free to do whatever they want and license being license means they had the right to do so..... the only thing that i dissapointed at is the fact that i'll probably a grandpa by the time TSKD finished (hope not) but realy... some of my favorite ln that got licensed was.... well.... took forever yo come out but hey it did come out.... as for 15$ for a novel is a highway robbery? Well, i haven't buy ln for quite some time now but i think that it depends on each person...... 15-20 for my favorite novel is worth it imo

 

Well as a free reader without any money, i can just hope that someone would "share" the works to poor guys like me.
Well ill forget about the novel in a few years or so.
Goodbye Tensei Shitara Ken.

 

Imagine you bought a car and some dude uses your car as uber and takes all the money he made. He doesn't steal your car, but he's using your car for his own profits. You wouldn't like it, would you?

 

That’s a fair point. I am definitely just a consumer, and not someone who is actually working on translating these novels.

Oh wow okay like where do you live??? Cause every theater in my state (California) has a price tag of at least $12, which (last I check) is the average for California. That’s why I can’t go watch movies in the theaters anymore, it’s just way too expensive.

It’s totally worth the price if it’s my favorite novel, but if a group is charging $15 for a volume, and there’s 3 series I like being translated by them each with x amount of volumes, then it’s going to cost me an arm and a leg to read them all. If it was a streaming service, like say crunchy roll, I’d have way less of a problem then. As then I could read all I want, for a set price per month. That’s way better in my eyes, than $15 for 3-4 chapters worth of content.

*looks all the ways for the DMCA* Uh so like, do you know how I can get a “share” of some novels? Cause I know about epubs, and I know that there’s piracy, so there’s probably pirated versions of the novels I like online but I’m too much of a greenhorn to find them.

Maybe? I mean, here’s the question, do they use my gas and do they refill my tank with gas after using my car?

 

They use your gas

 

I was quoting national average. Where I live, movie theaters cost an average of $15 per ticket.

 

And they don’t refill it? Then, in essence, im always paying for whatever Uber does with my car? Because Id have to pay for the gas? Then yes, that would be frustrating.

 

Ouch, that’s a hefty price, but also not uncommon unfortunately. I’d also like to know why movie tickets are so expensive now, but I can make an educated guess that it’s because movies have become increasingly more expensive to make

 

Why? well, most people have answered the general reasons.

On the flip side, it can be a bit self-destructive if the publisher released volumes really slowly, especially for long series.

I think there is room for fan translators still, as a potential barometer for what attracts readers for example, but it would probably take a bit of open-mindedness in publishers to get anywhere. J-Novel Club (despite haters) is pretty good in that respect. They've hired a few fan translators to officially, legally translate novels for publication.

Most publishers still seem to look at LNs the same way as western novels which is where the disconnect seems to happen.