It’s truly a blessing for people who don’t like reading when a manga is animated or made into an audiobook. Yen Press announced its Yen Audio Imprints which will release novels in audio format.
Solo Leveling and Sword Art Online are just some of the many exciting titles that will get an audiobook.
Yen Press has launched Yen Audio Books in collaboration with Hachette Audio to produce, sell, and distribute digital audiobooks.
The audiobooks released will only be for a few select franchises and will continue to release regular updates soon.
The voice cast and narrators for the audiobooks will be revealed at a later date by the company.
The company revealed that the following titles will receive an audiobook:
| Franchise | Release Date |
| Solo Leveling | July 2021 |
| Sword Art Online | August 2021 |
| Overlord | September 2021 |
| Miracles of the Namiya General Store | November 2021 |
| The Saga of Tanya the Evil | November 2021 |
After the release of these, the company will be giving regular updates about other franchises as well.
Kurt Hassler, the publisher and managing director of the Yen Press, revealed in an ICv2 interview that the manga market took a substantial hit due to the Covid-19 pandemic last year.
The year 2020 ended up being a record year for the Yen Press as sales picked up during the fall.
He mentioned that the business has been good ever since. Due to the significant increase in sales, they were having difficulty in printing.
Therefore, Yen Press’s Hassler and Hachette Audio’s longtime Publisher and SVP Anthony Goff partnered and negotiated terms and conditions to create Yen Audio.
The audiobooks released will be the franchises that come under the Yen Press company. After its establishment and settlement, regular seasonal updates will also be given to other franchises.
Hassler also said the following regarding the collaboration:
“Yen(Press) has been aware of the interest in audiobook adaptations of its novels for some time.
We’re incredibly excited not only to be taking this step finally but to be doing so with the GRAMMY® Award-winning talent at Hachette Audio.
We could not be more excited to be launching both this program and partnership.”
Hassler
We’re incredibly excited about this venture. You should be too!!
About Solo Leveling
Solo Leveling is a Korean Webtoon written by Chu Gong and illustrated by Jang Sung Rak. It is adapted from the web novel; I Alone Level Up. Kakaopage publishes it in South Korea and Piccoma in Japan. The series ended in December 2021 and has been collected into 14 volumes.
Portals connecting the Earth to realms of monsters have opened up, and hunters defeat those monsters. Sung Jin Woo belongs to the lowest level of hunters, but after getting involved in a Dungeon quest, he alone can see quests like that of a game.
His journey to become the most powerful hunter and bring peace back to Earth begins.
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