Yen Press Announces Yen Audio

Yen Press has announced a new partnership with Hachette Audio to produce, sell, and distribute digital audiobook editions of select titles. Heading up the program under the Yen Audio label is Publisher and Managing Director Kurt Hassler, who is teaming up with Hachette Audio’s longtime Publisher and SVP Anthony Goff, who negotiated the world rights deal for Hachette Book Group.

Yen Audio will launch four debut titles in Summer and Fall 2021. The first volume of SOLO LEVELING, a South Korean novel by Chugong originally published online in serial releases and the basis of the bestselling webtoon of the same name, will be the first audiobook in the collaboration, slated for publication July 2021. The second release will take place in August, when the initial volume of the acclaimed light novel series SWORD ART ONLINE by author Reki Kawahara is published as a digital audiobook. Voice casting for these titles, as well as for narrators of Fall titles OVERLORD by Kugane Maruyama and THE SAGA OF TANYA THE EVIL by Carlo Zen, will be announced soon separately. After these initial releases, it is expected that the Yen/Hachette Audio partnership will release regular seasonal adaptations.

Hassler said of the partnership, “Yen has been aware of the interest in audiobook adaptations of its novels for some time, and we’re incredibly excited not only to finally be taking this step 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.”

“This partnership is an amazing opportunity, and one we’ve cultivated for many years, since Yen was a part of Hachette Book Group,” concurred Goff. “I couldn’t be more pleased to work with Kurt, and the fantastic team at Yen, as we look forward to introducing more audio interpretations of their popular series to listeners around the world.”

These audiobooks based on Yen Press content will be available wherever downloadable audiobooks are sold, across platforms including Apple Books, Audible, Audiobooks.com, Downpour, Google Books, Libro.fm, Kobo, and more.

The launch series for Yen Audio includes the following:

Solo Leveling, Vol. 1 - Coming July 2021

Sword Art Online, Vol. 1: Aincrad - Coming August 2021

Overlord, Vol. 1 - Coming September 2021

The Miracles of the Namiya General Store - Coming November 2021

The Saga of Tanya the Evil, Vol. 1 - Coming November 2021