Kodansha USA and Yen Press are two of the most popular publisher of manga in America. Today, they both announced major changes in their schedule for later in 2020.

Kodansha has moved on-sale dates for many of its spring and summer 2020 print titles to later in the year. They state that all backlist orders continue to be filled by Penguin Random House. Debuts such as Wave, Listen to Me!, as well as Tales of Berseria (Manga) volume 3, Drifting Dragons volume 4, and more, are published as planned. All previously scheduled Kodansha Comics and VERTICAL titles continue to be released digitally on their original on-sale dates.

Manga moves for Kodansha

President and CEO Alvin Lu stated the following. "We're very, very lucky to be working with incredibly resilient and resourceful retail partners and our fantastic distribution partner at Penguin Random House, who are stepping up and keeping the essential lifeline of books open during an unprecedented disruption to our day-to-day business. Getting manga to readers is the top and only priority for us at Kodansha USA Publishing, which we will continue to do during this extraordinary time."

Yen Press made the bold decision to cancel the solicitation of the September 2020 catalogue entirely and will reschedule the print and digital publication of several volumes of manga and light novels. April Yen Press titles will be published as planned. However, manga and light novel titles solicited for sale between May and August will shift to September. Yen will reduce new releases in the coming months.

Manga moves for Yen

Publisher Kurt Hassler stated the following. "As Yen Press eyes that aforementioned horizon, it is clear that we cannot proceed as if we are not experiencing unprecedented disruption to our business. We must remain as nimble as possible and respond to changing market conditions. With that in mind, we have evaluated our publishing schedule for the next several months and determined that our best course of action is to forego the solicitation of our September 2020 catalog, which we would normally be finalizing in the next week or so. Instead, we will be taking the books previously solicited for May – August and relisting those titles throughout the May – September period.

"This will help to reduce the burden on our production and distribution channels as well as our retail partners, all of whom are coping with their own challenges now and in the coming months. At the same time, it will maintain a steady stream of new books flowing into the market and into the hands of our readers at a rate more appropriate to the current circumstances. Our revised publication schedule will be communicated to our publishing partners via metadata next week as well as posted to our website for interested fans."

You can keep up with Bleeding Cool's coverage of the ongoing publishing situation with this link.