Forum - View topic

NEWS: Spice & Wolf Novel's J Cover Offered to Web Retailers

There's nothing really Japanese about the book itself, so there will probably be plenty of people who will pick up the book with the non-Anime cover who not only wouldn't have touched it otherwise but might not even figure out that it was Japanese in the first place.

The cover bound into Yen Plus has one fold in the front of the cover and one fold in the back. To have had the cover folded for insertion in other places would have required the cover to be printed on a larger sheet of paper and folded in three instead of two places, substantially increasing the cost. (The cover is 8 x 18 inches; how is an online seller going to deliver that? Are they going to fold the cover and put it on the book, or what?)

Retailers "who choose to participate in this offer will be shipped the flat (uncreased) jackets to make them available at no additional charge to anyone ordering copies of the novel through their sites."

What volume of Yen Press's magazine is the cover in? I already pre-ordered the book through Diamond from my comic book store, so I can't order it online.

Quote:

I would rather that the book sold well so that we got the rest of the novels translated rather than getting the anime-style cover.

Sorry but no, I don't give money to companies that consider me so stupid that they have to change the cover to let me "understand" it.

you do realize that the alternate cover is not aimed at you, right? it's not that yen press considers the people going to buy this book "stupid", it is meant to catch the eye and interest of people who would shun the book for having a cartoon on the front. anyway, i don't want to fan the fire, so i'll leave it at that.

but i already bought the Yen+ issue yesterday, but i think i'll be satisfied.

I do not live in the US, if the jacket isn't available to a decent online retailer I'm not going to bother.

It isn't, however, the cover the author wanted. And I repeat: this won't help sales. If I can't get the jacket, I won't buy it. Other companies already disgraced the format too much (Tokyopop, Seven Seas).

If people are so willing to put off a book based on the cover, well, perhaps there's no way of it to succeed.

Did it ever work? Shana, Boogiepop, Kino failed miserably. What I don't like, is that this has to be done since the readers are considered so idiot that they cannot understand something different.

Not as an anime or manga fan, but as a general consumer. Yen Press is telling me I'm an idiot, a strange spieces that cannot stand a single picture, so they arbitrarily decided to change it for me. I find it insulting.

It will help sales, despite what you think. This will get more people who would dismiss it as generic anime to pick up the book and actually look at it which is 1 step toward getting them to buy it.

The cover is what attracts the reader to even look at the book. If they see some animated character, they will keep walking.

Shana, Boogiepop and Kino all used the original novel covers. One of the few novels that is still going, Haruhi, uses an alternate cover.

This happens all the time with all other products. This is nothing new. Pictures are toned down and altered all the time. And no, this is saying that the original art would not have caught your eye even thought you would be interested in the book. You really don't understand how important a cover is in selling a non-famous book.

And I should stop myself from adding this, but I'm feeling reckless tonight: If the company is being kind enough to cater to the more rabid fan by printing an extra, Japanese-style cover at extra cost to them and none to you, why complain?

Simple, they shouldn't have done this to begin with.

And I should stop myself from adding this, but I'm feeling reckless tonight: If the company is being kind enough to cater to the more rabid fan by printing an extra, Japanese-style cover at extra cost to them and none to you, why complain? How many of your books remain in utterly perfect, pristine condition with totally unmarred covers after you've read them? Is a crease in a paperback novel that big a deal? This isn't a first edition of Jane Eyre we're talking about.

Ok, but why is it wrong for them to try and make more money, which can then be spent on more licenses and perhaps better marketing? Is appealing to a wider demographic an act of evil on the part of a business?

also the style is not that Japanese at all, the art style is quite "neutral" to me.

This is a light novel and not a novel, there is a difference.

Also selling the light novel by using the new cover is misleading, since that "nude" cover does not represent the contents of the light novel at all.

Oh yeah. ximpalullaorg, Yen Press is still trying to (outwardly) care about fans. They could've appealed to wider audiences by changing names, not doing this slipcover at all, changing content, and whatever else other companies do.