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Old 2010-03-20, 15:20   Link #481
Starburst
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Join Date: Sep 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tyranuus View Post
I thought the point on the second cover had already been mentioned elsewhere, although whether it means Japanese printed cover with sleeve, or the same as the first, except with the sleeve as standard, I dont know?
I stopped following the situation after the first book because Yen Press' decissions angered me and I didn't want to deal with it again until the novel was released. I've pre-ordered my copy of volume 2 already so I'm getting it regardless of what they put on the cover. But that's one thing that angers me, and I'll get to that in a bit.


Quote:
Dont get me wrong, I get your points and to some extent, but you've missed part of my point as well I think. Several large retailers would likely NOT have accepted the book if itd been introduced with an anime cover; because traditionally they dont sell that way. As an established book series with established sales levels, the second book doesnt have quite the same prejudice set against it by the retail market. Without retailers willing to take the book however, the series would be cancelled, end of discussion. I have also seen others supporting the new cover, or even saying they thought it didnt look that bad in person as well, so the response is NOT purely negative.
I didn't miss this point, I just forgot to address it. I mostly don't buy the point that large retailers wouldn't accept the book. It's always large retailers that I find an anime section at all, at least in Canada. Places like Chapters, huge book stores, seem to stock a good variety of manga. The only places that offer more are specialty shops, and they obviously would have stocked this with the original cover anyway.

Quote:
The other thing is that you've mentioned that fans of the content bought it regardless...yes, they did, thats kinda the point, they KNOW the fans will still buy it in the vast part; regardless of the front cover.
The problem is there is also a large market this book might appeal to THAT WOULD NOT buy it with the anime/manga style cover, they'd be put off, by changing the front cover, you avoid a large section of that prejudice, people might be more willing to pick it up and read the summary on the back. The anime/manga/japanese market is still relatively small incomparison to the general fantasy reading base, and even more so outside the US.
This is the part that angers me and I don't like this line of thought at all. Abuse the fans because they'll buy it anyway. That's not a good method of gaining support for your product. It's generally those who like your product who talk about it and recommend it to their friends. If they're angry with you, they're less likely to say pleasant things.

Quote:
Now regardless of whether you see the front cover as overtly sexualised, call me desensitised, but compared to the average run of books I see in a sci-fi section in a book shop these days, over in the UK, well it's not actually that bad (especially with the wave of Twilight-esque style stuff out there right now), my disagreements are more based on the fact i dont think it conveys the story so well, they could have made it far more representative, but as a more acceptable book that people are likely to at least read the summary on? Unfortunately yes it is.
I'm not disagreeing with the nudity on the front. I'm not a prude, I enjoy the female figure, especially Horos. It's the manner in which they present it, it creates a distasteful feel for me. Perhaps I'm exaggerating by using smutty, I imagine the word may hold different strength in different circles and locales. If I had to choose an alternate word I would choose cheap.

Quote:
The other point, that by moving it away from the Manga section they may hide it from some of the audience...well possibly that is true, but then people into this sort of stuff will probably be used to being a slightly more niche audience whether they like it or not, and will likely find titles themselves, based on word of mouth, recommendations or even internet reviews. Arguably, by moving it to a wider sci-fi market, they're not only likely to capture people interested in the property like us who already want the material, or recommended to it by other fans of Japanese work, but also more likely to catch the eye of the average fantasy book reader; one who would have ignore the Japanese section altogether. Guess which is the bigger market, and the one they're working harder to appeal to because of this, given they know the Anime/Manga/Japanese work fan will likely find the book in the long run anyway?
I said potential audience. Similar to those they're trying to appeal to via the fantasy novel cover, except they prefer and enjoy anime. They don't know the series, haven't heard of it, but see the cover and something about it appeals to them.

But like you say, smaller audience, who cares about them.

Quote:
If americanising the cover (as long as future ones are slightly more representative of the series) opens up the series to a wider range of people, then I'm actually all for it, because Im sure there are quite a lot of people out there who'd enjoy the story, but hold no interest in anything manga/anime related whatsoever, if more widely acceptable covers help get this book to them, then more power to it. As I mentioned previously, the anime/manga market is a niche, by appealing to a larger majority they have a chance to sell more which not only makes business sense, but introduces the property to a wider range of people, and in a capitalist world, making money and profit from S&W is the only way we will continue to see it translated and published, ergo a necessary evil.
I'm not against widening the audience, but I am against deceiving the new audience. It's interesting that you mention in a capitalist world profiting off S&W is the only way we'll be able to read it. Because this is untrue. There was a wiki project where people donated their time to translating the series of light novels for free. A good portion of the novels were translated, but now that Yen Press has licensed the material and requested it's removal, it's no longer available and can only be had when Yen Press gets around to releasing it. This means that while I've read up until I believe Volume 5, I get to wait another 2.25 years til I get to read volume 6. So them licensing it hasn't allowed people to read it, it's just allowed people to profit from those reading it. Which while I admit is fair to the author, doesn't mean we would never have been able to read it otherwise.

Quote:
On the small kids not being allowed to read it because of overcautious parents? Well possibly, but then this book isn't really aimed at them anyway, it's a series really aimed at the 16/18+ region anyway, partially because of some of the concepts, and once you've hit 16/18+ if you cant go out and buy your own books...
I didn't necessarily mean small children reading the book. I meant 14-18, high school age. It's not that they wouldn't be able to get the book, it's that they wouldn't feel comfortable reading a book with a naked girl on the cover around parents or in public. But maybe I was just really shy in high school, though I think I'm the sort of crowd this book would be aimed at.

PS: LKK, I think you're spelling it right. That's how I always remember to spell it anywya.

PPS: Rajura, if you're willing to spend $60 on the life-sized poster of Horo... eBay.
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Old 2010-03-20, 16:45   Link #482
Rajura
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Starburst
PPS: Rajura, if you're willing to spend $60 on the life-sized poster of Horo... eBay.
Actually, that poster did come with the second DS game where I found it for sale... thanks for looking out for me though!

Funny enough, I may actually be willing to drop about $40 total for the poster of "bride-version" Hol(r)o... if I found it for sale by itself. Problem is, I have only seen it with the game, and in such cases, the person was wanting 35,000 yen. That is way too much (simply because the game is sealed... I don't care; I wanna open it... and besides the copy I bought had everything but that poster so... anywa, I wouldn't want to keep it sealed, so it's not a good investment/use (i.e. waste) of money for me. Of course when the time comes, I might be willing to go higher in what I'm willing to spend. I am quite notorious for that!
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Last edited by Rajura; 2010-03-20 at 20:15. Reason: Typo
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Old 2010-03-20, 20:03   Link #483
Kaguya
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Originally Posted by Rajura View Post
Actually, that poster did come with the second DS game where I found it for sale... thanks for looking out for me though!

Funny enough, I may actually be willing to drop about $40 total for the poster of "bride-version" Hol(r)o... if I found it for sale by itself. Problem is, I have only seen it with the game, and in such cases, the person was wanting 35,000 yen. That is way too much (simply because the game is sealed... I don't care; I wanna open it... and besides the copy I bought had everything but that poster so... anywa, I wouldn't want to keep it sealed, so it's not a good investment/use (i.e. waste) of money for me. Of course when thetime comes, I might be willing to go higher in what I'm willing to spend. I am quite notorious for that!
In a yahoo auction Japan, the prices of two DS games, bride-version poster, and the set of the novel volumes 13 and 14 are starts from 7000 yen (78 dollars).
It is a used article.
The price may be somewhat higher than other exhibits.

http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f90608859

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Old 2010-03-20, 20:13   Link #484
Rajura
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Join Date: Feb 2010
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaguya
In a yahoo auction Japan, the prices of two DS games, bride-version posters, and the set of the novel volumes 13 and 14 are starts from 7000 yen (78 dollars).
It is a used article.
The price may be somewhat higher than other exhibits.

http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f90608859
Argggh! I would totally buy that if I had not just recently bought the two games separately (for about the same total price)... but for anyone who does not have it, this is a great deal!

So, if anyone here wants to buy this, and then let me buy the Hol(r)o poster from the first game (bride/wife version) from them... I would be all about that (though I know most people would not want to part with it).

Thanks for keeping me in mind Kaguya! I really appreciate it.
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Old 2010-03-20, 22:22   Link #485
Starburst
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I personally just want the poster. I can't play the DS game anyway, nor can I read the japanese light novels. Nor do I want to pay like $60 for a poster.

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Old 2010-03-20, 22:40   Link #486
Rajura
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Originally Posted by Starburst View Post
I personally just want the poster. I can't play the DS game anyway, nor can I read the japanese light novels. Nor do I want to pay like $60 for a poster.

I feel your pain... I shall keep looking for it as a lone item (or as part of a package at $40 or less), but as always, Kaguya is being incredibly helpful providing us with access to all kinds of resources!
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Old 2010-03-21, 02:36   Link #487
tyranuus
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Join Date: Feb 2010
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaguya View Post
In a yahoo auction Japan, the prices of two DS games, bride-version poster, and the set of the novel volumes 13 and 14 are starts from 7000 yen (78 dollars).
It is a used article.
The price may be somewhat higher than other exhibits.

http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f90608859



Much as I'd love this, I cant read a word of Japanese


Ps. Am I the only one wondering if that bride artwork means something?
The novels ending with them getting married via a pagan priest or something like that would be a pretty sweet ending, especially if Holo found a way to, at least slightly, extend Lawrence's lifespan (I wouldn't put it past her, spirits seem to have all sorts of powers and capabilities in stories, not to mention there are all sorts of devices for extending human lifespan in stories too)
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Old 2010-03-21, 04:55   Link #488
Rajura
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tyranuus
Ps. Am I the only one wondering if that bride artwork means something?
Maybe, but there is still a little more to go in the story, and anyway, it was produced in 2008. While that may be the direction they take it, I think that at the time, it was simply meant to be a fun, interesting, and cute depiction of her.
If that was the goal, I think they accomplished it!
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Old 2010-03-21, 05:02   Link #489
tyranuus
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Aye that's very true, it could just as much be a bit of fun. Isuna Hasakura wouldn't be the first author to have an idea or a very rough framework of how his books end before hes finished writing them however

Its a nice picture anyway. If any more decent scans are produced at a reasonable size (I know Starburst mentioned DPI is lower, but then I had to massively scale down the last print anyway ) I'll look if I can produce backgrounds from any of em.
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Old 2010-03-21, 08:15   Link #490
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Originally Posted by Starburst View Post
I didn't miss this point, I just forgot to address it. I mostly don't buy the point that large retailers wouldn't accept the book. It's always large retailers that I find an anime section at all, at least in Canada. Places like Chapters, huge book stores, seem to stock a good variety of manga. The only places that offer more are specialty shops, and they obviously would have stocked this with the original cover anyway.
This isnt necessarily the same everywhere. If I wander into a small bookshop, there is ALWAYS a sci-fi section, always. However a manga/light novel section... theres about 1/2 in my town, out of all the shops, and there aren't THAT many big bookshops anymore either.
As was brought up earlier, Light Novels are an experimentation, if the series even looks like it might be unsuccessful, it has a much higher chance of getting dropped for something more dependable, if even a few of the companies that pick this stuff up rejected Spice and Wolf, that would have put the projects future in doubt, and possibly other projects as well, Yen Press is a very small part of Hachette Books. Playing it safe reduces the chance of this happening, and however you look at it, the new cover was a much safer bet to draw interest in the international (not just US) market than the original, which carries its own stigma.

Quote:
This is the part that angers me and I don't like this line of thought at all. Abuse the fans because they'll buy it anyway. That's not a good method of gaining support for your product. It's generally those who like your product who talk about it and recommend it to their friends. If they're angry with you, they're less likely to say pleasant things.
Come on, its a new cover, it's hardly abuse. If they wanted to completely distance it from what it was they wou;ld have removed everything like the chibi drawings, and the pages with art panels. I think some people have taken the change of cover a bit TOOOO seriously, yeah the covers changed, but this happens with MANY titles in MANY territories, not just Japan -> US, and not just to Spice and Wolf. The content of the book is identical bar the language.

Quote:
I'm not disagreeing with the nudity on the front. I'm not a prude, I enjoy the female figure, especially Horos. It's the manner in which they present it, it creates a distasteful feel for me. Perhaps I'm exaggerating by using smutty, I imagine the word may hold different strength in different circles and locales. If I had to choose an alternate word I would choose cheap.
I do and dont agree with this, as I say I dont really see anything particularly smutty, risque or anything with the cover, there is far worse on TV, to the point Im not even sure it counts as cheap. But yes, they could have done a better picture which depicted the point the cover was trying to get across, but I guess they opted for a picture that stands out. Hopefully they learn with the second volume. Im actually quite interested to see what the second cover looks like.

Quote:
I said potential audience. Similar to those they're trying to appeal to via the fantasy novel cover, except they prefer and enjoy anime. They don't know the series, haven't heard of it, but see the cover and something about it appeals to them.

But like you say, smaller audience, who cares about them.
Its not about not caring, or like I said already, they'd have removed all the other drawings etc, its trying to bring the book to a wider range of people.
People into Anime/Manga may well have heard of the property already, especially because of how well its done in Japan and I've seen it recommended at least a few times, hell thats how I found the series myself. People outside of this segment won't though, so they need to work harder to appeal to them, a cover with more mainstream credibility is one way to do that. The new cover would fit inside your average sci-fi section, and the book itself could be put into the Japanese section as well, if they have one, giving it a dual placement. The original cover would usually result in the book being relegated to a corner somewhere because of the stigma and generally niche target audience, whereas the overall sci-fi community is much larger, and gives the book a chance to be picked up by a wider range of retailers, such as those who ignore anime/manga and purely focus on stuff billed as scifi, there are a few BIG mail order clubs on this side of the pond who deal with stuff like that.

Quote:
I'm not against widening the audience, but I am against deceiving the new audience. It's interesting that you mention in a capitalist world profiting off S&W is the only way we'll be able to read it. Because this is untrue. There was a wiki project where people donated their time to translating the series of light novels for free. A good portion of the novels were translated, but now that Yen Press has licensed the material and requested it's removal, it's no longer available and can only be had when Yen Press gets around to releasing it. This means that while I've read up until I believe Volume 5, I get to wait another 2.25 years til I get to read volume 6. So them licensing it hasn't allowed people to read it, it's just allowed people to profit from those reading it. Which while I admit is fair to the author, doesn't mean we would never have been able to read it otherwise.
I meant legitimately.
Whilst the fan translations is a great idea it has drawbacks:
A) Its a niche project, I only saw it by luck, and Im sure many others who could enjoy the series would never have seen it, ever. Fan translations also vary in quality and how well they stick to the original material, or whether they change the flavour of anything; a fairly common complaint about anime subs/dubs as well.
B) Is it genuinely a good thing that the author gets nothing for his work? By licensing the work out in the western world, not only is the series getting brought to a wider range of people and availability, but the author himself and the people he work for are getting rewarded for the work, much as it may be laughable, money can be an exceptional motivation, but even more importantly also pays bills to allow people time to write stuff!
Its not only about money either, it's also about showing support, as far as it goes in the world, people reading free, unlicensed scanlations/translations do not count. Businesses do not necessarily see these figures, what they want to see is cold hard sales or similar, its only by supporting the works of Isuna Hasekura and others like him, that works continue to get published, written and new works sought out. If there's no market, the avaibility of materials dries up full stop. Why do you think there are so few bookstores these days; people just aren't buying books in the same way.
I say this as a low level background writer on a project myself (although it is just a small part time media project and the work its going into will likely not see the light of day for a few years). If the book market dies out because people think its no longer commercially viable, there will still be stuff published, but how much do you really think? Without support and a target market, a large number of books would just never happen.

Yeah, the wait for the licensed novels is painstaking, and I'd love to have 'em quicker, but the translation is up to a good and relatively consistant standard by all accounts, and without the support of fans and the marketplace, books like Spice and Wolf would never have happened in the first place.
After all, isn't it mentioned in an afterword the original idea/book was written for a competition, a competition likely funded by either an arts, book, or commercial concern.

If everyone just reads fan translations or similar, it only hurts the market in the long run, and will only reduce the number of works out there, if it gets to the point businesses can no longer viably perform the way they need to, or those businesses interest in certain markets and fields. As the saying goes, money talks while bull**** walks.
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Last edited by tyranuus; 2010-03-21 at 08:27.
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Old 2010-03-21, 11:54   Link #491
Starburst
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tyranuus View Post
Aye that's very true, it could just as much be a bit of fun. Isuna Hasakura wouldn't be the first author to have an idea or a very rough framework of how his books end before hes finished writing them however

Its a nice picture anyway. If any more decent scans are produced at a reasonable size (I know Starburst mentioned DPI is lower, but then I had to massively scale down the last print anyway ) I'll look if I can produce backgrounds from any of em.
I can try processing through the RAW scans I made. I just wanted to make posters, and 1000 pixels height or whatever they were working out to just wasn't going to cut it. I need something more along the lines of 6000 pixels like my Eruru poster had.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tyranuus View Post
This isnt necessarily the same everywhere. If I wander into a small bookshop, there is ALWAYS a sci-fi section, always. However a manga/light novel section... theres about 1/2 in my town, out of all the shops, and there aren't THAT many big bookshops anymore either.
As was brought up earlier, Light Novels are an experimentation, if the series even looks like it might be unsuccessful, it has a much higher chance of getting dropped for something more dependable, if even a few of the companies that pick this stuff up rejected Spice and Wolf, that would have put the projects future in doubt, and possibly other projects as well, Yen Press is a very small part of Hachette Books. Playing it safe reduces the chance of this happening, and however you look at it, the new cover was a much safer bet to draw interest in the international (not just US) market than the original, which carries its own stigma.
Didn't need to restate half of this. My comment was 'well here it's like this' you need only counter with 'well here it's like this'. I understand that it's an experiment and increasing odds of success is important. But it's been said already.

Quote:
Come on, its a new cover, it's hardly abuse. If they wanted to completely distance it from what it was they wou;ld have removed everything like the chibi drawings, and the pages with art panels. I think some people have taken the change of cover a bit TOOOO seriously, yeah the covers changed, but this happens with MANY titles in MANY territories, not just Japan -> US, and not just to Spice and Wolf. The content of the book is identical bar the language.
Fine, they exploited the fans of the series.


Quote:
I do and dont agree with this, as I say I dont really see anything particularly smutty, risque or anything with the cover, there is far worse on TV, to the point Im not even sure it counts as cheap. But yes, they could have done a better picture which depicted the point the cover was trying to get across, but I guess they opted for a picture that stands out. Hopefully they learn with the second volume. Im actually quite interested to see what the second cover looks like.
Just because you see worse on TV doesn't mean the cover isn't something. Maybe that just means TV is worse? Regardless, they opted to go the cheap route.

Quote:
Its not about not caring, or like I said already, they'd have removed all the other drawings etc, its trying to bring the book to a wider range of people.
People into Anime/Manga may well have heard of the property already, especially because of how well its done in Japan and I've seen it recommended at least a few times, hell thats how I found the series myself. People outside of this segment won't though, so they need to work harder to appeal to them, a cover with more mainstream credibility is one way to do that. The new cover would fit inside your average sci-fi section, and the book itself could be put into the Japanese section as well, if they have one, giving it a dual placement. The original cover would usually result in the book being relegated to a corner somewhere because of the stigma and generally niche target audience, whereas the overall sci-fi community is much larger, and gives the book a chance to be picked up by a wider range of retailers, such as those who ignore anime/manga and purely focus on stuff billed as scifi, there are a few BIG mail order clubs on this side of the pond who deal with stuff like that.
Ok so they care, change the cover anyway because it makes better business sense and ignore them anyway.

Quote:
I meant legitimately.
Whilst the fan translations is a great idea it has drawbacks:
A) Its a niche project, I only saw it by luck, and Im sure many others who could enjoy the series would never have seen it, ever. Fan translations also vary in quality and how well they stick to the original material, or whether they change the flavour of anything; a fairly common complaint about anime subs/dubs as well.
A) It doesn't have to be. It just is because of licensing and the idea it new. If the project was allowed to grow the quality of content too would grow as well as expand quicker. As for fan translations varying, depends on the group and people involved. But I think that's true for any translation of anything. More often than not I prefer fansubbed anime over professionally subbed. I still buy to support, but the fan subs are better produced, oddly. But I do tend to stick to the better subbing groups.

Quote:
B) Is it genuinely a good thing that the author gets nothing for his work? By licensing the work out in the western world, not only is the series getting brought to a wider range of people and availability, but the author himself and the people he work for are getting rewarded for the work, much as it may be laughable, money can be an exceptional motivation, but even more importantly also pays bills to allow people time to write stuff!
Its not only about money either, it's also about showing support, as far as it goes in the world, people reading free, unlicensed scanlations/translations do not count. Businesses do not necessarily see these figures, what they want to see is cold hard sales or similar, its only by supporting the works of Isuna Hasekura and others like him, that works continue to get published, written and new works sought out. If there's no market, the avaibility of materials dries up full stop. Why do you think there are so few bookstores these days; people just aren't buying books in the same way.
I say this as a low level background writer on a project myself (although it is just a small part time media project and the work its going into will likely not see the light of day for a few years). If the book market dies out because people think its no longer commercially viable, there will still be stuff published, but how much do you really think? Without support and a target market, a large number of books would just never happen.

Yeah, the wait for the licensed novels is painstaking, and I'd love to have 'em quicker, but the translation is up to a good and relatively consistant standard by all accounts, and without the support of fans and the marketplace, books like Spice and Wolf would never have happened in the first place.
After all, isn't it mentioned in an afterword the original idea/book was written for a competition, a competition likely funded by either an arts, book, or commercial concern.

If everyone just reads fan translations or similar, it only hurts the market in the long run, and will only reduce the number of works out there, if it gets to the point businesses can no longer viably perform the way they need to, or those businesses interest in certain markets and fields. As the saying goes, money talks while bull**** walks.
No, an author should always get something for his work. But I was mearly pointing out an alternate method to reading the books, as you'd mentioned that they would otherwise have gone untranslated, which wasn't true.

But expanding on that...

Licensing your content to publishers does have the potential to increase your audience. But so does the Internet. One can offer their content freely until they have a large audience, then sell them things. Web comics, and authors do this all the time. Penny Arcade and Wil Wheaton are I think good examples of this.

An additional benefit to using the Internet to publish, the overhead is incredibly low. You can publish online for $10/mo which is nothing. You can even sell your eBooks for whatever and it's 99% profit. Wil Wheaton uses Lulu to sell his books, using their Book Cost Calculator, printing one 240 page book (Spice & Wolf) would cost $9.30. That's a single book, the more you make the lower the per unit cost. Wil charges $20 for his book Memories of the Future Volume 1, at 138 pages (as per the digital copy I bought for $10). So even if he were to sell one that's $12.74 profit. If he sells 1,000, that's $16,320 profit as the per unit cost drops to some $3.68.

But anyway I'm getting too far off topic. I only mentioned the wiki project off handedly and don't expect the entire industry to change just because Wil Wheaton publishes books online. Just offering an alternative perspective to the old fashioned thoughts I felt you presented, that being that without licensing and publishers one couldn't get their content to a wide audience.

Oh yeah, it's fan translations that created this whole market. But that's another arguement for another day, in another thread.
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Old 2010-03-22, 12:47   Link #492
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rajura View Post
....
Besides, I have a few S&W short stories in Nihongo (that the only way I could get them was in scan format from a friend over there) that will likely never be produced in English (save one... and even that one I am not sure). That is mainly because they are in that mysterious relm I have coined "semi-canon"... they are not dozin, but they do not happen within the timeline or storyline of what is thought of as the world of S&W.

I can still help anyone interested in acquiring them to help complete their S&W "canonical collection"!
Well, than I would like to ask for your , because Im always interested in completing my S&W collection. :]

I in advance.
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Old 2010-03-22, 13:33   Link #493
tyranuus
Team Spice and Wolf UK
 
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: England
Age: 36
Hehe, more S&W is always a good thing
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Old 2010-03-22, 15:45   Link #494
Kaguya
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Suzuka
After that, although I looked into the main auction websites, there was no item of only the bridal-version poster now.
Since hundreds of items are always sold at the auction, the item of only a poster will be found some day.

By the way, the auction item in which I got interested is this.
Spoiler for large pictures:
Although this is not related to an auction, it is the canned bread which I bought in Toranoana before.
Spoiler for large pictures:
PS
This is the apple candy which I bought in the festival day last week.

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Old 2010-03-22, 15:56   Link #495
tyranuus
Team Spice and Wolf UK
 
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: England
Age: 36
Hahah, now those are awesome. I wonder if those art frames from the animation come framed to stop them getting damaged. If they released some of those as coloured cells (like you see being released for some famous american moves) they'd make really good collectors items, I'd buy one if it didnt cost me a bomb to buy/import, as its some sweet drawing, and its not quite as unexplainable as say, the slightly iffy pillow covers

Is that a cup with that canned bread. I'd actually buy one of those if I ever saw it not costing a bomb
I dont really go for collectables but that'd be a really sweet thing to have, and you could get away with having it in your cupboard without too many funny looks

The box artwork is good too...shame you dont get that sort of stuff over here

*Goes back to wanting a Spice and Wolf Season 3...a lot...and more novels, and an increase in the publication rate!*
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Old 2010-03-22, 16:48   Link #496
Starburst
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Age: 39
I want a scan of that card!

I've never been a fan of the key animation drawings or individual cells. More a fan of a finished product. I'm always reminded of the Simpsons episode where Bart buys the Itchy and Scratchy animation cell of like, one of their legs.

Always a fan of more artwork though, in completed form. Ended up buying the Spice & Wolf Dengeki Comic Anthology Manga book, which will be great since I can't read it lol.

Kaguya, do you run a German blog? I recall seeing that bread box reviewed on a German blog.
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Old 2010-03-22, 18:14   Link #497
Rajura
My wolfu is >> your waifu
 
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Charleston, West Virginia
Age: 42
Man Kaguya, those items you posted are great... and I am nerd enough to wanna buy them. I agree with Star... I am more of a fan of the fonished product and a colo(u)red cell would be great, but I'd be happy with sketch cells!

I'm waiting to see if the Dengeki Anthology gets an English makeover as I will be broke if I buy everything in Eng. and Nih. (If it will, it will be announced within the next 6 months... I'm fairly sure).

I have seen that mug available for sale on a few sites... know for certain I've seen it on Yahoo Japan at one point. There is at least one other mug I have seen with Hol(r)o on it. May break down and get 'em if I ever saw them together, but I don't wanna go off the deep end getting S&W merchandise!

Oh and mmmmmmmmm... candy apples are always a good idea!
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Old 2010-03-23, 03:03   Link #498
Starburst
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Age: 39
Found the artbook on Mandarake just now. Only ¥1,100!

http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/shop/en/item_s-155603.html
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Old 2010-03-23, 04:08   Link #499
Rajura
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Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Charleston, West Virginia
Age: 42
Quote:
Originally Posted by Starburst View Post
Found the artbook on Mandarake just now. Only ¥1,100!

http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/shop/en/item_s-155603.html

Arggggh! I had by-passed them earlier because so much of their stuff had been too expensive when I looked... sorry!
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Old 2010-03-23, 04:50   Link #500
Starburst
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Age: 39
Mandarake tends to be the cheapest source I've found for 90% of things. Never think to look there for anything but figures though.
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