Anime Expo 2009

Yaoi Press

Panelist: Yamila Abraham

Yaoi Press, a publisher of original English-language yaoi, celebrated their fifth year in the publishing industry. After working the crowd with yaoi-flavored jokes, GloBL (global BL) writer Yamila Abraham discussed the business model of the company, which focuses on international original boys love comics. Their titles are licensed from various non-Japanese countries, such as Spain, Italy, Germany, and others.

Abraham talked briefly about some of their current releases, such as Anima, Cain, Dark Prince, and Winter Demon, the latter two which were written by herself and illustrated by a French artist. She also talked about their newest title, Happy Yaoi Yum Yum, which is currently available for purchase. Yaoi Press will also be selling merchandise. Some of their items include banana keychains, a yaoi coloring book, and yaoi parasols.

As for their big announcement, they will be launching a new imprint called Yaoi Prose, which will focus on light novels. They will partner with Studio KOSEN, the artists behind the GlobL title Saihoshi. Abraham will be writing prose stories based on Winter Demon and Dark Prince, while Studio KOSEN will provide the illustrations. The stories will be published as e-books, and will be available online as PDFs.

Their graphic novels will also be available for purchase on iTunes for the iPhone. Rather than the standard 150+ pages, they will be around 500 pages, formatted specifically for the screen.