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Selling Books with GLBTQ Characters
Why can't you sell your "gay" book into the mainstream? Here are some thoughts on it.
Why can't you sell your "gay" book into the mainstream? Here are some thoughts on it.
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I agree. Female authors have an edge in selling queer books to the mainstream press. Less so with the gay presses.
I think you are right, some gay presses would have a problem with the bisexual events in the book. Bisexuality is a tremendous issue with many gay and lesbian folk because it involves the perceived deception and betrayal of the same-sex partner.
Yes, I'm sure men do, but women don't. And having a more romantic story hasn't stopped men from buying my books. It's probably the highly explicit and frequent sex that attracts all of them.
Sybaritic Press, an LA based small press. I'll be doing a book signing in WeHo in September, during the WeHo Book Fair. Sybpress will have a booth there. I believe they are also planning a get together with other like-minded authors in the area and seeing about a booksigning at A Different Light. Nothing is firm at this point though.
Is Sybaritic a POD press? I don't recognize it. I wonder if Giovanni's Room has copies.
Oh I'm sure men do read you. Some women have been known to read me. I don't quite understand why.
Small press. Check them out on the web. sybpress.com. They pay a small advance to established authors (by contact negotiation) and quarterly royalties. They go through Ingrams and my books with them are on the shelves in B&N. Does that make them POD?
LOL! I don't try to understand it. I'm just grateful someone likes my work enough to read it.
I remember hearing about Demon Under Glass now.
Nice sales. I just checked the Ingram site. Kudos.
Nice sales. I just checked the Ingram site. Kudos.
Nope, not POD, which is a good thing to most booksellers.
The Manlove market, as you refer to it, is one that perplexes me. It would certainly be good for my forthcoming novel if female readers learned of it. I simply have no idea how to tap into it. Or if they would find my style alluring/entertaining.
The Manlove market, as you refer to it, is one that perplexes me. It would certainly be good for my forthcoming novel if female readers learned of it. I simply have no idea how to tap into it. Or if they would find my style alluring/entertaining.
You can check my sells with Ingram on line? How? Where?
Yep, i can check any book in their database.
join some of the romance online lists. check out the reviews sites and run banners there. Run cover ads on the sites and do intereviews with them.
Wish I could do that. I'd like to see those numbers! A check system against reports. I'm an untrusting soul.
I've formed a group of M/M writers to pool our cash to run an ad on the Advocate.com site soon to appeal to a wider gay audience. If you're interested, or any other M/M erotic romance writer that reads this, check out manloveromance.com
I've formed a group of M/M writers to pool our cash to run an ad on the Advocate.com site soon to appeal to a wider gay audience. If you're interested, or any other M/M erotic romance writer that reads this, check out manloveromance.com
Thanks for the tip! And I'm gonna friend you as well so it will make future conversations easier.
How can I join the site?
Argh, annoying fallacies about bisexuals time. I keep worrying about getting that one from the other side. Both the hero's partners in the story know what he's like -- in fact they end up conferring over what to buy him for his birthday -- but there's still the possibility that someone will say he deceived the woman when he started seeing her. Even though she was the one who did all the chasing *and* the one that decided they were better as friends after an incident that had nothing to do with any current third party.
My other worry about the mainstream is whether my vague references to the age of consent situation in 1988 and the way Section 28 hung over everyone in education will confuse people who weren't involved in either reform campaign.
My other worry about the mainstream is whether my vague references to the age of consent situation in 1988 and the way Section 28 hung over everyone in education will confuse people who weren't involved in either reform campaign.
Argh, annoying fallacies about bisexuals time. I keep worrying about getting that one from the other side. Both the hero's partners in the story know what he's like -- in fact they end up conferring over what to buy him for his birthday -- but there's still the possibility that someone will say he deceived the woman when he started seeing her. Even though she was the one who did all the chasing *and* the one that decided they were better as friends after an incident that had nothing to do with any current third party.
My other worry about the mainstream is whether my vague references to the age of consent situation in 1988 and the way Section 28 hung over everyone in education will confuse people who weren't involved in either reform campaign.
My other worry about the mainstream is whether my vague references to the age of consent situation in 1988 and the way Section 28 hung over everyone in education will confuse people who weren't involved in either reform campaign.
Surprise, surprise, the readers who assume I'm male have encountered me in the gay world, while the readers who assume I'm female have encountered me in the slash world.
Been there, done that, maybe we should get a teeshirt. :-) Though admittedly the names I write under in slash are gendered, and apparently my gender-neutral pro name isn't as gender-neutral in the US as it is in the UK.
Been there, done that, maybe we should get a teeshirt. :-) Though admittedly the names I write under in slash are gendered, and apparently my gender-neutral pro name isn't as gender-neutral in the US as it is in the UK.
Yahoogroup for writers and fans of m/m:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homopromo/
Also worth sending information to places like Forbidden Fruit:
http://www.forbiddenfruitzine.com/
I can probably think of more places when it's not quarter to midnight here...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homopromo/
Also worth sending information to places like Forbidden Fruit:
http://www.forbiddenfruitzine.com/
I can probably think of more places when it's not quarter to midnight here...
What appears to happen is the opposite - and an understanding that the identified subgroup had better stay outside the mainstream.
I'm not saying that categorisation is always a bad thing. Personally, I prefer to know that I don't have to read my way through graphic sex scenes when I pick up a mystery, family saga, or fantasy story. What appears to happen in the romance genre is that there is a special category named 'black' (or 'African-American') and another named 'Hispanic' and never the twain shall be sold to a mainstream line or shelved on the mainstream shelves, for God Forbid that any good 'ordinary' reader should have to grapple with a heroine who is black or hispanic. Yes, it might make it easier for someone who wants to _particularly_ read about either of those groups to find them, but... should they? There are many ways of grouping humanity, and I would bloody well hope that two people who live in the same street and who went to the same school have more in common than someone who lives at the other end of the country in a completely different community. Regardless of the whether the distribution is white, black, white or straight, gay, straight respectively.
I'm not saying that categorisation is always a bad thing. Personally, I prefer to know that I don't have to read my way through graphic sex scenes when I pick up a mystery, family saga, or fantasy story. What appears to happen in the romance genre is that there is a special category named 'black' (or 'African-American') and another named 'Hispanic' and never the twain shall be sold to a mainstream line or shelved on the mainstream shelves, for God Forbid that any good 'ordinary' reader should have to grapple with a heroine who is black or hispanic. Yes, it might make it easier for someone who wants to _particularly_ read about either of those groups to find them, but... should they? There are many ways of grouping humanity, and I would bloody well hope that two people who live in the same street and who went to the same school have more in common than someone who lives at the other end of the country in a completely different community. Regardless of the whether the distribution is white, black, white or straight, gay, straight respectively.
email me at sensualwriter.laura@gmail.com
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>Amazon keeps suggesting yaoi manga after yaoi manga to me.
I know that Amazon isn't the basis for your entire argument, but it's difficult to trust Amazon recommendations as an indicator of the market. They've made targeted marketing into an art form. If you buy one book about frisbee golf, you're going to be recommended pretty much every other frisbee golf book out there.
I know Anna's said it many times before: Amazon sales are usually a very tiny part of the market.
I know that Amazon isn't the basis for your entire argument, but it's difficult to trust Amazon recommendations as an indicator of the market. They've made targeted marketing into an art form. If you buy one book about frisbee golf, you're going to be recommended pretty much every other frisbee golf book out there.
I know Anna's said it many times before: Amazon sales are usually a very tiny part of the market.
Historically, when and where minorities are given sections in the bookstore, and maintain bookstores of their own, literature written by, for and about them flourishes and crosses over to larger audiences. I'm not engaging in wishful thinking: it's what has really happened.
(a separate issue is that really canny bookstores seeking to cultivate their readership in general, regularly pull books from different categories to make themed displays or even just "staff favorites" displays.)
(a separate issue is that really canny bookstores seeking to cultivate their readership in general, regularly pull books from different categories to make themed displays or even just "staff favorites" displays.)
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