I complained a while back that U.S. yaoi's popularity was not being accompanied by equally growing sales of the more explicit romance manga-ka like Kayono. Well, a new manga publisher has stepped into the breach:

Teens Love is Aurora's attempt at attracting a female readership that isn't into yaoi, but is ready for more visually stimulating romance. "It's a little bit explicit," Ogata explained. "It's love stories and relationships, but sexy, a little bit erotic. Girls here don't have anything like that."

Though yaoi continues its inexplicable domination of the mid-list:

The only genre that Ogata sees doing consistently well is yaoi. "You can expect sales of 10,000 copies for each book, but that's the only genre [like that]," she said.

Labels: publishing