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I agree with what has been said above.
Light Novels actually have more pottential to take the entire country by storm than Manga or Anime does. Unlike comics or animation, novels are and have been apart of american culture for a very long time.
The LN publishers of today mostly dont have a clue what they should be doing to help LN's sell.
For one, we should not be marketing to manga fans. Light Novels are not always loved by manga fans, in fact, usually there are huge differences in the minds of LN fans and Manga fans (I'm one of those that enjoys both. XD).
If teachers and librarians were explained about what Light Novels were, then they would LOVE them and actually PROMOTE them. Think about it. Most teachers and Librarians are NOT HAPPY ABOUT MANGA. They want their kids READING REAL NOVELS. If companies were to make educational materials and send them to Teachers and Librarians explaining how they could get their teens or kids to read books that had a manga theme, but were actually novels. They'd be all over it!
And as for average readers that are adults, how do you market light novels to them? By marketing it as an easy to read alternative for the busy worker of today. Tell them that they should read a Light Novel because you can read it in a day (which means if they read a chapter per day, they could read it with almost no sweating in a week). And ofcourse advertise it as cutting edge fiction with storylines that have not been seen in the WEST before and are imaginative and will capture the readers imagination.
And on another note, they also need to go onto TV. Sure they can't afford a commercial yet, but they could certainly schedule an appearance on Opera or another talk show where they could discuss their Light Novels and make millions of people suddenly aware (they'd better get a guy who is a good talker to do it though).
So yea, Light Novels have huge pottential. I certainly hope Haruhi DOES become a, as Yen Press put it, "Household Name". As I hope Spice and Wolf does as well.
-Marr
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