Huge comic news today: after 20 years with Time Warner Books (now Hachette), Publishers Weekly is reporting that DC is moving to Random House for its bookstore distribution.

Paul Levitz, president and publisher of DC Comics, said the decision to change its distribution after so many years with Warner Books was spurred by Hachette’s purchase of the Time Warner Book Group and the end of its longtime distribution agreement with Warner. “We’ve had a very positive experience with Time Warner/Hachette, but the sale gave us an opportunity to explore the marketplace. The graphic novel business has changed to an astounding degree over the last 20 years and we decided to look at the market and see what the distribution market is like now and what it might look like in the future.”

Jeff Abraham, president of RHPS, said “We’re thrilled with this new relationship. Most of my staff and sales force have been fans of DC Comics long before we ever thought they’d be a partner.”

Asked to characterize the terms of the deal, Levitz said it was difficult “because it’s not apples to apples. We’ve never had a sales force of any size in the book trade. We’ve always done sales ourselves using a very small sales team.” Levitz said that he was not worried that DC Comics titles might be lost in the giant Random House distribution operation. “We’re used to being in a big environment,” he said.

What does this mean? A large sales/marketing/promo force — Random House is the nation’s largest publisher — that is more experienced with graphic novels (Pantheon is an imprint of RH), and potentially a much more robust presence for DC in bookstores. Then again, they could get lost in the shuffle. Not likely because DC should be a huge source of revenue, but it could happen.

General, Comics