Penguin Random House Publisher Services has reached an agreement to distribute the publishing output of Wattpad WEBTOON to all sales channels worldwide, the companies announced.  The new agreement includes not only the graphic novels of WEBTOON Unscrolled, but also the fiction of Wattpad Books, W by Wattpad Books, and Frayed Pages x Wattpad Books.

The reference to “all sales channels” surely includes the comics Direct Market, which, per our memory, marks the first time a publisher not in the comic periodical business has assigned distribution rights for the channel to PRHPS. 

Wattpad WEBTOON Studios SVP and Head of Global Publishing Tina McIntyre noted the opportunities of print content derived from material first published on the company’s website and in its apps. “Fans around the world have proven time and again that they will follow their favorite webcomics and webnovels to print format,” she said in a statement accompanying the announcement. 

WEBTOON VP of Content David Lee explained the company’s IP pipelines and plans for publishing in an interview with ICv2 last summer (see “ICv2 Interview: David Lee”).