All BL titles to Yaoi Club?

[lore]

The latest DMP newsletter said that DMP would be moving the sales of all BL titles to Yaoi Club. Is this true, no more BL titles on Akadot?

I think this is a bad idea. Segregating BL titles from the rest of the DMP catalog sends the message that DMP isn't proud of its titles and the history of its BL publishing that has brought DMP to this point. Is there argument from partner companies that are embarrassed to be listed along side BL, or is DMP just trying to shed its BL image by segregating its BL titles? You'll never convince me that this move will boost sales of anything but, possibly, non-BL items at Akadot.

I'd be happy to be proved wrong if DMP wants to show us the numbers. Anyway, I really hope I'm wrong and that someone just made an error in the newsletter. I won't be opening an account at Yaoi Club.

[tanukichan]

Why is it a bad idea? What's wrong with it? BL books should belong to Yaoiclub.com

[robbie1975]

I think what the issue is that many consumers buy a lot of yaoi and non-yaoi together. And it may not seem like much, but to go to multiple sites to purchase books can be a pain. Just having to keep track of all those purchases is one issue.

The other issue is that some will have issues getting on Yaoi-Club site itself. Did you know that many Filters classify this site as “Mature” and those of us whom need to use such things as the Library computers to look or heaven forbid purchase title can not even get to the site? Using a Public computer is the only way for me to access the internet and therefore any site I can’t get to will not be getting my business.

[lore]

Tanukichan - From a practical point of view, it would mean having to go to two different online stores for purchases if you are interested in both BL and non-BL merchandise. This would also mean paying two different shipping fees. It would also be harder for some to take advantage of sales where you must meet a minimum purchase amount to receive a discount.

But also, as I said, I think it sends the wrong "message" about BL titles, segregating them away from non-BL mangas and other merchandise. As if such titles don't belong with "normal" non-BL merchandise. I think this also hurts the chances of BL books being casually picked up by shoppers looking for other merchandise at Akadot. If you see an item often enough, curiosity might eventually motivate shoppers to buy a BL book, which could then make them fans of the genre. But if the books are segregated to Yaoi Club only, you lose the potential of picking up new fans of the genre, because only genre fans will go to Yaoi Club in the first place.

Plus, Robbie mentioned the stigma of having to purchase from a site called "Yaoi Club", starting with content filters, but I think there are also privacy issues involved here. If you did need or want some privacy for what you purchase, a storefront like "Akadot" is far less revealing than receiving a charge and package with "Yaoi Club" on it.

[marzipan.dragon]

I agree with lore and robbie - please keep yaoi at akadot (as well as yaoiclub, if you wish).

Over the years I've made dozens of orders (and spent thousands of dollars) at akadot, and usually I'm buying yaoi AND other manga/anime/related items. It's inconvenient to visit two websites to buy both, and simply for that marketing reason alone it seems wise to keep merchandise available where the buyers will buy it. Segregation and marginalization are rarely good for business.

FYI, I rarely visit yaoiclub, and doubt that I will even if that is the only place to buy yaoi directly from DMP.

[mo2468]

The only way I would even consider using Yaoi Club is if first and foremost, my Akadot Membership applied there. If all yaoi moved to Yaoi Club and it doesn't, I want my membership money back because I won't be using Akadot anymore and I bought that membership with the understanding that I could purchase all DMP books, yaoi in particular at the Akadot store. If my membership does not apply at Yaoi Club, I can't get the books at Akadot anymore, and you refuse to reimburse my membership, I am done with you. I've stuck with DMP through complaints about editing in books. I have stuck with DMP through complaints about translations, localizations, paper quality, the loss of the dust jackets, and the price points of books. This is a line I'm not going to be pushed back from.

With Tokyopop, CPM, Broccoli, Iris, Aurora and any other publisher of BL in English I have failed to mention going out of business, with Apple banning pornography on iTunes and now Amazon removing yaoi from the Kindle, my options for buying the titles I want are narrowing down close to what they were over 5 years ago when BL first started getting licensed here at all. I don't have patience for this kind of thing and I'm tired of putting up with it. I spend a lot of money at Akadot. I buy a lot of books and merchadise that is not BL or anything resembling BL. I'm not maintaining two accounts to buy it all. I'll just start waiting. I won't be pre-ordering the books on Amazon, either, because I am so close to being done with them, too right now. I'll wait for them at JustManga or TRSI, and I'll only buy the series I am currently reading and the ones I've read in scanlations before they were licensed out of a sense of obligation, and that's it.

[sun22]

I'd like to add my voice to many of those who DO NOT want BL/yaoi books move to "YaoiClub only". In fact, though I planned to buy all three new releases (2 June and one 801 Media) from DMP directly (i.e., DMP's retailer Akadot) ASAP, I will NOT do so until DMP gets them [back] to AKADOT. I have enough things to do in my life, and opening some new account on some new site, with some unknown shipping / billing schedules etc for some unknown reason is not going to be one of them.

As some pointed out above, yaoi is already getting to be a difficult hobby to maintain. With publishers / distributors closing down (or closing their doors to yaoi), I'd rather NOT deal with a new site / new account etc as well as separate shipping charges, and I also do not like the message DMP (either purposefully or not) is sending to us by separating yaoi from their other "normal" manga. To begin with, their "normal" manga is not so "normal" either (Akadot clearly sells some outright hentai), and, regardless, I'd rather be able to buy all types of merchandise that Akadot currently sells in ONE place, where I already have an account open.

To cut a long story short: DMP - please continue to sell your new releases at Akadot. You will lose some of your best customers if you do not do so.
If non-yaoi customers are for whatever reason do NOT like the fact that Akadot sells yaoi manga, they, not us, should consider taking their business elsewhere: Akadot and DMP clearly and heavily depends on yaoi manga for most of their revenues (? and of course any DMP rep should feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this). We [yaoi fans] supported DMP/Akadot for many years, and I hope we win on this.

[2old4yaoi]

I always thought the purpose of yaoiclub is to function as an outlet store for DMP to be rid of all its clearance inventory while akadot is more like the main regular price store. This is to prevent the customers in the regular store from being conditioned to expect deep discounts regularly. Personally, I like shopping at akadot for newer release materials because it tends to give really good discount coupons on special occassions as opposed to yaoiclub. I do know that your log on profile works in both places.
I suppose I would like to hear the reasoning behind DMP's move to segregate the books this way. Is this really only by the BL genre? And it would actually be nice even if a customer purchase from the 2 different websites, orders can still be combined to save on shipping & reduce the carbon footprint.

[Ruby_Alexandrine]

I rarely shop at the Yaoi Club and it baffles me as to why it was even created in the first place. To be very honest, the Yaoi Club website layout turns me off because I feel that its aiming at adolescent girls not adults whereas the design of Akadot Retail is neutral, not aiming at specific demographic.

I prefer that ALL DMP publications be sold at Akadot Retail.

[mo2468]

Only the log-in portion of the accounts between Yaoi Club and Akadot are the same (as in, you don't need to create a new account and password), the accounts themselves--shopping cart, order info pages, and most importantly for me, the Akadot Membership program--are completely separate.