Light novel

A light novel (Japanese: ライトノベル, Hepburn: raito noberu) is a type of popular literature novel from Japan usually classified as young adult fiction, generally targeting teens to twenties or older. The definition is very vague, and wide-ranging but it generally refers to a story accompanied with manga-style illustrations, often in black and white.

The abbreviation of "raito noberu" is ranobe (ラノベ) or, in English, LN.

The average length of a light novel is about 50,000 words, and is published in the bunkobon format (A6, 10.5 cm × 14.8 cm [4.1 in × 5.8 in]). Light novels are subject to dense publishing schedules, with new installments being published in three-to-nine-month intervals.

Light novels are very commonly illustrated in a manga artstyle, and are often adapted into manga and anime. Whilst most light novels are published only as books, some have their chapters first serialized monthly in anthology magazines or via the internet as web novels before being collected and compiled into book format, similar to how manga is published.

Light novels developed from pulp magazines.^{[citation needed]} Plots frequently involve romantic comedy and isekai fantasy. 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 direction of light novels evolved to cater to newer generations of readers, with light novels becoming fully illustrated in the popular art style. The popular serials then began to be printed in their now known novel format.

Often light novels are chosen to be adapted into manga, anime, and live-action films. 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.

Light novels have a reputation as being "mass-produced and disposable," an extreme example being Kazuma Kamachi who wrote one novel a month for two years straight, and the author turnover rate is very high. As such, 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 (2013) 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 (including 5% tax), similar to the normal price for trade paperbacks—light novels and general literature—sold in Japan. In 2007 it was estimated (according to a website funded by the Japanese government) that the market for light novels was about ¥20 billion (US$170 million at the exchange rate at the time) and that about 30 million copies were published annually. Kadokawa Corporation's publishing subsidiary, which owns major labels like Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko and Dengeki Bunko, 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 United States English-language publishers that license light novels are Tokyopop, Viz Media, DMP, Dark Horse, J-Novel Club, Yen Press (Kadokawa's American joint-venture with Hachette Book Group), 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.