Bed Bugs In Your Beloved Print Books; Five More Reasons To Self-Publish by Sherri McInnis; Straight Guy Gets Hit On By Gay Guy; Alleged Gay Homophobic Cruise Ship Death

Bed Bugs In Your Beloved Print Books

Even though I seriously never expected to hear something like this, it's just one more reason why I'll never go back to reading print books again.

WILMINGTON -- A few bedbugs have been snuggling into the pages of Delaware's library books.


Six to eight months ago, librarians at downtown Wilmington's main branch started noticing the bugs in books that were returned to the library, said the director of the city's library system, Larry Manuel. The bugs went away for a few months, but returned in the past week.

The rest is here. I actually heard this on the morning news on TV. The fact it that most large public places...especially hospitals...deal with bed bugs all the time and they don't even tell you.

I don't think you can get bed bugs in an e-reader. But don't quote me on that :) 

Five More Reasons To Self-Publish by Sherri McInnis

Here's a candid post written by a traditionally published author, Sherri McInnis, who talks about why she decided to go indie.

Here's an excerpt. When I read this I felt as if I'd been transported out of my body. That's just how honest it is. The same exact things (and more) happened to me with publishers. I'll comment a little below.

Even the marketing department gets in on things. For instance, the marketing people didn't like the original title of my first book, so the publisher changed it to Devil May Care. Bad luck for me because at around the same time another 'devil' book came out. But you probably heard of that one.

 The Devil Wears Prada was so popular, people didn't just confuse the titles – they actually thought I was Lauren Weisberger! One bookstore manager was so excited to meet because my book was "just flying off the shelves!"  

You can't imagine how disappointed we both were when I got to the store and he had a huge stack of Prada waiting for me to sign. 

Remember there are lots of people who get involved in publishing your book – and as the author, you aren't the one with the most control. 

You can read the rest here. I highly suggest it because it's written by an author who knows the difference. And I can back her up on everything.

Here's one "control" reason that brought me to indie publishing. And it's just one. You know my Rainbow Detective series, the one I've been working hard on this year? That series started out, at the publisher's request, as something completely different and they demanded that I use a pen name. So I told them to choose the pen name and I would abide by it. I didn't like the idea, I didn't think it made sense, but I didn't have a choice. I thought it was a waste of time. But they released the first two books in the series under the pen name "Dale Bishop." The books tanked. Plus, they wouldn't allow me to use The Rainbow Detective Agency title at all, which I thought was a huge mistake. So I listened and kept my mouth shut because that's what writers under contract do. And when it was time to get the rights back to those books I ran with my original idea, self-pubbed them under my own name, and I have no regrets. I'm finishing up book 8 this week and I'll be releasing it this month in time for Thanksgiving weekend.

And that's just one example. I have plenty more for another post.

Straight Guy Gets Hit On By Gay Guy

 

 Recently, a gay guy hit on a straight guy at a wedding and I think it shows how much things are changing.

I was at my cousins wedding reception and had just sat down from dancing. It was nearing the end of the night at this time so I was pretty secluded from everyone. A man walked up to me who I hadn’t seen before and nervously said “what’s your name?” I replied, “Chad, what’s yours?” He said “Shane, I just wanted to let you know that I have noticed you all night. I wanted to leave this with you before I left.” He handed me a piece of paper and quickly walked out. It was his number. Without knowing if I was straight or not he had built up the guts to put himself out there. I thought it was extremely brave and I know it’s something I wouldn’t be able to do. I’m sharing this to remind everyone to live their lives without regrets. Almost all of my regrets come from the things I didn’t do, not the things I did. I will be living my life more like this man and I suggest you all do as well. Good night.

My only comment here is that I've had the exact opposite experiences at straight weddings...all of my life. I have never once been to a straight wedding where some straight, horny, drunk married man with kids and a wife didn't try to cruise me. I don't know what it is about weddings that gets them going, but it always happens there. I'm too lazy to search for it now, but I've even posted about this right here on the blog.

And, it's always been my experience that so-called straight guys are always a lot more aggressive with gay guys than the other way around. 

You can read more here.  

Alleged Gay Homophobic Cruise Ship Death

I've been following this one all week because I've never actually known cruises or cruise ships to be homophobic...in a general sense. I know a lot of gay people who've gone on many cruises without incident.

However, THIS horrible thing happened:

Elbaz, aged 31, went overboard last Friday at around 1am after having a heated argument with staff over the use of ‘homophobic slurs’, according to a lawyer acting on behalf of his family. He is presumed dead after coast guards failed to recover his body.

Elbaz was aboard the ship with his husband, Eric. The two were married in New York state in 2014 and the cruise they took was part of Eric’s 34th birthday celebrations.

There's more here, with a couple of videos that might be the most disturbing you've ever seen in your life.

Fangsters: Book 2

Gang Bang Fangsters

  Here's a link for Allromanceebooks...

Amazon Link 

A New Venture: Glendale E-Pub Services; Danny Pintauro's Oprah Interview; James Pianka's Underpants

A New Venture: Glendale E-Pub Services

When I first posted about getting into indie publishing here on the blog in March of 2012, I had no idea what to expect. Frankly, I wasn't even sure I really wanted to do it. At that point in time I was still heavily invested in working with e-publishers and I liked what I was doing. I had no complaints. It's just that I was curious about indie publishing.

However, not too long after that, one e-publisher I'd been working with for about ten years announced she was shuttering the press and reverting all rights back to authors. This floored me. I had over 40 titles with that publisher, I'd worked hard for them for years, and I didn't want my e-books to just disappear forever. I couldn't fault them for going out of business, but I wasn't going out of business and that sucked. So I republished them all as indie books and most of those books are still selling. And it was thanks to the experience I gained from publishing that first indie novel, Chase of a Lifetime. It was, indeed, a very humble venture.

In the past three years, indie publishing has allowed me the ability to take control of my work and experiment in ways no publisher would ever have allowed me to do. I've posted about how I've released one indie book in two versions: one with erotic sex scenes and one without sex scenes. I've also had other rights reverted with other books and I've been able to re-release them all as indie books so they don't disappear forever. In one case, I actually removed all the sex scenes because I was never happy with them and so far the most recent review seems to suggest I did the right thing in that case. Bottom line: I finally got to control my own work.

When e-publishing started out I don't think anyone ever thought their e-books would wind up being taken down and disappearing forever. I never expected to see that. I always thought that once an e-book had been published with a reputable publisher it had found a home forever. That's not the case anymore. I'm not even going to mention the e-publishers out there that have shuttered without even giving their authors advanced notice. One ran off to South Africa last I heard. Many authors haven't been paid, and some never will. It's been both sad and frustrating to watch so many authors left out in the proverbial cold with nowhere to turn.

I'm not anti-publisher and I still work with a few small e-presses. I have wonderful relationships with them and I hope that continues forever. This post isn't designed to knock anyone or to draw any conclusions. It's simply an announcement about another humble venture we are doing that may or may not help a few authors who are interested in indie publishing but don't know how to go about doing it...and without spending thousands of dollars to indie publish. You don't have to be a tech genius either. In the past year I've noticed more than a few authors who claimed they would never indie publish announce that they've changed their minds. In almost every case, it's for the same reasons I decided to indie publish.

In any event, here's a link to Glendale E-Pub Services. The web site has already been up for about a year but I haven't been actively promoting it because the goal is to keep it boutique...small. At this point, it's only us running things, with the help of a few sources I've worked with in the past with publishers. The clients we've worked with so far have all come through me, and they've been return clients who contact us months after publication to either publish something new or to make changes to something that already has been published. Yes. You can do that with e-books. If you don't like something about your book cover you can change that a few months later. You make your own rules this time and you control your own rights.

We're not a publishing company or a literary agency and we make no promises to sell, market, or promote books. Another reason we started Glendale is because I've seen far too many rip off e-publishing services that make claims I know they'll never be able to live up to. The author retains his/her rights and we're simply acting as a service...a means to get that e-book out there for you at an affordable cost. We focus only on e-books at this time because that seems to be where authors can save the most in up front costs, and because it's been my experience that e-books with regard to the indie markets usually bring in the best returns for authors. If someone else has had a different experience, good for you. We're not getting into print book publishing or audio book publishing simply because I've learned through working with e-publishers myself that print books and audio books don't sell as well as people would lead you to believe. If they did sell you'd see far more of them out there with small presses. It only stands to reason.

Everything you need to know is on the web site at the link above. You don't have to query us. We aren't judging anyone's work and everyone is welcome to contact us. We don't censor and your content is something you control, not us. In other words, we're not rejecting anyone on content. We're simply working on a first come first serve basis and everyone is welcome. What you publish, or what genre you are concentrated in, doesn't matter. We'll help authors e-publish anything from Christan self help books to the most erotic literature out there. If there are literary agents out there interested in getting client back list titles up in digital, we welcome them, too.

I'll post more about all this in the future from time to time. As I said, everything's fairly simple at the web site, and we're still working on it and making small changes as we go. I think every author's situation is unique and that's not something we take lightly. If you have any questions you can always e-mail me here: [email protected] or contact us through the web site. Please make sure you put something in the subject line about Glendale E-publishing Services so I know it's not spam.

Danny Pintauro's Oprah Interview

Former childhood star, Danny Pintauro, came out as gay a while ago, but he recently did an interview with Oprah Winfrey and spoke openly about being HIV positive.

However, the 39-year-old’s secret which will likely have the bigger impact was saved for the broadcast when Pintauro shared that he tested positive for HIV 12 years ago.

“I was living in New York at the time and completely clueless to the idea that I was positive. I went in for a regular checkup. It was just regular blood work. You go in, and you sort of waited two weeks on pins and needles — or at least I did, because I was just terrified of the idea of getting HIV.”

There's a lot more to read, which you can do here.

The comments go even deeper than the interview. Some aren't too thrilled with the way Pintauro handles a few things. And you can't blame them. There are millions of gay men out there who have taken all the precautions and they aren't HIV positive. They deserve credit, too.

James Pianka's Underpants

Well, here's another thing I must have missed when I was absent from gay school that one day. It's about this dude I've never heard of...James Pianka...and his underpants. Yes, underpants. Or course it's an advertorial for "The Underwear Expert," so we aren't supposed to take it seriously. But I love the way they portray it as "gay" news...more tired cliche.

James Pianka models six pairs of casual underwear in our exclusive photoshoot below, each with simple and effective designs that stun without ever trying too hard. These underwear styles are more modern than the common boxer brief, and will always provide a more flattering fit, thanks to their silhouettes.

It's nice underwear. James Pianka has an ass. That's all you need to know.


You can get there from here.

New Release 

When A Man Loves A Man

PW Self-Publishing; Porneia; "Taint" NOT Taint

PW Self-Publishing

It seems that Publishers Weekly is now getting into the self-publishing forum. It's a collaboration with another tech firm that has a more complicated name that no one really needs to know to live a happy life. The new self-publishing site will be called BookLife. And, of course, it will go live at BEA (Book Expo America) in a quasi dramatic move that completely ignores the fact that self-publishing isn't all that new anymore...as you can see from the last part of this post about bestsellers.

As a blogger I follow a lot of these things and this is one I normally wouldn't even bother publishing because there's so little about it yet. And frankly, I'm not fond of the things I'm reading.

BookLife, which will go live on May 29, 2014 at BookExpo America, will focus on three main subject areas: book creation which includes editing and cover design; publishing which is all about the physical manufacturing of a book; and book marketing, which will include information on distribution, publicity and sales.

“Self-published books and authors are having more and more impact on readers and the publishing industry,” stated Carl Pritzkat, the president of BookLife and VP of business development for PWxyz LLC.

First, there's no mention at all about e-books. And while I'm sure there are some indie authors out there doing something with physical print books, from what I read and hear the majority who are doing the best are all finding their sales through digital publishing.

Second, it's not inexpensive to self-publish a print book. It is in expensive to indie publish an e-book.

Third, the book marketing thing is way too ambiguous for me, especially since so many brick and mortar bookshops are shuttering their doors because they can't compete with online retailers anymore...not to mention the fact that so many indie authors have already cornered the market, so to speak, with book promotion in many ways that often fall short of being duplicitous.

Indie authors have been having an impact on readers for a while now, especially in genre fiction. So I honestly don't know why this is supposed to get us all excited, and I think it's a good reason why I hear so many negatives about BEA off the record, from industry professionals.

In any event, here's the link. There's also a link to the PW site for indie authors.

I'm not against anything new that's going to help indie authors. But I would just like to see one company complete against the leading vultures in a more pragmatic way.

I'll follow up on this after the site is launched. My biggest question is how much will this baby cost indie authors.

Porneia

I learned a new word and thought I would pass it along. Once again, you'll live a happy life without knowing it, but I thought it was interesting from a purely technical POV as an erotic romance writer.

Porneia is a word about which not everyone agrees. But it is sexual in nature. Here are a few basic definitions.

From wiki, which is really the definition of fornication. I was redirected there from porneia:

Fornication is generally consensual sexual intercourse between two people not married to each other.^[1][2] For many people, the term carries an overtone of moral or religious disapproval, but the significance of sexual acts to which the term is applied varies between religions, societies and cultures. The definition is often disputed. In modern usage, the term is often replaced with a more judgment-neutral term like extramarital sex.

From Urban Dictionary, my go to source for most of these terms:

Porneia is sexual behaviour that is thought to be 'wrong', 'bad'.

Porneia -Noun pawnia The discourse of manipulation of reproductive organs ,in a natural or perverted way, via hands, mouth, anus or any bodily extremity by said person or an accomplice.


"Taint" NOT Taint

I'm not talking about the "taint" area now. I'm talking about a new self-published bestseller I read about over at GalleyCat that's titled, Taint. I once got slammed a little for stating on a comment forum that I don't think there's anything wrong with using the taint area in an erotic romance. Other authors preferred a more technical term. I don't do it often. In fact, maybe just once in over 100 books and stories. But I like knowing that I can without judgment.

This is the definition of "taint" as many of us already know it. For those who don't, here's the Urban Dictionary definition...I'm linking so you don't think I make this stuff up.

The area between the nutsack and asshole that prevent a man from shitting on his nuts. See durf.

UD has such a way with words.

In any event, "Taint" is now extremely popular with readers...the book, not the body part. This is from the Amazon list of self-published bestsellers this week:

1. Taint by S.L. Jennings: “If you enrolled yourself in this program then you are wholly aware that you’re a lousy lay. Good for you. Admitting it is half the battle. For those of you that have been sent here by your husband or significant other, dry your tears and get over it. You’ve been given a gift, ladies. The gift of mind-blowing, wall-climbing, multiple-orgasm-inducing sex. You have the opportunity to f*ck like a porn star. And I guarantee, you will when I’m done with you.”

Well, there you are.

You can read more about Taint (the book) here.

I feel a short story coming on now.

CheapUndies.com; Richard Branson Boycotts Dorchester; Ben Affleck Banned

CheapUndies.com

The more scholarly book bloggers and pinch-faced critics wouldn't post about this. They're far too grand. They post about Marxist Theories of Self-Publishing (I'm not joking...but you might like it; I'll read it eventually) and other topics similar to this where you could literally drop dead from boredom just clicking the link. But I thought this link to the web site, Cheapundies.com, was worth posting because it's fun, people are laughing and having fun, hot guys are running around in their underwear, and life's just too goddamn short to worry about Karl Marx. I'd rather leave that up to Lenin.

The link above will take you to a video of hot guys waiting for a store to open so they can grab as many cheapundies as they can. And it's uncensored, which means you'll definitely enjoy it. And it's fun, with plenty of homo-eroticism. Plus, the camera person knows what he/she is doing.

Side note: I've ordered many things from cheapundies.com and I have to say that I have been extremely pleased with every step of the process, including the products. It's also unisex, and there are items for women, too. You can't beat the prices anywhere else. I love my orange undies.

Richard Branson Boycotts Dorchester

I've posted about Richard Branson here. He's the CEO of Virgin Airlines and was my main muse for the mc in The Virgin Billionaire series, Jase. I've also posted about Dorchester Hotels, the company that owns The Beverly Hills Hotel. The Sultan of Brunei runs Dorchester, and this country supports a variety of anti-gay laws.

Branson recently came out in support of LGBTI people with this:

'No Virgin employee, nor our family, will stay at Dorchester Hotels until the Sultan abides by basic human rights,' he wrote on his Twitter account.
Branson's announcement is part of a growing number of celebrities, including Ellen DeGeneres and Stephen Fry, who are turning their backs on the Dorchester Hotel Group, owned by the Sultan.

I don't recall which book of mine I wrote where I used The Beverly Hills Hotel in the storyline. But I'm very sorry I did that.

You can find out more here.

Ben Affleck Banned

The politically outspoken Ben Affleck was allegedly banned from a casino for card counting.

Affleck, who played in the World Series of Poker alongside buddy Matt Damon, allegedly was playing blackjack at the casino’s high rollers table earlier this week when the Hard Rock security team caught the actor on camera counting cards.

The actor, according to unnamed source, was told, “You’re too good at this game” by hotel security and deemed an advantage player.

One unnamed source said the hotel was friendly to Affleck and his wife Jennifer Garner and invited them back to the casino to play other games.

You can read more here in Variety.

I'm a card player, mostly poker but I'll play anything from canasta to rummy. I carry a few decks with me wherever I go. The best card players know how to count cards. The smartest card players never let anyone know they know how to count cards. Just saying.

Disney Dumps Boy Scouts; Dancing with Cats; Audible Lowers Royalties

Disney Dumps Boy Scouts

Due to the ban the Boy Scouts of America have with regard to not allowing openly gay leaders and employees, Walt Disney World in Florida has discontinued contributions to local Boy Scout chapters. (You can be an openly gay Boy Scout...until you're eighteen, and then it stops.)

Disney World, located in Orlando, did not make an announcement regarding its dumping of BSA. Reuters reports that the news came via an email to local members from Scouts' Central Florida Council Board President Robert Utsey.

Utsey wrote: 'We recognize that many Scout Units have received financial  support over the last several years from this grant opportunity and are sad to see it go.

Once again, the right to freedom of speech is a wonderful thing that often comes with consequences. Especially when that freedom of speech is geared toward anything discriminatory or defamatory. And Disney can choose to donate its money wherever it wants. Just as the Boy Scouts can continue to discriminate against gays.

You can read more here.

Dancing with Cats

I'm not always a huge fan of book trailers because I've seen authors spend way too much money and they'll never see a return on that investment. I rarely buy a book because of a book trailer. But I also think that sometimes some book trailers work and this is one of them.

Chronicle Books is releasing a  15th anniversary edition of Dancing With Cats.

The book, which was originally published in 1999, is dedicated to photos of humans dancing with cats. The book sold more than 100,000 copies, in an era when Internet was less widely adopted and before Keyboard Cat hit the scene.

To celebrate the anniversary of the book and the latest edition, the publisher has created a playful book trailer. We’ve embedded the video above for your entertainment.

This not only proves that sometimes book trailers work, but also that some books are timeless.

You can read more here. You can watch the trailer, too.

Audible Lowers Royalties

Audible is a web site where publishers and self-published authors can launch the audio versions of their books. I don't know much about it personally because I only have one on audible, An Officer and His Gentleman and it was launched through a publisher. It's one area of self-publishing I haven't ventured into yet because I'm not certain there's a huge market for it. But I'm really not sure and I haven't discounted doing more on Audible by any means. Most of all, I think it could be fun. In the past, several readers have told me they've listened to my book on audio and enjoyed it.

Amazon owns Audible. They purchased it not too long ago and launched the ACX Platform. Amazon has recently lowered royalties.

Up until now, Amazon was offering an escalating rate of 50%–90% on ACX titles sold exclusively; now it is dropping the rate to a non-escalating 40%.

You can check out the link above, but that's about it for now. There are, however, several other news briefs with that link that are interesting. I like Publisher's Weekly, but it is paid content and I know most of my blog readers don't have memberships.

As I said, I have no idea how this will affect authors. But I do predict that Amazon will continue to lower royalty rates as time passes. I have no comment on that one way or the other. It is what it is.

Hugh C. Howey Author Report; Death to Gays; Pussy Riot Arrest

I like to post about everything on this blog from the most serious human rights issues to the most ridiculous pop culture happenings involving Justin Bieber and his little monkey. I think the information to which I'm linking about Hugh C. Howey's Author Report falls somewhere in between. Hugh C. Howey, an aggressive self-published author who some refer to as an advocate for all self-published authors, and some even claim as their hero, launched a web site called Author Report that discusses "data" about author earnings in these changing times in publishing. He makes many claims in the report, with an unnamed source, but also states up front that the information is not conclusive. Ever since the web site launched, it seems everyone has an opinion either for or against the information posted. There's already been so much written I'm mainly going to link at this point. I think it's good information for some of my readers, and it would be counter-productive to bore the rest of my readers to death with too much commentary about "data."

First, here's a link to Author Report. If you're interested in self-publishing I think you should read it in full. And as I stated above, Hugh C. Howey makes no claims that this is conclusive or perfect.

We expect many to disagree with our analysis. We expect flaws will be found in our reasoning and our sampling methodologies. Discovering those flaws will lead to better data, and we look forward to that process.

Romance author, Courtney Milan, offers an eloquent blog post on the topic, here. Milan is both trad published and has indie pubbed her books to great success. In fact, I think she was one of the first to enter the .99 e-book forum in romance. Milan is also an attorney.

I believe it’s incorrect to say that the authors are using a days’ worth of sales. As best I can tell from the methodology, they used a single snapshot of sales rank–so that would be ranks for one hour on Amazon, not one day.

Now, here's a more positive post about Author Report, but keep in mind there's really nothing substantial either. It's basically an opinion piece supporting Hugh C. Howey.

Publishers in the future will still have a lot to offer, but the conditions have already changed. The power has shifted to authors and readers. The “self-publishing stigma” is going away, thanks to people like Howey and thousands of others like him who are working hard at their craft to produce good work and form real connections with their audience.

Here's a blog post that really challenges Howey and if it's accurate tends to make him look a little foolish. She seems to know what she's talking about and gives solid examples.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about: self-publishing evangelist Hugh Howey and a silent partner went and scraped a bunch of Amazon data.  That’s fine.  That could be cool, even.  But then they made a bunch of pretty charts and used it to bang their pro-self-publishing / anti-trade publishing drum, and wrote a whole lot of paragraphs next to the pretty charts as if they were Conclusions, when, in fact, those paragraphs were not in any way implied by the data collected.

And this blogger makes an interesting point about self-publishing in general that I've always agreed with.

Perhaps the greatest lesson to take away from all this is one that does not rely on the specific nuances of the numbers Howey crunched. It’s a more general realization, summed up by blogger J.W. Manus (found via the Passive Voice): no matter what the percentages are, it’s abundantly clear there are plenty of people making a go of self-publishing now, in ways that simply were not possible before e-books and especially the Kindle.

If you just do a simple search you'll find even more opinions and comments all over the web on this topic. And I think that's because self-publishing in general is still something many authors find amazing and confusing. I've posted many times why I wanted to self-publish, and about how difficult a decision that was for me to make.

The only comment I would like to add here is that I am in touch with many authors behind the scenes and we take all these things very seriously even though we don't post about them all the time in public. Last summer a self-published author posted that she'd checked her data and she had over 100,000 book sales. I think this was meant as a promotional update on Facebook to impress readers/fans. Several of us found that status update interesting and we did a small study on our own and we all drew the same conclusions. It made no sense. And she was either lying or getting some very bad information. Either way, it wasn't accurate and her book sales were as far off as her promotional skills. In other words, some might have believed her but we're all not that innocent.

There are also other factors to consider. As I said, I know a lot of self-pubbed authors and authors who work with publishers. We talk behind the scenes casually and discuss things like Amazon ranks and sales. Many of us wonder how some of these authors can garner so many excellent average ratings and reviews when no one's even heard of them. We just can't seem to figure this out. I honestly don't know why this is, but I do know there are many excellent self-published books out there right now that aren't making money and are not getting the ratings or reviews. These are some of the best authors around, but they fall short with promotional skills. And marketing and promotion still rule.

I agree with some of the statements in Howey's report, others I question just like everyone else. And I question them from my own experience, not hearsay. But one thing is for certain about this report, it's the best damn self-promotional piece I have seen in years. Think about it. It's not conclusive, which Howey admits openly. He's safe. You can't fault the guy for that. If it's this inconclusive why are we even reading and discussing it? Because it's amusing and entertaining. But aside from that, this little gem has garnered him more attention than if he were to save a basket of kittens left in the middle of Times Square. And I think that's the most *important* lesson all authors can learn from this report.

Learn how to market and promote yourself. As long as you admit it, you don't even have to be accurate. You just have to come off looking good.

Death to Gays

In a far more serious post compared to the one above this about Hugh C. Howey, in Malawi Muslims are now calling for death for gays. The country is in the process of decriminalizing homosexuality and The Muslim Association is not only fighting this but wants the death penalty enforced.

Malawi’s Government said in November of 2012 that it would not enforce its law criminalizing gay sex with up to 14 years in jail so that debate could occur but it appears the country’s Muslim minority is now pushing back against efforts to strike the offense from the criminal code.

 ‘Malawi is regarded as a secular state but the country is blessed with God fearing citizens who can’t afford to deviate from God’s commandments for the sake of pleasing others who practice the act,’ MAM Secretary General Dr Salmin Omar Idrussi told MalawiMuslims.com.

You can read more here.

There are far worse things happening now than author sales and ranks. It's important to write about them because the mainstream isn't doing their job. Which is why I've always considered myself a writer, not an author.

Pussy Riot Arrest

There's a protest group called Pussy in Russia who were recently freed after doing two years time. They were recently detained in Sochi for questionable reasons.

‘We have been arrested ... and are accused of robbery,’ Tolokonnikova wrote on her Twitter account.

Both women said police used force and threw them in a police van.

You can read more here.

Full Frontal Nude Craig Parker; Anne R. Allen Collectives; Noah Lukeman The First Five Pages

Full Frontal Nude Craig Parker

Someone who knows I find the lack of male full frontal nudity in films interesting sent me a link to a full frontal nude of actor, Craig Parker. He's from New Zealand and he's been in films like The Fellowship of the Ring and Spartacus.

From the way it looks, Parker is taking a selfie in a shower, with full frontal that doesn't get much more detailed than this. And it's times like this I wonder why we rarely see much full frontal in films. The photo is actually something I would consider more artistic than erotic. I guess that's subjective, though.

You can check that out here.   I can't post it for copyright reasons. The photo above of Parker is from wiki commons, link on photo itself.

Anne R. Allen Collectives

There's a post over at Anne R. Allen's blog that discusses an interesting concept: author collectives. From what I gather what this means in a general sense is that several authors form their own indie publishing collaborative and they all work together instead of working alone. It's not actually like working with a small press, and it's not the same as going totally indie because the authors have the collaborative experience. The books and authors don't necessarily have to be in the same genre either.

The author collective offers a way to have the best of both worlds. If you're a "team player" who wants the control indie publishing offers, but you don't want to go it alone, the collective may be for you. But you do need to choose your team carefully, and dedication is a must, as you will see from Liza's story.

I have to admit I'm intrigued by this, and not just because I'm a fan of Allen. I've worked with many small presses over the years and I've always preferred working with them over indie publishing because I get that collective experience. All of my books published by presses have been a collaborative effort from a developmental POV in every single case. In other words, when I did the Virgin Billionaire series, the concept was born through the publisher, we brainstormed about it more than once, and we continued to collaborate right down to the cover. The only thing I actually did alone was write the books.

I love indie publishing, too. But with all my indie books everything from developmental editing to cover choices I did on my own without any collaboration at all. I hired people to execute my ideas for the cover. I had a copy editor. But the entire concept was mine and frankly I'm not always that comfortable going it alone that way. It's hard to be objective about anything creative. And I actually crave the creative input.

In any event, you can read more here about author collectives on Allen's blog. I think I've actually been doing some of these things without even knowing it with other authors all along. Behind the scenes we talk about covers, look for input, and just this week I helped another author decide something more developmental.

Noah Lukeman The First Five Pages

I think I've posted about this before, but I wanted to mention it again because I see so many new writers all the time searching for how to do the right thing. And there's so much information on the Internet it's often hard to choose what's right and what's wrong. Those who read this blog often know I'm not anti anything and I hate to give advice. I support trad publishing as much as I support indie publishing and everything that comes in between those two extremes. I also think it's important to work with a great literary agent if you're lucky enough to land one because it will usually help your career move forward. I never actually signed a contract with one agent in particular. But I have worked with an agent in the past, we have always had an off-the-record agreement, and I wouldn't do anything significant with my career unless I contacted her first and got her on board. Although most of my e-books have been sold by me without an agent, the times I've garnered work through this agent have been very productive (a publishing deal with Alyson Books for An Officer and His Gentleman). And one of my dearest friends in the world whom I've known for almost twenty years has been a NY literary agent for almost forty years. Our friendship happened through coincidence and the fact that he has a weekend home in New Hope. We've never actually worked together and we never will because you don't mix friendship with business, but I sometimes ask him advice off the record, too. So I don't think it's even possible to explain how much respect I have for good literary agents.

There's also another agent who changed my entire concept/outlook on publishing. I've never met him or even contacted him, but I read his book, The First Five Pages, and that book changed the way I thought about publishing and querying agents. His name is Noah Lukeman and he blogs here (regularly for the most part). The blog is great, but it was the book, The First Five Pages, that helped me most. Though it was written about a decade ago and many things in publishing have changed since then, it was his advice on how editors and agents look for material that helped me the most. It's hard for me to explain in one short post, but the book taught me what not to do when querying or pitching by showing me what most editors and agents look for at a glance. The key phrase here is "at a glance." They get so many queries they learn how to look at them fast and it's the writers that do things right that get attention. It's the little things like whether or not the narrative is balanced with the dialogue. If there's nothing but dialogue (or nothing but narrative) at a glance it could hurt an author's chances. I know all this sounds very technical, and it has little to do with actual storyline. I also know every writer has a different voice and style. But when you're querying an agent or editor the goal is to hook them fast, at a glance, and draw them into the book with what often turns out to be just the first five pages. Think audition: if the first few lines of the song you're singing on stage suck, they'll call you, don't call them.

After I read Lukeman's book several times I had that proverbial "Ah-Ha" moment and it all seemed to click for me. I'd already been published in many books with LGBT publishers by then and I'd been working as an editor for small publications as well. But for some reason I just didn't understand I wasn't getting replies from agents. Once I read Lukeman's book and I reworked the first five pages of the books I was querying I started to see immediate results. It's not an art, but it is a science and there is something to how a novel is crafted in a traditional sense. Editors and agents know what they are looking for, in this technical sense. So if you're having problems querying and you're not getting replies at all, you're doing something wrong and The First Five Pages might help. As I said, the book is a little dated in some respects, but everything writing related in the book can be applied to e-querying agents and editors today. As an editor of several anthologies I can state that I've turned down more than a few short stories because I didn't like the way they looked at a glance. I had so many submissions for The Women Who Love to Love Gay Romance I had to look at the stories this way otherwise it would have taken over a year to get that book out. I didn't have the time to go through each story that was submitted to me in detail at the first sitting. And the stories that made all the mistakes from a technical POV were the ones I rejected first. Those that looked the best at a glance were accepted. And I wasn't disappointed when I read them in detail. The authors knew what they were doing. I also knew I wouldn't have any creative issues with the authors because they knew what they were doing.

The other reason I'm bringing up The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman is because I saw another literary agent slam the book this week, and she did it in a way that suggested she didn't actually read the book. Unfortunately, this particular literary agent blogs, too, and I've seen some questionable advice on her blog. I don't want to get into that in detail because it's not exactly bad advice. It's just questionable and it rarely ever changes. But more important, Noah Lukeman has a few big books to his credit. The agent who slammed Lukeman doesn't. I'd rather take financial advice from Donald Trump than Joe at the barber shop. I feel the same way about the advice I get in publishing, too. Which is also the number one reason why I don't give advice here. I just offer suggestions from my experiences I think might help. You might read The First Five Pages and nothing will happen for you. But it might also change the way you think about querying and making pitches. Most of the Amazon reviews seem to agree with me.

To show you I'm not full of crap, there are 220 reviews for The First Five Pages.  131 are five star reviews. 12 are one star reviews. (The link to Amazon is above)

Here's one quote from Amazon. There are 64 more reviews similar to this. And take into consideration that most people who've read the book didn't even leave a review. I didn't leave one.

“I highly recommend this book for any writer who aspires to be published. ”

Gay Jello Wrestling; Steven Zacharius Self-Publishing; Free Use Photos

Gay Jello Wrestling

In this interesting link to HIVplus Magazine there's a video worth watching that involves jello and wrestling. The video (and message behind the video) is socially responsible in that it's encouraging people to get tested for HIV.

RFSL Göteborg, the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights in Gothenburg, really knows how to get some attention. Their newest campaign, which encourages HIV testing among men who have sex with men features eight nude men, smeared in different colored (and flavored?) gelled product (Is it jelly or Jell-O? Who knows) wrestling each other. We think it's about being strong, staying healthy, knnowing your status, and well, turning us on, but who knows.

You can read more here, and view the video yourselves. NSFW warning.


Steven Zacharius Self-Publishing

I thought this was a good article on self-publishing in a general sense. Steven Zacharius is CEO at Kensington Publishing and he posted some thoughts of his about self-publishing. He nailed most of the extremes spot on, from the huge success stories in self-publishing to the author who only sells ten copies if he/she is lucky. He mentions .99 e-books, and even how the cost of self-publishing can go as high as $1,000.00. I agree with all of his points completely...except he missed one thing I rarely ever see mentioned in any of these articles about self-publishing.

Some of us went into self-publishing because we didn't have any other choice. We would prefer to work with publishers, but it doesn't always work out that way. There are authors like me who have been career freelance writers for over twenty years and self-publishing has not only opened up a new world for us, but for our readers as well. Kensington Publishing has published many LGBT books and they've always been gay friendly. I used to query them all the time while I was getting published in as many anthologies I could get into with LGBT presses like Alyson Books and Cleis Press. But back then it all came down to one thing in publishing: the luck of the draw and who you knew. I came very close to getting several books pubbed with Kensington over a decade ago, however, there were only so many print titles an LGBT publisher could publish back then and I wasn't one of the lucky ones. I didn't have the right connections. And, I didn't have an agent. Keep in mind this was still pre-ebooks, which Zacharius doesn't mention either in his article.

Then e-publishers like Ellora's Cave and Ravenous Romance started popping up with digital first or digital only releases and they started giving Kensington and all trad publishers more competition. It wasn't self-published authors creating the competition. It was digital publishing and digital books drawing more and more readers each year and trad publishers not paying attention to this and thinking digital books would only be a trend that would soon die. And when genre specific authors like me found digital publishing, we jumped at the chance to work. And that's what it call came down to for me. To work. That's really all writers want to do.

Self-publishing is something most of us would never even have imagined ten years ago. I know I wouldn't have thought it possible. But what Zacharius fails to mention is that there are many self-pubbed authors who aren't part of the extremes. We don't claim the fame and fortune of  HRH Joe Konrath, and in the same respect we've been able to build a readership through self-publishing for various reasons that are almost always pragmatic. The M/M romance community is a good example of this. Publishers like Kensington ignored M/M romance completely. And self-publishing is nothing more than an extension of e-publishing. I would never have released any of the loveyoudivine.com e-books alone if the publisher hadn't gone out of business. But with self-publishing changing in so many ways, I was able to retain my copyrights, re-publish each book, and keep them from being orphaned forever. And I did this at a minimal cost that didn't come even near $1,000.00. I have no reason to lie about this. And it's not hearsay.

Self-publishing has brought about huge benefits to serious readers now more than any other time in history. Just this month alone I was able to self-publish a Christmas novella for FREE as a holiday bonus to my readers. And I wouldn't have been able to do that ten years ago either.

What I'd like to read once in a while is how publishers like Kensington are moving forward and keeping up with what's happening in publishing instead of commentary about self-publishing that leaves a lot of information to the imagination. But I also like what Zacharius said here:

Now don't get me wrong. If I thought I had a story in me that I felt strongly about, I wouldn't hesitate to self-publish it either. In fact, Kensington and all major publishers looks to e-book originals to find new talent. We have a handful of 2014 releases written by authors whose work impressed us enough to offer them contracts for new books. But these are the exception and not the rule.

As I said, this is a great article to learn more about self-publishing ( I worry about some who are spending too much on e-publishing services and marketing/public relations liars) if you don't know much at all, and it's also a great way to see how the CEO of a publishing house like Kensingtion is thinking and moving forward. The article is by no means negative. I think we're still at a stage where no one can predict anything about the future of publishing and there are still a few more surprises in the future. You can read more here.

Free Use Photos

You know how I'm always talking about how I'm terrified to post any photos here on the blog unless I know for certain they are free to use? Well this next article is interesting because the British Library recently uploaded a million images that are in the public domain and are free to share.

The British Library has uploaded one million public domain scans from 17th-19th century books to Flickr! They're embarking on an ambitious programme to crowdsource novel uses and navigation tools for the huge corpus. Already, the manifest of image descriptions is available through Github. This is a remarkable, public spirited, archival project, and the British Library is to be loudly applauded for it!

I couldn't agree more, especially in these greedy, litigious times where every small time hack of a photographer with a cell phone thinks he/she has a photo worth something.

You can read more here. The photo above is from the uploaded images and it states this: No known copyright restrictions.http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11307158676/sizes/m/in/photostream/

James Franco on Broadway; Janet Reid on Self-publishing; Almost Gay Bishop in UK

James Franco on Broadway

In addition to a long list of film credits, an impressive academic career, and a list of published writing credits, James Franco is now heading to Broadway.

Leighton Meester has signed on to join James Franco and Chris O’Dowd in the upcoming Broadway revival of “Of Mice and Men” this spring.
 

Meester, the “Gossip Girl” star whose film credits include “Country Strong,” will make her Main Stem debut in the production, as will Franco and O’Dowd. She’ll play the role of Curley’s wife, the woman who figures into the tragic ending of the well-known John Steinbeck tale.

You can read more here. You have to wonder how Franco does so much and switches gears so fast. I work on deadlines all the time. I only need about three or four hours of sleep each night and I work at least six days a week. Franco seems to have found that extra day in the week I've been looking for all my life.

Janet Reid on Self-publishing

Literary agent Janet Reid recently posted about self-publishing and made a few strong remarks. No comment from me. You'll have to figure this one out alone. (This is one of my shortest posts in years.)

You can read (not Reid) more here.

Whatever you do, if you're planning on querying Reid, spell her freaking name right and don't send anything to her from that new-fangled place called Amazon. You'll be sorry if you don't get these things right, you evil young e-book reading whipper-snapper.

Almost Gay Bishop in UK

Among so many negative news items these days about anything LGBTI, I found this one so uplifting I had to post about it and share.

The Church of England was one vote away from appointing its first gay bishop.

The openly gay Dean of St Albans Dr Jeffrey John was one vote away from becoming the newest Bishop of Exter, according to The Times, replacing the Right Rev Michael Langrish.

You can read more here. And my comment now is that I've been telling Tony we need to get to the UK. I'm serious about that. I have friends there, I love my UK readers, and I hear so many excellent things I'm curious now. I may have mentioned this in the past, but when I was in college my university, Fairleigh Dickinson in Madison, New Jersey, had a campus in Wroxton, England. As an English major I could have gone but opted not to go at the time. It's one of my few regrets in life. I think I would have loved every minute of it.

This is part of the article is interesting, too.

The Church's evolving attitudes also include the possible appointment of female bishops by the end of 2014, after an overwhelming majority of the Church's governing body voted in favor of dropping the 20-year ban.







 

Self-Published Authors Big Sales; Baker Scorns Gay Cakes

Self-Published Authors Big Sales

I've been saving this to post because I wanted to read it over first. It's interesting because it's the first time I've seen something like this, and I never actually thought I would (in my lifetime). Things are changing, and fast. If it's accurate, and I have no reason to believe it's not, one quarter of Amazon the top 100 kindle books are self-published.

Orna Ross, director of the Alliance of UK Independent Authors, said this:

"We are in the middle of a major change. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we reached a situation where the majority of the top books are author-published. I don't see what would stop that," Ross said.

That's a strong comment I don't think I would have made at this point. But she could be right. Who knows?

The article goes deeper into why this is, and explains a few things with examples. I would recommend reading it if you are interested in self-publishing, if you have already self-published, or if you are still a snob about self-publishing and think that your small start up e-press is going to make you look better. I'm not being snarky about that. I've seen small writers with small presses turn their noses up at self-published writers more than once and I don't think they are getting the full impact of why we're starting to self-publish. I'm going to write a longer post on this and give a few more reasons why I was forced to self-publish very soon. And I'm not saying that lightly. I would prefer to work with a publisher at all times. However, things came up that left me no alternative but to self-publish, and a good deal of that was because of my readers. Different authors work in different ways. I'm more of a reader oriented author, and my readers come first. The publisher doesn't. And I expect certain things from publishers, big or small, that I don't often see.

In any event, you can read more here.

Baker Scorns Gay Cakes

A Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay ceremony was ordered by a judge they have to serve the gay couples. Judge Robert N. Spencer ruled the baker will face fines if he doesn't follow the law.

 An attorney for Masterpiece Cakeshop did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Shop owner Jack Phillips had argued that making cakes for gay wedding ceremonies violates his Christian beliefs.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint against Phillips with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission last year on behalf of Charlie Craig and David Mullins. The couple was married in Massachusetts and wanted a wedding cake to celebrate in Colorado.

Tony recently had a cake made for our anniversary and to celebrate our upcoming marriage. The baker was so excited he made it his top priority. Why we live here instead of there. And if a bakery in New Hope were to pull something like this, they'd be out of business within six months.

You can read more here.

Brooke Warner & Self-Publishing; HarperCollins Takes Back Publishing; Rugby Jocks

Brooke Warner & Self-Publishing

This past week I had a nice e-mail exchange with a new writer whom I met through discussing something blog related. After we finished discussing the blog related issue he mentioned something about self-publishing a book and how he plans to go about doing it. The book sounds fascinating and it's LGBT related. But when I saw what he was looking into with regard to self-publishing I had to send him a few links to show that there are a few questionable things out there and writers...especially new writers...should really do a thorough fact check before handing over large sums of money to self-publish. But there are also some great ways to go about self-publishing with some services, and using a service that provides advice and the creative collaboration most writers need.

It's often hard for me to remain objective about self-publishing because when I did it with my first novel, Chase of a Lifetime, I came to self-publishing with years of experience. I already had over 100 books out with publishers and I had contacts that ranged from cover artists to good copy editors. My partner, Tony, handles all the tech details and distribution. So I knew exactly what I was getting into and I knew how to get a book out thanks to past experience. But when I write posts like this I've learned I have to step back and think like a new writer who is learning all these things for the first time. And when I read this article about Brooke Warner, a writing coach, I thought I'd share for any new writers who might be interested in self-publishing but also need a collaboration.

From Galleycat...

My number one tip for self-pubbed authors is to make sure they have a team. Self-published authors need an editor, a designer, and a marketing and/or publicity person. When it comes to self-publishing, authors shouldn’t go it alone, nor should they try to reinvent the wheel. There are so many good experts out there who will help ensure that you have a beautiful finished product. Don’t try to do it all yourself!

If you have never been published before and you are thinking of self-publishing, it's a good article and you can read more here. As I said, I tend to be a complete control freak with my own self-published books, but I'm not doing it completely alone. I do have a team that I outsource on my own. But I already had the contacts and I knew exactly where to go.

In the same respect, I'm not saying it's impossible to self-pub a quality book all by yourself. One of the self-published non-fic authors I admire most is Joe Mihalic. He's not just another pretty face, far from it. I've posted about him before, here, several times. Joe wrote No More Harvard Debt and he did it all by himself from what I gather. He maintained popular a running blog with the same title you can read here. He even gets into his self-publishing experiences. And he did it alone at a minimal cost. He also wrote and pubbed several damn great books. Other self-pubbed authors have done this, too.

So it's really up to the individual. In some cases, writers like Joe Mihalic can produce a quality book that helps people without the help of an e-publishing service. But not everyone works the same way and there are some people who do need some kind of collaboration. I think what Brooke Warner has to say is interesting and I don't mind linking to her, which I don't do often. Her web site is professional, I didn't see any red flags that would make me wonder, and she seems to be all about the writer. I can also tell you this from experience. Even though I outsource when I self-pub, I still feel the heat when it comes down to the final release. And I often wish I had the same collaboration (I miss it and crave it) with my self-pubbed books that I always have with books I have out with publishers. It gives you piece of mind.

Back to my original point, there are things out there with self-publishing that are questionable, and nice people are getting ripped off all the time. I wouldn't share anything I wouldn't seriously consider myself.

You can read more about Brooke Warner here at her web site.

 HarperCollins Takes Back Publishing

This next piece to which I'm linking talks about Charlie Redmayne, new boss at HarperCollins, who wants to aggressively take back publishing from the pioneers of digital publishing. I think this includes e-publishers and self-pubbed authors.

Now three months after returning to HarperCollins to become its chief executive, Redmayne will deliver a brisk message at an industry conference on Thursday, warning publishers against letting digital rivals steal their role – storytelling.

Publishers have allowed competitors to jump in, he says, whether they are startup companies producing apps or authors publishing their novels on Amazon. Now they "need to take that space back" by producing content for games players, tablet computers and other devices.

It's an interesting article, but it's slanted in some respects. It makes it all sound like these evil self-pubbed authors and start up e-presses we've been seeing in the past ten years have been trying to take over publishing. And that's not the case at all. What's been happening is that writers who would never have had the chance to get published ten or twenty years ago have found a readership and careers through digital publishing. And readers, most of all, have been able to find affordable books when big publishers were sticking it to them with digital book prices that ranged from 9.99 to as high as you want to go. I paid full price for a non-fic autobiography two years ago, $14.99, in digital format. It sucked, the author has a new book out with a large publisher, and I'm not spending that kind of money again.

But more than that, while those in trad publishing with big publishers were still taking summer Friday's off and trying to keep publishing known as the slowest industry in the world, the pioneers of digital publishing have been working seven days a week to produce quality e-books for readers at a fraction of the cost. I price my self-pubbed novels at .99 for readers, and I will continue to do that for as long as I can. My e-publisher prices my full length novels at $4.99 on the web site. I just finished reading and reviewing James Franco's new novel. I paid $5.99 for the digital version. It was published through Amazon. So if HarperCollins wants to "take back" publishing they'd better start looking at more than one issue, including book prices.

You can read more here. In any event, it does sound like Redmayne is going to make a few well needed changes, and it should be interesting to see the results a few years from now. I'm not anti-publisher, not by any means. I'm hoping big publishers do start making changes. But I don't think it should be about taking publishing back. I think it should be more about figuring out why the pioneers of digital publishing have left them shaking their heads in wonder.

Rugby Jocks

It seems as if everyone's making a calendar this year, and with nude young jocks in locker rooms.

Thought Dieux du Stade’s calendar was the be-all, end-all of hot rugby calendars? Then you haven’t seen Britain’s Sheffield Hallam University jocks. These more amateur, less-styled fellas hit the showers, the bar, the lounge, and the streets to bring you their goods. Appreciate them, won’t you?

You can read more here. It's worth the trip. There are photos.

Erotic Authors Strike Back; NYT Sex Issue Sans Romance Authors

Erotic Authors Strike Back

The title of the article to which I'm linking now is "Self-published Erotica Writers Strike Back," but once again, that's not completely true and the article is misleading on several levels. When large retail web sites where e-books are sold started targeting/censoring books for questionable content, they did begin with self-published books. But I know for a fact that e-publishers are now dealing with the fallout, too.

I hesitate to post anything more about that until I have more facts. However, I did receive an interesting e-mail from one of my publishers last week. And as usual, the books in question with the publishers are not books that would violate the concept of what's considered questionable content...I hate to even go there, but questionable content includes things like underage characters, barely legal, incest, etc... The books I'm talking about have been targeted based on one word. In my case it's the word virgin, and yet all the characters are legal age. These retail web sites are doing broad sweeps with search engines, and books with normally innocent words like virgin, boy, girl, or anything else that suggests something taboo are being censored and taken down.

This issue has now made the mainstream media, and even though the article isn't completely accurate, I thought it was interesting that the issue has gone this far.

Daudelin called for Amazon to establish clear guidelines. She also posted Kobo’s new rules, which includes the following guideline: “Users may not publish written, image, audio or video content that promotes pedophilia, incest, bestiality, or sexual violence or force.”

You can read more here.

Frankly, I have no comment on the books with questionable content, for lack of a better phrase. That's not my fight and I'm not personally willing to go up on a hill and die for books that do contain pedophilia or incest, or whatever. I don't read them, write them, or want anything to do with them. They disgust me. My issue is this: don't penalize other erotica authors who aren't writing books with incest or pedophilia like I've been penalized just for one word or a title that gets caught and flagged in a search engine by some clueless idiot who doesn't know any better.

NYT Sex Issue Sans Romance Authors

The New York Times Book Review did a piece called "Let's Read About Sex," and allegedly overlooked romance authors. As a result, author Sarah Maclean, who writes historical romance, replied with a letter to the editor:

Romance holds a huge share of the consumer market, with more than $1.4 billion in sales in 2012, so the omission is surprising. The lack of romance authors is especially glaring when one considers that each week, the mass-market, e-book and combined best-seller lists compiled by The New York Times include dozens of books from this far-reaching genre: historical, contemporary, paranormal, erotic and new adult.

You can read the letter in full here.

I'm not completely surprised they didn't include romance authors...or gay romance authors. The most elite in the literary world typically don't include romance authors in anything that even remotely resembles an academic piece. And this is in spite of the fact that if it weren't for romance authors and romance novels the so-called literistic works the elitists do discuss wouldn't have a fat chance in hell getting published because in many cases it's romance that's keeping many of them afloat these days. Think Fifty Shades of Grey and all the money it made for the publisher.

I'd like to see them try to survive waiting for Jonathan Franzen to write his next bestselling novel, because if all of publishing depended on the speed of the literistic like bird-watching Franzen who puts out a novel every decade or so we'd all be in trouble.

Censorship in India and Smashwords; Philly News Anchor Slammed for Tweet

Censorship in India and Smashwords

Woody Allen is now refusing to release his latest film in India because censors want him to allow an anti-smoking text to run across the screen about the dangers of smoking during a scene in the film where characters are smoking.

Allen, who has "creative control" over the film's distribution in India, wasn't comfortable with modifying the film. The film's India distributor, PVR Pictures, noted that, "He feels like when the scroll comes, attention goes to it rather than the scene." This is probably true -- why would you watch a quiet scene of two people talking when you can read giant block letters about the dangers of smoking?

This form of censorship has happened before in India with other film makers. You can read more here.

We get it, censors. Smoking is bad for you. Let us watch the movie in peace.

As for Smashwords, we've been releasing back listed books of mine there all month and it's always an absolute nightmare. First, Smashwords is the most difficult place for indie authors to deal with on any level. Second, now I'm getting e-mail notifications from Smashwords about putting up adults only disclaimers on certain books (there's no rhythm or reason as to why it's only certain books), stating that all characters are over eighteen. I have more books on Smashwords than I can count with publishers and this has never happened before. I have never written a book with a character that is under the age of eighteen years old, and I've even gone through this hot mess of hell a few years ago with a book that was once published with Loveyoudivine.com. From that post.

But, I assure you, there are no underage characters in this short book. I don't judge those authors who decide to do things like this, but I've never done it and never will do it. In fact, the main character, Jared, the guy referred to as a the Skater Boy, is only a quasi skater boy. He's in his twenties and is clearly a consenting adult. This is one of the tamer stories I've written.

As a matter of fact, I even discussed an incident with one of my contributing authors in The Women Who Love to Love Gay Romance on social media because one of her characters was under the age of eighteen and I didn't feel comfortable with that. And in her story the character in question didn't even have any sex scenes. I admittedly and reluctantly censored her to avoid future issues with the book from places like Smashwords or Allromanceebooks.com. The author was nice enough to change the character's age from seventeen to eighteen, even though I'm sure she didn't want to do it. If she had refused I'm not sure what I would have done. I'd like to think I would have published the story anyway, because there was no reason why it couldn't have been published in the first place.

In any event, censorship is alive and well in the world, and I have a feeling it's only going to get worse. Authors who write erotic romance should seriously be considering selling their indie books on their own web sites in the future to avoid this.

Philly News Anchor Slammed for Tweet

This falls under the category of watch everything you say or do on social media these days. Even if you have the best of intentions, it can get twisted, as Joyce Evans recently learned.

The Philadelphia Inquirer (http://bit.ly/1af41Ut ) reports WTXF-TV news anchor Joyce Evans tweeted "Thought 'Breaking Bad' was hot last Sunday? See who's breaking bad in SW Phllly, leavin' 6 people SHOT -- Tonite at Ten!"

Viewers immediately criticized Evans, with one person writing it sounded "like it was written by a sociopath."

You can read more here.

What the rest of the article fails to mention is the serious crime problem within the city of Philadelphia. I watch Philadelphia local news and I witness the reporting first hand. I often wonder how the news anchors can continue to report this heart-breaking news on a daily basis. The actual real life events in Philadelphia, and the daily crimes that include anything from beating senior citizens for money to innocent people getting shot in their bedrooms by drive-by shootings makes Breaking Bad actually look tame in comparison. And yet those issues go unaddressed and they only continue to escalate.

Women Who Love to Love Gay Romance; Indie Publishing

Women Who Love to Love Gay Romance; Indie Publishing

Instead of adding a link to the other post about the release of this book, I wanted to mention something for those who think indie publishing is simple in a separate post. This book was uploaded to Amazon around six o'clock this morning and I just received an e-mail verification that it went live a few minutes ago. Thankfully, Smashwords and allromanceebooks.com were faster to deal with. This is also why it's so hard to pinpoint an actual release time unless you have a web site of your own and sell the books from there.

In any event, this is the Amazon link.

The Property Brothers; Lesbian Publishing; Cowboy Sex Slaves

The Property Brothers

There's a TV show I watch often called, The Property Brothers, for various reasons, one of which is that Tony and I have always been interested in real estate and we've always been invested in real estate. Although Tony doesn't practice real estate professionally, he has his license in escrow and he got the license to know more about the business. When I'm not browsing through vicious vituperative publishing blogs for sport and sheer ridiculous entertainment, I'm perusing real estate web sites to see what's happening in the market.

For those who don't know, The Property Brothers is a TV show where identical twin brothers, Drew and Johnathan Scott, help people with the home buying experience. Drew is the realtor who helps the buyer find and purchase the home, and Johnathan is the licensed contractor who helps the new home owner renovate the home. I'm very critical about a lot of these shows on HGTV, and I've posted about that before. But I honestly have to admit that Johnathan Scott's designs and renovations are always something I could personally live with. I don't think I've ever seen him do anything stupid.

But, there's a lot we don't know about the Scott brothers, and this article I found talks about ten secrets you don't see posted everywhere.

Both Jonathan and Drew starred on the Canadian series Breaker High. Drew had a role on Smallville and Jonathan was on the X-Files! Not wanting to become “starving actors” they went into real estate. “During University we did our very first property, ended up flipping it--before flipping was a trend or cool. We did ended up making about a $50,000 dollar profit. We thought this was something, while still in college. We went back to school for construction and design and our company exploded and we were approached to do Property Brothers . . .”

As a side note, there's also a third Scott brother, J.D. Scott. He's an author and a performer, and I think he needs a show of his own. From the few things I have seen, he sounds outspoken, too.

Since very early on, JD has been the writer of their family. He has penned many scripts, stories and articles over the years. He was also the founding member of Canadian sketch comedy ensemble “YFG –Another Comedy Troupe” and a member of the internationally known “Loose Moose Improv”. JD has always embraced all forms of entertainment from acting to music. He has performed in Las Vegas at Caesar’s as a celebrity impersonator for superstars Adam Lambert and David Bowie. In the mid 90’s, the brothers began investing in real estate as a means to fund their production projects. Their first company, Dividian Production Group has since evolved into Scott Brothers Entertainment. JD has also directed a couple of festival films in recent years and heads up the creative team for their company.

Lesbian Publishing

(Update: Someone sent me this link about women in publishing in the UK and I thought it was important enough to add to this post.)

I always maintain that the world is run by straight men...even the publishing industry. In many ways gay men face the same kind of discrimination as women from straight men, often on a daily basis. I get it constantly. It's time for a change. Lesbian authors are now getting into self-publishing and some have been very successful. So when good friend in NY, Joanne, sent me an article about author Kiki Archer I had to post something about her.

 

 Kiki Archer is a UK-based, best-selling, award-winning author. Her novels "But She Is My Student," its sequel "Instigations," and her latest offering "Binding Devotion," all quickly became bestsellers in their genre, and Kiki is now working on her fourth lesbian fiction novel, due out late 2013.

A former teacher, Kiki left the field of education to be a stay at home mum and it was during that time that she turned her hand to novel writing. She loves the outdoors, anything sporty, and can always be found biking, quading or rambling with her two children.

Kiki is an active advocate for equal rights for the LGBT community and believes strongly in the importance of coming out. She is very vocal in the defence of equal marriage and is confident that 'gay rights' will soon become a non issue.

 

I think lesbian fiction, like gay fiction, has been getting more attention in the past few years. Small e-presses like Ravenous Romance have published lesbian fiction, and I've seen others as well. But for a long time most lesbian fiction was much like gay fiction in the sense that authors and readers didn't have many choices. The small LGBT presses could only take on so many projects a year, and if a lesbian author was lucky enough to get into an anthology all she got was a flat fee and a free copy of the book. But now it seems as if lesbian authors are finding their voices in self-publishing as well. And the women readers I know personally are very excited about this. It also makes me wonder about the future of small presses, but that's another post.  

 

I can't find a link to the article my friend sent me about Kiki Archer, but here's a link to Archer's web site where you can read more about her and her books. She's been number one on the bestseller Amazon UK list for lesbian fiction. My book, Chase of  Lifetime, hit number one on the UK Amazon bestseller list for a few weeks when it was first released and that was a nice feeling because I didn't expect it from such a humble little venture. But with so many things changing in publishing these days, I'm starting to think that one of the best ways to go is self-publishing. At the very least, until you are lucky enough to get noticed by a huge publisher, you will always remain in complete control of your work. In other words, if your small publisher, like Loveyoudivine.com, decides to go out of business in a month's time, you won't be scrambling around like I am right now trying to get all your titles with them re-released as indie books. More to come on that topic very soon, too.

 

But for now I think it's important to recognize the excellent lesbian authors out there who are changing the world. If you have never read lesbian fiction, I urge you to begin with Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown. This is not only a classic lesbian novel, but it's as relevant today as it was forty years ago.

 

Cowboy Sex Slaves

 

I saw a link the other night on social media from LGBT book reviewer Gerry Burnie about cowboys as sex slaves and I was amazed when I read it. I've written my share of cowboy stories. I'm familiar with the rodeo circuit because I grew up not far from here. And I even have a good friend who owns a dude ranch in Montana. But I never knew the extent of this.

 

Cowboys were heavily exploited and usually brutally treated until such time as they became able to beg, borrow, buy or steal a gun. They were used not only as cheap and disposable labor, but also for sexual release by older and stronger men. Such adult men used the pretext of a scarcity of women to establish enforced homosexual relationships in remote camps and ranches comparable to the relationships for which today's prisons are notorious.

 

It's a very eye-opening, compelling article. You can read more here. And now that I know about it, I'm going to try to research it more and tackle the topic in the future in my own gay romance.

 

Photo attribution