J-Novel Club, alongside Yen Press and Hachette Book Group, formally announced a major new distribution agreement that will help push J-Novel Club’s catalog of physical titles into new retail locations locally, as well as internationally. They also announced that beginning July 1, 2024, all of J-Novel Club’s physical titles will be distributed by Hachette in North America, alongside Diamond Book Distributors internationally. Additionally, all on-book imprinting for the affected titles will remain as it currently is, with there being no impact whatsoever on J-Novel Club’s current digital offerings.
This marks a major move for J-Novel Club that will undoubtedly help push substantially more of their titles into retailers globally, as J-Novel Club holds an already rather large catalog of popular and promising titles many fans are very excited about.
Light Novel fans, what do you think about this news that you will likely end up seeing many more J-Novel Club titles in retailers coming soon? This seems like a very important move for both J-Novel Club themselves, as well as for consumers worldwide.
If you’d like to take a look at past manga-related news, publisher licensing announcements, and manga & game reviews I’ve done, click here!
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.
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.
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.
