Yaoi - Publishing

Publishing

Mizoguchi divides BL publication into two eras – the first era from the time of June to 2004, and a second era from 2004 onwards.

Japanese BL works are sold to English-speaking countries by companies that translate and print them in English; companies such as Digital Manga Publishing with their imprints 801 Media (for explicit BL) and June (for "romantic and sweet" BL), as well as DramaQueen, Kitty Media, Central Park Media's Be Beautiful, Tokyopop under their imprint BLU, Broccoli under their Boysenberry imprint, Aurora Publishing under their imprint Deux Press, and Yaoi Generation. According to McLelland, the earliest officially translated BL manga in print appeared in 2003, and as of 2006 there were about 130 English-translated works commercially available. In March 2007, Media Blasters stopped selling shōnen manga and increased their yaoi lines, anticipating to publish one or two titles per month that year. Diamond Comic Distributors estimated the U.S. sales of yaoi manga as being approximately $US 6 million in 2007.

Mark McLelland surveyed 135 yaoi books published in North America between 2003 and 2006, and found that 14% was rated at 13 years or over, 39% was rated for readers aged 15 years or over, and 47% was rated for readers 18 years or older. In 2008, BLU reported that although bookshops are becoming more willing to stock BL titles, they are conservative about how the books are labelled, leading to books being shrink wrapped and rated for over 18s which previously would have garnered an over 16 rating, and do not "really follow through on the adult content promise."

A 2006 breakdown of the Japanese commercial BL market estimated it grosses approximately 12 billion yen annually, with novel sales generating 250 million yen per month, manga generating 400 million yen per month, CDs generating 180 million yen per month, and video games generating 160 million yen per month. A 2010 report estimated that the Boys Love market was worth approximately 21.3 billion yen in both 2009 and 2010.