<p>Light Novels are indeed harder to translate, but that isn't the real cause for their delay. The market for LN is really small outside Japan for a number of reasons so companies aren't interested in publishing them unless they are for very famous franchises (like Haruhi), and even then it's very risky.</p>

<p>As I said, translations and edition arent the reason <em>per se</em>, but that also affects. Translations in sites like Baka-Tsuki, while being done with lots of effort and having lots of stages for correction and quality check, doesn't quite fit the quality expected for a commercial release. Even in Baka-Tsuki the translations takes lots of time to be published, corrected and polished, so you can imagine how long that would take for a commercial-quality release.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-08T02:31:24.683Z
+1. The author of Log Horizon said the sole issue with translating his LNs is profitability. Finding a good translator is merely a matter of price.
Lawton
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-05-02T17:52:14.173Z
Marketing is another issue. If you don't market your titles, who's (aside from people that are already fans) going to know you can get it?
кяαzєя
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-11T22:30:32.133Z
I think the marketing aspect is probably what killed the US release of Nisio Isin's Zaregoto novels. They didn't have a famous anime behind them like Haruhi did, and even the Bakemonogatari anime hadn't been released over here at the time, so they had no marketing power at all.
Torisuda
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-19T10:08:47.507Z
2013-11-19T10:08:47.507Z
Ikzer
<p>There is a lot of great series translated by folks like Baka-Tsuki - so, why do series take forever to end up over here, and for that matter, once they're licensed - how come some releases are so spread apart?</p>

<ul>
<li><em>Spice and Wolf</em> used to be a 6-month release cycle from Yen Press - it has been reduced now but this is still quite long</li>
<li><em>The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya</em>, <em>The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan</em>, and others also find themselves on strange timelines.</li>
</ul>

<p>Does it really take that long to translate or is there something else here? I've heard things like they're licensed one at a time and they gauge sales before going on.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-18T22:34:59.883Z
Have you _read_ anything translated by Baka-Tsuki? Most of it is unpolished barely-English rubbish that would never pass muster at an actual publishing company. Producing good translations of novel-length fiction is difficult, and so I'm not surprised that it takes a while. (Of course, there may be other factors; this is just one that immediately comes to mind.)
senshin
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-18T23:19:46.463Z
Light Novels is a smaller market than Manga or the usual products, so companies are usually wary about licensing them unless their anime/manga counterparts are large hits
Toshinou Kyouko
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-19T09:05:33.913Z
Baka Tsuki only translates things legally by the way. That could be part of the reason. They get permission before they put it on their website.
krikara
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-19T09:54:00.017Z
That's not right, Baka-Tsuki does not translate really "legally", and they of course don't get permission of the original publishers. That said, they're not exactly "illegal" either, they're in a gray area.
Ikzer
<light-novel-production>
Why do so few light novels make it over via timely translation?
# Why do so few light novels make it over via timely translation?
Posted by: username_0 on 2013-11-18
There is a lot of great series translated by folks like Baka-Tsuki - so, why do series take forever to end up over here, and for that matter, once they're licensed - how come some releases are so spread apart?

* *Spice and Wolf* used to be a 6-month release cycle from Yen Press - it has been reduced now but this is still quite long
* *The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya*, *The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan*, and others also find themselves on strange timelines.

Does it really take that long to translate or is there something else here? I've heard things like they're licensed one at a time and they gauge sales before going on.
**Tags:** light-novel-production
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Have you _read_ anything translated by Baka-Tsuki? Most of it is unpolished barely-English rubbish that would never pass muster at an actual publishing company. Producing good translations of novel-length fiction is difficult, and so I'm not surprised that it takes a while. (Of course, there may be other factors; this is just one that immediately comes to mind.)  
> **username_2**: Light Novels is a smaller market than Manga or the usual products, so companies are usually wary about licensing them unless their anime/manga counterparts are large hits  
> **username_3**: Baka Tsuki only translates things legally by the way. That could be part of the reason. They get permission before they put it on their website.  
> **username_4**: That's not right, Baka-Tsuki does not translate really "legally", and they of course don't get permission of the original publishers. That said, they're not exactly "illegal" either, they're in a gray area.  
---
## 1 answers
### Answer by username_4 on 2013-11-19. Score: 6
Light Novels are indeed harder to translate, but that isn't the real cause for their delay. The market for LN is really small outside Japan for a number of reasons so companies aren't interested in publishing them unless they are for very famous franchises (like Haruhi), and even then it's very risky.

As I said, translations and edition arent the reason *per se*, but that also affects. Translations in sites like Baka-Tsuki, while being done with lots of effort and having lots of stages for correction and quality check, doesn't quite fit the quality expected for a commercial release. Even in Baka-Tsuki the translations takes lots of time to be published, corrected and polished, so you can imagine how long that would take for a commercial-quality release.
> **Comments:**
> **username_5** (2013-12-08): +1. The author of Log Horizon said the sole issue with translating his LNs is profitability. Finding a good translator is merely a matter of price.  
> **username_6** (2014-05-02): Marketing is another issue. If you don't market your titles, who's (aside from people that are already fans) going to know you can get it?  
> **username_7** (2014-11-11): I think the marketing aspect is probably what killed the US release of Nisio Isin's Zaregoto novels. They didn't have a famous anime behind them like Haruhi did, and even the Bakemonogatari anime hadn't been released over here at the time, so they had no marketing power at all.  
---
