Rednal wrote:*Sips tea*
So, I was at Sakura-Con in Seattle, USA today, and I attended a Q&A panel with Gen Urobuchi (writer, Madoka Magica and Fate/Zero), Atsuhiro Iwakami (producer, Madoka Magica anime, Kara no Kyoukai, other Aniplex stuff), and Katsushi Ota (editor and Vice President, Kodansha novel publishing division). A question came up about Light Novels being available in English more, and according to Ota, they'd visited an American bookstore (Barnes & Noble, to be exact), and were highly impressed by its size and selection. To the point that, apparently, they're seriously rethinking their position about publishing Light Novels in America (they were quite happy about the question coming up, and I don't think the excessive applause when they said all this hurt our chances any). Also, Urobuchi didn't really want Fate/Zero translated because Fate/Stay Night has no official translation (he wanted the original work first), but now he's open to the idea of Fate/Zero coming over as a way to try and make Fate/Stay Night available as well.
In other words, there's a realistic possibility that more Light Novels may be translated into English officially sometime in the near-ish future. o wo They seem to think there's a market after all.
Only in America? Well, can I join as a translator if they do hire people
?
Anyway, it's good that they have an interest (or so they said), but the publishers have to know that due to the difference in cultures between Japan and NA, they aren't going to get much profit from sales (even when looking at Haruhi by Yen Press, which was a moderate hit). It would be like selling Harry Potter in other languages, except these aren't going to earn as much money. If they do continue on with trying to sell translated LN in NA, I'm fine with it (though this website will most likely shut down if most of the titles are taken), but we have to understand that they will have to test the market here first (Yen Press did a good job as compared to the other companies. Viz Media? Tokyopop? Hmm...) before they actually start on this. I'll say (in a very optimistic manner), it'll take at least another 3 years before they actually start on this seriously if they even start at all.
This is basically SHAFT's answer to Shana lol...give another 5 years.