The holiday season is upon us, and not everything is merry and bright. With current events slowing down global supply chains at every turn, shortages have cropped up in every industry. From food to computer chips to paper, there’s a lot of items people won’t be checking off their respective wishlists this year. And while the paper shortage is already hitting bookstores and publishers fairly hard, one manga publisher has taken steps to craft a solution.
Announced during AnimeNYC, manga publisher Yen Press stated that several light novel audiobooks are being released throughout the next year based on several of the publisher’s most popular titles. The three titles being released are Spice and Wolf by Isuna Hasekura, Okina Baba’s So I’m a Spider, So What? and Hajime Kamoshida’s Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai. The first volume of the Spice and Wolf audiobook will release on March 15th, the first volume of So I’m a Spider, So What? will release on April 12th, and Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai will release on June 14th.
While Yen Press recently dedicated an entire panel at AnimeNYC to the publisher’s future endeavors into light novel audiobook publishing, these three upcoming titles aren’t their first foray into audiobook publishing. Earlier in the month, they published an audiobook of the first volume of The Saga of Tanya the Evil, which was narrated by voice actress Monica Rial who voices Tanya in the English dub.
It’ll be interesting to see how Yen Press’ future success in audiobooks shapes the rest of the manga publishing industry. While it manages to be a creative solution concerning the industry’s paper shortages, whether or not it manages to be a cost-effective solution remains to be seen. Audio and e-book formats continue to be a thorn in the side of both consumers and libraries alike.
They may cost less for the publisher to produce, but consumers and institutions manage to eat the cost as digital book formats must be leased by larger institutions for exorbitant fees and the practice of using DRM (Digital Rights Management) tools means that consumers may one day find their favorite audio and e-books missing from their libraries, even though they assumed that those items were under their private ownership after purchase, much like a print book.
Even with all the pros and cons of the situation, one can’t help but think of all the light novels that will need to be narrated if Yen Press’ newest venture really takes flight. Imagine someone narrating Goblin Slayer? Or Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? The possibilities are truly endless.
Source: Anime News Network
