Comments on: Viagra Buy

By: ThisIsDepressing

ThisIsDepressing — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 07:21:15 +0000

For all you people thanking Yen Press for “listening to your customers”, I think you’re confused about something.

Please recall this GEM of a statement from a previous post:

“The unfortunate reality we face, though, is that these designs that we adore, while they work brilliantly in markets where manga is ubiquitous, tend not to be impactful with more general audiences here — and we want everybody to enjoy these books! So the challenge we have to undertake is to come up with new cover designs for these fantastic books in hopes of garnering for them the readership they deserve…What we hope, though, is that those fans understand our reasons for making these changes and will turn out to support this property that they know and love and in turn support the success of light novels in general in this market so that one day — hopefully! — we’ll be in a very different place where we can confidently and successfully utilize the original cover art for these books. What I’d really like to see come to pass is the day where light novels are actually bringing new readers into the manga community!” (http://www.yenpress.com/?p=1696)

So, basically, the plan was to try to draw in people who are not fans of Japanese light novels by placing generic fantasy genre art on the cover, then turn said fans into fans of light novels……..and then return to using the original Japanese covers?

Rather than thanking the people at Yen Press for a lazy quick-fix (the slipcover…which still has the ugly and generic fantasy genre typography), you should be questioning their business philosophy and/or logic.

Do they really have YOUR (the FANS’) interests in mind?

(Hint: They don’t; what they have in mind is garnering new readership (fans that aren’t YOU) by spitting on another person’s (Ayakura Juu’s (the illustrator for the Spice and Wolf light novels in Japan)) creative work.)

Should they REALLY be thanked for allowing the abomination that is the cover of Spice and Wolf volume 1 to ever grace the shelves of bookstores?

I’m not going to answer these questions for the Yen Press fanbase (or the Spice and Wolf light novel fanbase for that matter), but the next time you consider purchasing a Yen Press publication, please remember this scandalous affair.

By: karchesky :: Blog :: Harvest Goddess Daughter

karchesky :: Blog :: Harvest Goddess Daughter — Fri, 14 May 2010 06:10:18 +0000

[...] Spice and Wolf (or Wolf and Spice, as you wish) is a series of light novels, manga and anime about… huh, market economics, trade and coin exchange in a vaguely middle-ages-like world. Yeah… I wouldn’t have gone for it either. As it turns out, it’s a really good read, and it achieves this [mainly]by virtue of the witty, amusing, endearing and constant banter between Horo and main character Lawrence (a travelling salesman). I specially like that the characters are as far away from common clichés as possible. Definitely recommended (for once, that doesn’t link to Amazon, since they don’t sell it with the slipcover). [...]

By: charizardpal

charizardpal — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 05:39:55 +0000

Well looking to the future, I hope you’ll announce a similar cover option for volume 2, or maybe just add an extra (original) color page inside the book. It makes a huge difference for certain fans; just to illustrate, the main reason I never bought Viz’s Shakugan no Shana light novel series, (and I came close several times), was because I knew they had not only changed the cover, but had actually heavily censored the risque inside art too… (I now have the original Japanese version nicely decorating my shelf, but it seems I can’t actually read it. Though it’s great to look at…)

…For your information my local Borders still filed the book alphabetically in the manga section…..

By: Andrew A. Sailer

Andrew A. Sailer — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:11:29 +0000

I FINALLY I got to read your content, there is definately a problem with your XHtml. Have you tried verifying it through W3? It could just be A theme problem though… Just thought I would warn you from one webmaster to another because I would hate to lose my traffic if I had an issue and didn’t notice.

By: Brad

Brad — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:18:31 +0000

Got add once again when I look at the cover, (had to get mine retail) It really upsets me at how terrible it is. I could have stomached a cover change but the cover they went with looks badly photo-shopped by a 13 year old. And makes it look like a trashy romance novel. Makes one wonder if the creator of the crap cover even read the book. Horos playfulness is in her Intelligence. Not looking like a streaker, which yes she was naked when they first met but that was a very short part of the series, she is in clothing the entire rest of the story.

Sorry to be a broken record but this still pisses me off.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:23:10 +0000

Forgot to add this, but perhaps you could update the main post to note that Archonia is also participating in the offer? Even though many of the frequent visitors of YenPress.us already know, for newcomers it may always be a nice little extra fact.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:20:52 +0000

This is probably a reply to an outdated post, but I wanted to let you know I received my copy of S&W today, after ordering it from Archonia.com (within two days!) And yes, it came with the limited slipcover. I’m writing this comment because 1) I want to thank Yen Press again for offering this option and 2) to all of you who haven’t bought the novel yet because they felt ‘betrayed’; please DO order it now when the slipcover is still available(either via RightStuf or Archonia) and you won’t be disappointed! (It’s nicer than I expected, glossy and all!) (The picture pages are nicely colored as well.) If you’re a fan of this series, or simply want to support Yen Press and a possible bright market for light novels, just get off your high horse and buy it!

By: dziwny

dziwny — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:11:35 +0000

I just finish reading S&W bought from Archonia.com in last month. In my opinion Yen Press translation is much better than fansub version, not mention good quality of printing. I only hope Yen Press will publish all volumes, and not drop series like Seven Seas Entertainment do with Ballad of Shinigami and others novels.

By: Anon

Anon — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 07:38:40 +0000

And all the fansites that were translating the S&W novel received a C&D letter (Cease and Desist) so we cant find anymore the fan translations of books 2,3,4…12 when still Yenpress is YEARS behind their work. Seriously do you think that those fan-translations would hurt your sales? when actually you have received such a good welcome from the public with the sales, actually i have read the translations those dont stoped me from buying the Vol.1 and have in pre-order Vol.2, they where the reason of WHY im buying this… you guys seriously know how to ruin your own business.

By: Brad

Brad — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 22:12:15 +0000

Ill add this dust cover thing felt like back peddling and since i got my retail makes it even more frustrating. Not all of us have accesses or want to use online stores. Only reason i but things from you is because you are the only ones putting them out. THE ONLY REASON.