A light novel is a style of Japanese novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a wasei-eigo, or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language. Light novels are often called ranobe or, in English, LN. The average length of a light novel is about 50,000 words, close to the minimum expected for a Western novel, and light novels are usually published in bunkobon size, often with dense publishing schedules. A distinguishing characteristic of light novels is that they are illustrated with an anime or manga art style and are often adapted into such media. They are mainly published in separate book volumes, while some of them have their chapters serialized in anthology magazines before being collected in book form, similar to how manga is published.
Details
Light novels are an evolution of pulp magazines. To please their audience, in the 1970s, most of the Japanese pulp magazines began to put illustrations at the beginning of each story and included articles about popular anime, movies and video games. The narrative evolved to please the new generations and became fully illustrated with the popular style. The popular serials are printed in novels. Very often light novels are chosen for adaptation into anime, manga, and live-action films, and some of them are serialized in literary magazines such as Faust, Gekkan Dragon Magazine, The Sneaker and Dengeki hp, or media franchise magazines like Comptiq and Dengeki G's Magazine. Publishing companies are constantly searching for new talent with annual contests, many of which earn the winner a cash prize and publication of their novel. The Dengeki Novel Prize is the largest, with over 6,500 submissions annually. They are all clearly labeled as "light novels" and are published as low-priced paperbacks. For example, the price for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in Japan is ¥540, similar to the normal price for trade paperbacks—light novels and general literature—sold in Japan. In 2007 it was estimated that the market for light novels was about ¥20 billion and that about 30 million copies were published annually. Kadokawa Group Holdings, which owns major labels like Kadokawa Sneaker Books and Dengeki Books, has a 70% to 80% share of the market. In 2009, light novels made ¥30.1 billion in sales, or about 20% of all sales of bunkobon-format paperback books in Japan. There are currently many licensed English translations of Japanese light novels available. These have generally been published in the physical dimensions of standard mass market paperbacks or similar to manga tankōbon, but starting in April 2007, Seven Seas Entertainment was the first English publisher to print light novels in their original Japanese Bunkobon format. Other English-language publishers that license light novels are Tokyopop, Viz Media, DMP, Dark Horse, Yen Press and Del Rey Manga. The founder of Viz Media, Seiji Horibuchi, speculates that the US market for light novels will experience a similar increase in popularity as it has in the Japanese subculture once it becomes recognized by the consumer audience. Most light novels are published by Japanese writers, with very few exceptions. For example, Yū Kamiya, author of No Game No Life, is a Japanese-Brazilian writer who lives in Japan and publishes his novels through major Japanese publishing labels.
History
Popular literature has a long tradition in Japan. Even though cheap, pulp novels resembling light novels were present in Japan for years prior, the creation of Sonorama Bunko in 1975 is considered by some to be a symbolic beginning. Science fiction and horror writers like Hideyuki Kikuchi or Baku Yumemakura started their careers through such imprints. The 1990s saw the smash-hit Slayers series which merged fantasy-RPG elements with comedy. Some years later MediaWorks founded a pop-lit imprint called Dengeki Bunko, which produces well-known light novel series to this day. The Boogiepop series was their first major hit which soon was animated and got many anime watchers interested in literature. Dengeki Bunko writers continued to slowly gain attention until the small light novel world experienced a boom around 2006. After the huge success of the Haruhi Suzumiya series, the number of publishers and readers interested in light novels suddenly skyrocketed. Light novels became an important part of the Japanese 2D culture in the late 2000s, with series such as A Certain Magical Index selling large amounts of copies with each volume release. The number of light novels series put out every year increases, usually illustrated by the most celebrated artists from pixiv and the most successful works are adapted into manga, anime, games and live action movies. Since the mid-2000s, with the advent of the internet, publishers began to contact authors of popular stories on their blog or website, or through free novel publication sites such as Shōsetsuka ni Narō. Publishers would then adapt those works into print edition for the light novel format with an editor and illustrator. Popular works like Sword Art Online, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Overlord, and Konosuba were originally popular web novels that got contacted by a publisher to distribute and publish those stories in print format.
