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baihe_media2024-02-19 06:57 pm
douqi) wrote in baihe_media2024-02-19 06:57 pm
Rosmei Officially Announces Ning Yuan Licences
Today Rosmei 'officially' 'announced' on Twitter that they would be publishing English translations of two baihe novels by Ning Yuan, as detailed in this post. The announcement was accompanied by what I hope are two placeholder graphics for the novels (and not the actual covers). Rosmei provided no further details about the genre or general plot of either novel, and no information about the author herself. I therefore took it upon myself to do it, and graciously refrained from sending Rosmei an invoice for my marketing services, notwithstanding my long-standing principles about not working for corporations for free.
(As an aside: I'm fully aware that I'm being very snarky about Rosmei and this whole situation. I would prefer not to be snarky. I would prefer to be happy and enthusiastic about announcements of this kind. I enjoy feeling positive emotions, which are in short supply at the moment! However, for the reasons detailed here, as well as this latest failure on Rosmei's part to provide basic information about the books it is planning to sell us, and for which more promotional efforts are needed in the absence of a large and established fan base, I have very little confidence in them at the moment.)
The books are due to start releasing in 2025, according to the announcement. Rosmei has not said whether they will be available as ebooks as well as print books. However, in response to a query about whether several danmei titles announced at the same time would be available as ebooks, Rosmei replied that: 'For books licensed from jjwxc, there is no ebooks licensed'. As both of these Ning Yuan titles were initially published on JJWXC, chances of ebook versions being available seem dim. The translator for The Creator's Grace (造物的恩宠, pinyin: zaowu de enchong) has been named as Shigure, whose work I am not familiar with (a very cursory search of her Twitter timeline reveals no previous mentions of 'baihe' or 'GL', though that in itself doesn't necessarily mean anything). The translator for At Her Mercy (我为鱼肉, pinyin: wo wei yurou), which Rosmei have chosen to title At the World's Mercy (so I guess I'll have to start using that now), has not been named at the time of writing, apparently because... they're currently on vacation?
One thing I am curious about is how they will handle the sex scenes in The Creator's Grace. As far as I'm aware, these were never published on JJWXC, being far too explicit for the platform. Instead, the JJWXC version of the novel fades to black and ambiguity at crucial moments. Ning Yuan posted the sex scenes to the smut-focused platform PO18. She appears to have taken them down, but my pack rat instincts mean that I have a copy saved.
Edited to add: Rosmei has now confirmed that these two titles will not be available as ebooks.
Edited again to add: This artist has posted some (mainland) fan-commissioned art pieces for At Her Mercy!
(As an aside: I'm fully aware that I'm being very snarky about Rosmei and this whole situation. I would prefer not to be snarky. I would prefer to be happy and enthusiastic about announcements of this kind. I enjoy feeling positive emotions, which are in short supply at the moment! However, for the reasons detailed here, as well as this latest failure on Rosmei's part to provide basic information about the books it is planning to sell us, and for which more promotional efforts are needed in the absence of a large and established fan base, I have very little confidence in them at the moment.)
The books are due to start releasing in 2025, according to the announcement. Rosmei has not said whether they will be available as ebooks as well as print books. However, in response to a query about whether several danmei titles announced at the same time would be available as ebooks, Rosmei replied that: 'For books licensed from jjwxc, there is no ebooks licensed'. As both of these Ning Yuan titles were initially published on JJWXC, chances of ebook versions being available seem dim. The translator for The Creator's Grace (造物的恩宠, pinyin: zaowu de enchong) has been named as Shigure, whose work I am not familiar with (a very cursory search of her Twitter timeline reveals no previous mentions of 'baihe' or 'GL', though that in itself doesn't necessarily mean anything). The translator for At Her Mercy (我为鱼肉, pinyin: wo wei yurou), which Rosmei have chosen to title At the World's Mercy (so I guess I'll have to start using that now), has not been named at the time of writing, apparently because... they're currently on vacation?
One thing I am curious about is how they will handle the sex scenes in The Creator's Grace. As far as I'm aware, these were never published on JJWXC, being far too explicit for the platform. Instead, the JJWXC version of the novel fades to black and ambiguity at crucial moments. Ning Yuan posted the sex scenes to the smut-focused platform PO18. She appears to have taken them down, but my pack rat instincts mean that I have a copy saved.
Edited to add: Rosmei has now confirmed that these two titles will not be available as ebooks.
Edited again to add: This artist has posted some (mainland) fan-commissioned art pieces for At Her Mercy!
no subject
They've yet to actually release anything and their translation previews do not inspire confidence. The English is either stilted or vague, and does not even match the tone of the original text. What is the point of hoarding all these licenses if you're paying pennies for people to translate from scratch, then throw in a horrendous editing job? Not to mention, the graphics leave much to be desired. It is a bunch of inanimate objects thrown together, with nothing meaningful attached.
Edit*
Buying licenses for the Singapore region is also a cop-out and they are being cheap about it. They should focus their sources on fewer IPs and produce better quality.
no subject
I'm not sure they've realised that they need to do a lot more to market baihe compared to danmei, where they've been scooping up licences with established fanbases. I'm also quite curious about their sales figures — people have been interacting with them a lot on social media, but that doesn't necessarily translate into sales, especially given the many logistical difficulties involved.