DEL REY LAUNCHES MANGA "PREVIEW" WEBSITES

[JIVE News]

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Del Rey Manga, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, announced today the launch of new title-specific websites, each of which will allow manga readers to preview thirty pages from the first volume of a new manga title—before the official publication date—in an innovative 'page-a-day' approach. One of the fastest growing categories in bookstores, the size of the graphic novel market has risen to an estimated $250 million market today. The vast majority of the growth in the market has been due to the increased popularity of Japanese comics, known as manga, a genre that Del Rey launched in the summer of 2004; Del Rey now has well over one million manga in print in the United States. Although other large manga publishers have offered preview content on their websites, Del Rey's approach is unique in that each day for thirty days, a new page of manga content will be added for each individual title. In this way, Del Rey hopes to encourage readers to come back every day, and to build buzz for their hottest new properties.

"Our page-a-day concept goes beyond what the other large manga publishers have offered on their sites," said Betsy Mitchell, VP & Editor-in-Chief of Del Rey. "We wanted to give our fans an opportunity—absolutely free—to sample Del Rey's new series before laying down hard cash. There's a lot of manga on the shelves these days, and this is one way readers can decide whether our titles are the ones they want to spend money on. Obviously, we think we've got the right stuff."

"If this promotion is as successful as we anticipate it to be, we hope to be able to provide preview websites—well in advance of publication—for as many forthcoming new series as possible," added Del Rey's Manga Director Dallas Middaugh.

The first three titles to be featured on the title-specific sites — all Kodansha properties — are GACHA GACHA by Hiroyuki Tamakoshi (on sale September 20, 2005; ages 16+), GHOST HUNT by Fuyumi Ono and Shiho Inada (on sale September 27, 2005; ages 13+), and SUGAR SUGAR RUNE by Moyoco Anno (on sale September 27, 2005; ages 10+).

The URLs for the first three title-specific sites are www.delreymanga.com/gachagacha, www.delreymanga.com/ghosthunt and www.delreymanga.com/sugar.

About Del Rey:
Del Rey Books (http://info.randomhouse.com/cgi-bin2...R4Rl0WM0RJ60Es) was founded in 1977 as a division of Ballantine Books under the guidance of the renowned Judy-Lynn del Rey and her husband, Lester del Rey. Del Rey publishes the best of modern fantasy, science fiction, alternate history and manga. Ballantine Books is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, which is a publishing group of Random House, Inc, the U.S. publishing company of Random House, the trade book publishing division of Bertelsmann AG, one of the world's leading international media companies. In the summer of 2003, Random House joined together with Kodansha in a creative partnership to bring some of Kodansha's top properties to the United States, making Random House the first major trade book publisher in the United States to do so.

About Kodansha Ltd., Publishers :
Kodansha is the largest trade and magazine book publisher in Japan. Founded in 1909, the company by virtue of its long history, the quality of its publishing, and its established network of sales and marketing is regarded as the trade book market leader in the publishing business in Japan. Moreover, Kodansha has been recognized as the leading publisher with a mission to introduce Japan through its publishing business.