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MORE GREETINGS FROM JAPAN FROM TWO FAN FAVE MANGA-KA
LeBlanc then plays two more video greetings from Japan from two fan-favorite manga artists, Tarako Kotobuki, creator of Love Pistols, and Youka Nitta creator of Embracing Love , and past Yaoicon guest.
Tarako Kotobuki: Hello BL fans in America! I'm very happy to hear that there are so many BL fans in America. I want to bring Japan's BL books to you as quickly as possible.
Please enjoy reading BL. I'm looking forward to meeting you all in the future.
Youka Nitta: Hello everyone at YaoiCon! I'm very happy that my works can be available to BL fans all over the world now. I want to provide my works to you as quickly as possible and I also want to enjoy YaoiCon again! So please visit my official website www.nittayouka.com.
ANNOUNCING NEW TITLES AND RETURNING FAVORITES FOR SUBLIME's 2011-2012 SCHEDULE
To kick things off in December 2011, SuBLime will be offering nine titles that are currently available via Animate USA, all for $5.99 per volume. Fans will be titles by fan-favorite creators like Love Ariki by Youka Nitta and Playboy Blues by Shiuko Kano, and titles that were previously released in print by now defunct boys' love manga publishers like Boysenberry Books, Be Beautiful and Deux.
LeBlanc and Aker also announced nine digital-only manga titles, with release dates from December 2011 through August 2012. They also announced four new titles that will be available as both print and digital editions with release dates beginning from June 2012.
SuBLime's new digital-only offerings debut with a title that got many fans squealing, Love Pistols by Tarako Kotobuki. Love Pistols (a.k.a. Sex Pistols in Japan) was previously published by BLU, TokyoPop's boys' love manga imprint. Love Pistols is an ongoing series that is up to six volumes out in Japan, but only five volumes were published by BLU.
Also notable on the SuBLime's list of upcoming digital-only releases is Sweet Pool by Nitro+Chiral an 'explicit and dark' series based on a popular boys' love game, from the creator of Togainu no Chi.
The print/digital line-up was headlined by Three Wolves Mountain by Naono Bohra, the creator of Yokai's Hunger. Some fans at the panel literally screamed out in joy upon hearing the news, which was probably very gratifying for the SuBLime team.
For more on these titles, include story summaries and cover art, check out this round up of SuBLime manga announcements at YaoiCon 2011.
YAOICON Q & A: FANS TALK BACK TO SUBLIME ABOUT DIGITAL
Q: Is this a subscription service?
Jennifer LeBlanc: It's not a subscription –- you just buy what you want. You either buy, own and download the title you want, or you can read it from the SuBLime manga reader on our website.
Leyla Aker: We decided to do two options, because we got a lot of fan feedback. Some people like to read their digital comics in two ways. They like having the actual file in a PDF so they can transfer to any device.
Some people prefer the online model, because once you buy it online, and can read it from our website, it can be synced to all of your digital devices, like your iPad, your iPhone, or any web-enabled device. You can read it on your laptop, bookmark where you left off, and you can finish reading it on your phone or tablet.
The benefit of the download-to-own version is that you can read it whenever you like, once you have it on your device. The benefit of the online model is that you can get it synced across multiple devices, you don't have to worry about device-based storage capacity.
Q: You mentioned that these titles would be available for the Kindle, and that it would be available on your website, but what about other versions? What about formats for other e-readers for those of us who don't use a Kindle?
Leyla Aker: The PDF downloads, if you have a little bit of tech savvy, you can upload these files to any tablet, any device that has the capacity to read PDF files, which is any tablet or laptop computer. The Animate Kindle titles will be made available in this download-to-own PDF format.
Q: For the download-to-own titles in PDF format, will there be any digital protection on the files, to prevent piracy, to prevent them from being passed around?
Jennifer LeBlanc: With a PDF, there's really no way to prevent someone from passing the files around to their friends. Our hope is that BL fans understand that in order to continue to bring titles to you, you understand that when you buy these titles, it's okay for you to keep it, but just don't share them or upload them to a website, because that makes it harder for us to offer that title in print, because obviously, that would bring down our sales.
We're looking at various ways to prevent that from happening. We're being open with scanlation teams, telling them that we have a license, and if they can stop scanlating that title.
Leyla Aker: We decided pretty early on that we weren't going to try to find to DRM (digital rights management) these files because 1) it's annoying and 2) it doesn't work. What we're hoping, what we're trying to do is trust the reader community. BL readers tend to be better about these kinds of things than general manga readers.
To be perfectly candid, if we start seeing files show up in every file sharing community ever, we'll need to re-examine this option. But hopefully, that's not going to happen.
Jennifer LeBlanc: Feel free to tell us if you see them popping up in other places. That'll help make it easier for us to get them pulled down.
Q: With the digital releases, is there any chance that we could buy it chapter by chapter?
Jennifer LeBlanc: Right now, that's not something that we are looking at. It's a lot more work to do that. It's something we can look at in the future, but right now, it's not something I can see working very well here.
Leyla Aker: Digital publishing is such a new field, and things seem to be changing weekly. So we definitely aren't ruling anything out; it's just what the readers are demanding. From VIZ's websites and other publishers, there hasn't been much of a demand for chapter-by-chapter publishing.
In the future, it would be cool to do more simultaneous releases with Japan. That would probably be chapter by chapter –- but not right now!
Q: With download-to-own or reading it online, is it an either/or situation?
Leyla Aker: It's either or -- you pick which format you want, and pick one: download-to-own or online reading.
Q: For the digital books, you're doing PDFs for e-readers, but are you considering other formats like ePub or Mobi?
Leyla Aker: Probably not. There's something coming out called ePub3, which we are considering for the future, but right now, those formats don't support graphics very well.
Q: With bookstores closing around the country, do you think everything will be electronic?
Jennifer LeBlanc: I don't think so. The economy really had an big impact on bookstores, but I don't see books going away.
YAOI-CON FANS Q & A: TITLE REQUESTS AND FUTURE POSSIBILITIES
Q: You're releasing Oh My God! Volumes 1 and 2. Do you have any update about Volume 3? Has it been released in Japan yet?
Leyla Aker: I believe that series is on hiatus. I don't know when it will restart, but as soon as we know, we'll let everyone know.
Q: Can you pinch me? Because I really think I'm in a dream! (laughs) For your rescued titles, will you be picking things up from Volume 1, or will putting out the later volumes first, then catching up with the earlier volumes later?
Leyla Aker: Well, the only rescued title that we can announce now is Love Pistols. We'll be starting with Volume 1 for that one. Any future rescue titles, it'll depend what it is, and how long the series is. It will depend on the title, but we'll definitely try to make the entire series available.
Q: Since you're teamed up with Animate, any chance that you could bring over the drama CDs? I know Three Wolves Mountain has a drama CD.
Jennifer LeBlanc: We have some future plans for things that we could do with Animate. But obviously, in our first year of our partnership, our first priority is to get things up and running and make sure that it's successful. It's just a matter figuring out how and if we're going to do that, how we will distribute it. But it's definitely one of those things that we are figuring out for our future plans.
Q: Since VIZ publishes titles by Ono Natsume, I was wondering if you've considered publishing her BL stories?
Leyla Aker: Yes, we are considering Natsume Ono BL titles, but that's all I can say right now.
Q: For the rescue series, will you be taking requests for series that we want to see rescued or published?
Jennifer LeBlanc: Yes, you can send us title requests via our SuBLime Manga Facebook page or via our Twitter feed (@SuBLimeManga) We'll also have a forum on our website www.Sublimemanga.com.
If you have any recommendations, certainly tell us what you're looking for. We are honestly curious about what you want, and you're the ones who will be buying the volumes. If it's something that we can license, and can be successfully released, then we'll consider it.
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In addition to the Saturday morning panel, I also got a chance to speak with Leyla Aker and Jennifer LeBlanc to ask them even more questions about their plans for SuBLime. See what they had to say about the how's, why's and what's next for this new boys' love manga venture in Part 2 of my SuBLime interviews from YaoiCon 2011.