Danmei Bookstore Masterpost - Where to Buy Your Usual Books
Heya guys! Okay so I get these questions really often - where to get digital or physical copies for danmei; there are plenty of guides for the digital copies so I’m just going to briefly mention other guides that have been done up and focus mostly on which “legit” bookstores you can get your simplified, traditional Chinese danmeis :DDDD And some familiar terms you might see.
This list includes only links to the Chinese sources - With the exception of one bookstore, I’m clueless on if there are actually official EN translated sources. It’s not entirely exhaustive but it’ll probably help you to discern real from fake stores!
预售 yu shou — Pre-order; most danmei books published are usually pre-order when the listing is first announced, quite rarely do I see immediate sales
通版 tong ban — In stock; you’ll see this most often with traditional Chinese (Taiwan) prints, that are usually limited edition or available only during pre-order periods and are sold again after the pre-orders are all fulfilled
陆商 lu shang — Chinese bookstores
北美 bei mei — Literally translated is North America i.e. Via Lactea, the only store that currently sells uncensored Chinese and translated EN danmei for selected titles (see below)
无删(减) wu shan (jian) — Uncensored, no deleted parts
Why buy from China bookstores? They’re cheap, come with tons of freebies that vary from store to store. Pre-orders usually take about 2-3 months to deliver, but the content is censored. Still good to get for the artwork and freebies though! The ones below, unless otherwise stated, can be found on their Taobao official stores. Usually when a notable title is published, ALL of them will list the new title with varying freebies.
One of China’s biggest general bookstores; they don’t take in every single danmei that comes to publish, only the major ones (e.g. Sha Po Lang, 2ha), but when they do, their freebies are out of this world XD
One of the more reliable bookstores in terms of choice of artists and freebies. Recently I think Jinse got into an agreement with Chang Pei, one of the danmei online publishing sites, to make official danmei merch for certain titles. Got into a bit of trouble if I recall with the bigger artists for Sha Po Lang for using their art (with permission) but erasing the artist’s watermark (without permission) and had to scrap their initial plans 2 days before the book PO went live, but other than that, has been okay. Takes on every danmei set to publish in China
A hit and miss, but for major titles they’ve managed to get quite good artists and freebies made.
Also another hit and miss, more known for hilariously missing the mark entirely i.e. unable to get any artists to offer their art to them for book prints, but they’ve gotten real good at it recently. And their weibo admin is hilarious, users poke fun at the store for missing out on freebies but all in fun.
Mostly sells without freebies and art, only the book itself and its intended gifts inside. Helpful for when you don’t have space anymore for freebies or don’t like the freebies and just wanna have the book itself.
A really small bookstore but shines from time to time e.g. their print for 2ha.
Hit and miss as well, more hits than misses for artwork and freebies! Takes on every danmei set to publish in China
Used to be more hit than misses, nowadays it’s mostly misses XD They’re still pretty reputable and is also a general bookstore, but their artwork/freebies recently have been terrible!!! Takes on every danmei set to publish in China
MY GODDAMN FAVE!!!! I don’t know how XSJ does it but they NEVER miss when it comes to art and freebies. They either get the best or second best always!!! Packaging is great, customer service is great~ Takes on every danmei set to publish in China
Had one of the nicer Sha Po Lang print box cases, but has a history of stealing art without permission for their freebies.
This store does either the super big name prints or the super small ones, never the in between, hilariously, but their gifts are also pretty good when they do!! Feels a lot like an indie type of bookstore
Only does gifts for super big prints, otherwise they just sell books normally on its own.
✅ MANCOOL (China Address Only)
A bookstore accessible only on WeChat! They’re pretty cool; they don’t do prints for all danmei that come to publish in China in the pipeline, but they usually work in conjunction with one or two bookstores as mentioned above. They have their own freebies/gifts, and because they’re on WeChat, they sometimes to extra gifts via online games on gachapon!!!!
OOOMPPPPPHHHH okay Luo Bo is NOT an official bookstore or danmei seller, but their reputation is REALLYYYY GOOOOD. Their unofficial stores on Taobao and Weidian (China only) basically sell limited in stocks from Taiwan, so if you missed out on the Taiwan preorder, you CAN camp and wait for their notice and listing to buy them. Well-known in the Chinese danmei community for selling authentic/rare ones!
Functions like Books TW, sells any Taiwanese danmei print if there’s stock e.g. TGCF or anything from Pinsin. General bookstore, ships internationally BUT if I recall, slightly more complicated to buy on Eslite than on Books TW as you have to input your passport number.
✅ Animate TW (Taiwan Address only)
Sells selected, popular danmei and BL works from China, Taiwan, Korea and more! Also sells merch. Recently more known for selling the TGCF Traditional TW prints.
Ships internationally! My to-go for usual danmei prints or those from Pinsin that are not on pre-order. Shipping goes by DHL ($20 to SG for like 5-6 books), get it within the same week. Easy-to-use interface when checking out, just a tad bit more checkout pages than necessary but ain’t complaining. General bookstore in Taiwan, the biggest online one.
OUR FAVE DANMEI PUBLISHER FROM TAIWAN!!! Super reliable, has a functioning site, knows how to configure landing pages for big pre-orders, has clear instructions in English on how to buy etc. Always makes deadlines for prints, and plenty of stock most of the time!!!
Known for uncensored version of Nan Chan and other nice titles - Site looks okay to use so far (much better than others tbh), but they do POs like once every two months or something! Takes about 6 months or more to print a book after preorder but acceptable so far
I’m actually super impressed with the range Wei Xiang has! They carry plenty of danmei books, old and new, known and unknown, and while their login account needs like some updates, their cart has the least number of pages I’ve seen amongst all the TW bookstores so far, easy check out too!
GOD where do I start with Jia Fei. They’re notorious for taking 10,000 years to produce one book (*ahem* 2ha) and their customer service sucks. Their website is prehistoric, and you have to email or call in via Facebook to make any sort of orders via a third party argh IDEK. They’re terrible with updates after PO as well, the only saving grace is that they do take on some of the popular titles, which honestly is shite for international customers especially. Of course once you get the hang of it, it’s fine, or if you get the items through a GO, but yeah…. I’d take any other bookstore ANYTIME.
So Yi Le is one of the newer players in the industry (since 2019) and only recently started to produce danmei regularly! They’ve got good covers, they select good titles, but their website is useless - You have to be on Weibo for updates XD
There are a few more lesser known ones like 顶狄社 Ding Di, 出格文化 Chu Ge, 槐安 Huai An etc., but the above are the more recognizable ones!
Recently, this would be one of my favourite bookstores. They’re located in Canada of all places and sell BOTH uncensored Chinese and official, translated EN danmeis - but for selected titles only. I’m not sure how they managed to cut a deal BUT in terms of niche/small danmei prints, Via Lactea is possibly your best bet.
It has great covers, super aesthetic and artistic ones. Nothing is censored, and it comes with plenty of freebies as well, including some new epilogues or extras. They function like a China bookstore but with much better resources, and they take on smaller name danmeis!!
Local shipping in Canada is cheap, and expensive anywhere else, BUT if you ship back to China to your warehouse or proxy, shipping is FREE, and you only have to pay for China warehouse/proxy to yourself.
They don’t have a huge team, so they contract translators to translate danmei, currently the speed seems to be two titles per year, and they’re also venturing into ebook versions, in both Chinese and EN.
Vietnam’s main publisher of danmei, has done 2ha, TGCF and other notable titles so far! Their local artists do the covers really, really well!! Freebies are amazing too
Thailand’s main publisher of danmei, has done 2ha and other notable titles, and also some smaller danmeis too!
Sort of a new player for danmei prints, and they only do selected big prints e.g. TGCF and 2ha!
This one needs no explanation I think. Biggest online danmei, baihe and yanqing novels. Here’s how to support your fave authors at a low, affordable price.
The other well-known danmei online platform. While JJWXC has a bulk of all danmeis, Chang Pei actually has like 40% of danmei novels I think? Which is quite a lot. If it’s not on JJWXC, 90% chance it’s on Chang Pei
Downloadable from App store or just read on desktop. First 30 chapters+ are usually free then they start charging, but it’s easy to get credits via App store or Play store.
Usually one or a few chapters behind the original Chinese version.
If it’s not on Bilibili Manhua, it’s on Kuaikan, for sure. Works the same way as Bilibili manhua!
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