DramaQueen news, sort of

A lot of people have been waiting for more news about DramaQueen, and this may be it. Translator T. reveals, in a locked post on the DramaQueen forum that was re-posted at the Boys Next Door blog, that the company has been “waiting for investors” for months now. You may recall that I spoke to company president Tran Nguyen at Anime Boston, and she told me that she had an investor lined up and was about to send books to the printer.

Apparently this was news to T., who has been hearing that the investors would be coming through “next month” for a number of months now. Here’s what comes next:

When I spoke to Tran about the article, I asked plainly what the investors had told her to make her believe that this “next month” would be any different from the last “next month.” After some prodding, she let it slip that if DramaQueen did not print by the end of May, the company was pretty much dead in the water anyway. When I asked her to repeat what she had just said, she quickly retracted the statement. That was the first and only time I’ve ever heard her confidence waver.

The end of May has come and gone.

I spoke to Tran at the end of May, 2008, before writing this, to ask her what news there is of the investors, and I received the same answer I have been hearing for the past year: “next month.”

There’s nothing definite here, but it doesn’t look too good. It’s a sobering reminder that there’s more to publishing than turning out high-quality books.

Boys Next Door also has the latest on Iris Print, which was essentially a one-person operation and also hit financial troubles earlier this year. Author RW Day reports that Iris owner Kellie Lynch is planning to shut down operations and would be making an announcement; Tina Anderson, another author, has heard nothing although she is owed royalties.