Tokyopop Launches Teen Prose Line
by Bridget Kinsella -- Publishers Weekly, 5/1/2006
This fall, manga publisher Tokyopop is introducing Pop Fiction, a line of original and licensed prose titles from around the world that the company hopes will expand its reach beyond the realm of manga and comics and into the YA fiction sections in bookstores. The books include illustrations and range from fantasies to psychological thrillers.
Tokyopop will release its first three licensed teen fiction titles in October—two from Japan and one from Germany. The new line is the brainchild of senior editor Nicole Monastirsky, who described the books as pulp fun that also deal with the messiness of life. Tokyopop has published a few prose novels based on its manga properties, but Pop Fiction is its biggest foray into the YA prose market.
This year has seen a number of new developments at Tokyopop. Layoffs of a senior executive and six employees in January were followed by a blockbuster new distribution pact and copublishing venture with HarperCollins. Tokyopop officials emphasized that Pop Fiction was a factor in the HarperCollins deal.
"It's teen fiction through the Tokyopop prism," said publisher Mike Kiley, describing the line's relationship to the Harper pact. "We knew we had a product that would go outside the manga confines and we looked for a partner that could take us into nontraditional areas."
Monastirsky said the first Pop Fiction book, Kino no Tabi: Book One of the Beautiful World, is about "the inherent beauty in imperfection. People are flawed, and that can be beauty." Other books in the line have related themes, she noted. The first original work in the line will be published in early 2007. Most of the Pop Fiction titles are part of a series, but some will be single volumes. The paperbacks are priced from $7.99 to $11.99.
To get the word out online, Tokyopop has entered into an agreement with BookReporter.com to promote the titles. Carol Fitzgerald, CEO of bookreporter.com, said that from June through July, the site will run an advance reading program on its Teen Reads site that will give teen reviewers a chance to win finished copies of the books.
