The fate of Zero's Familiar (As well as other LN titles)

[Raiiii]

Seeing that this forum isn't particularly bursting with activity, I'll just post here again.
Two questions: Any news on Zero's Familiar?
And I see SSE has licensed the "A Certain Scientific Railgun" (Toaru Kagaku no Rērugan) manga, is it possible "A Certain Magical Index" (Toaru Majutsu no Index) the light novel is in the works as well? (I might just be getting my hopes up too much ;_;)

[Adam_Arnold]

Seeing that this forum isn't particularly bursting with activity, I'll just post here again.

It also didn't help that our server was killed over the weekend and we lost any forum posts from May to August. So the place looks like there hasn't been a lot of posting since April. >_>

Two questions: Any news on Zero's Familiar?

No news at this time.

And I see SSE has licensed the "A Certain Scientific Railgun" (Toaru Kagaku no Rērugan) manga, is it possible "A Certain Magical Index" (Toaru Majutsu no Index) the light novel is in the works as well? (I might just be getting my hopes up too much ;_;)

We're only releasing the Railgun manga (the awesome science half of the franchise). To see what the magic users of Index are up to, you'll need to look to FUNimation's release of the anime next year.

[Raiiii]

Ah, well, alright.
And I didn't know most of the posts were deleted XD

I'm looking forward to the anime in English, of course, but I've got a thing for light novels =D
I'll probably post again in a few months XD

[Ayje]

I'm looking forward to the anime in English, of course, but I've got a thing for light novels =D

Light Novels are awesome. If the Index series ever gets released in english I'll definitely be buying. Been looking around to see who might be working on it but it doesn't look like it'll happen At least not for now.

I'm hoping with the 2nd season of Index starting in Japan shortly we'll see some more interest.

[rolvtd]

Sorry to bring it up once again, but I would like to ask a couple of questions. I notice that you are now offering select Manga on the Amazon Kindle. With the abundance of customers buying Kindles and other E-readers (the sales numbers are very encouraging), have you reconsidered your stance on the light novel line? If there is a chance to tap into the large number of new e-reader users, is there a chance for it reinvigorating the Light Novel Line?

I guess I should ask the correct business questions:

Do the savings of having no physical printed product offset the large cost of the longer translation needed for light novels? In essence, would having no physical product lower the sales numbers needed in order to declare a light novel a success?

Have you considered releasing the light novels that you have already translated to e-reader format in order to test the market, hopefully saving on translation costs?

And lastly, but I guess most importantly: Do you even have rights to publish the books in your Light Novel line digitally?

If you cannot answer any of my questions for contract reasons, I perfectly understand. I am a big fan of the Ballad of a Shinigami light novels and would love to buy them again on Kindle, as well as looking forward to any future releases you may have. Thanks for the time.

Rol

[Adam_Arnold]

Sorry to bring it up once again, but I would like to ask a couple of questions. I notice that you are now offering select Manga on the Amazon Kindle. With the abundance of customers buying Kindles and other E-readers (the sales numbers are very encouraging), have you reconsidered your stance on the light novel line? If there is a chance to tap into the large number of new e-reader users, is there a chance for it reinvigorating the Light Novel Line?

There are too many costs involved that prevent us from only publishing ebook versions of certain titles. These costs include: licensing, translation, rewrite, copy editing, layout & design, proofreading, and cover design... just to name a few. Sales of a single ebook would never amount to enough units sold to cover those costs. In addition, we would have to raise the price of the ebooks themselves, which would dramatically limit their ability to sale. And that's even if the Japanese publishers allowed for ebook versions to be made.

Have you considered releasing the light novels that you have already translated to e-reader format in order to test the market, hopefully saving on translation costs?
And lastly, but I guess most importantly: Do you even have rights to publish the books in your Light Novel line digitally?

This would require new contracts and licensing agreements (and fees to be paid) for ebook editions to be possible. We would also have to pay to have the books converted to ebook format and re-proofed.

[Dale08]

Well this is disappointing. After watching the anime I was interested in reading the LN and was delighted to find that it was licensed. However, I was led to confusion when I couldn't find 1 single copy in English. I then found myself in this thread, in disappointment that the LN had been licensed, but not published. I do understand the points you make from a business stand point, but it looks like I'm going to have to learn Japanese or find a fan-translated copy, which just isn't the same as an official hard copy.

I hope you guys reconsider some time in the future and that the LN industry has a boom in the western world.

[Bachigu]

Hello there.

Sorry to revive an old topic.
Been almost a half year since I last checked for news.

So I just wanted to know, if there was any news at all on the progress the ZnT LN's?
Now that the anime is nearing it's end, I've gotten pretty hyped on reading the novels, to get the full experience.
And yeah, I guess I could just read the fan-translation.
But I, for one, prefer to read my light novels in book form, while relaxing in a chair with a cold cola.

[Adam_Arnold]

We currently don't have any plans to release any new light novels at this time.

[Adam_Arnold]

It is too dangerous now to release it. But suppose there are enough people to buy, how do you know?

One need only do a simple internet search and they can full English translations of every volume of a number of popular light novels. There's no way we could ever match that type of output without doing some type of fan/crowd-sourcing thing a la what DMP is doing with their yaoi manga guild.