Just checking.
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Yep. Still there! Wild Heart -- Lori Brighton
Open Heart Publishing
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
To me "Open Heart" suggests either painful surgery or Jane Seymour selling her soul to Kay Jewelers. But apparently it is also an e-publisher. Sort of.
Read more...Trapezium Closing
Trapezium Ebooks (a distributor) is closing its doors due to software issues and a general failure to thrive.
Read more...Not *That* Adult
Monday, February 27, 2012
Whoever decided to widely announced JK Rowling's first "adult novel" clearly had a mind that never gets within spitting distance of the gutter. But there have been plenty of raised eyebrows ever since. As witness an outbreak of sniggering in the comments section. It kind of makes me kind of hope she is penning an erotic romance (although I very much doubt it).
Read more...Kite Hill
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Does anyone have the 411 on who is behind Kite Hill Publishing. Is it the rather inexperienced (as far as I can tell) debut authors? It seems to be a small e/POD gay fiction press depending on Smashwords and Lightning Press. Rather underwhelming. So, the matter of who is behind it is kind of important. And the pop ups on the website, well....
Read more...Paypal Hits Smashwords Next
Friday, February 24, 2012
"Today we are modifying our Terms of Service to clarify our policies regarding erotic fiction that contains bestiality, rape and incest. If you write in any of these categories, please carefully read the instructions below and remove such content from Smashwords. If you don’t write in these categories, you can disregard this message."
Read more...About "Barely Legal"
Thursday, February 23, 2012
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| Nice... swimsuit |
Hugo Schwyzer at Jezebel looked at the issue in visual porn using 18-29 years old or older actresses who look that age or younger (so popular Hustler registered "Barely legal" as a trademark). His theory is that the the drive for male viewers is evolutionary (maximum fertility), nostalgia and because a young girl basically won't know if you are bad at sex, having (theoretically) little basis for comparison. Or to put it more bluntly, post-puberty and pre-aging is just something they like to look at.
Interestingly, none of this buzz seem to relate to the female viewer. The assumption being that these materials are making sales charts based purely on a male sales demographic. But I wonder if this is true? For a long time it was assumed that women didn't like sex, let alone erotica, and certain not stuff about gay men. I am not entirely sure that assumption works for barely legal either. Not only in terms of who might be buying barely legal girl material, but the potential market amongst women for twink and extreme cougar material. It's not my thing, but I suspect a few gals out there do like it--and most of them are keeping quiet right now.... Read more...
RIP Barney Rosset
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Barney Rosset's, the man behind Grove Press which he acquired in 1951, was a crusader for erotic and other kinds of challenging fiction. Frequently embroiled in lawsuits, Rosset saw erotica as just one of many frontiers where the first amendment was under attack. If he liked something, he published it, and would not let oppressive obscenity laws stop him. He was the first to publish uncensored editions of Lady Chatterley's Lover and Tropic of Cancer in the United States. Grove also published The Story of O, Autobiography of Malcolm X and the first US edition of Waiting for Godot. Rosset recently passed away at the age of 89.
See also:
Champion of Erotica and the Beats
Bookstrand, Self-Publishers, and the Way the Wind is Blowing
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
As witness their latest email which reads in part: "We have made a decision to no longer maintain most indie author accounts at BookStrand.com. Therefore, we are deactivating all titles associated with your account and no new uploads will be accepted."
While politely worded it feels, to me, bit like: we want to make easy money--and having to actually look at and vet content is too much trouble. Or at least that is how I would translate: "BookStrand will focus on its core business by servicing accounts of publishers with clear submission and publishing guidelines that best serve our targeted audience."
See also their email to Jane/DearAuthor
Read more...
AllRomanceEbooks
Monday, February 20, 2012
It seems that ARe has heard some of the reactions to the front-paging of erotica that is not romance. Their response is to put it in a separate category. Um, okay. It's still not romance though. But I guess AERe isn't such a nice acronym. It also brings to mind the phrase "aere perennius" which, in the context of the medical treatment of erotic misadventure, is not generally good news.
"In order to improve discoverability for all, we’ve decided to create separate Erotic Romance and Erotica categories. The “old” Erotica category will soon be retired. All titles in that category will need to be re-shelved prior to its retirement to avoid inactivation."
Sapphire Star Publishing
Sapphire Star seems to be a new all genre press. Their website sees to address authors more than reads. The currently have a contest for romance submissions.
So now we have Sapphire Star, Sapphire Books, Sapphire Night, Sapphire Press and the late lamented Sapphire Blue.... did I miss any?
Links: the Sex and X Edition
Sunday, February 19, 2012
- Controversial Book 'The Way' Imagines Jesus as a Woman [news, book]--Female Jesus
- Ed Young's Controversial 'Sexperiment' Book Debuts on NY Times Best Sellers List [news, book]--Christian sex
- New Xulon Book Uncovers a Controversial Topic [press release]--Xulon tries to scare up controversy around a self-published Jesus/Judas book. Unsuccessfully, probably due to an ambiguous blurb and terrible cover. Not even sure what the controversial idea is meant to be....?
Paypal Prudery Strikes Bookstrand
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Many self-published authors have received a notice from Bookstrand saying:
"We were informed by PayPal, without notice, and by our credit card processing company, that we are required to remove all titles at BookStrand.com with content containing incest, pseudo incest, rape, and bestiality, effective immediately."
It will be interesting to see exactly how they interpret those categories. History suggests that the answer might be: 'broadly'.
More details here.
See also:
- PayPal, BookStrand and Censorship
- Distribution
- Censorship And PayPal: UnConstitutional and WRONG
- Who The Hell Did Not Know “If You Sell Or Advertise Porn Do Not Use Paypal”?
- The prawns are infecting us – ick!
A compendium of unimportant things I would just like to say:
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
- "Ebook" is a perfectly good word and I am going to keep using it.
- If I follow you on twitter, then a few days or weeks later I unfollow you, this means I did not find your tweets interesting and/or relevant to my interests. It does not mean I was "tricking" you into following me.
- Novels called "the [Whatever]'s Son/Daughter", there's been enough of them.
Links
- Romance Novels, The Last Great Bastion Of Underground Writing [blog, essay]: "Men must be transformed by love and enter into the woman's realm in order to emerge as fully-realized human beings: this is the core message of romance fiction"
- FILM REVIEW 'The Vow' bad enough to make you swear off romance [review. Note, site has annoying popups]: "Everything is dragged out and rendered ridiculous, as evidenced by the unintentional laughter erupting in the audience at the screening I attended."
- Gender and Book Covers: the romance novel edition [blog, essay/humor]: "Why do so many clinches involve the man pulling the woman towards him, seemingly against her will?"
There's crazy....
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
...and then there's batshit, wombat-up-my-ass, whirligig petticoats insane.
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| This is a wombat |
As witness: Feminists should stop picking on Chris Brown because "on a visceral level, women enjoy violence perpetrated against them." As witness "Rape narratives appear in almost every romance novel."
I didn't read the comments because I don't want to have some kind of cerebral-aneurism-slash-spontaneous-combustion experience.
See also:
Read more...
AutumnHouse
Monday, February 13, 2012
It seems that Summerhouse Publishing is winding down after just over a year in operation; they are returning book rights at end of contract and not accepting new submissions.
Read more...Promoting violence against men is apparently okay
Sunday, February 12, 2012
"WE WILL NOT ACCEPT SUBMISSIONS THAT INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:
Erotica, discrimination, bigotry/hatred, gay themes, satanic horror, themes that promote violence against women/children… they will be deleted without notice or consideration."
Yeah, so... this press is totally anti-discrimination and bigotry. Clearly.
Stephani received this "clarification":
"I do not support gay culture, but that does not make me a "bigot". I have many friends (and some family) who are "gay". But just because we don't accept gay themes is no different than not accepting chick lit or horror... or any other particular topic or theme.
If you are looking for gay themes there are many publishers out there who publish that subject specifically. Yet they may not publish say, "christian themes", is that discrimination against Christians? No, they just don't publish it.
Don't take it so personally. We simply don't print what doesn't interest us or our reader market. And gay themes do not interest us."
For those playing at home, here is the check list:
1) Gay is a culture
2) Some of my best friends are gay
3) Gay is a genre
4) Random mention of Christianity
5) Our decision to discriminate against gay persons and put them on a list with Satan and child abuse should not be taken personally by those persons or their friends/family.
FWIW I don't give a flying fig what a press does or does not publish or even why. But this choice of phrasing (long list of "unacceptables") is not stating an interest but passing a judgement.(See tag: sin lists)
For more info see my venerable post: How to Say 'No, Thankyou' to M/M and F/F [2007], specifically: "Publishers not comfortable with gay fiction should, of course, not solicit it. But as with any matter of sexuality (as with race, religion or politics), tact is called for." Read more...
RIP Zalman King
Friday, February 10, 2012
See Also:
Zalman King, Creator of Soft-Core Films, Dies at 70 Read more...
Links and Updates
Thursday, February 09, 2012
- It's okay to read romance because people with PhDs write them [trashy journalism]
- This just in: dating women still like manners and a free meal ["survey"]
- This just in: married women still fond of sex [another "survey"]
- I find it a little odd that Sapphire Blue Publishing is two months dead and still tweeting.
RWA, still Heteronormative.
Friday, February 03, 2012
I hereby award RWA the inaugural Komen Award for trying to pretend we are not doing something they are totally doing. That is, discriminating against homosexual romance. (Second verse, same as the first).
See:
Guest Post: Erotic Steampunk Romance: Fad Or Forever? -- Heather Massey
Short answer: This subgenre definitely has staying power if it’s adequately nurtured.
Like many genres, erotic steampunk romance will probably cycle up and down in the coming years. Right now, it’s relatively young. In that sense, it may be too soon to predict where it’s going.
However, we can identify factors that could influence its fate either way.
As glorious as steampunk gadgets are, there’s a danger of reducing them to the sex toy of the week. Toys are fun and a mainstay of erotic steampunk romance, but without some meaty subtext to accompany the titillation, erotic steampunk romance may very well wind up as grist for the fad mill. Gadgets can be more than just toys—they can also be tools of social commentary.
In fact, one way to give erotic steampunk romance more staying power is social commentary in general. Fear not—social commentary won’t strip away all the fun. If it’s integrated seamlessly, readers can digest it while relaxing into the story at the same time. Authors of erotic steampunk romance can convey lots of interesting commentary about sexual relations, romance, and technology as viewed through the lens of a steampunk setting.
Speaking of settings, erotic steampunk romance can go beyond Victorian England. There’s a whole planet to explore (Africa! China! The American Old West! Under the sea!) and even outer space. Neither are authors limited to steam-powered technology. There are related kinds of punk with which to experiment, e.g., clockpunk and dieselpunk.
Erotic steampunk romance can also include action-adventure elements, and/or be mixed with mystery, fantasy, and horror. They can be light-hearted or dark in tone. Authors limit themselves to a narrow definition of steampunk at their own risk.
In order to endure, erotic steampunk romance would also benefit from featuring ethnic, sexual, and gender diversity. Since steampunk frequently features fantastical elements, why on earth would we want to close ourselves off (as readers and authors) to stories populated by white, heterosexual couples? What about exploring the “Other” with characters such as steampunk cyborgs, characters with prosthetics, and automatons? Couldn’t we have at least one transgender inventor or airship captain? Taking advantage of all the freedoms a niche subgenre has to offer can go a long way toward keeping stories fresh and inventive.
Small press/digital publishers have been putting out calls for erotic steampunk romance for some time now. How long will that last? Difficult to say. Reader interest in such stories will depend on not only on quality, but also on how accessible they are. The steampunk resurgence caught many by surprise, and there’s a bit of a learning curve in the mix.
But the great thing about many editors who work for small press/digital publishers is that they are lifelong fans of science fiction and fantasy. They won’t stop loving steampunk just because a bandwagon has or hasn’t rumbled by. They’ll always be on the look out for a good erotic steampunk romance. So in that sense, yes, these types of stories will have staying power.
Erotic steampunk romance sure is shiny. We risk tarnishing it by treating it as just another bauble. But, with a little spit and polish, we can keep its luster going indefinitely.
Bio:
- Heather Massey is a lifelong fan of science fiction romance. She searches for sci-fi romance adventures aboard her blog, The Galaxy Express.
- She’s also an author: Her forthcoming sci-fi romance is The Watchmaker’s Lady (Clockpunk Trilogy #1), coming April 2012 from Red Sage Publishing. To learn more about her published work, visit www.heathermassey.com.
Links
Thursday, February 02, 2012
- Brenda Hiatt (Show Me the Money) now collecting data for self-published books. I am happy to do the same, just submit the data and list "Publisher" as "Self".
- Dorchester's downward spiral continues.
- What's worse than your e-publisher not paying you all your royalties? Getting a 1099 for the amount your were meant to be paid, not what you actually received.
Trestle Mess(le)
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
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| What, you mean Ghostrider isn't public domain? |
Now the chickens are in the process of coming home to roost, thanks in part to the first systematic listing of sources for the covers.
Trestle's response is both ludicrous and badly spelled. "Please not that these claims do not come from any artist or copyright holder, but rather a private individual"--yeah, a private individual who directly contacted the artists involved and confirmed that their work was being used without their permission. [Original Trestle blog posted deleted, screen cap here].
Meanwhile authors that dare to even ask where their cover art came from are being shown the door.
IMHO, the sooner this press ceases to be, the better. Whether by ignorance or malice, this is not the conduct of a viable e-publisher.
On a positive note it is good to see that writers are taking copyright of visual art very seriously, even if Trestle Press isn't.
See Also:
- Trestle Press/ Brit Grit/ Drunk On the Moon - UPDATE!
- Crime Tyne Shots have been shot.
- Announcement Regarding TP
- Trestle Press: Why I'm Pulling my Book
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