About Boys' Love
- Just what the heck is boys' love, anyway?
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Boys' love is a genre of stories aimed at female readers that have to do with romance between two men.
The most common response to this explanation, among those who aren't already fans, is, "Wait, what?" That's okay--we're used to it.
Boys' love stories can take many forms: comics, written fiction, animation, even movies, as anyone who's seen Brokeback Mountain can tell you. They span all genres and mediums, and ultimately have just one thing in common: a romantic relationship between two men.
- Does "boys' love" mean that the characters are underage?
- The name may be deceptive, but "boys' love" simply means that the characters are male, regardless of age. However, as with any genre, there can be a wide variety in the kind of material produced. It's not uncommon to find stories of "young love" or "first love," involving characters in their teens, but you're just as likely to find stories about confused college students, disillusioned twentysomethings, or middle-aged businessmen.
- How long has this stuff been around?
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In Japan, boy's love has been around for years, under several different names. It's most commonly known as yaoi or shounen-ai, but has also been referred to as june or BL (which stands for "boys' love," of course). Yaoi in Japan usually takes the form of manga (commercially published comics) or doujinshi (unauthorized fan comics based on an existing book or show), and there is an immense market for it--yaoi manga shows up on bookstore shelves right alongside other, "tamer" manga titles.
In the last few years, America has seen a huge explosion in popularity of manga and anime (Japanese animation, often based on manga titles), and what used to be a small underground phenomenon here is now a multi-million-dollar industry. Companies have licensed a vast number of titles to be translated and printed in English for the ever-growing fan base, and not surprisingly, a number of yaoi titles have made their way over here. And--lo and behold!--it turns out that women outside of Japan like them, too.
Even in America, boys' love has been around and thriving since the 1970s, when fans of the TV show "Star Trek" started writing stories about the main characters, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. Other shows soon followed, and these stories came to be known as slash (named for the slash placed between the characters' names in the story descriptions), and were published mostly in fan-made 'zines. With the advent of the internet, slash fans had an easier way to get their work to the masses, and now there are millions of web sites devoted to slash fiction.
In commercially published fiction, women have been reading stories about men in love for years, mostly in the sci-fi/fantasy genre--boys' love appears in the works of famous authors such as Anne Rice, Mercedes Lackey, and Lynn Flewelling, to name a few. And in American comics, too, boy's love makes an occasional appearance. Colleen Doran's A Distant Soil features a gay couple as the main romantic pairing, and the series has sold more than 500,000 copies in total.
Boys' love is not a new genre, although it's only recently that it's received anything approaching mainstream attention. But one thing is obvious: boys' love is here to stay!
- Is boys' love sexually explicit?
- You might as well ask if fiction is sexually explicit. If you peruse the shelves of your local bookstore, you'll find romances that range anywhere between hand-holding and a kiss goodnight, to long, steamy bedroom scenes. Boys' love is exactly the same--it all depends on who's writing it.
About Iris Print
- So, who are you?
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Iris is a small publisher with a big goal: to bring quality boys' love books to readers across America, and anywhere else they might be. Boys' love is more than just yaoi manga, slash fanfiction, or tiny fan-comics imported from Japan, and we publish a wide variety of books to reflect the richness of the genre. We specialize in romantic novels, titillating short story collections, and English-language manga by Western creators. Whatever you choose to call it, if you love men who love men, we've got a story for you.
Iris Print was established in February 2006, and is located in Redlands, California.
Got something to say? Contact us!
- Why "Iris Print"?
- In the language of flowers (a fascinating tradition dating back to 17th century France), an iris means "message." In the Victorian era, giving a gift of an iris was a way to secretly tell someone, "I have a message for you." As boys' love has been largely an underground phenomenon, great stories have been circulated in much the same way, passed quietly from hand to hand, or from website to website, with a nod and a wink. We hope that the tradition will continue, as there is a certain beauty and magic in a battered and well-loved book passing from one reader to the next.
Submissions
- How can I submit my work to you?
- Follow the guidelines on our submissions page. They boil down to: make sure you're writing the sort of thing we're likely to publish, then email it to us. But please, read the guidelines before sending us anything.
- How will my book be marketed?
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Iris Print has a comprehensive marketing program to help your book sell. We want you to succeed, and we want to see boy's love reach as wide an audience as possible. Here's what you can expect from us:
- Direct sales through our web site.
- The Iris Print store will be a one-stop shop for fans of boy's love looking for good books, good artwork, and other related merchandise.
- Nationwide exposure at conventions and trade shows.
- We will be attending conventions devoted to comics, slash, and other boy's-love-friendly subjects nationwide, allowing thousands of people to see your book in person every year.
- Listing on Amazon.com.
- All Iris titles will be carried on Amazon, giving the entire world access to your book.
- Nationwide distribution.
- We will work with distributors and wholesalers suited to your book, so that any book or comic store can order it. Our agressive marketing campaign will seek to educate booksellers about boys' love and the benefits of selling it.
But an important part of any marketing campaign is you, the author. In most cases, the difference between success and obscurity is the author's commitment to marketing their own book. We will point you to resources that you can use to publicize your book, and work with you to establish your presence in the market--we don't succeed unless you do, so we'll be with you every step of the way.
- Is this print-on-demand (POD) publishing?
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We are not a print-on-demand publisher (where books are printed in small quanitites as needed, usually at a high per-book cost), nor are we a subsidy (or "vanity") publisher (where the author must pay the printing costs up-front). Print-on-demand companies are in the business of printing books, not selling them. That's not to say an author can't have success with a POD publisher, but the author must be very committed to selling and marketing their book, because the POD company will usually have a minimal marketing plan, if any.
Subsidy, or "vanity" presses are another story. In a specialty genre such as boys' love, it's natural for a writer or artist to want their work published any way possible, but please be wary of any publisher that asks for money to print your book. Sadly, too many aspiring authors spend thousands of dollars on publishing their work through a vanity press, only to find that they never sell more than a few copies due to poor editing, design, or even writing. These publishers are not necessarily disreputable, but they're not committed to selling the books they produce--once the author has paid them for the printing, any money they make on sales is just gravy.
Iris Print is a traditional book publisher, with full-service marketing and distribution, and we never ask for authors or artists to finance a book out of their own pocket. Of course, this means that we're looking for top-quality material--if we can't sell it, we don't want it. All submissions should be clean, polished, and professional, and we will respond in kind.
We do offer discounted books to authors and artists who are interested in promoting their own work at local bookstores or trade shows. This can be a valuable tool for marketing your book, and authors are encouraged (but not required) to take advantage of it.
- My story doesn't quite fit your guidelines. Should I submit it anyway?
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Rule #1: We are MUCH more likely to publish material that follows our submissions guidelines.
That said, we love seeing new things, and are willing to consider almost anything, if it's done well. So if you've got an 18,000 word illustrated young-adult second-person choose-your-own-adventure epic...well, you might want to query first, but yeah, we'll look at it. Just remember Rule #1.
- What rights do you buy, and what do you pay for them?
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It's impossible to give a definitive answer to this question, because payment and contract terms are decided separately for each project. However, this is a basic outline of what you can expect.
Novels and Graphic Novels: We usually request worldwide English-language rights to the work for 5 years. We pay on an advance against royalty basis, with advances of between $100 and $500 paid when the project is complete. Creator royalties are usually between 7% and 10% of the actual selling price of the book (which will vary depending on what sales channel is used). Royalties are paid to creators quarterly.
Short Stories: We usually request one-time anthology rights, in both print and e-book format. Authors of short stories will receive a one-time payment of up to $150, depending on the length and type of story.
Pinups and Cover Art: Because of the wide variety of projects we work on, pinup and cover art rights are negotiated on a case-by-case basis only--there is no "usual" procedure. Payment will depend greatly on the type of work commissioned, ranging from perhaps $20 for a small black-and-white graphic, to a few hundred dollars for large color works.