CATDOLL: Why are all the covers of light novels featuring girls? Only beauty can make money?

The light novel industry is growing and developing, and we often see news that the sales of "XXXX" light novels have exceeded 10 million. This is inseparable from the huge young readership. But light novels have a strange commonality: the covers are all beautiful girls.

Everyone likes beautiful things. If it is a female picture with some sexy elements, it will definitely attract a lot of attention. But the problem is that the second dimension is discriminated by some people. If you walk on the street with a cover of a very sexy girl, or sit in a cafe and watch it, you will definitely have to endure the strange looks of the people around you. In the eyes of a few people, it is like reading some restricted publications in public. So why not use some more "ordinary" pictures as the cover?

Some people say, "It's like buying a youth magazine. The cover has to be a sexy girl." Others say, "The cover has nothing to do with the story." For the readers of light novels, will they not buy it if the cover is not a beautiful girl? Can sales still be achieved with an ordinary cover? Let's take a look at the discussion among netizens.

●It also depends on the style of the painting and the feeling of the title.

● Look at the title first and then the cover. If the title is a very long sentence, the light novel may be worth buying. Aren’t the titles of popular light novels all very long?

●It’s okay to have a man on the cover, but I won’t buy it if the art style isn’t nice… If only the first volume is out and it hasn’t been adapted into an anime, I definitely won’t buy it. If it can be published to more than 6 volumes and the art style is acceptable, I can put it on the list for purchase.

●【Original Poster】: I didn’t know there was such a thing. No wonder I always felt that the covers were very uniform when I went to the light novel section.

●Saw the market research results done by an editor on Twitter↓

View author 13%

See illustrators 27%

Look at the title, writer 22%

Read the outline, content 33%

Although looking at the cover does not account for the highest proportion, this number cannot be ignored.

● Although I don’t say that I only care about the cover, there are also cases where I feel bored just by looking at the cover and lose the desire to read. In addition to the gender of the character.

●【Original Poster】: For the main readership of light novels, if the characters aren’t beautiful girls, then the evaluation won’t be high?

●If not a beautiful girl, what else can we use for the cover? An old woman? An ugly girl?

●【Original Poster】:↑Here, an old woman and an ugly girl are used as examples to satirize. Doesn’t this mean that the cover cannot be anything other than a beautiful girl?

●I want to say that it is not just light novels, but all novels have to have beautiful girls or beauties on the cover. Because in the light novel industry, the only ones who can sell well just by the author's name are Koda Gakuto and Narita Ryogo.

●【Original Poster】: For ordinary novels, there are not so many beautiful girls or beautiful women. Even if there are, they are not always about beautiful girls, and generally it is not considered a bad novel because of this.

●↑Although the illustrations of light novels also feature beautiful girls, there is no special statement that "this girl is a super beautiful girl", and not many light novels will specifically say that.

●【Original Poster】:↑If this is the case, does it mean that light novels don’t need to be so obsessed with having beautiful girls?

●↑Some plots don't need to have a beautiful girl all the time, but they must have the plot of "boy meets beautiful girl". For harem light novels, it's better to let the beautiful girl take on the role of jealousy rather than letting passers-by become the role.

●【Original Poster】:↑If that's the case, the idea of ​​promoting beautiful girls on the cover is very subtle. "Beautiful girls are indispensable for light novels!" The most memorable part of light novels is beautiful girls! So basically the cover still has to be a beautiful girl. I understand.

●↑Packaging and story are two completely different things.

●【Original Poster】：↑Is it necessary to use a beautiful girl on the packaging?

●This is the same reason why the covers of youth magazines feature sexy actresses.

●Since it is a reading material for otakus, it is natural.

● [Original Poster]: My opinion is, in summary, if the readers of light novels don’t care so much about the cover being a beautiful girl, wouldn’t it be possible to reach a wider audience by using a normal cover that is also acceptable to ordinary novel readers? As for the current light novel corner, the highly unified style of the cover makes it difficult for ordinary readers to enter.

●↑If it were replaced with an ordinary cover, it would be lost in the general literature. Although general literature does not have anime-style illustrations, there are many works with content that is not much different from light novels.

Therefore, it is necessary to use a cover that can distinguish light novels from ordinary novels at a glance. If you use an ordinary cover, today's teenagers will not be interested. The readers originally targeted by light novels are those who like comics but cannot read ordinary novels.

●【Original Poster】:↑ Indeed, if it becomes a general cover, then it won’t feel special. But as long as all of them use the anime style again (using anime-style covers, not necessarily beautiful girls), it can be distinguished from ordinary novels, right?

●That is based on the premise that you come to the bookstore specifically to look for new light novels.

First of all, it is the first glance that makes the decision (the cover), and then you pick up the book after you are interested (at this time you see the title and the back cover), and you will want to buy the book if you find all of the above interesting.

So illustrations are still very important, of course, and finally the content itself is the most important factor. It's the same as looking at people, if they are handsome men or beautiful women, they will certainly attract more attention.

If there is a beautiful girl on the cover and it is a type of book that I like (style, pattern, etc.), I will pick up the book involuntarily. This phenomenon is even more so if the target readers are middle school students.

●【Original Poster】: From my personal point of view, it’s not that I am pessimistic about the future of light novels, but generally speaking, if one only targets a specific group of readers, then this type of novel cannot be promoted and will reach a dead end.

●If light novels have reached a dead end, then other categories of literature and media have long been in danger.

●【Original Poster】：↑This may be the case with pure literature, but it is not the case with ordinary novels.

●If it is a weekly magazine, it will use eye-catching headlines on the cover to win more sales than last week. So for books, the cover is also very important.

For example, if Shonen Jump uses a super popular comic as the cover, it can increase sales. Of course, if it uses a moderately popular comic as the cover, sales will drop slightly. But if it uses an idol girl as the cover, it can maintain consistent sales no matter who is on the cover.

So the cover of a light novel with a beautiful girl is similar to the cover of a magazine with an idol actress. In short, using a cute girl as the cover will not reduce sales. In short, having a beautiful girl is the hard truth to attract readers.

●Everyone knows this problem. Although the popular light novel "OVERLORD" series has always been able to sell well with ordinary covers, for ordinary light novels, using beautiful girls as covers can increase the chances of otaku or high school readers picking up the book, which is directly related to whether sales can be increased. Although whether it can sell well is still closely related to whether the content itself is interesting.