Forum - View topicWhat Happened to Sol Press?
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StarfighterPegasus
 Posts: 149 |
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I hope that a publisher picks up the titles. I really want to pick up Battle Divas volume two and three, along with Failed Knight.
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Sheleigha
 Posts: 1671 |
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I know I'm SoL with back all 3 of their Kickstarter VNs too, since Paypal doesn't go back that far for refunds :/ I only say them doing refunds for some of the LNs they did. The worst part, was that they seemed to have a lot of the goods in hand too. However, since they legally csnnot operate as a business, I'm not sure what happens to these goods that did get produced, just sitting there :/ I did hear that some groups reached out to try and help finish fulfilling the backer rewards, since they sounded like they were almost done, but it did not look positive...
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EmperorBrandon
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 2209 Location: Springfield, MO |
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I wanted to get Chivalry of a Failed Knight, but never did due to inconvenience of them apparently not offering physical copies through either Right Stuf or Amazon. I was not up to bothering with their site (and in retrospect for good reason now I guess).
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Cryten
 Posts: 987 |
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For the people wondering why even if the contracts fold why Sol would need to be negotiated with for translation rescues: Translations being the work of interpretation of another work are themselves protected by Intellectual Property. Those translations irrespective of the Original product are the property of Sol until they expire or are transferred. Unless specifically contracted to produce the translations by the Japanese rights holders, which is very unlikely. Any new translation that is too close to these translations (which is highly likely) will leave themselves open to be sued by whoever controls the first translations rights.
In the case of most companies owed money they wouldnt hesitate to try and recoup money against anyone who left themselves open to suing. Many older titles of classics are not rescued because of this very reason. Unless the holding company gets compensated. |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9841 Location: Virginia |
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@EmperorBrandon
They did offer three volumes of Chivalry of a Failed Knight on Amazon at one point. A month or so later they cancelled two of those. The first volume did ship many months late. |
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WisteriaCrow
Posts: 5 |
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This has been such a wild ride, following with Sol Press all the way to this point. Roughly two years ago, I was actually researching how to get into the manga licensing and publishing industry, and Valdez, as the CEO of such a "company," actually offered a phone call with me to discuss how Sol Press started and how the industry works. We chatted for about an hour on various topics, including (non-specifics about) his meetings with foreign executives and working with freelancers.
To echo what the article says, Valdez absolutely had charisma. From his initially open-door-policy on Reddit to his phone call with me, he was very pleasant and incredibly ambitious. He truly did come off as someone you wanted to get along with and work alongside. I can only imagine that he really did get in over his head with costs, but I can't imagine what happened with the ghosting. Last I heard from him was early last year about changing my shipping address. Sucks for everyone who backed the company. I had an order for three manga volumes in, and unfortunately even back last fall TSmalls wasn't able to refund my order. The community and seemingly the rest of those involved with Sol Press all seemed so genuine about their support and passion that it really is a shame what the end result has become. Hoping some company does rescue many of these licenses, and possibly gives the Sol Press team a new chance in the industry. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6867 Location: Kazune City |
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Another example of why those who want presently-existing companies to go out of business and get replaced by upstart disruptive innovators should be careful what they wish for.
If the translation rights can't be transferred or released, I wonder if it'd be an option for other companies to pick up the licenses to LN series and continue from where Sol Press left off. That way, they wouldn't be retranslating already-released material, and could continue serving the fans of those titles. |
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EmperorBrandon
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 2209 Location: Springfield, MO |
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I might have missed the window for it. At any point I checked, physical was not possible to order. |
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Electric Wooloo
Posts: 311 |
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A darn shame about the licenses
I vaguely remember hearing a couple years ago about GochiUsa getting licensed only to realize it was eBook only. Wanting physical copies to add to my Kirara collection I decided to wait and see if they would get released only for this to happen. Guess the license is stuck in purgatory for now. All I can do is hope someone like Yen Press picks it (Blend S would be nice too). Maybe I;ll go fill out a survey for them. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9841 Location: Virginia |
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Can anyone think of a light novel series that was successfully license rescued? I'm not familiar with digital only versions so there may be something there. Even if you want to include manga, I can only think of a handful of rescues and only a couple or so that were successfully completed by the rescuing publisher.
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Blanchimont
 Posts: 3448 Location: Finland |
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Slayers. Tokyopop released 8 volumes(between 2004-2008), and j-novel licensed it in 2020 and are doing their own translation, their release is up to 12 volumes currently. On the other hand, it's Slayers... |
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Pit93#934865
Posts: 4 |
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If somebody were to rescue Rakudai, I fortunately wouldn't have to double dip as I never supported Sol Press in the first place. I avoid Sol Press and Yen Press like the plague due to their weird "localization" decisions, like changing names of character (even main characters) and the removal of suffixes, when it's really not an issue (or rather it creates issues).
So if Kodansha or Seven Seas or JNC were to get Rakudai and retranslate it, I'd be more than happy to buy both physical and digital copies. I already have them in Japanese anyway. |
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Fluwm
 Posts: 889 |
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What's that last comment meant to imply? Anyway, JNC also salvaged the Full Metal Panic license, and recently finished publishing the (main) series in English. Which was also a holdover from Tokyopop, who put out the first five books in English years and years ago. And I think Yotsubato&! also changed publishers midway through? I don't remember too well. But, yeah, Tokyopop's collapse left several licenses in limbo. I will forever resent the fact that only four of the Twelve Kingdoms novels were published in English. |
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GNPixie
Posts: 295 |
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Full Metal Panic. In fact, the J-Novel Club releases are the only full English release (and far better than, at that) since the old Tokyopop release only got two around volume 4 and they were iffy at best. |
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Kendall TV
Posts: 43 |
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Thank you for the explanations. I guess this is what surprised me. Given how controlling Japanese publishers are with their works, I would have expected that they would state in their contract that they become the owners to the translation produced by the licensee. This way, if something bad were to happen to the licensee, as was the case here, Japan would still own the translation and would not have any problems giving it to another licensee to publish. Is that not a common arrangement that is made when licensing mangas and LNs?
I see. Then, I hope the publishers can complete the process without interference from Sol Press. It would be annoying if Sol Press suddenly reappeared to try to stop the process for whatever reason. It's so upsetting that everything has to end this way. |
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