This morning’s Digital Manga Newsletter brought the welcome news of new DMP manga titles for the Nook and Kindle. Since my eReader of choice is the Barnes & Noble Nook, I’m always happy to hear of new manga titles for it. And because DMP publishes a lot of Yaoi titles, it didn’t really surprise me that nearly all of the titles listed below are of the popular BL (boys love) genre.
A lot of new titles have been added to our digital storefront! There are so many, we’re just going to list the titles here. Titles now available on the Kindle: Right Here Right Now 1&2, Love!!, Kiss Blue 2, Endless Comfort, No Touching At All, The Spiral of Sand, Yokan 1&2, Maiden Rose 1&2, Let’s Draw Manga: Sexy Gals, Il Gatto Sul G 2&3. Titles now available for the B&N Nook and Nook Color: Candy, Right Here Right Now 1&2, Love!!, Kiss Blue 1&2, Endless Comfort, No Touching At All, The Spiral of Sand, Yokan 1&2, Maiden Rose 1&2, Let’s Draw Manga: Sexy Gals, Il Gatto Sul G 1-3, The Day I Became a Butterfly, Little Cry Baby, Lost Boys, and Same Cell Organism.
Yaoi manga has been on the Kindle for a long time now, and the Kindle still boasts a lot more of them than the Nook. But it is interesting to note that yaoi manga are not available for sale at Barnes & Noble retail bookstores. At least, I did not see any at the Chicago area bookstores the last time I visited. By contrast, Borders carries a lot of Yaoi and BL manga. But with so many of those bookstores closing, the amount of retail shelf space for Yaoi must be rapidly shrinking. Needless to say, going digital is becoming a matter of survival in the already distressed manga market.
I don’t know how big the yaoi manga market is, but from what I’ve seen in online forums and the anime convention circuit, yaoi has a legion of hardcore, mostly female, fans. So there is a good chance that it is a profitable niche to be in. And of course, an eBook of sexually explicit material can be more discreetly purchased online than in person at a bookstore. Just as pornography has often been the driving force behind the mass adoption of new entertainment media (e.g. VHS, DVD, the Web), perhaps Yaoi is paving the way for manga eBooks.