Marvel Takes Graphic Novel Business Away from Diamond

In a major move for the comics marketplace, Marvel Comics has signed a deal to have their graphic novels and trade paperbacks distributed to the book store market by the Hachette Book Group, effective September 1, 2010. The deal was announced this morning on Hachette's own news website (press release reprinted below).



The announcement finalizes what many industry observers long expected: that Marvel would leave its longtime place with Diamond Book Distributors – the book store arm of Direct Market titan Diamond Comic Distributors – in order to up their sales numbers in one of the increasingly important markets for comics sales across North America. This follows DC Comics exit from Diamond in 2007 for Random House, although both publishers continue to see their monthly comics and trade paperbacks released to comic shops exclusively through Diamond.


One notable element to the new Marvel/Hachette partnership is that the deal seems to come independently of the influence of Marvel's new owners at Disney. While Disney's own book publishing arm as well as their Hyperion publishing label were once carried by Hachette, both switched to HarperCollins in 2006.