Sol Press Discussion Thread

[custodes]

And the first thing I have heard on the company recently was an article about Rakudai entering its final arc.
But a recent update defined it's ambiguous status with a change from "is publishing" to "was publishing"
Still makes me a sad panda, I guess I will be back to struggling to translate the series in slow time.

spoiler

[Ditimiss]

I had been wondering why 80k hadn't had more releases and just got into strongest gamer. Here is hoping stuff starts getting rescued D:

[Wellwisher]

@Ditimiss There's a chance that Strongest Gamer and Battle Divas will be pulled down from the stores very soon, so you'd have to hurry and buy what you want to while it is still avalialiable.

I did not recieve this message myself since I don't buy stuff on bookwalker, but several people mentioned that they got these notifications

[NOTICE] Strongest Gamer: Let's Play in Another World series to be removed from BOOK☆WALKER
Feb 07, 2022 (05:00 AM) PT
This is a notice for the take-down of the Strongest Gamer: Let's Play in Another World series on BOOK☆WALKER due to the Japanese publisher's request. Please make sure to purchase any missing eBooks of the series by 2/13 11:59 PM PT, as you won't be able to afterwards.

※You will still be able to read these books once they are taken down from our store, but you can't purchase any missing volumes after 2/13 11:59 PM PT.
※This message is sent to all users who have at least purchased 1 volume of Strongest Gamer: Let's Play in Another World series.

Get "Strongest Gamer: Let's Play in Another World" from here >>

[NOTICE] Battle Divas series to be removed from BOOK☆WALKER
Feb 07, 2022 (05:00 AM) PT
This is a notice for the take-down of the Battle Divas series on BOOK☆WALKER due to the Japanese publisher's request. Please make sure to purchase any missing eBooks of the series by 2/13 11:59 PM PT, as you won't be able to afterwards.

※You will still be able to read these books once they are taken down from our store, but you can't purchase any missing volumes after 2/13 11:59 PM PT.
※This message is sent to all users who have at least purchased 1 volume of Battle Divas series.

[HarmlessDave]

@ditimiss said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:

I had been wondering why 80k hadn't had more releases and just got into strongest gamer. Here is hoping stuff starts getting rescued D:

Strongest Gamer volume 2 is good and reaches a decent pause point, if you liked volume 1 I'd recommend buying it while you can.

Sigh, license rescues of both titles would be very nice but it might take years and odds are against Strongest since it isn't a FUNA title.

[Aruseus493]

@harmlessdave

Not much point to rescuing Strongest Gamer considering it's axed and its only two volumes were already translated.

[Geezer Weasalopes]

@aruseus493 said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:

@harmlessdave

Not much point to rescuing Strongest Gamer considering it's axed and its only two volumes were already translated.

That's only relevant if it's available for purchase.
So what if it's been translated if you can't obtain a copy?

License rescues allow for sales of copies in excess of those already sold.
That becomes incredibly important if there was never a print edition of the translation, since so far there is no legal resale methodology for eBooks that I'm aware of (how do you insure that the seller doesn't retain a copy?); not the case here is my understanding, but that still means there's a cap on how many copies might show up used after all 'new' copies have been sold.

[saffire]

@weasalopes It may be that way from a consumer perspective, but from a licensor perspective, there's no way you'll ever make your money back on that title and so there's practically zero chance anyone will touch it.

[Travis Butler]

@saffire said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:

@weasalopes It may be that way from a consumer perspective, but from a licensor perspective, there's no way you'll ever make your money back on that title and so there's practically zero chance anyone will touch it.

Yeah... it's almost certainly in the long tail by now. The people who knew/cared most about it have already bought the existing volumes, and there won't be any more new volumes to push up the sales.

[Windsagio]

Kind of sad to see this going down, especially since "Strongest Gamer" was one of the things that got me into LN's

[strangeattractor]

I wonder if Redefining The Meta at the VRMMO Academy could be rescued. Sol Press published 4 volumes, and there are at least 2 more in Japanese. J-Novel Club is publishing a different series by the same author

I like it. It's fun reading about how the main character figures out ridiculous strategies. It's sort of similar to Bofuri, except the game-breaking aspects are more intentional and less focused on a single thing.

[saskir]

@strangeattractor said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:

I wonder if Redefining The Meta at the VRMMO Academy could be rescued. Sol Press published 4 volumes, and there are at least 2 more in Japanese. J-Novel Club is publishing a different series by the same author

I like it. It's fun reading about how the main character figures out ridiculous strategies. It's sort of similar to Bofuri, except the game-breaking aspects are more intentional and less focused on a single thing.

to be true I hope so. Only read volume 1 but if those others also end with open questions I am not really sure if I should get it. Would be another story if I knew that it gets a further english release.

[Geezer Weasalopes]

@saskir said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:

@strangeattractor said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:

I wonder if Redefining The Meta at the VRMMO Academy could be rescued. Sol Press published 4 volumes, and there are at least 2 more in Japanese. J-Novel Club is publishing a different series by the same author

I like it. It's fun reading about how the main character figures out ridiculous strategies. It's sort of similar to Bofuri, except the game-breaking aspects are more intentional and less focused on a single thing.

to be true I hope so. Only read volume 1 but if those others also end with open questions I am not really sure if I should get it. Would be another story if I knew that it gets a further english release.

It's kinda the situation that if you think there's any chance you would want to read it down the line, grabbing a copy prior to the distribution chain yanking it would seem wise.

[strangeattractor]

@weasalopes said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:

It's kinda the situation that if you think there's any chance you would want to read it down the line, grabbing a copy prior to the distribution chain yanking it would seem wise.

I'm glad I read the 4 volumes that I did. It does have some open questions, but the end of volume 4 is not a bad place to pause. I have a feeling I'll re-read it in the future.

[Goober]

BOOKWALKER just issued a notice that >all< digital titles are being taken down for Sol and Panty. Standard practice of being able to download if you already purchased prior, but no dice if you haven't.

Per Bookwalker, request was made by Japanese rights holders. So there is the final confirmation if anyone somehow had doubts at this point.

Shucks.

[Eternal Wanderer]

Sol Press going away is ultimately for the best considering how bad they were at ultimately releasing their books, I only hope that now we can now get some license rescues

[jpwong]

If anyone wants a list of what specifically is being removed ANN put up an article
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2022-02-19/bookwalker-global-to-remove-series-from-sol-press-panty-press-on-february-21/.182776

• Chivalry of a Failed Knight
• BLEND-S
• Harem Royale - When the Game Ends
• I Surrendered My Sword for a New Life as a Mage
• Is the order a rabbit?
• Let This Grieving Soul Retire! Woe is the Weakling Who Leads the Strongest Party
• Redefining the META at VRMMO Academy
• Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for my Retirement manga and light novels
• The Game Master has Logged In to Another World
• The Ride-On King
• Why Shouldn't a Detestable Demon Lord Fall in Love?!
• Busy Wizard: This Warlock Just Wants to Provide for his Wives!

[HarmlessDave]

@jpwong said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:

Let This Grieving Soul Retire! Woe is the Weakling Who Leads the Strongest Party

I really enjoyed the author's Defeating the Demon Lord's a Cinch (If You've Got a Ringer) series, which I guess is on hiatus or cancelled :( .

I was interested in this but never bought it since by that point it was obvious we'd never get a volume 2 from Sol.

The Game Master has Logged In to Another World

This had an interesting start in the one volume that we got, it was a bit like mixing Leadale and maybe Demon Lord Retry. I'd buy a license rescue.

[SomeOldGuy]

@jpwong Chivalry of a Failed Knight

Aww... you mean the 5 volumes we got is all we're get? Oh, well. Wonder when Amazon will stop listing them. They're still up right now.

[LegitPancake]

@someoldguy Supposedly the JP pubs are attempting to pull copyright violations on the Amazon listings in order to take them down, which they didn’t have to do on BW since they’re so close with the store and simply requested their takedowns.

[SomeOldGuy]

@legitpancake Makes perfect sense, since ebooks (unlike "Carbon Entrapment Editions") aren't really produced "while under license".

And if Sol Press doesn't exist anymore, Amazon can't fall back on the excuse that, "Hey, we're just the retailer, talk with that guy over there!" as they distribute additional, new copies.