Hachette Book Group (HBG) and Kadokawa Corporation have set up a new partnership. The publisher’s Yen Press imprint will be joined with Kadokawa to establish Yen Press LLC.
Through this new agreement, 51% of this business venture will be retained by Kadokawa and 49% will be held by HBG. Executives expect to finalize negotiations by the end of this month. Kurt Hassler will serve as the managing director and publisher.
Here’s more from the press release: “Yen Press is one of the largest English language manga imprints in North America, specializing in manga and light novels, publishing a broad range of titles including English translations of Japan originated titles, manga adaptations of novels by bestselling Hachette authors like James Patterson and Stephenie Meyer, and original manga developed at Yen Press. The joint venture will continue to leverage HBG’s strengths in manga publishing, distribution, sales, and marketing. Moreover, the partnership will enable Yen Press and Kadokawa to maximize marketing collaboration between book publishing and anime distribution (through Kadokawa’s expertise in the anime marketplace), while also seeking to expand ebook distribution, to maximize the growth potential of Japanese content in the North American market.”