I have a doubt about japanese light novels

[yiyichan989]

Hello, I'm creating my own Japanese inspired light novel, but I have a question.
1-Not being Japanese can I publish on a page of only Japanese light novels?
2- Can my pseudonym be Japanese?
If someone could answer these questions I would appreciate it.

[RobertBMarks]

1-Not being Japanese can I publish on a page of only Japanese light novels?

As far as I know, that really depends on whether the novel is written in Japanese. If it isn't, it's pretty unlikely that anybody visiting the site will be able to read it.

2- Can my pseudonym be Japanese?

It can be whatever you want it to be.

Read Re:Apotheosis | Tapas Web Novels

[YS_og]

As for #1 - Why would you? Not trying to be a jerk, but you're posting in a place where the majority won't be fluent in English. It'd be pretty pointless.
As for #2 - Please be mindful of their naming culture before you choose names. It's looks horribly weebish when you don't.

[NickRowler]

So are you asking about if you can post to a Japanese site for light novels? If you are fluent in Japanese or you got a good translator, sure. But posting an English story to a site with mostly Japanese readers, I doubt they would want to read your story.

As for your pseudonym, I am not sure why. I have heard some people doing that and lying to people about being Japanese when they were actually a white person. It ended up pissing people off. If you are not fluent in Japanese, it can also come off a bit like a crazy otaku. I think if you were honest with people, and not trying to pretend to be something your not, it might be OK. No one will be upset if you called yourself Neko or whatever, because people will know that is just a username.

[yiyichan989]

Hi, I didn't explain myself well. I want to translate it into Japanese and post it on a Japanese light novel site only.

[RobertBMarks]

Ah!

Yes, that would work much better than posting an English novel there.

Don't know about the subtleties of passing yourself off as Japanese as you do it, though...

[Zei_15]

I guess you can do both, but why should you? I mean, you can already self-publish web-fiction on sites such as Amazon, Kobo, B&N, or on free sites such as Tapas, RR, and ScribbleHub. I'm just saying this because when you translate a piece of medium, it loses its originality and its original voice due to inconsistencies between the two languages. Therefore, I feel like the written pieces must be published in the language in which they're written.

[yiyichan989]

I know almost no famous light novels that are English, while Japanese I know many. If I want it to be recognized, I have to publish it in Japanese first, at least that's what I think.

[NickRowler]

Light novels are just a name for a type of genre in Japan. I guess in the west, we have YA, or Young Adult. You can make a YA book with an anime cover or illustrations, similar to what light novels do.

There are English novels that do get imported to Japan, you might not be aware of it because you are looking at it from an outside perceptive.

This is the cover for the Japanese version of Twilight. It was broken up into smaller books and included manga inspired illustrations.

Even if you want to have a Japan translation, you should not be restricting yourself by not also having a version in English, especially if you are fluent in English. I know a lot of anime/manga fans look to Japan with rose color glasses and not realized the reason why some series blew up in popularity is because they were able to reach an international fanbase due to people having access to a translation.

[Freemints30]

Clearly you have not read much western light novels. Or explored the genres Honestly I've seen more than enough make that patreon coin. Even then it's really under a different name in the west

To me your idea seems a bit restrictive in terms of audience and reach. Translating to a language not your native tongue is a gamble if it's not from a well paid team.

I havent seen any OEL light novels that tried that tactic and not get into issues.

[RobertBMarks]

Right...this is starting to look like it needs a proper reality check...

So, the only way this will work is if you are a fluent speaker and writer of Japanese. If you're not, you should drop this idea right now.

My understanding of the Japanese light novel industry is that they will often source new authors and series from web novel sites. These are NOT light novels yet. They become light novels once they get picked up by a Japanese publisher, at which point they are rewritten in the light novel format with the help of a professional editor (so, for example, there are significant differences between the Rising of the Shield Hero web novel and the Rising of the Shield Hero light novel).

The people who work in Japanese media generally are not fluent in English. If you want to deal with them, you have to do it in Japanese. So, the only way that you can get a light novel published in Japan is to have something that reads well in Japanese, and to be able to speak and read the language well enough to get through the contract negotiations, if they are interested at all in the first place (and that interest might disappear as soon as they find out that your Japanese pen name is nothing more than a front).

Then there's the problem of translation. I've done translations from French and German in English. It's not easy. Even with translation software, you have to spend weeks fine tuning the English text into something good and readable. My translation of the first volume of Joffre's Memoirs took almost two months. So, the only way you're going to turn an English text into a Japanese text is with the help of somebody who is fluent in that language cleaning up the translation.

(And I can speak from experience on that too. For the planned third volume of Re:Apotheosis, I'm hoping to get permission to use a character from Re:Creators. So, I contacted Troyca to ask if it was possible to get permission. The language I had to use to get Google translate to go back and forth between languages and keep the same basic meaning was simple to the point of being bad writing. There is no world in which this could work for fiction.)

If you want to break into the Japanese light novel market without being fluent in Japanese, I'm afraid the only way I see it working is to write a good book in your native language as yourself, and be successful enough that a Japanese publisher hears about it and contacts you to get the translation rights.

[YS_og]

I second this. Japanese is just like any other language and you CANNOT use AI translations. You'd need to be fluent and damn fluent. Im N2 certified and I know I still am far from novel writing fluency... very far.

I initially thought you wanted to post in English. Now I too will strongly suggest you don't pursue this endeavor.

[system]

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