Weak Dollar Good for Yaoi Press

This is one manga-ai publisher benefiting from the weak dollar. We don’t buy many licenses, but we do sell a lot. The low dollar is turning our licensing fees into bargains. German licensors are signing contracts for books that don’t even have cover images yet. Their price has dropped by around 20%, but I don’t see any difference in the USD amount I’m wire transferred.

A Dutch publisher in Indonesia wants to have us censor some of our best offerings so the government will allow them to print. Brazil and Hungary have finally opened up to negotiation. I’m getting emails in indecipherable languages on a weekly basis.

The shipping cost of the parasols made export impractical before. The lower dollar is essentially making shipping to Europe free.

When I first considered going to Anime North in 2007 my plan was to just charge the USD cover prices, and take a hit when I converted the currency. We didn’t end up going in 2007, but I was invited to be a guest of honor this year. This is great. I can charge cover prices and the currency exchange in the end will just about be even.

I know inflation is bad. I hate that plane tickets have skyrocketed, and gasoline is outrageous. Besides these two things, I don’t feel the effects. I haven’t been touched by the mortgage crisis because I own my home outright. Food is no more expensive now than it was in 2006. Clothes seem to have gotten even cheaper. I can’t believe how cheap computers are now. The $500 computer I bought last month has better specs than the $2000 Toshiba I bought a year ago.

Not everything is perfect for Yaoi Press. We’re carrying more debt than I’d like, and a recent change our distributor made where publishers must now eat shortages reported by retailers has significantly reduced our only reliable source of income. I’m happy to get a push from any source I can.