A Few Thoughts About Fantitlement

When Yen Press announced that it would be using new art for the cover of Spice and Wolf, the response was predictable: a small minority of outraged fans decried Yen, announcing their intention to cancel pre-orders and boycott the book. Never mind Yen’s plans to give away slip jackets featuring the original artwork; never mind Yen’s desire to bust out of the graphic novel ghetto and sell a few books to fantasy fans — these folks felt genuinely insulted, as their super-cool light novel now resembled something that — oh, noes! — a teenage girl might read.

RAGE summarized many readers’ feelings when he declared the cover too embarrassing for public consumption:

And Daniel voiced a point of view that I suspect informs many fans’ reaction to the cover: he doesn’t like the idea that folks outside the narrow confines of otakudom might want to read Spice and Wolf, as if mainstream interest in the book would make it any less special:

I’m always puzzled by fan outbursts like these; why refuse to buy a novel that you’ve been eagerly anticipating just because you don’t care for the cover art? I’m seldom fond of the dust jackets that come with the latest Richard Russo or Ian McEwan title, but I’ve never boycotted a book because I thought the packaging was cheesy. Why not? Because I care about the content. Presumably that’s why so many folks were excited about Spice and Wolf, too: they liked the story. And the characters. And the dialogue. Y’know… the content.

What’s even more bizarre about the haters’ wrath is that these are the very folks who clamored for the novel in the first place. Yen responded to its fanbase, only to be punished for trying to recoup its investment by making the book more attractive to fantasy readers who aren’t interested in anime. If Spice and Wolf doesn’t find an audience, do these naysayers think Yen will reward their scorn by licensing more light novels? The poor performance of The Good Witch of the West, Kino’s Journey, and Ballad of a Shinigami — all excellent, engaging stories — suggests that Yen can’t afford to market their books exclusively to self-professed otaku. Whatever the merits of the cover — and I agree, it does look like bad werewolf porn — Yen could do a lot worse than trying to appeal to the same readers who made hits out of The Vampire Diaries, Twilight, and dozens of other YA series with fantasy/horror elements. Pursuing the elusive and misguided goal of “authenticity” just to please a small but vocal group of fans all but consigns Spice and Wolf to the remainder bin.

My advice to all those folks grumbling on the Yen Press site: buy the book, share it with a friend, write a polite letter expressing your concerns if you must, but stop berating the publisher for trying to make a buck — they’re a business, for Pete’s sake, and need to sell several thousand copies of Spice and Wolf before they’ll turn a profit on it. Please don’t spoil the party for folks who judge a book by its content, not its cover.