Otome's Way - Yaoi Manga with Interactive Audio!

There has been a great deal of curiosity about Yaoi Publisher Otome's Way http://otomesway.com and the purported game changing difference it will bring to ebooks. Recently, the people behind the company kindly agreed to an interview on how it will all work.

1. How is Otome's Way different from companies like Digital Manga and SuBLime?

Otome's Way is similar to other BL/Yaoi online publishers with a few key differences. Instead of translating already published manga and marketing it overseas like the previously mentioned companies, we're starting fresh with new faces, new talent, and new stories. Rather than trying to get our hands on what's already popular, we're helping unpublished artists get their creations out to the whole BL-loving world with bilingual, online releases.
In addition, we've got some fundamental differences in the digital releases themselves. Instead of just offering simple images and stories, we've also got interactive animation, audio, and color embedded in some of our manga files to make reading itself an all-encompassing experience. We figure that if we've got all this great technology at our fingertips, why not use it to make digital manga live up to its cutting-edge name?

2. How many titles per year will you be offering?

We have plans to release at least one new title every month, with potential for a greater amount as we gain more popularity and resources. To start with, we're featuring some works from each of our new artists every month. Our goal is between 12-15 titles per year at least.

3. Will readers be able to download these titles or will they be able to read them only from the website?

Both! Using our partner site, Tigris+Reader, users can access and read our titles online from their PC or smartphone. Some titles are also available for download, depending on the wishes of the artist and whether they want to allow downloads. Those are coded as EPUB files and can be read with iBooks or other comic reader apps.

4. How did you get the idea to have audio and visual elements to your manga?

We saw how so few online manga sites took advantage of the whole fact that their manga isn't printed on paper. It seemed a shame that such interactive potential was going to waste with simple digital copies of manga, so we decided to make some of the manga titles that we had to offer extra special. Not all of our titles include these special effects, but we intend to continue to release more of these truly digital creations in the future. We hope that the readers will enjoy a chance to have a unique manga-reading experience, too.

5. Will you make appearances in North America or Europe at conventions?

Plans are in the works! As of right now, we don't have any concrete schedule, but we definitely intend to visit both North American and European conventions in the future.

6. Can you tell us about the first title Otome's Way will be releasing?

Our first releases at Otome's Way are going to be these 3 titles:
・A Fujoshi's Guide to Japanese: An interactive Japanese study guide.
・Rensou: A love story set within the traditional Japanese performing art, kabuki.
・Yusura Ai Anthology 1: Short stories by our featured artist, Yusura Ai.

Otome's Way looks forward to hearing readers' reactions to this interview and to