As part of our never-ending attempt to keep y'all (and ourselves) informed about BL developments in the U.S., we shipped of a batch of questions to Yen Press regarding their recent announcement of their first BL titles, all three by Lily Hoshino. Little did we expect Co-publishing Director Kurt Hassler himself to answer them! So here you go: the basics of Yen Press' yaoi.

YS: Yen Press has just announced its first boys love titles. Does the company plan to make BL a regular part of its line? How many volumes a year should we expect?

KH: BL being such an important part of the medium to so many fans, we feel it is only natural that we should want to make it a part of our list. We have a number of BL fans on staff, in fact. That said, we really aren't setting an artificial target as to the number of books we intend to put out in a year. It will all be based on the quality of the books we see and have the opportunity to acquire and what we feel the fans will support.

YS: Many other manga companies are doing BL. Does Yen Press have plans to focus on a particular niche within BL? Are you planning to release any mature/hardcore books?

KH: We tend not to try to focus on particular niches but rather look at the market as a whole. Why pigeonhole ourselves? If there's a book we want to publish, we will. As to your second question, all three of the initial titles we have announced will receive a mature rating.

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