Penguin Random House LLC Ceases Distribution Of Dungeons & Dragons
by Anton Kromoff
Welcome to the table,
Because it is making its rounds across the various social channels this week, I wanted to be sure I let all our readers who work in retail and are into D&D or seeing the public big feelings know the following.
As seen on their site “Effective January 1, 2024, Penguin Random House LLC is ceasing distribution of Dungeons & Dragons titles from Wizards of the Coast. Moving forward, your store will be able to order Dungeons & Dragons titles directly from one of our approved distributors.”
Retailers who want to still place orders for their stores can visit the Wizards of the Coast Distributors page, select their preferred distributor, and use the provided contact information to reach out to them.
Wizards has posted that if you have any questions concerning your current distribution through Penguin Random House, you can contact your Penguin Random House rep or Penguin Random House Customer Service. For questions regarding the distribution of Dungeons & Dragons titles beginning January 1st, 2024, you will need to reach out to the D&D distributors.
Until next time, my thoughts on this is that if you had a distribution network like Hasbro does, it would make more sense to send your books out the same way you send out toys. I am not in the room with Big Dragon or anything, but logically this seems like what is going on.
However, this is an evolving and ever-changing landscape. Much like the astral plane time and space can shift from moment to moment and what once felt like a solid foundation below you could become star stuff leaving you to tumble into the void toward your destiny. I don’t think D&D is going anywhere, if anything I have seen more and more of their books on the shelves at stores like Target and Walmart so all of these moves could be leading to even wider distribution with their big anniversary coming next year. I, much like the rest of you, will wait and see and report as news comes in.
Be kind to each other and don’t rush to rage in the social spaces. That energy can be better spent elsewhere, I promise you.
