Manga publisher Seven Seas Entertainment has promoted Sales & Marketing Manager Lianne Sentar to the new role of Publisher, the company announced yesterday. Current Publisher and founder Jason DeAngelis is will now be President & CEO, while Associate Publisher Adam Arnold will become Vice President & COO.
Sentar is a well-known veteran of the US manga publishing industry. Her career in manga began in 1999 at age 17, writing a series of Sailor Moon prose novels for TOKYOPOP. Before joining Seven Seas she co-founded Chromatic Press, a small North American manga publisher with launched its flagship anthology magazine Sparkler to great acclaim. While writing and editing constantly during her 25 year career, she joined joined Seven Seas Entertainment as a freelance editor in 2012, and eventually became the head of their marketing department in 2017.
“In the six years that Lianne has been with Seven Seas, she has helped lead the company through explosive growth,” says Jason DeAngelis. “I’m thrilled to name Lianne as my successor as Publisher, and have complete confidence in her ability to lead, in her passion, and in her deep knowledge of the industry.”
“I love the adventurous spirit of Seven Seas,” says Sentar. “I’m honored to be part of such a talented crew, and I’m excited to help steer the ship as we discover more wonderful books to publish from Japan, China, Korea, and beyond.”
Seven Seas has expanded over the years, becoming a mainstay of the US manga market, which exploded during the pandemic, and is still going strong. Their best known publication is perhaps My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, an Eisner-nominated, Harvey Award-winning book by Nagata Kabi, as well as several two follow-up volumes in her series of deeply personal essay comics. Besides manga, Seven Seas Entertainment also publishes light novels and webcomics as well as manga, and recently began publishing danmei, a popular sub-genre of boys love comics and novels originally published in China. They have also launched several imprints including Ghost Ship for erotic manga, Steam Ship for sexy romance manga and Air Ship for light novels. They also offer digital comics at Gomanga. Last year, their staff unionized.
It’s definitely an important publisher in the US market, and a big step for Sentar. More to come.
