What's up with all the hate for Yen Press?

Amount of time needed to read 1 volume of a light novel < amount of time needed to learn another language

Also priorities for use of my free time:
Enjoying another hobby > learning something to enjoy a hobby

 

And? The point is, learning Japanese will make it so you never have to wait for translations. Either you invest a little time up front to avoid waiting, or you can spend that time reading other things. But if you're going to stay dependent on others, don't act like it's their fault you can't get what you want when you're the one choosing to prioritize your time that way.

Also, once you get to intermediate fluency, you can learn as you read, so it's no longer either-or.

 

Majority of my books are non fiction.

I usually read my fiction books (unless I drop the series).

Again, most of my books are non fiction.

I download technical books, textbooks, books on subjects that interest me.

Anyone who is into computing knows how expensive our books can get.

This is a clone account; I'm @Dragon God — his profile says 19.

I live in a Third World country, and due to my circumstances, my employment choices are quite limited. I won't go into more detail, but what your suggesting is off the table for me.

I rarely download fiction compared to the size of my non fiction library. So reading "synopsis and tags" isn't going to help; I might get a book on a topic and find I dislike the Author's style — what left is there for me to drop it and look for a more palatable textbook.

 

Oh no.

More than 90% of my Library is non fiction, and some of my books are expensive — more than my monthly allowance per textbook expensive.

I find this offensive and frankly insulting.

I mentioned I would bankrupt my parents if I paid for all my books — what exactly did you think I was downloading.

I don't bother tallying the price for fiction, but for non-fiction buying is NOT an option.

Like its impossible. It's not up for consideration — when a single textbook is worth more than your monthly allowance then what do you do?

 

Then I wouldn't call myself a fan \o/.

The only fiction I can imagine myself buying is Dungeon Defense, and maybe — just maybe Dan Brown. But both of them are only if I have the money — I'm not going to save to buy them if I can just pirate. I'm sorry, but paying for my books is off the table.

 

While I think that Yen Press can do what they want and I don't particularly care, I don't think that it's really as easy as just saying 'go learn JP instead of reading then if you have time to read.' Learning a new language, especially a difficult one to learn like Japanese is not only a significant time investment, it's not an enjoyable process for most people because it's basically studying. Most people need to unwind or relax in some form or another or have hobbies that they actually enjoy, and substituting this for something you don't really want to do can end up being pretty frustrating.

I don't think that people have the right to complain, but I don't think it's as easy as just saying 'go learn JP if you have the time then' either.

 

Spoiler: >.>

I was talking about the LN parts of your "library"
If you have alot of textbooks, non fiction okay? I get hard copys for free from my local library, you can too when they are rotating books out of circulation.
There are alot of sites that do offer free epubs for textbooks, memoirs, classic literature..

What I said about the Doujin's and (H) was mostly a joke. If that offended you I'm sorry.

I was mostly pointing out that for the LN's and other stuff that is pirated you could buy, or try to at a later date... Kinda "assumed" your library was mostly filled with LNs.. because of the thread you are on...

Are you in University? You said your age is 19.
You also said your parents would not be able to afford it.
I probably shouldn't have said that to you directly, it's just how I feel about pirated stuff, I can pay for my hobbies and always will..

I wrote that earlier because that's what I fear happening.

On another note. There are alot of things free online, e-books, music, hell you can even take college courses online (you won't get credit for them), but to actively support pirating.. that's what I have a hard time accepting.

Sorry for being too personal in my reply to you. Still enjoy your threads on here, hope there is no hard feelings over this.

 

If people were just like "well, waiting sucks hairy balls, but I'd rather wait than learn Japanese," there wouldn't be a problem. I'd even be inclined to sympathize. Instead, this "they make us wait soooo loooong, waaaaah" shit keeps coming up as a motive in vilifying Yen Press, as if YP were deliberately screwing novel fans over and should be destroyed in a tsunami of molten lava sharks for their fan-hating evilness. But YP isn't forcing anyone to be dependent on them, so if there's any villain here, it's fans' own laziness and entitlement. That's all.

 

Imo, it is all about how much they charge for a book.
Their books cost like 12$ at least, for a single volume/arc.
In Japanese original,they cost around 6$.
Is it worth it? To buy a book you might not like for double of original plus shipment fees.
There are many western fantasy books equivalent or better than most jp light novel that Yen Press licensed.
But they only cost around 2.5$ to 9$ even for the most famous ones.
For example popular books from J.K. Rowling (HP series), Anna Rice (Vampire lestat series), L.J.Smith (Vampire Diaries), Christie Golden(Warcraft).
If you don't like western fantasy books I have nothing to say.
For me I would prefer buying books from authors I know I can get a great read.
Compare to it, buying 14$ book which I don't even know how the translation comes out or how the plot turns out is ... Lol

 

I dont think I hate Yen Press...I feel that they should instead let the translations online to be alive.Like,you TL first 2 volumes and then stop cuz yen press.Good.Then,I read the first 2 volumes online and then if it is good,I will pay however much you need.But straight out deleting..not sure you are being good to die hard fans who are willing to spend hours to tl.

 

Yeah I'm in University; the books aren't my University textbooks though — those aren't the best — they're foreign textbooks I found relevant. Several of the textbooks were like $40+, and I download a lot of them.

There is one site I used to pay $5 a month to download premium books(the last two years and certain books). I don't know if books there are pirated or not.

Recently, my local currency to dollar exchange rate tripled and so I stopped paying the $5

A lot of my books are downloaded, others are collected, but it's mainly textbooks I have in my library. I made a joke that my library is so expansive I can drop out of school and just read it and still be better off than my peers.

I'm an academic, and most of my textbooks are for my own personal learning. I may download 10 - 20 books on a subject to find the one that I find easiest to follow and/or absorb.

For my novel Library, I have the Western and Asian Fiction section.

For Western Fiction, more than 90% of it was given to me by a friend — we trade manga, anime, novels, etc in my school.

The remaining 10% is downloaded — mainly pirated I guess.

For Asian Fiction, I don't read "official" Asian translations. I download fantranslations and read them.

Don't worry though — I'm an unrepentant Jack Sparrow.

P.S: I don't have access to any physical building called a Library save for the building in my University.

 

Ok let me explain then. In my case most of my reading is done during break times at work, class, or when traveling etc. The amount of free time I have during those times tend to be small, between 5-20 minutes. This is enough time to read 1-4 chapters of something. On the other hand for studying another language would take up much more time than whats given in those small breaks.

Also I don't get the logic behind "don't complain when something you like gets taken away because you like something else more".

Edit: oh and the situation is a bit different than that anyways. Its where someone else is providing what you want at a decent speed (at least for what I was reading aka NGNL and Overlord, which was at 1 chapter per week which means 1 volume in under 2 months) then someone else comes along and takes it away, restarts it from the beginning and goes at a much slower speed.

 

Their release speed is slow because they try to leave enough time for the author to release the next volumes. In other words it's like seeing the food in front of you, but you are told that you are allowed one bite only when they decide it.

 

I know more people who study Japanese in short bursts like that than who use longer studying sessions. There are hundreds of apps and books out there for that kind of studying, too. The obstacle here is that you don't want to, not that you can't.

But that's not what I'm saying. I even told Aicila, "If people were just like 'well, waiting sucks hairy balls, but I'd rather wait than learn Japanese,' there wouldn't be a problem. I'd even be inclined to sympathize." The issue is blaming someone else for a situation that's of your own making—something you have the power to change if you really want.

And here's you doing just that. You might love fan translations, but most of them are illegitimate. The risk of relying on illegitimate translations is that sometimes the legitimate rights-holders come along and choose to exercise those rights for their own benefit—such as Kadokawa acting through Yen Press to make official translations. They're taking back what's theirs, not "taking away" what's yours. If you want to hate anything here, hate capitalism. Just remember that it's people like you who create the market for legitimately translated novels by choosing not to learn to read Japanese.

 

After reading a few volumes of a novel and then having to wait for YEARS to read the next volume isn't really something to be happy about...

 

Well, sure, I guess nobody would be happy with that, the point of the thread was to ask why the hate, not why the lack of happiness.

I'm happy to see a series I love getting properly licensed and translated by a professional, as well as the author getting more profit out of it, but my point with it was mainly to try and understand why people hated the best company among all the publishers on the west. (or at least, Yen Press is the best IMO.)

Seems like most people are annoyed at Yen Press for the translation speed, which is a better scenario than I expected... Still kinda dumb IMO, but way better than I expected.

 

The hate for Yen Press is similar to the hate for Hilary Clinton: Fake news

 

Hopefully a better alternative will be established in the future. Where they can build up a bigger online base.

 

Totally off topic, but your post triggered me to remember this meme

 

Care to elaborate on that one?

Almost everyone that said why they hated it on this thread said it was because they started to translate again from the beginning, as well as taking down the fantranslations that were already up.

I don't agree with it, but I can understand it... I don't know what kind of fake news is related to that though.