Quote:
Originally Posted by ZodWallop
My experience comes from a group of gay authors whose work was rejected by Dreamspinner and a few of the other big (relatively speaking) gay romance publishers because their work didn't fit the demands of the formula needed to satisfy their straight female audience.
Of course, they can go indie. But there is something off to me about a company that specializes in publishing gay fiction rejecting books by gay authors, not because of their quality, but because it doesn't satisfy the wants of their non-gay audience.
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I suspect any publisher that wants to stay in business has to consider their target audience. It might be great if every author could make a living off their work but sadly, we have to live in the real world where filthy lucre is an important consideration. Even if the book is the greatest book ever written, if the publisher feels the manuscript would be best used as kindling for the fireplace (
*), there not much more to be said.
Looking the sheer number of indie romance and SF/F books being published, I can't see why those gay authors would not want to try the indie route. I will admit to being prejudiced there since I support my computer hobby by doing cleanup on indie books. I'm not certain as what percentage of indie authors actually make a living from their books but there are quite a few who are doing well enough that they have made writing their full time occupation.
* Spring found us with decayed teeth and several pounds of foolscap covered with inky, illegible scrawls. A quick rereading proved it to be a surprisingly brilliant satire on Tolkien’s linguistic and mythic structures, filled with little takeoffs on his use of Norse tales and wicked phoneme fricatives. A cursory assessment of the manuscript’s sales appeal, however, convinced us that dollarwise the thing would be better employed as tinder for the library fireplace. Foreword to
Bored of the Rings