E-books - do YOU read them?

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by William Maltese

Who would have guessed that in just a couple of years I'd have out this many, with more to come? Not I? Certainly, thanks to everyone here who kindly input information when I requested it.

YUou're welcome, and nice to see you here.

I looked at your web sites, and it led to some trips back through memory lane. I remember Greenleaf Classics, for instance.

I also chuckled at "One Handed Reads" as a as a category for a book line. An old friend used to do copy editing for the Penthouse Letters publications. Typesetters are trained to hook the eyes in parallel with the fingers and take the brain out of the loop. They don't actually read what they are setting. He could tell when the topic of a particular letter hooked into a typesetter's fantasy and they actually started reading the copy, as the galleys suddenly became riddled with typographical errors. I just said "That's what happens when you try to typeset one-handed". Nice to see it applied to the final works as well.

Who is publishing you these days? The market for print erotica seems to have been killed off by the internet, and most of what I know of is small press stuff. A friend was an editor at a major publisher, and was talking to her boss about the void. "Well, yes", he said. "There's a market there that isn't being served." Someone else commented "You mean there's a market that isn't being serviced." to general laughter.

But it's still a true observation. The last outfit I recall doing it was Masquerade Press (who reprinted some of John Norman's Gor series, to my amusement). The folks I know of now are basically small presses.

William Maltese

______
Dennis

[William Maltese]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Great to hear from an author who "gets" eBooks, William. I wish you every success with your sales of them! We're now, of course, in a far better position when it comes to reading eBooks than we were when the thread started, with the latest "eInk" readers which pretty much replicate the experience of reading a paper book, and none of the "eye strain" that comes from reading from a small PDA.

'

Harry:

Thanks for your check-in. I was afraid that this chain of interest may have been so long lapsed that it wasn't active any more, but I thought I'd give it the old college try anyway. Luckily, it seems to have worked.

As for "getting" e- books, I do have to admit that it took me some time to get with it. Once again, mainly because of the response I ended up from this locale when I started bichin' and moanin' about how tiny the print was and how I couldn't imagine I, or anyone else, wading through the minuscule print when you could have a tactile book in hand. Replies here saw me take action to remedy my e-book production, so that when the ebook industry improved its electronic products I suddenly had the books there to take advantage.

Now, of course, all of my books for Borgo Press (a subsidiary, of sorts, of the giant amazon.com family), will be coming out in e-book (they asked; I said, yes, please).

So, once again, thanks for checking in.

an author
trying his damnedest to "get it"
William

[William Maltese]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

YUou're welcome, and nice to see you here.

I looked at your web sites, and it led to some trips back through memory lane. I remember Greenleaf Classics, for instance.

I also chuckled at "One Handed Reads" as a as a category for a book line. An old friend used to do copy editing for the Penthouse Letters publications. Typesetters are trained to hook the eyes in parallel with the fingers and take the brain out of the loop. They don't actually read what they are setting. He could tell when the topic of a particular letter hooked into a typesetter's fantasy and they actually started reading the copy, as the galleys suddenly became riddled with typographical errors. I just said "That's what happens when you try to typeset one-handed". Nice to see it applied to the final works as well.

Who is publishing you these days? The market for print erotica seems to have been killed off by the internet, and most of what I know of is small press stuff. A friend was an editor at a major publisher, and was talking to her boss about the void. "Well, yes", he said. "There's a market there that isn't being served." Someone else commented "You mean there's a market that isn't being serviced." to general laughter.

But it's still a true observation. The last outfit I recall doing it was Masquerade Press (who reprinted some of John Norman's Gor series, to my amusement). The folks I know of now are basically small presses.


______
Dennis

Dennis!

Sorry if this turns out to be a duplicate of something just "sent", in that I'm not sure it was really "sent" at all. The long message I just typed out seems to have disappeared into CyberSpace (something that's always happening to me). Anyway, if this turns out to be a duplicate, my apologies. Rather you receive two than miss out entirely in thanking you for the check-in.

Ahhhhhhh, the Greenleaf Classic days. It's hard for me to imagine that I actually put out one or two of those a month for close to five years. I've certainly slowed down a pace to be sure.

As for the one-hand read section (my having acquired and received the registered trademark for "one-hand read(R)" , by the way), I'm glad that I've been able to make my little contribution to that particular genre.

As to what I've been up to, in the world of male erotica, I've actually been pumping (no pun intended), them out quite regularly over the years. I did several of them, under various pseudos for Brit publisher Millivres/Prowler (which has since folded its erotica hard-print lines). Then, I moved on to GREEN CANDY PRESS (for whom I did THAI DIED and SLOVAKIAN BOY, both still available at books stores everywhere). I've since moved on to MRL Press with DIARY OF A HUSTLER, GOLDSANDS, LOVE HURTS (yes, that is I as cover boy in gas mask and all bound up in "whatever"), and a new book ARDENNIAN BOY about the French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine (which is due out within the next couple of months). None of which, unfortunately, are noted on my regular web-site, because I've been derelict in keeping the site up-to-date (something I hope to rectify soon, with inclusion even of my ebook offerings). My more recent stuff (male erotica and othewise) seems to be better represented at my http://www.myspace.com/williammaltse site.

Surprisingly enough, the male erotica area of publishing has recently seen an influx of women writers and readers (Go figure!) and is found nowadays under the genre term m/m fiction. And, eventually, up the line, I've just been informed, MLR Press will be doing theirs in ebook format; I've been asked and approved of their issuing mine for them in the ebook format, when the big moment occurs.

And, of course, while my publisher Borgo Press (kind of a subsidiary of amazon.com's publishing wing), has been publishing a lot of my original mainstream fiction, there have been crossover books in that area (many of them ebooks), including THE FAG IS NOT FOR BURNING, THE GOMORRHA CONJURATIONS, and ANAL COUSINS: CASE STUDIES IN VARIANT SEXUAL PRACTICES, with characters who are outright gay or wondrously bisexual.

Likewise, within the very next few weeks, Borgo is scheduled to re-release a lot of my m/m work (in print format and in ebook format) the books I did originally for Millivres/Prowler, including A SLIP TO DIE FOR, SUMMER SWEAT, CALIFORNIA CREAMIN', YOUNG CRUISERS, SLAVES)...

So, the male/male erotica is still "out there", even today, if you know where to look for it, even if not mass-distributed by the one-time giants like Greenleaf Classic used to be.

Anyway, seems I'm turning this into a novel, and I merely wanted to check in and say thanks for your check-in.

In summation -- thanks!

William

[William Maltese]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I agree. with HarryT. Welcome aboard William. It's nice to be able to see things from the author's side of things. Especially an author who understand ebooks and how important they are/will become. For people with dificulty ready the small print in an ordinary paperback, it's great. Just up the font size and read away.


The Sony Reader makes it very nice to read ebooks on the go. I took my reader to NYC this weekend and it made it nice to have a pile of books with me without having to lug around a pile of books.

JS

Thanks for the check-in. For some reason, I seem to be having trouble getting my replies posted, so I shall make this one brief. (Just tried two longer ones which have either disappeared into the CyperSpace void or just may appear later.

Did want to thank you in for the check-in, though. It's people like you who provided me with the impetus to pay more attention to ebooks in the days when I really was prepared to shuffle ebooks aside as something merely fly-by-night.

William

[William Maltese]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

YUou're welcome, and nice to see you here.

I looked at your web sites, and it led to some trips back through memory lane. I remember Greenleaf Classics, for instance.

I also chuckled at "One Handed Reads" as a as a category for a book line. An old friend used to do copy editing for the Penthouse Letters publications. Typesetters are trained to hook the eyes in parallel with the fingers and take the brain out of the loop. They don't actually read what they are setting. He could tell when the topic of a particular letter hooked into a typesetter's fantasy and they actually started reading the copy, as the galleys suddenly became riddled with typographical errors. I just said "That's what happens when you try to typeset one-handed". Nice to see it applied to the final works as well.

Who is publishing you these days? The market for print erotica seems to have been killed off by the internet, and most of what I know of is small press stuff. A friend was an editor at a major publisher, and was talking to her boss about the void. "Well, yes", he said. "There's a market there that isn't being served." Someone else commented "You mean there's a market that isn't being serviced." to general laughter.

But it's still a true observation. The last outfit I recall doing it was Masquerade Press (who reprinted some of John Norman's Gor series, to my amusement). The folks I know of now are basically small presses.


______
Dennis

Dennis:

Actually, somewhere, there's a longer reply to your letter, both of which seem to have disappeared into thin air. I'll keep track, over the next few days, to see if one (or both) turn up, and if they don't, I'll head on back and recomment again on those Greenleaf Classic days.

In the interim, I'll keep this short and say "Thanks for the check-in".

William

[HarryT]

Your other comments are safely there earlier in the thread, William.

I don't think that your "genre" of fiction would appeal to me personally, but it takes all sorts, as the old saying goes, and I wish you the best of luck with them .

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by William Maltese

Dennis!

Sorry if this turns out to be a duplicate of something just "sent", in that I'm not sure it was really "sent" at all. The long message I just typed out seems to have disappeared into CyberSpace (something that's always happening to me). Anyway, if this turns out to be a duplicate, my apologies. Rather you receive two than miss out entirely in thanking you for the check-in.

It actually got here, but may have taken a detour along the way.

Ahhhhhhh, the Greenleaf Classic days. It's hard for me to imagine that I actually put out one or two of those a month for close to five years. I've certainly slowed down a pace to be sure.

All sorts of folks did it. Horror bestseller Dean Koontz wrote porno for a bit, back in teh early days of his career. His wife did the first draft during the week. He did the submission draft over the weekend. Off it went, and the $650 per title helped pay the bills while he worked on serious stuff.

He gave a talk at a local SF group I was involved in, and I couldn't help it: I presented him with a couple of the pornos to sign at dinner afterward.

"Out of all the stuff I done, you want me to sign this?"

"Dean, if you were willing to but your name on the cover, you should be willing to sign it on the inside."

His wife just wanted to know how I figured out a couple of their pseudonyms. Not hard: there were characteristic phrases, and when the first chapter of one pseudonymous effort mentions a Hannes Bok painting, and is dedicated to another pseudonym...

He signed, but I lost them years ago in a move. I can only imagine what they'd fetch on eBay.

As for the one-hand read section (my having acquired and received the registered trademark for "one-hand read(R)" , by the way), I'm glad that I've been able to make my little contribution to that particular genre.

It's fitting.

As to what I've been up to, in the world of male erotica, I've actually been pumping (no pun intended), them out quite regularly over the years.
<...>

Thanks for the update.

Surprisingly enough, the male erotica area of publishing has recently seen an influx of women writers and readers (Go figure!) and is found nowadays under the genre term m/m fiction. And, eventually, up the line, I've just been informed, MLR Press will be doing theirs in ebook format; I've been asked and approved of their issuing mine for them in the ebook format, when the big moment occurs.

Not surprising at all to me. I'm an SF fan, and SF fans produce a lot of fan fiction, often set in the fictional universes they read. One prominent sub-genre is "slash" fiction, with gay couplings between protagonists. The arch typical stuff is probably stories featuring a relationship between Star Trek's Captain Kirk and Mister Spock, but anything is fair game. I've seen a recent effort where a grown up Harry Potter struggles to deal with the realization he has the hots for Draco Malfoy, and another with a rather hilarious encounter in a gay bar men's room between Severus Snape and a Nazgul.

So, the male/male erotica is still "out there", even today, if you know where to look for it, even if not mass-distributed by the one-time giants like Greenleaf Classic used to be.

I assumed so. I was never particularly interested in male erotica, so I rather lost track of who was out there in the field.

But no surprise in what you've mentioned. It appears that print erotica has simply changed its name and shifted to a different audience. There was always some surprisingly explicit stuff being published in the Romance genre. A Romance buyer for a major book chain I met said "We call that "smut" in the trade." I see a lot of pretty explicit BDSM stuff aimed at the female market. They just don't call it porn.

Anyway, seems I'm turning this into a novel, and I merely wanted to check in and say thanks for your check-in.

You're quite welcome. Stop back again.
______
Dennis