PR: Twilight is coming

Twilight_GraphicNovelThis press release went out earlier today, and one of the things that is catching everyone’s eye is the 350,000-copy first printing, which shows a certain… confidence in the book. By contrast, the first printing of volume 1 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya manga was 75,000 copies, and that seemed pretty optimistic. The first printing of the third Scott Pilgrim graphic novel was 10,000. (If you’re curious, I wrote about the topic here a few years ago.)

Then Yen Press tweeted that the book made it into the Amazon top 10 today—not bad for a book that won’t be published for another two months. Read on for all the details.

YEN PRESS ANNOUNCES
TWILIGHT: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL, VOL. 1
WILL GO ON-SALE ON MARCH 16, 2010

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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Comments

  1. Garrett Albright says

    Hmm, hardcover? Is it (relatively) expensive because it is hardcover, or is it hardcover because it’s expensive?

  2. Simon Jones says

    It’s hardcover because hardcovers are more profitable, people have different price expectations for HC versus SC, and it makes for nicer display dumps. This book isn’t made to fit the manga direct-to-tpb mold… it’s for mainstream fiction readers, hardcore Twilight fans at that.

    Also, I wish they had used a serif-less font. The lettering reminds me of those Harlequin manga. Meh.

  3. “The lettering reminds me of those Harlequin manga. Meh.”

    Which is entirely appropriate, looking at the material they’re working with.

  4. Actually, it’s the art on that cover that disturbs me. She appears to have no bones, and her left arm is weirdly distorted.

  5. Garrett Albright says

    Brigid, you can check out a larger version of the artwork at Yen Press’s site:
    http://yenpress.us/?p=2014

    It looks to me that the hand actually belongs to someone she is lying in the grass next to – the vampire guy, I guess. But I agree that, without being able to see the whole picture, the composition comes off a bit awkward.

    Maybe the next volume’s artwork will feature the vampire guy in such a way that you can put the two books face-up next to each other and have a complete picture or something like that?

  6. Steven R. Stahl says

    People might be interested in doing a Google search on “first printing” and authors, or numbers, to see how the first printing for TWILIGHT compares to prose novels by well-known authors. James Patterson and Stephen King, for instance, generally have first printings of one million copies or more for their novels. Patterson’s Witch & Wizard, a fantasy novel for young adults, was scheduled for a first printing of 700,000 copies, at a cover price of $17.99. Authors who are proven bestsellers can still command big print runs, apparently.

    SRS

  7. I think this will make Twilight even more popular. Why? Because I will never ever ever ever see the movies because they seem so freakin stupid will all the barechested gay men running everywhere. I MIGHT pick up and read one of the novels someday….(probably not). But I will definitely read the graphic novel. 100% chance. So I think the series has a chance to pick up new fans like me that were just waiting for the right medium to experience it in. The art so far looks really good. So I have a positive feeling towards the book.

  8. I can’t say “I’m a big fan of a Korean-drawn comic starring a vampire” anymore. :cries:

    (Rebirth >> all)

  9. Just to prove to myself that I can always find something to be annoyed about, regardless of my own interest in it, Twilight: The Graphic Novel, is proving amusing for me in a way it probably shouldn’t be. You’d think if preorders alone have shot this book into amazon.com’s top ten list and they’re expecting it to be such a hit (and introduce new people to graphic novels) that between Yen and Hachette they would have bothered to actually get the book listed on amazon.co.uk or waterstones or so.
    Does that mean this graphic novel is going to have a conveniently not advertised delay between the US and UK release, or that the UK isn’t actually going to have one? Either answer would prove quite interesting to me at this stage.

Trackbacks

  1. […] Brigid Alverson posts the official press release, which indicates Twilight: The Graphic Novel will be a $19.99 […]

  2. […] Alverson has the initial press release posted on her blog, as well as a few notes on what that 350,000 number actually means, compared to other manga and […]