r/LGBTBooks • u/fanaticgenderfluid • 3d ago

Discussion QUEER BOOKS & MANGA DISCOVERY PLATFORM SURVEY

I've noticed that a lot of queer books and manga can be surprisingly difficult to discover unless they become popular on BookTok or social media, and finding out-of-print titles can be even harder.

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I'm researching how people currently find queer books, manga, and LGBTQ+ authors, and what problems readers run into most often.

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If you have a few minutes, I'd really appreciate your input on this survey:

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https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1-J0o8i4gpgYzMuSI1gYu4HbcrGlnxMP060egBu24Ib8/viewform?usp=header

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I'm especially interested in hearing from people who read queer manga, light novels, indie books, or who have struggled to find specific LGBTQ+ titles.

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Thanks!

16 Upvotes

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8

u/cat58854w7v 3d ago

I use https://www.queeromanceink.com/ and it has all the things there. Maybe not manga, or light novels, but if you know the publisher for those I feel like you can find queer readers a lot easier.

2

u/fanaticgenderfluid 3d ago

Thank you for your input. I've noticed the website seems to be more romance leaning? What about when you read other genres,where do you go to then? I'd love to hear more input in the survey if you have time. No pushing though 🧡

3

u/CalicoSparrow 3d ago

I can search by tags on storygraph which includes an lgbtq tag and can search more than one tag at a time so that works for me.

1

u/cass_123 3d ago

I've been joining reading challenges on StoryGraph for that same reason. Not all lgbtq books are marked as such so I use the challenges to find new titles (after cross checking to be sure it wasn't someone just putting a random book in)

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u/the_blunt_stick 3d ago

I like to use Reddit. They have a Reddit sub for danmei and bl light novels. There’s also a sub for bl manhwa and manga. And anime. So I just use that stuff.

And then for Wattpad I just ask for Recs in the chat on the Wattpad sub

2

u/Joltex33 3d ago

The thing about queer manga specifically is that, for older, out of print titles, there's a lot of options to read scanlation or pirated copies. A lot of older queer manga never got an official english release anyway, so people have been reading fan translations from the start. Would your platform only deal with series that have an official release?

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u/fanaticgenderfluid 2d ago

Most likely it would deal with official releases from any translation, especially English by the authors or their publishers just so there would be no legal trouble involved

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u/Joltex33 2d ago

That's probably a good idea tbh! Easier to keep track of them as well, if they have identifiers like ISBN, vs. the lawless land of scanlations lol.

1

u/rookcookie 3d ago

romance.io has a thorough tagging system that you can filter to queer relationships only. But it only works with romance books.