J-Novel Club LLC has announced a partnership with Yen Press for its physical book catalog. Starting July 1, 2024, sales and distribution for all J-Novel Club print titles, frontlist and backlist, will be overseen by Yen. The books will be distributed by Hachette Book Group in North America, with international sales handled by Diamond Book Distributors. This includes all previously released print volumes distributed by Ingram.
“Rather than simply printing J-Novel Club digital series as a sort of co-production (e.g. Hell Mode), we will be overseeing the sales and distribution of all J-Novel Club titles through Hachette Book Group,” Yen Press Sales and Marketing Director Mark de Vera explained to ICv2. “These include all previously released print books as well as their ongoing volumes (e.g. new volumes of Ascendance of a Bookworm).”
Going forward, J-Novel Club books will be solicited under the JNC imprint of Yen Press. They are also switching to rolling solicits, with new books added each month to allow for more flexible scheduling. Previously, Yen handled printing and distribution for select J-Novel Club titles (see “J-Novel Club Inks Deal With Yen Press“). That deal created the J-Novel Club imprint at Yen, which started May 2023.
In the future, titles produced by Yen Press under that imprint will continue to be branded JNC, while titles produced by J-Novel Club will have full J-Novel Club logos.
Inventory will be moved to Hachette’s warehouses at the beginning of July. Digital titles are not affected and continue to be offered by J-Novel Club. Since 2016, J-Novel Club has digitally published over 2,000 books, with over 250 physical volumes released. It was acquired by Kadokawa Corporation in 2021.
Yen Press is a joint venture between Kadokawa Corporation and Hachette Book Group founded in 2006 and publishes manga, light novels, original graphic novels, and audio works in English in North America.
Source: ICV2
