'A bit of light reading.' vs War and Peace.
I was under the impression that when people were using 'Light Novel' to refer to western books, they meant 'young adult' ie Harry Potter, which it has to be admitted is a remarkably easy read. Yes, there is a movie scene where the 'resident brainiac' of said successful series says such a thing while holding a terribly thick and archaic-looking tome.
That is to say: similarly to how the japanese use it to refer to works done in 'the simpler tongue', most people aren't actually too put out by 'basic' instances of english language usage, and thus those books seem to rise just fine. Never mind how cringe-worthy they can be to read.
If I was 'successful', I'd likely be inclined toward self-publishment/patreon/sell-on-amazon anyway, even if I had the option of having some publishing company absolutely come screaming in pursuit of me. I absolutely hate the idea of some megacorp owning me and mine... and I don't imagine their terms would be so delightful as to make it worth taking their offer. That isn't to say there's no price, for there's usually a price, but I simply don't believe that they or I could negotiate a workable compromise.
