Marie Kondo, the Japanese professional home organizer and author of the worldwide bestseller, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, will release The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up this summer. The Japanese-style graphic novel will be published by Ten Speed Press this summer.
Ten Speed executive editor Lisa Westmoreland said the manga will be released June 27 with a 50,000 copy first printing. The book is illustrated by Yuko Uramoto, a renowned manga artist who was awarded the grand prize at the 2011 Shueisha Aoharu Manga Awards.
An imprint of Penguin Random House's Crown Publishing Group, Ten Speed has more than 2.6 million copies of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up in print over 42 printings. The book has turned Kondo--her fans refer to her by her nickname (a registered trademark), KonMari--into an international lifestyle icon.
Westmoreland said offering a manga version of Kondo’s bestseller is “a natural step in Japan. KonMari and her editor [at Japanese publisher Sunmark] love manga and they’re excited.”
The book was originally published in Japan in February. It is being translated into English and published to be read left to right to appeal to American readers unfamiliar with manga. (Most popular English language manga is published in its original form, with the words running right to left, to appeal to American manga fans who demand Japanese authenticity.)
Westmoreland described The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up as a fictional case study that shows off the Kondo method of discarding items that do not “spark joy.” She also emphasizes folding garments, rather than hanging them. In the manga, Kondo acts as a personal consultant to Chiaki, a young professional woman whose apartment, and life, is wildly disorganized.
“You can see [how KonMari works] from beginning to end,” Westmoreland said. “Chiaki struggles with her messy apartment and gets KonMari to help her get rid of old stuff.”
Although there are no plans for Kondo to appear at comics shows, Westmoreland said that Ten Speed will have materials to promote the book at the Comic Cons in both San Diego and New York. Ten Speed is planning to promote the title through digital advertising and social media promotions, as well as an animated book trailer. Kondo is also set to appear on the Rachael Ray Show on May 16.
Corrections: in an earlier version of this story the illustrator's name was misspelled, the number of copies in print of The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up was misstated to be numbers sold, and Kondo will not make personal appearances at the comics conventions.
