Confident much? Yen Press is taking print runs to a new level by expecting 350,000 copies of their Twilight manga, illustrated by Young Kim and using portions of the original book as text, to sell at a price point of $19.99 for their hardcover copies.
Wow.
As Brigid Alverson points out, that beats out Yen's previous hopeful initial runs of 75,000 copies of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, and Scott Pilgrim's comic only saw 10,000 copies. Other titles, such as Black Jack? Try 5,000. It's a huge order of magnitude. And if they manage to pull it off? As Simon Jones points out, that'd be $7,000,000 they'd gross from this.
Again, wow.
Whatever your feelings on Twilight may be, at the very least it might get quite a few more people into manga. As it is, my local Borders has begun stocking the vampire and Twilight-related stuff right next to the manga, trying to hook the two crowds up.
NEW YORK, NY (January 20, 2010) — Yen Press, the graphic novel imprint of Hachette Book Group, announced that it will publish the highly-anticipated first volume in the graphic novel adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight on March 16, 2010. Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1 will be released in hardcover for $19.99 ($22.99 CAN) with a first printing of 350,000 copies. As is typical in graphic novel publishing, due to the length of the prose novel, the book will be divided into two volumes and the release date for the second volume is forthcoming.
Twilight: The Graphic Novel contains selected text from Meyer’s original novel with illustrations by Korean artist Young Kim. A rare fusion of Asian and Western comic techniques is reflected in this black-and-white graphic novel with color interspersed throughout. Meyer consulted throughout the artistic process and had input on every panel.
“I’ve enjoyed working on this new interpretation of Twilight,” said Meyer. “Young has done an incredible job transforming the words that I have written into beautiful images. The characters and settings are very close to what I was imagining while writing the series.”
Kurt Hassler, Yen Press Publishing Director, said, “Few American publishing properties are better suited to introduce a vast readership to the medium of graphic novel than the phenomenon that is Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. Yen Press will certainly continue to expand this audience with the help of Bella and Edward.”
In four years, Stephenie Meyer has become a worldwide publishing phenomenon. The Twilight Saga’s translation rights have been sold in nearly 50 countries and 85 million copies have been sold worldwide.
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