How to Order Danmei from Boutique Publishers Around the World
So, you want to buy some danmei? Your first step is to figure out if the story you want to read has been officially licensed, and if so who the publisher is. This will determine where you can buy it. I recommend referencing the fantastic list of licensed titles at danmeinews.com.
For officially licensed U.S. danmei translations, there are a small number of active novel publishers. Seven Seas has licensed the most to date, and their books are available at many booksellers. The rest can be a series of special cases though.
Rosmei is a publisher based in Singapore that relies on group orders and third-party vendors to distribute their books outside of Singapore. Read more here about how to order.
Via Lactea is a Canadian publisher. You can order directly from their website and they ship worldwide, but the shipping costs outside of Canada are pretty high. Yiggybean in the U.S. has recently partnered with Via Lactea to offer their books. They have better shipping rates in the U.S. for Via Lactea titles, and may be more competitive worldwide for shipping, but they don’t currently have the full Via Lactea catalog. Hopefully their stock will improve in the future!
Hai Tang Books is the U.S.-based wing of the Chinese-based Cherry-apple Culture & One Bean Culture publisher. Hai Tang Books is focused on licensing danmei titles in English, and is building an promising catalog of titles.
Hai Tang Books’s primary distribution partner/storefront is Nebelland, which offers international shipping except to South America and Africa, with some restrictions to Mexico and New Zealand. Ordering through Nebelland, especially during the preorder period, may have additional benefits including free shipping to certain countries (including the U.S.), exclusive freebies, author signature cards, and limited-edition book edge printing during the pre-order period. See Hai Tang Books’s FAQ for more information.
Hai Tang has also partnered with other distributors, which may offer shipping to additional countries or other benefits. This includes Yiggybean as well as many of the distributors also working with Rosmei in different locations, so depending on where you’re shipping to it may make sense to bundle orders from multiple publishers. You can see the full list here.
Aloha Comics is currently publishing the manhua of the first season of the donghua of the Heaven Official’s Blessing. What does that mean? It means still shots from the animated series in a manhua (comic/manga-style) format. It does not mean the independently illustrated manhua partially completed by the artist STARember. You can buy this from Aloha Comics directly, or from many different distributors and stores around the world. Aloha Comics has a partial list here, but I’ve also seen it available elsewhere such as the Crunchyroll Store (at a pretty competitive price) so it may be worth checking at your favorite retailer.
You may also see references to the publisher Monogatari Books. At this time I don’t feel comfortable recommending preordering titles from them. You can read more about the current issues on danmeinews.com. Hopefully this is resolved in the future.
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