/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>3658790

Unfortunately, a light novel boom is unlikely for a few reasons.

1. Western literature is already an over saturated market that does not have space for a bridge between the 13-17 and 17-24 demographics as Japan did a decade ago

2. The English market expects manga. The first wave of light novels that were translated ex. Boogiepop, SnS, Scraped Princess, Ballad of a Shinigami, etc... were lost among shelves of manga because no one really new what they were. Most of the series have been discontinued because each book has to be licensed separately and almost none of the lines came close to breaking even on profits.

3. Businesses have seen the liabilities the light novels can become as there is much more of a risk in licensing a light novel over one of the plentiful manga series. They buy in cost to a manga is much lower than that of a novel due to translation costs and light novels also run the risk of being brushed aside when compared to English literature due to lacking translations. Manga is a no risk business right now as nearly any series is likely to turn a profit and importers see this. As proof, even recently licensed light novels such as the KnK and Jinken series have been put on hold with little or no news to confirm they will ever be published.

The Faust compilations were a good attempt to break in the English audience, but I'm under the impression that they also did not quite meet sales expectations.