Yaoi Press has teamed with Digital Manga to make our titles available on Emanga.com. Right now Emanga is hosting the out of print Yaoi Hentai vol. 1, and the soon to be out of print vol. 2. More titles will be available there soon. We're so excited to be collaborating with DMP!

If you're at the West Hollywood Book Fair this Sunday please stop by booth D19 to visit Yaoi Press. We will be having a special session of our 'Yaoi: Let's Make a Squeal' game show at the fair, and will have all our books and merchandise available for sale.

Otakumex was a blast last weekend. Thanks to everyone who came out. This is truly the crown jewel of the Animeland convention circuit. I (Yamila) always have such a fantastic time being a guest there.

I'm looking forward to the big one: YAOI CON!

If you can't make it to San Francisco, don't fret. St. Louis Missouri hosts Bishie Con this November. See you there!

This is Yamila Abraham typing.

Chicken little is screaming the sky is falling, and I happen to know that it isn't. The most frustrating thing is I can't discuss said sky falling while the issue of 'falling sky' is still pending. It will be resolved. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

I'm grateful a few people recalled we do not live under Napoleonic Code in the United States. For those who have already judged me, I'm not angry at you. I know it's easy to get into a sensationalist mentality when sensational accusations are being made. So many catastrophes have happened in the industry. It's easy to assume the worst right now. Please keep a cool head, and have faith. This situation is not going to end Yaoi Press. Don't believe the hype.

However, Yaoi Press survives on our convention income. A great portion of that income comes from those shows where I make personal guest appearances. You would think that if a show is willing to put the author of the Trach the Tentacle monster stories on their guest-list they aren't too concerned with her reputation. I can't help but think about a popular convention guest who had a false accusation lobbed at him last year. He was banned from the industry.

People panic when sensational stories start spreading. When convention chairs panic they could pull Yaoi Press from their shows.

I am in a position where I can't say much, and lack of information causes fear. I know there are some people who will never lose faith in me. But there are others who don't know me that well, and are concerned right now. You have my email. Please talk to me before making a decision that could cause a chain reaction that would be devastating to Yaoi Press.

If you've watched any television at all you know the drill for situations like this. I'm not allowed to discuss this matter while it's still pending. I'm desperate to talk, but I can't. Please try not to pass judgment until you know what's really going on. All is not what it seems.

I will be at OtakuMex this weekend. Yes, I really will! You can also meet me at the Hollywood Book Fair on October 4th. I'm seriously looking forward to Yaoi Con October 30th.

There are no cancellations. I will be at these shows. I should have panels at them all. People may ask me about this situation. I probably won't be able to answer them. I'm hoping for a fast resolution, but the sky started falling over 3 years ago, in 2006! If it's taken this long to drop I'm not hopeful about this being over with fast.

One good thing about Yaoi fans is that they are not ignorant people. They aren't the type to spit on me and say, "I heard X about you so I've decided Y." It didn't take long for supporters to start coming out. I appreciate everyone who continues to support me through this trying time.

In the meantime I have a business to continue managing during a very weak economy. I can't crawl into a turtle shell and hide. Works of over 100 talented creators rest on my shoulders. I must continue to promote them, and this company.

I hope that even if you doubt me you will not begrudge these creators the success of their Yaoi Press publications.

From now until September 18th Yaoi Press graphic novels are $5 each at Everythingyaoi.com. Our comics are $.99 each. Even the art books are only $5 each!

Be sure to check us out at Otakumex the weekend of the 25th in Albuquerque New Mexico!

Then we're actually going to be in Utah! OMG! At Anime St. George on October 10th.

See you there!!

A somewhat infamous Australian customer recently bought a Kindle. I say infamous because every online yaoi shop will know who I'm talking about. She's the girl who buys $400+ worth of books twice a month or so. She buys multiple copies of the same title showing that she's selling the books in her native Australia.

A convention vendor did a show in Australia to sell dojinshi. He did terrible. This made me think there may not be a market for yaoi in Australia. Well, of course that's not true. Japanese language dojinshi have to be more easily accessed by Australians than English language manga. The demand there is for the translated stuff. That demand is not being met.

Our distribution to Australia has always been poor. The transportation costs of the books just add too much to the cover price to make retailers feel it's worth stocking.

They're wrong.

I see from this Australian girl's cottage industry that even when she's buying yaoi at American retail prices, adding the cost of shipping, and adding a tidy mark-up above that, she's able to sell the books by the box full. I've seen some of her sales listings. She has no problem getting the equivalent of $30 USD for a copy of Crimson Spell.

Still, it's not an ideal situation. We know how tight budgets can get. In the USA fans don't have enough money to buy all the yaoi they want. Imagine how that is for Australian fans? They don't have their own yaoi manga publishers there. It's all imports from the USA.

Enter the Kindle. My Australian friend saw Digital Manga's Kindle web site. She emailed Maria at our store everythingyaoi.com and asked what the heck a Kindle was. Her next email told us she'd bought one.

Digital distribution is the answer for countries like Australia. Shipping and customs costs make import of niche manga just too expensive. The Kindle would be a Godsend. Take away the customs costs. Take away the shipping costs. Even get it at a discount over USA retail prices. There would finally be an alternative to online piracy for them.

I hope Australians reading this didn't stop at the paragraph above and run out to buy a Kindle. If you did you'll find that you have to hunt for a reseller who ships to Australia. Then, once you get a power adaptor to charge the thing in an Australian outlet, you'll find that you can't download the Kindle ebooks. There's a region block. Even if one of your USA buddies lets you use their address to register it you won't be able to download the Kindle ebooks in Australia.

1. Dear Amazon - Make the Kindle work 100% in Australia! That would be such a boon to Yaoi Press and other niche publishers who have insurmountable hurdles exporting books there. It's better for the environment and cheaper for all concerned.

2. Dear Australians, for now, don't buy a Kindle unless you use it strictly as a PDF ebook viewer. You won't be able to download the Kindle ebooks unless you do what our friend did.

What did our friend do? She mailed Maria her Kindle with a shopping list. Right now it consists of every book DMP has offered via the Kindle. She's also going to get several Yaoi Press Kindle books for free. Although we're not live on the Kindle yet we have submitted the first couple of titles as of last week.

All Yaoi Press books will be available on the Kindle before the end of the year.

Maria has turned over this Kindle to me to put the Yaoi Press titles on it. We told our friend that we would do this.

I know I should have my own Kindle since this is a new platform for our books. (I also know I should have my own iPhone since our books are going up on iTunes). But I don't want one. As a consumer I have almost no need for one. I'd rather spend $300 to pay an artist to draw something for Yaoi Press. 'Borrowing' a Kindle like this is a great opportunity. I want to see what our books look like on the Kindle screen (as well as our friend publisher's books).

I'm not certain of the legality of doing this favor for my friend. From my perspective I see Kindle being most useful outside the USA. I resent that there's blocks in place. Yaoi Press books have universal English rights (we make most of our titles from scratch). Other companies don't have world-wide rights, and need to assure their license partners that they aren't overstepping their boundaries. That said, no one seems to be licensing yaoi in Australia. It's silly when there are already English language versions of the books out there.

There should be a way for Australians to be able to access those books without the enormous costs they face right now.