The publishers didn’t come, but the fans did. At this year’s Otakon, major manga publishers like Viz Media and Del Rey Manga were absent, but Otakon officials expect a small increase in attendance over the 22,000 that attended last year.

Held at the Baltimore Convention Center July 20-22, Otakon is the second largest festival of animation and manga culture in the U.S. and usually takes place in August at the end of the convention season. This year, however, Otakon found itself sandwiched between the country’s two largest comics and anime celebrations, Anime Expo, held the weekend of June 29, and San Diego Comic-con, scheduled to kick off this week on July 25. This year’s change was due to a scheduling conflict at the Baltimore Convention Center. In order to keep the same location, Otakorp, the volunteer organization that runs Otakon, decided to change to the earlier date.

“We’re competing with two of the largest conventions in the country,” said Brian Grimwood, Otakon head of press and publicity. “Dealers, publishers, industry folk—they have to make a judgment call: either San Diego or Anime Expo.” According to Grimwood, Otakon attendance is closer in size to Anime Expo; “We’re large, but we’re nothing close to San Diego.”

In the dealers’ room, the yaoi category had a strong presence. DramaQueen had a booth as did Yaoi Press and Iris Print. Media Blasters, ADV and Dr. Master also had booths. Tokyopop did not have a booth, opting instead for a panel discussion where the publisher reiterated previously announced licenses and hosted a book signing with special guest Maki Murakami, manga-ka of the boys’ love series, Gravitation.

DramaQueen shared its plans to start an action imprint, starting with the Korean manhwa series, Spam Mail Hunter, which is scheduled for September release. “We needed to set up a separate [non-yaoi] imprint so that people won’t feel squeamish about buying books,” from DramaQueen [which publishes sexually explicit yaoi] said the publisher’s managing director, Tran Nguyen. Nguyen also said that the company will hold a competition for fans to come up with a name for the imprint. The winner will receive a box of the Japanese snack Pocky and a thank-you note.

Yaoi Press had samples of its Yaoi Candy pamphlet comics available. The pamphlet series is created by the Spanish manga team, Kôsen. “The East Coast is so starved for yaoi,” said Yamila Abraham, publisher of Yaoi Press. Abraham said that she had nearly $6,000 in book sales on Friday alone. At Anime Expo, Abraham said she has about half as many sales on the opening day.

Also in yaoi news, MediaBlasters announced Mousou Shoujo Otaku-Kei, a yaoi series about crazed fan girls, and another series called Family.

While Anime Expo, the largest anime and manga convention in the U.S., is evolving from being a fan gathering toward becoming an industry show, Otakon keeps itself firmly grounded in its fan roots. “Our motto is ‘for fans by fans,’ ” convention chair Sean Chiochankitmun, said. “We’ve fostered relationships with the industry, but we’re not setting this up to be an industry convention. Our focus is and will always be on fans.”

But Chiochankitmun also recognizes industry needs. “It’s tough following AX and preceding San Diego. It puts a strain on the industry and their staff—and we don’t want to do that to them.” Chiochankitmun says that Otakorp is working on getting the date for next year’s Otakon pushed back into early August.