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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.

Comments

gay-male fiction in the mainstream

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

The amount of sex in a book also has a lot to do with its acceptance in the mainstream, especially if written by a male author. Someone like Stephen McCauley, who has only published in the mainstream, writes books about men who by and large never have sex. (I published an excised sex scene from Paul Russell's THE COMING STORM in my anthology THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF GAY EROTICA from Carroll & Graf.)

There are exceptions, but they are usually imports from other markets, especially the UK, where class often comes into play: like Alan Hollinghurst's THE SWIMMING-POOL LIBRARY.

In general, it is easier for a book with gay-male content to be successfully published in the mainstream if it is written by a woman, in large part because a heterosexual male READER can thereby be seen reading the book without his own sexuality being called into question (as would happen if a purportedly-heterosexual male reader is seen reading a gay male novel written by a male--and thereby supposedly gay--author).

Re: gay-male fiction in the mainstream

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

Curiously, one place where mainstream publishers are having a tremendous amount of success with gay-male characters, themes, and authors is YA.

FWIW.

And these books are often crossing over to an adult readership, nostalgic about high school

Re: gay-male fiction in the mainstream

[mroctober.livejournal.com]

Yeah there is some success with YA, but most of the gay fic titles are pretty categorized as drama books as opposed to genre fic.

Re: gay-male fiction in the mainstream

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Stephen McCauley's characters have sex at least a couple of times in each book: but he doesn't linger with the sex act, he just makes one or two observations about it.

Re: gay-male fiction in the mainstream

[mroctober.livejournal.com]

I agree. Female authors have an edge in selling queer books to the mainstream press. Less so with the gay presses.