First and foremost, don't get me wrong. I appreciate those fan translators (with emphasis on -s) that are currently translating Mo Dao Zu Shi closer to the novel's intent. Second, as mentioned, why MDZS/GODC/FOD has no official published translation? Like, Korean and Thai have their official translations and hardcopy books already! I'm totally envious! Although English isn't my first language, but English is the international language (isn't it?) and MDZS has already spread its influence internationally! I don't really understand! I really wanna have this awesome novel (written in a language I understand) on my shelf. Third, I don't know if there had been a discussion regarding it already. So I just wanna ask anew. Fourth, I tried sending emails to my local publishers, but I doubt they'll bother buying the rights to translate into Filipino of such an internationally acclaimed BL novel.
That’s easy: first of all it’s a niche genre (danmei) so not everyone knows about it. Yeah, you might and I might but that’s because we take part in this niche genre. Light novels have been relatively niche or unknown until recent in the past few years with the main focus being Japan, it’s still going to be a bit before people start getting into Chinese novels. Second, yeah English is regarded as universal but most publishing houses are western English houses. It’s not like there’s a big company whose main focus is on translating foreign novels. A lot of publishing houses don’t even know about it or even if they did it’s not like they have connections to Asian publishing houses that make it easy to do. There might be in the future, but for now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ edit: for some reason part of this got italicized and I don’t know why and so I retyped.
+1, and I wouldn't be surprised if groups involved in webnovel translations don't want to pick up a BL novel because they're cultivating a different variety of novels or aren't able to come to an agreement with the original publishers (namely in terms of licensing fees). I remember hearing about how Chaleuria was planning to license 2Ha, but they needed monetary support from the community so they could pay the licensing fees. Not sure what happened after that but I don't think they were able to license it (at least for now). Licensing costs a lot and other than Chaleuria I don't know if there are any groups that are interested in BL novels, even if it is one with such a huge fandom. Edit: forgot to say I think it's super cool you reached out to ask publishers to translate it! Maybe if enough people ask and support English translation publishers we'll get it soon ( :<
I'm hardly on NU so it's nice to see that we're referenced every now and again. And yes, you're correct. Whilst I can't disclose why we didn't move ahead with 2Ha, I can tell you that the licensing cost is usually the biggest hurdle for most companies. In general, BL isn't as huge of a market as we think especially in comparison to Shoujo or Shounen works which has a wider audience. A lot of companies or investors are hesitant to put money into it, especially if payment has to be upfront. There's that concern that we're unable to recoup the cost. If there's a guarantee that it's possible, it would be a different story. Although there are companies that try, there have been others (think BL comic publishers) that have shut down over the years due to low or unsustainable sales. As @riririn said, if there's more support to official licensing companies, there's a higher chance to see new works out there. As long as there's more sales to existing works, it means we can show there's likely to be an increase or more demand for newer content.
Thank you for enlightening me. It just baffles me how, MDZS and other BL novels, with their seemingly worldwide audience still have no official English translation. I just realized that we are part of that pitiful minority. If only I'm rich as Hua Cheng, I would directly purchase the licensing rights.