(San Antonio, Texas – February 20, 2024) – J-Novel Club LLC is pleased to announce its entry into an ongoing sales and distribution agreement with Hachette Book Group via a new partnership with Yen Press for J-Novel Club's physical book catalog. Beginning July 1, 2024, all J-Novel Club frontlist and backlist titles will be distributed by Hachette in North America. International sales will be handled by Diamond Book Distributors.
What does this mean for current branding?
While all books will be listed for solicitation under Yen Press's “JNC” imprint and appear in Edelweiss as Yen Press/JNC, on-book branding for titles produced directly by J-Novel Club will continue to feature the full J-Novel Club and J-Novel Heart logos. Titles produced by Yen Press under the “JNC” imprint will continue to use the simplified JNC logo.
How does this affect stock and inventory?
Retailers globally can continue ordering all J-Novel Club titles – including all June 2024 new releases – through 30 June 2024, after which inventory will be migrated to Hachette's warehouses. This may lead to delays in order fulfillment for both retailers and customers while the transport and ingestion of catalog titles continues. July 2024's new releases are already registered with Hachette Book Group and are available for preorder.
Why don't I see new volumes out as far as before?
J-Novel Club has switched to a system of rolling solicitations. Each month, new volumes in production will be solicited for retail. This allows us to more flexibly schedule new releases, as well as allowing us to provide increasingly accurate metadata such as page numbers.
How does this affect J-Novel Club's digital offerings?
This arrangement is only for print editions in English and has no impact on J-Novel Club's digital offerings.
About J-Novel Club
J-Novel Club is a digital and physical publishing company started by translators and fans like you! By focusing on digital releases and providing a membership service to let people read our books as they are being translated, our goal is to build a growing community of readers so that more releases can be officially licensed and translated.
With the addition of the J-Novel Heart and J-Novel Pulp imprints, the company hopes to appeal to even more audiences worldwide. Since 2016, J-Novel Club has digitally published over 2,000 volumes and physically printed over 250 volumes of different series for you to enjoy. In 2023. J-Novel Club launched JNC Nina, a subsidiary devoted to releasing light novels in further European languages.
About Yen Press
Yen Press, LLC is a joint venture between Kadokawa Corporation and Hachette Book Group. Founded in 2006, Yen Press has quickly risen to become one of the largest and most prolific publishers of manga and original graphic novels in the North American marketplace and a driving force in the introduction of light novels and Japanese literature to new readers through its Yen On and Yen Audio imprints. For more information, visit www.yenpress.com.
About Hachette Book Group
Hachette Book Group is a leading U.S. general-interest book publisher made up of dozens of esteemed imprints within the publishing groups Basic Books Group, Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Audio, Hachette Books, Hachette Nashville, Little, Brown and Company, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Orbit, Running Press Group, and Workman Publishing. We also provide custom distribution, fulfillment, and sales services to other publishing companies. Our books and authors have received the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Caldecott Medal, Newbery Medal, Booker Prize, Nobel Peace Prize, and other major honors. We are committed to diversity in our company and our publishing programs, and to fostering a culture of inclusion for all our employees and authors. We are proud to be part of Hachette Livre, the world's third-largest trade and educational publisher. Learn more at hachettebookgroup.com.
HBG also provides a wide range of custom distribution, fulfillment, digital and sales services to third party publishers, Abrams Books, Callaway Arts & Entertainment, Chronicle Books, Hachette UK, Kids Can Press, Lonely Planet, Moleskine, Nicholas Brealey, Nosy Crow, Octopus Books, Phaidon Press, Phoenix International Publications, Quarto Publishing Group, and Yen Press.
