I think that somehow switching to Blogger or integrating our blog onto our site has made readers no longer able to do 'trackbacks'. I regret that. I didn't know there was so much discussion about the last post until I did a search. There is a lot of really good feedback to my thoughts. It's worth covering here.
To the depressed creators: cheer up. When a door closes you open a window. And that's not saying that the OEL door is even closed. Yaoi Press is not the only company giving new OEL creators a break. However, to say the opportunities are the same as they were in 2006 is deluding ourselves. Creators who limit themselves to this narrow market are trying to find excuses to fail which don't include 'lack of talent.'
If you have talent that talent is not restricted by format. I can't comprehend any writer who says the only thing they're able to write is OEL manga-style scripts for graphic novels. And artists? If you have exceptional talent in creating sequential art in the manga style then you have work. There are companies looking for you to illustrate those licensed properties I spoke of last time.
The last category here are the writer/creators or teams with their heart set on that project that doesn't fit elsewhere except OEL. You hear companies don't want to take a risk. That your amazing, but unproven, idea won't even be given a chance.
Well, PROVE YOURSELF. Put this incredible work online and cause such a hysteria that large companies are forced to take notice. It worked for MegaTokyo. If your stuff is truly one of the undiscovered gems that would blow up if a publisher just gave it a chance then you are committing a sin not to fight for it.
My next point is in response to Mr. Raiko's comment at The Beat about the broader sales potential with original works vs. license works. He said:
"Setting aside the more pie-in-the-sky scenario of a publisher benefitting by selling film rights (either in the publisher-as-IP-farm business model or just by being able to publish tie-in editions) there are also less controversial scenarios such as being able to sell other translations. An publisher that retains translation rights to original material might be able to generate worthwhile income by selling translations; a publisher of licensed material is less likely to access such revenue streams, since those rights will likely be retained by the licensor."
A very good point. Part of the scratching, fighting, and bleeding I mentioned in the prior post includes doing everything we can to sell foreign language rights to our books. It's gratifying that we are more successful than most other OEL publishers in getting these works licensed. Unfortunately, our gratification comes more from being to able to say, "Our books are so good that they've been published in Polish, French, Spanish, Italian, and German," rather than the income we see from these licenses.
The stigma OEL more or less conquered in the US is still strong in many countries that publish manga. Even in Germany, where they have a thriving OGM (Original German Manga, a term I might have just made up) market, they still expect to pay less for OEL and Korean manwha than Japanese licenses.
Still, Germany is the top licensor to sell OEL to. You can expect to make 7-10% of your costs back by licensing there. There is no other country which currently licenses OEL or manwha, that rivals what Germany pays. You often find yourself giving licenses to countries with smaller markets for free as an investment in future opportunities.
In short, foreign language licensing, especially for OEL, is a very small piece of the financial pie.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Yaoi Press
I recently had a discussion with a business associate about the state of original English language manga (OEL). This person is very much in the know about this segment of the business. He and I were on the same wavelength. We both had the same views:
1. OEL manga must sell much better than licensed titles to be successful, because it's at least 3 times more expensive to publish. It is absolutely cheaper to license manga than to produce OEL works. The idea that companies were making their own graphic novels in order to save money is a myth. It's cheaper and easier to license titles than to create them from scratch.
2. Unfortunately, opportunities for OEL manga creators are almost zero in the USA right now. A sad fact is that OEL manga that sold well, even as well as licensed titles, were still publishing money-pits. There is no incentive for publishers to continue taking chances on relatively expensive new talent.
3. Large publishers which still appear to have calls for OEL submissions are actually looking for licensed properties. Not licenses from Japan. They want to do manga adaptions of Dean Koontz novels, or manga based on CSI. This is why the encourage artists to submit far more than writers. They don't want writers submitting their unproven original ideas. They want artists to draw the 'Star Wars' manga, etc.
These three pessimistic points are the reality right now. All of us on the industry side of OEL know it.
Getting back to that conversation, my colleague asked me how it was that Yaoi Press was able to continue publishing OEL. The assumption of some fans is that it's because it's yaoi. That our niche somehow gives Yaoi Press a leg-up in the business.
The market is flooded with yaoi right now. People don't have to buy Yaoi Press books in order to have their needs satisfied. Yaoi is no golden ticket. Publishers and imprints have folded in the past.
Yaoi Press has survived these last four years, and thrived, because my staff and I fight, scratch, and bleed for every sale we make.
Every time you see a Yaoi Press book at Borders, Rightstuf International, Comic Shops, Netcomics, or at a vendor's booth at a convention you are seeing something that we worked desperately to achieve. It's an ongoing battle. We have to work every single day to keep our customers buying. Keep the wholesalers stocking. Keep the store buyers biting. Yaoi Press is a 72 hour per week job for me, as well as full-time jobs for two office staff. Most of my time isn't spent writing yaoi. It's fighting for sales.
If we only had revenue through sales made from book stores, comic shops, our distributors, our web site, we would still have an insurmountable deficit. Even all that scratching, fighting, and bleeding isn't enough to stay afloat. Honestly. Publishing is about as tough a business as you'll ever find. Yes, I know it's tough on the creator side of the equation. Tougher than it's ever been. The same can be said on publisher's side of things.
The reason Yaoi Press can continue to take chances on new/unproven OEL creators is because of all the anime conventions we do. This is the answer to my colleague's question. Yaoi Press is thriving because we bring the books directly to our fans. Every month. In every region of North America.
I'm not saying that you can be successful in manga publishing by touring the country selling at anime conventions. You can lose a lot of money in travel and booth expenses this way. Yaoi Press did lose a lot of money on conventions in 2005, when we only had 8 books published and didn't sell merchandise from other publishers.
We became successful by becoming the 'yaoi' vendor. We sell the merchandise of all the publishers, and we feature Yaoi Press books. We sell our titles at a discount. We distribute free catalogs with sample pages of our books. We give an industry panel for Yaoi Press.
We make enough at the large/local shows to have profitable, successful shows. Some shows, like Yaoi Con and Otakon, pay our printing bills.
Most shows are too small for us to break even at. The smaller shows on our schedule are either local to me or one of our staff (hence we are saved travel/hotel costs and need to make very little to be successful) or the shows are bringing me in as a guest.
I'm very grateful that Winter Demon and Dark Prince have given me enough notoriety to be a guest at anime shows. Just as with our merchandise, I've become a general 'yaoi' guest. Shows have been bringing me in because I make all the yaoi fans happy with Yaoi Jeopardy, Yaoi Hentai Show, Yaoi 'Let's Make a Deal' (ala Monty Hall), along with a well-stocked yaoi booth.
I digress, but the point to this all is that manga publishing is a business just like everything else. There is no magic wand that helps people discover your web site, or gets your books into Borders. Every sale is you or your staff scratching, fighting, and bleeding. Of course publishers want the sure bets. There's more at stake than ever before to be successful right now.
1. OEL manga must sell much better than licensed titles to be successful, because it's at least 3 times more expensive to publish. It is absolutely cheaper to license manga than to produce OEL works. The idea that companies were making their own graphic novels in order to save money is a myth. It's cheaper and easier to license titles than to create them from scratch.
2. Unfortunately, opportunities for OEL manga creators are almost zero in the USA right now. A sad fact is that OEL manga that sold well, even as well as licensed titles, were still publishing money-pits. There is no incentive for publishers to continue taking chances on relatively expensive new talent.
3. Large publishers which still appear to have calls for OEL submissions are actually looking for licensed properties. Not licenses from Japan. They want to do manga adaptions of Dean Koontz novels, or manga based on CSI. This is why the encourage artists to submit far more than writers. They don't want writers submitting their unproven original ideas. They want artists to draw the 'Star Wars' manga, etc.
These three pessimistic points are the reality right now. All of us on the industry side of OEL know it.
Getting back to that conversation, my colleague asked me how it was that Yaoi Press was able to continue publishing OEL. The assumption of some fans is that it's because it's yaoi. That our niche somehow gives Yaoi Press a leg-up in the business.
The market is flooded with yaoi right now. People don't have to buy Yaoi Press books in order to have their needs satisfied. Yaoi is no golden ticket. Publishers and imprints have folded in the past.
Yaoi Press has survived these last four years, and thrived, because my staff and I fight, scratch, and bleed for every sale we make.
Every time you see a Yaoi Press book at Borders, Rightstuf International, Comic Shops, Netcomics, or at a vendor's booth at a convention you are seeing something that we worked desperately to achieve. It's an ongoing battle. We have to work every single day to keep our customers buying. Keep the wholesalers stocking. Keep the store buyers biting. Yaoi Press is a 72 hour per week job for me, as well as full-time jobs for two office staff. Most of my time isn't spent writing yaoi. It's fighting for sales.
If we only had revenue through sales made from book stores, comic shops, our distributors, our web site, we would still have an insurmountable deficit. Even all that scratching, fighting, and bleeding isn't enough to stay afloat. Honestly. Publishing is about as tough a business as you'll ever find. Yes, I know it's tough on the creator side of the equation. Tougher than it's ever been. The same can be said on publisher's side of things.
The reason Yaoi Press can continue to take chances on new/unproven OEL creators is because of all the anime conventions we do. This is the answer to my colleague's question. Yaoi Press is thriving because we bring the books directly to our fans. Every month. In every region of North America.
I'm not saying that you can be successful in manga publishing by touring the country selling at anime conventions. You can lose a lot of money in travel and booth expenses this way. Yaoi Press did lose a lot of money on conventions in 2005, when we only had 8 books published and didn't sell merchandise from other publishers.
We became successful by becoming the 'yaoi' vendor. We sell the merchandise of all the publishers, and we feature Yaoi Press books. We sell our titles at a discount. We distribute free catalogs with sample pages of our books. We give an industry panel for Yaoi Press.
We make enough at the large/local shows to have profitable, successful shows. Some shows, like Yaoi Con and Otakon, pay our printing bills.
Most shows are too small for us to break even at. The smaller shows on our schedule are either local to me or one of our staff (hence we are saved travel/hotel costs and need to make very little to be successful) or the shows are bringing me in as a guest.
I'm very grateful that Winter Demon and Dark Prince have given me enough notoriety to be a guest at anime shows. Just as with our merchandise, I've become a general 'yaoi' guest. Shows have been bringing me in because I make all the yaoi fans happy with Yaoi Jeopardy, Yaoi Hentai Show, Yaoi 'Let's Make a Deal' (ala Monty Hall), along with a well-stocked yaoi booth.
I digress, but the point to this all is that manga publishing is a business just like everything else. There is no magic wand that helps people discover your web site, or gets your books into Borders. Every sale is you or your staff scratching, fighting, and bleeding. Of course publishers want the sure bets. There's more at stake than ever before to be successful right now.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
SitaCon Schedule
Come meet me (Yamila) at SitaCon in Utica NY this weekend, October 10-12. In addition to bringing lots of yaoi merchandise and freebies for the dealers room I will be running these events:
Yaoi Press Industry Panel - My usual, but I make sure it's lively and entertaining.
Yaoi Jeopardy - Game show fun!
Yaoi Hentai Show - Always a big hit. One of my favorite events to do.
I will also be part of the Manga Industry Round Table with fellow guests Steve Bennett and Mari Morimoto.
Yaoi Press Industry Panel - My usual, but I make sure it's lively and entertaining.
Yaoi Jeopardy - Game show fun!
Yaoi Hentai Show - Always a big hit. One of my favorite events to do.
I will also be part of the Manga Industry Round Table with fellow guests Steve Bennett and Mari Morimoto.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
New Stuff
Winter Demon 4 and ANIMA will ship from Everythingyaoi.com at the same time, around October 23rd. This is the Yaoi Press store, so of course we try to ship our new titles there as early as possible. It's a good time to preorder these books since we're giving away a free Yaoi Love Tote Bag for orders that reach 40 reward points (4 to 8 books depending on what you order). The free bag offer expires October 15th, or when we run out of the 50 bags we created for this promotion. As of right now there are 47 bags left. They're going fast.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Yaoi Con
Thanks to M. A. Sambre, the Yaoi Con staff, and all the fans for another wonderful Yaoi Con this year. This show is always worth the intense preparation and travel. We had a great time!
I apologize for having to cancel the Yaoi Press industry panel on Sunday morning. One of our booth helpers fainted, and I went with her on the ambulance to the medical center. (She's doing ok now). I know I disappointed several attendees by not being able to give our usual presentation. This panel is one of the most important we give every year. I would not have missed it if at all possible.
Other than this scary emergency the show was as wonderful as I've come to expect.
I apologize for having to cancel the Yaoi Press industry panel on Sunday morning. One of our booth helpers fainted, and I went with her on the ambulance to the medical center. (She's doing ok now). I know I disappointed several attendees by not being able to give our usual presentation. This panel is one of the most important we give every year. I would not have missed it if at all possible.
Other than this scary emergency the show was as wonderful as I've come to expect.
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