Tokyopop announced yesterday that they’re leaving their old distributor, Perseus, to sign with Harper Collins to manage their bookstore distribution. For all the talk about the manga bubble popping, there sure seems to be quite a bit of competition still to sign these guys to contracts.

As part of the new deal, Tokyopop and HarperCollins also announced a joint publishing arrangement to create a new line of manga titles based on the books of HarperCollins authors, beginning with Meg Cabot, creator of the popular “Princess Diaries” series.

Distributing books to stores and providing back-office functions for small publishers like Tokyopop is an increasingly competitive business for larger publishing houses, which have been seeking ways to grow in an industry that has been steadily losing its audience to other forms of entertainment.

The race to secure the rights to Tokyopop’s line was an example of that competitiveness. Executives from most of the large publishing houses trekked to California late last year to bid for the right to the business. Apparently those discussions continued, at least with HarperCollins, after Tokyopop announced in a news release on Feb. 13 that it had selected Perseus as the winner.

Full article available here.

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