Docucopies Find Yaoi Coloring Book "Disturbing"

I put an article on Ehow a while ago about how you could 'Print a Comic Book or Doujinshi Cheap.' We'd used Docucopies for printing. They are a photocopy company, not a comic printer, but provided a very economic solution for us.

We were happy with the doujinshi we'd published with them, so we proceeded with our next small run project, a yaoi coloring book. This morning they sent this email:

"Because of the nudity of this file we are unable to print this for you. The order before this one should not have been printed but did slide by without us looking through the entire book."

It doesn't pay for us to throw tantrums over things like this. However, I feel they've made a mistake. The coloring book is 16+. There are side views of nude characters, but naughty bits are not visible. There are no sex scenes, but some images are suggestive that sex is coming. It didn't even cross my mind that a printer might not agree to print it. I called and told them that the characters are all male. I think they might think the characters are female and we're showing bare breasts.

At any rate, here are what I see as the most 'extreme' images of the coloring book we sent them:
























Update: This is the email I sent Docucopies:

Hello Lynn,

"I just wanted to follow up on the phone call. As I said, we formatted the coloring book with margins, even on the cover, so it could be printed by Docucopies and we could save money on it. At this point it would cost more money than the book is worth to reformat it for another printer. The coloring book would of course look better with full bleeds. We formatted it without them specifically so they could be printed with you.

It doesn't matter which pictures are inside the coloring book. We have hundreds to choose from. If you tell me which pictures are going too far I can swap them out for new ones. Please remember that the characters depicted are all male. They look pretty because this is a genre from Japan that's targeting female readers.

If I had been put on notice with the last comic book I sent you guys I would have known better than to keep sending projects like this your way."

Their response:

"Hi Yamila -
There are a number of page that I find disturbing and do not want to put our employees in the same position printing this book for you. Some of the pages are 5, 6, 23, 24, 28, 29. I am sorry but we will not print this book.
Lynn
Docucopies"

I'm extremely annoyed now. They don't want to work with me, even when I explained what a bad position they're putting us in. There is nothing in their TOS that says they won't accept risque material.

But what really makes me angry is this:



This is page 23 one of the images they found "disturbing." If you were me, what would you think?

I'm disgusted with you Docucopies.

HYYY Caption Contest

We're very excited about the
upcoming release of our newest adult-only title Happy
Yaoi Yum Yum! Here's your chance to win a free copy,
and sixteen 11x17 inch card stock posters with beautiful
bishie art from Yaoi Press! Thumbnails of the posters included
in the set are below.

So here's the deal. Every Thursday we put a silly little
comic strip called Yaoi Not Actually on our store
front page. Go check out the newest
one if you haven't yet! (We'll wait.)

You're back? Great!

These comic strips take art from Yaoi Press books and
puts funny little captions on them. Now it's your turn!

We want for you to come up with your own Yaoi Not Actually
comic strip using art from Happy Yaoi Yum Yum!

You can add a word balloon or a caption, or whatever!
You've got the three panels below to choose from for your
comic strip:

 

Those are your choices! Right click on one of those images
above to save it, then open it up in MS Paint or something
and make with the funny!

The winning strip will become the June 26th, 2009 Yaoi
Not Actually. We'll also stick it on this page so it can
be part of the comic strip's permanent archive.

 

Are you ready to claim your yaoi booty? Heh...I'm
referring to the prizes, of course.

That's great! But don't send your image to me. I'm just
a sexually suggestive banana. You're going to want to
e-mail your comic strip to:

contest@everythingyaoi.com

 

By Participating in the Contest,

You agree to be Bound by the Following Rules:

1. You must be 18 or older, or have reached
the minimum age which is considered adult in your country
to enter. Prizes will be sent
via UPS 'ADULT SIGNATURE REQUIRED' service.
An adult must show government issued photo ID to receive
the package. Sorry, kids! We don't make the laws!
If we send pornography to a minor we'll go to jail.
;_;

2. The deadline for entries is June 22nd,
2009, 12:00am Pacific Standard Time.

3. Save your entry as a JPG. We prefer
that you save it somewhere online and send us a link
to it (it may help your chances of winning *wink*) but
we will also accept e-mail attachments. This is only
because we know that if we ask people not to send e-mail
attachments they will anyway. :p

4. Tell us the name you want to be credited
by if your comic strip wins. If you forget we're going
to use the beginning part of your e-mail address.

5. An autoreply e-mail is the only confirmation
you'll get that we've received your entry.

6. All entries become property of Yaoi
Press LLC to do with as we please. This is valid for
all eternity throughout the entire universe. This includes,
but is not limited to, displaying the runner-up entries
online.

7. Void where prohibited by law. Make
sure you can't get in trouble receiving porn in the
mail before you enter. If customs or your dad seizes
your prize we aren't going to send you a replacement.

8. The winner will be announced on June
24th, 2009 on the Yaoi Press blog.
They will also be notified via e-mail They will have
30 days to claim their prizes, or they forfeit it.

9. The judges decisions are final, even
if they're unfair and discriminatory. The winner will
be contacted via the same e-mail address they used to
enter the contest. If that e-mail doesn't work anymore
they lose, and we'll rub it in by publicly announcing
that they lost due to a stupid technicality.

10. The droplet coming from the banana
is nectar. If you thought any different you're a damned
pervert.

Happy Yaoi Yum Yum will be a Little Late

Happy Yaoi Yum Yum is going to ship a little late. We're four days behind schedule right now, and anticipate this delay continuing until at least May 19th. We're very lucky to have a printer who makes us a priority when they get our files in. There's nothing they can do until those files get sent, however. We're hoping to ship in early June.

I wasn't as concerned about this as usual because I thought we'd lost our two most time-sensitive orders. These are comic shops and Borders. Borders isn't ordering much from any publisher these days, but we never even marketed HYYY to them due to the extreme content. It's no surprise that they aren't carrying this one.

Comic shops are a different animal. We had a respectable number of orders, but new higher minimums were imposed by our distributor. A month after the orders were first showing up on our vendor inventory report they disappeared. I assumed this was due to their new policy.

Without comic shops or Borders we've lost most of the 'Where the Hell is my book?' factor that leads to canceled orders. People preorder books at comic shops and to a lesser degree, Borders. With Borders you have many stores prominently displaying a list of what graphic novels are 'coming soon' with the release dates. I've seen this as a whiteboard sign behind the info desk at one Borders. It was a black changeable letter sign on the wall at another location. Customers see that _______ title is arriving on _____ date and show up on that date to pick up a copy. When the book doesn't arrive on time they're annoyed. They blame Borders. They order it on Amazon instead. Borders cancels orders by the hundreds. A few of the more autonomous branches never order from the late publisher again. (A Borders vending at a Florida anime con told me this).

Borders is out of the picture for HYYY. Comic shops suddenly aren't. A few days ago I saw that our comic shop (aka direct market) orders had magically reappeared. ~~; Argh. I mean...hooray.

No Yaoimila at Otakon

Otakon is a wonderful anime convention for Yaoi Press. We are overwhelmed by adoring fans and supporters. We always have great sales at our booths. The industry panel I put on annually gets crammed with hundreds of fans, and highlights end up on Youtube. The staff person in charge admitted she didn't care for yaoi, but still loved the riotous panel.

With all the good this show does for our business I hate to complain about anything. However, one thing that happens year after year is that I hear from fans who never got to meet me (Yamila) because they didn't know I was there. They didn't know I was at the Yaoi Press booth. They missed the opportunity to get their books autographed. They missed a chance to do a portfolio review with me.

I've asked to be put on the guest list in 2008 and again this year. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Otakon is going to do this. There's no hard feelings on my end. I understand shows have different reasons for the decisions they make. I'm extremely grateful when shows like Anime Central, Anime Expo, Anime North, and so forth, choose to have me as a guest. It would be nice to see this at Otakon since it is the 'Yaoi Con of the East.' I will still continue to support and adore this show despite this decision by them.

I will not be attending Otakon in person this year. There will not be a Yaoi Press industry panel. It's a very busy convention season for me. Once a show puts me on the guest list I know I've got to be there. With Otakon I'm going to take the opportunity for what will probably be a much needed break. Staffers Amanda and Jaime will be there to run the Yaoi Press booth in the dealers room. I'm sure it will still be a great show for Yaoi Press in 2009!

Conventions!

If you're at Anime Central this year please come to the guest table area in front of the main exhibit hall and meet Rhea Silvan. She's our guest from Indonesia. This is her first time in the USA. Please make her feel as welcome as Dany&Dany did last year. Rhea is the artist of Winter Demon 4 (among other titles) as well as a professional model and spokeswoman. She has that lovely Winter Demon Doujin to autograph for you. I will be there also (Yamila Abraham) to put on a great yaoi program for the fans, and sign Dark Prince and Winter Demon graphic novels. We'd love to meet you all!

Animeland Vegas was great fun, and I'm glad they're still coming back next year even with all the heartache they had trying to pull this year's show together. It was an intimate and friendly crowd. I got a lot of quality time with my buddy/fellow guest Jan Frasier. It's amazing to me that they were able to pull off such a good show even when they lost their venue just days before the weekend. Kudos to them!

I want to say to my Vegas pals, even if you were wary this year I hope you'll give them a chance next year. Las Vegas had an anime show scam them in 2007, so there was much suspicion for this new show. Now that they've proven themselves legitimate it's time for Vegas to embrace this new annual anime event. They need more locals to get involved. Even if you were one of the naysayers this year please try to shrug it off. They're not holding grudges. The con chair and vice chair are about as sweet and cuddly as you can get. They love anime. You love anime. Please give this show a chance in 2010.