Why Consolidation Isn’t Necessarily A Bad Thing

When I first heard about the consolidation of Yen Press and Orbit, I was a little unnerved (if you haven’t heard about the press release yet, check out here or here to give it a read), but the more that I think about this merger, I’m not so sure that I’m scared of it, or that I even think it’s a bad thing.

As you should well know by now, Yen Press is the manga and graphics novel imprint of Hatchette Book Group. The company seems to be tightening up on their imprints, and probably refocusing resources in these two imprints to insure that loose ends are tied up and that the manga and sci-fi publishing industries are recession-tight. From what I’ve read on Tiamat’s Manga Reviews, and from his comments over at MangaBlog, it seems as though things are going to stay more or less the same. This really doesn’t change all that much for manga readers, or people with subscriptions to Yen Press. Branding really shouldn’t change, and my thought is that the two imprints will work under one name, with a more focused management, things on the office level will stay the same.

What this merger seems to indicate is that Hatchette seems pretty serious about Yen Press and it’s stake in the manga market. At 1% market share (which is a bit less than Dark Horse’s 3.5%, but still much larger than publishers like Broccoli Books) and with upcoming releases like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, it’s apparent that Yen Press is poised to start playing with the big dogs. This is a good thing, and I think that this merge is not a sign of bad things, but rather, a re-commitment to the two imprints and their management.

Regardless, what matters here is the manga. As long as Yen Press continues to publish outstanding manga, I’ll continue to pony up my hard-earned dollars.