Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt122005
I am confused regarding what you have to say regarding authors in Japan having no control how their work is published?
I have a hard time believing this true....<_<
As I understand it, a writer no matter who he goes through has COMPLETE control over how his work is published. Even if hes totally unknown.
If a publisher believes his work will be good as a published book, then that writer is in control of how it is published.
For one thing, Dengeki Publishes both light novels and normal novel correct?
Well as any writer will tell you, and a publisher, each of the two publishign divisions of Dengeki will probably have seperate publishing submision forms that go to each individual section.
In other words, if they recieve a submission in LN division, thats because the writer wants it as a LN and the publisher, if they want to publish this author, will do so as a LN. But if its sent to the other normal novel division, the publisher knows to publish this as a normal novel.
The exception is if a publisher believes the story is not LN material or normal Novel material.
But as far as I know, in almost any culture that publishes novels, a writer is in full control.
And yes, I realize that most of the time, illustrators are chosen by publishers, but were not talking about them, this is about the writers.
Point is, the writer chooses which division to send the novel to, and depending where it arrives, that division will publish it as what they publish (either LN or Normal Novel).
-Matt
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Unfortunately that is not how it works, it's more like the relationship between record companies and artists (or manga authors and publishers).
The publisher gains publishing rights and holds control on how it will be marketed and/or which label it will be published under .
The publisher also retains management rights of the author and demands exclusivity of their works before anything is published. That is why novels are mostly grouped by publishers and not authors.
This is because most authors are discovered through writing contests. The winners are given a chance to have their work published but within the contract it also limits the right of the author and certain rights are transfered to the publisher in exchange of publishing. Author applying for a contest is also required to waiver their right to the applied work they presented for the contest so the author is required to forfeit the right to have the applied work if he decides not to sign the contract. It's all written within the terms and condition of any writing contest sponsored by a publisher.
Both publishing rights and management rights can be bought back by the author but with a high price.