New Publishers, More Titles at Yaoi-Con 2006
This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on October 24, 2006 Sign up now!
by Ian Brill and Kai-Ming Cha, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 10/24/2006
 Iris Print managing editor Kellie Lynch and volunteer Samantha Reinert. |
Yaoi manga is focused on stories about beautiful boys in intense relationships with other boys. But while yaoi's popularity continues to grow, the problems of publishing and distributing yaoi with explicit sexual content was a major topic of discussion. Blu Manga, an imprint of Tokyopop specializing in bawdier yaoi, has the widest distribution and consistently maintains a $9.99 price point for its books. During the Blu Manga panel, Tokyopop editor Lillian M. Diaz-Przybyl spoke of the greater challenges faced by publishers offering explicit content. One major retailer stopped carrying Blu Manga titles over the summer, said Diaz-Przybyl, even though the books were shrink-wrapped and rated "mature." The retailer demanded the books also carry a parental advisory sticker. Blu relented and now, according to Diaz-Przybyl, the warning stickers have been "incorporated as subtly and delicately as possible," and the books are back at the major retailer.
 Mangaka Ana and Mercedes Hidalgo. |
During the Blu panel, Diaz-Przybyl was asked about Tokyopop's efforts to hide its association with Blu. The imprint has no mailing address and doesn't list any editors' names. Nevertheless, anyone interested in yaoi could easily find the connection. Diaz-Przybyl admitted that Blu's relationship to Tokyopop was "the worst-kept industry secret ever." She said the lack of address and editor credits was intended to ward off hate mail from moral crusaders who find the material in bookstores.
Blu's books may be the most widely available, but smaller companies are providing the hardcore sexual content that yaoi fans—predominately women—are demanding. DramaQueen, self-declared "Purveyor of Fine Man Sex," showed off its original English-language yaoi anthology Rush issue 00, a precursor to issue 1. Issue 00 is a limited-edition book with a print run of 2,000 copies and no plans for reprint. "We wanted to make it special," said director of European licensing Laila El Ouali. Issue 1 will be bigger, and DramaQueen plans to add an extra story to each subsequent issue.
 Mangaka Yishan Li. |
801 Media is a company under Digital Manga Inc., the parent company of Digital Manga Publishing. Much like Blu Manga, 801 Media specializes in yaoi titles with explicit sexual content, titles too graphic for the DMP list, such as The Sky over My Spectacles, and BondZ by Toko Kawai, who was at this year's convention. Love Is Like a Hurricane--said to be one of the most requested titles--was also switched to 801 Media. The publisher is still looking for bookstore distribution but the books are available through online retailers like Amazon, RightStuff and at independent comic book shops. Individual Borders stores will order 801 Media books upon request. Asked just how explicit 801's books will be, general manager Erica Jeng said, "We'll go as far as people want us to go without getting in trouble." As for the influx of yaoi publishers, DMP spokesperson Rachel Livingston said that even though yaoi will likely remain a niche market, "the probability of finding yaoi [in bookstores and comics shops] is greater."
Jeng and Livingston also presided over the panel for DMP and its yaoi imprint June. Among the titles announced were Othello by Toni Hasumi, as well as multiple titles by Hyonta Fujiyama, including Sweet Whisper, Ordinary Crush and Lover's Flat. The announcement that spurred the most fan reaction wasn't a manga at all but a prose novel, Ai No Kusabi, or The Space Between, by Rieko Yoshihara. While fans at the panels were keen on plans for yaoi prose novels, publishers noted the difficulty and expense of translating prose. Unlike manga, however, novels don't have age restrictions or face the same need for content alterations. But DMP was emphatic that they would fight in court if any group tried to suppress their yaoi titles, "We're pretty rebellious," said Jeng.
Iris Print, a brand-new publisher of original English-language yaoi, is also publishing prose novels, this time from Western authors. Iris Print is releasing books on a twice-yearly schedule. This month the house published three books: a yaoi prose fiction anthology entitled Connections; the yaoi novel A Strong and Sudden Thaw; and a yaoi comics anthology, When Worlds Collide. Two more titles, Paintings of You and Only Words, are due out in spring 2007. Home on the Range will be ready for release at Yaoi-con 2008.
Iris Print will also publish a yaoi fairytale and fantasy anthology and will issue a call for submissions shortly. Managing editor Kellie Lynch said that she'd like to have releases every few months. "There will definitely be more books for next year," she said. "But nothing we can announce with certainty."
Lynch said the publisher is looking for submissions and working on getting the word out about Iris Print. "A lot of people out there are sitting on stories," she told PWCW. "They don't look for publishers because they don't realize that there's a market [for them]." Lynch did some portfolio reviews at this year's con and said Iris hopes to sign a few artists.
Over at Yaoi Press, Yamila Abraham was excited about the January release Zesty, a boys' love original English-language series aimed at ages 13 and older that started as a Web comic on the Yaoi Press site, www.yaoipress.com, and has run for 18 months. "I think the bookstores will bite," said Abraham, who has run a sizable promotional campaign for the book, with ads on Icv2.com and in Shojo Beat magazine
Yaoi Press has plans for 15 books in 2007, as well as an art book featuring illustrations by Yaoi Press artists and others. The publisher of global yaoi has licensed three series from Italy: Cain by Le Peruggine; and Idol and Wishing for the Moon, both by Dany & Dany. Dany & Dany will also be working on an original series for Yaoi Press, The Lily and the Rose, due in 2007. Yaoi Press also brought in artists Yishan Li, who does the artwork for Spirit Marked and The Alura Chronicles, and the Spanish twins Ana and Mercedes Hidalgo of Studio Kawaii, the creative team behind the series Treasure.
Central Park Media's Be Beautiful imprint was back on the scene at Yaoi-Con with volume 6 of Kazuma Kodaka's Kizuna. Volume 7 comes out in February and the company has plans for another Kodaka license. The long-awaited Sound of My Voice by Youka Nitta will be released next month and another Nitta series, Casino Lily, will be coming in 2007. Starting in January, Be Beautiful will release one book per month.
CPM principals John and Masumi O'Donnell were at the Be Beautiful panel and reassured the fans that the company has recovered from a period of restructuring and that the house is back on track with its publishing program. CPM was severely impacted by the bankruptcy filings of the Music Land chain in May and later the Tower Records chain, two retail channels that sold much of CPM's anime product. "We're slowly getting back to our schedule," said Masumi O'Donnell, Be Beautiful's v-p.Broccoli Books reaffirmed plans to begin publishing yaoi and may launch a yaoi imprint. While the company did not announce any specific titles, a Broccoli representative did say that the house is close to signing contracts for Japanese yaoi.
Although there is a clash between fans' desire for more explicit yaoi titles and the concerns publishers have about publishing and distributing explicit material, at least one bookstore buyer found that embracing yaoi has paid off. Felicia Lam is a buyer for a Borders Express store in downtown Portland, Ore. A yaoi fan herself, Lam began ordering from small yaoi publishers like DramaQueen and Be Beautiful and now stocks a full line of yaoi titles. Lam said she hasn't witnessed any negative reactions; in fact, the yaoi fans in her area have expressed gratitude by becoming loyal customers. "My manager [told me], 'If you were on commission, you'd be a millionaire,' " Lam said.
And it's clear that new publishers are moving into the genre to meet demand. April Guitierrez, a spokesperson for Yaoi-con, reflected on the growth the genre has seen since the convention began six years ago. "If you told me when we started this Con there would be this many publishers, I wouldn't have believed it," she said. "Now we're seeing the full spectrum, from very light to more graphic. Whatever you want to find, someone will [publish titles that will] satisfy your tastes."
