An odd question for our GLBT members...

On one of my book-lists, one of the authors mentioned the fact that she's been working on an outline for a potential paranormal romance involving two lesbian characters, and was told by a successful author that the marketability of such a novel would be dismal. As I just heard yesterday from my wife that another author is looking at creating a small press publisher for JUST such a line of romances, I was wondering if there might be an interest in it and how the community at large might receive it.

Would there be a market out there for GLBT romances featuring paranormals (vampires, lycanthropes, faeries, and other magical/mystical creatures, as well as more standard futuristic and fantasy settings).

In the straight world, paranormal romances (particularly what's called 'romantica' or even erotica) is very popular right now. Would this popularity carry over into the GLBT community as well, or would it fall flat.

I have a personal interest in the question, because I just happen to have two characters whose story I haven't been able to tell yet because most of the publishers I know tend to avoid any premise involving an "alternative lifestyle." But I think this particular story is important to my universe and one I'd love to see in print someday.

So what do you think?

not sure these books are widely known/available outside the glbt community and its legitimate bookstores.

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:D

I'm talking about romance authors who are considering the possibility of expanding their range...taking a risk in the hopes that not only that a market might exist, but that their names on such titles might expand a few minds outside of the GLBT community.

It needn't even be romantica or erotica. Just your basic love story (with a paranormal twist) featuring gay protagonists. A hero and a hero, or a heroine and a heroine, as opposed to the standard hero/heroine dichotomy.

Romance of any sort just isn't my cup of tea; I don't read the genre.

I can tell you, as an aspiring sci-fi author, what I've been told at numerous cons and book writing workshops: Authors just starting out will have an exceptionally difficult time selling their first two or three books if they do not adhere strictly to established standards of the market place. Once you have a name and a proven fan base, you can start to break out of those strictures, but until then... most publishers won't touch you. Another thing to remember is that once an author is categorized as a "niche" writer, is is very unlikely that s/he will be picked up by any larger market publisher.

Sad, but those are the dues that most new authors must pay.

The big houses are just like every other form of mass media we've got. They don't recognize a new winning concept until it smacks them between the eyes.

They'll continue to churn out cannibilized, incestuous shit until the next big thing breaks, and then they'll drop whatever they're doing to cannibilize IT.

Tell me, who was the last breakout author? Someone MADE by the big houses no one had ever heard of?

The vast majority of the bestsellers are written by names we already know. And that's not going to change if we let NY and London continue to run things.

I have gotten the same word of wisdom from small science fiction publishers to the biggies. And I never said it was impossible to become a published author when writing outside the mainstream, only that it was very difficult.

I understand where you're coming from. I just think that the "mainstream" is a misnomer. It's artificial and manufactured, and neither reflects the integrity of the artists, nor the interest of the readers.

You might find a small numbers of LGBT readers who woul like this.

here is a link to peruse:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/new-for-you/top-sellers/-/books/10165/ref=pd_ts_b_nav/103-2892966-0653408?ts-parent-id=10719

though the romantic suspense by Radclyffe looks damn interesting. Romantic suspense is one of my favorite sub-genres to read, though I can't write anything that isn't fantasy or paranormal. LOL. The funny thing is that I hear pretty much the opposite statement from many suspense authors. REALITY they can do, but the world-building necessary for sci-fi or fantasy is beyond their reach.

I think you'll find lots of interest. Frankly, there's lots if GLBT type references in most modern vampire stuff, so it's not exactly new.

More importantly, though, if it's in your story, its in YOUR story. Don't let ANYONE tell you what belongs there. If they're so smart, they can go write their own book.

The romance I have in mind is between a couple of badass interworld agents. Two magic-wielding women who've shaken the world to its foundations each in their own right. I've told one's story already, up to a point. She's the protagonist in my fourth novel. The one she's destined to fall in love with is going to be the protagonist in my 5th novel...in that series, at least. I may write another novel in another series first, though I'm not sure.

Alone, each of them could take on an army and win. Together, they could take on whole worlds.

:D

I'm going to write the story eventually. I don't see how I have much of a choice. If it's inside of me, it's going to come out sooner or later.

is among younger people who are closeted to themselves or otherwise out of the mainstream. These are the ones that are attracted to all the far out, mythological stuff like Tolkien, etc. They don't know what they are, but they know they are different. Why these characters can't just be characters doesn't make sense to me. Wonder why the publishing people think it has to be marketed as gay? If the writing is strong enough the fans of that genre will eat it up no matter, they are unconventional to begin with. If it's real erotic it may scare the publishers...and maybe some of the readers...or maybe not. I remember as a teen reading a sci-fi kind of book named "Pin" where a brother and sister were the main character and this Pin thing was a robot and the brother helped him have sex with the sister. Freaking bizarre, but it was one of those paperbacks that sold well. So who knows.

Xena did really, really well, with the Gabriel romance undertone. Plus, I always thought the lesbian thing was very marketable to straight guys, even if that's not the audience you want.

Why not look up the publishers of the Lambda Award winners?
http://www.lambdaliterary.org/paw_1992_1995.html

I know about these because I read Melissa Scott's Trouble and Her Friends. The heroine is a lesbian, and for some reason I don't remember that being featured prominently on the back-cover blurb. It was just described as a cyberpunkish SF thriller. A little way into the book, it turns out she's taken another woman as her lover. OK, that's different (or was at the time), but the story stood on its own as SF. Afterwards, I figured out what it meant that the book had won a "Lambda Award"--I had thought that was just some kind of awkward coincidence in naming, like maybe they didn't know(!). FWIW, she also won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer, so I'd say she's done a pretty good job of appealing to SF readers and GLBT readers, and even got a rec from The Library Journal, all in a mass-market paperback. The publisher was Tor, a good old SF publisher.

(Looking up that link, I learned about some other books she's written which I haven't read, so I owe you for that.)

Another entry in the list, that I didn't realize had won: Tor also published China Mountain Zhang, by Maureen F. McHugh, a story by a woman author with a gay man as the central character. Again, the book stands on its own as SF (of "social SF" variety), and it was marketed no differently than any other SF (AFAIK).

I find it hard to believe that it would be that difficult to sell a story with GLBT characters in the SF/fantasy publishing world. This is a field that grew as the characters became less and less the 'usual' characters! This is a field where readers take in stride--even demand--sentient (even psychic) vegetation, intelligent, trisexual (rhe/rher/rhers, before you can ask) arthropods in an alternative libertarian universe, or even a time-traveling robotic soldier who goes on to become governor of California! (OK, you're not buying that last one. I went too far. Sorry.) Oh, and let's not leave out China Mieville's "New Crobuzon" stories, in which a human man and insectoid woman are lovers (and don't tell me the "mosquito men" in The Scar haven't been the objects of inquisitive libidos!)

Shop it around. Build a collection of rejection slips, so people will know you're a real writer. And when you make that sale, flip through the stack and remind yourself that these losers didn't deserve your story anyway.

You don't even want to see how I'd review that stuff if I were asked. I'd probably refuse simply because it would mean I'd have to read more than a chapter of it and my eyes would bleed and that would be bad. I despise abstract fiction, where the author's whole purpose seems to be "how weird can I make this?"

were insanely popular among LGBT readers. She routinely toured LGBT book stores when promoting new books.

For example, check out Joanna Russ, especially her ground-breaking lesbian feminist sci-fi book _The Female Man_. A lot of lesbian-friendly books are marketed as "feminist" without the word "lesbian" being used. (Typical).

http://feministsf.org/femsf/reviews/russ.j.html

I'm not a big fan of Laurel Hamilton's fluff because it's formula fiction. So if it's that kind of stuff I'd probably read one or two books and put it aside. But if it's better quality plotting and storytelling then I'd definitely be a fan.

so I'm not sure what you're talking about here. Sure, after a while she started becoming known for working within her OWN formulas...particularly the overwrought sexual storylines she's become prone to in the last few books.

The one thing romance authors are very good at is portraying human relationships. Not only male/female relationships, but friendships and family as well. Nora Roberts has made a career out of formulaic stuff, but her stuff is usually worth reading just for the character interactions. I think a lot of authors could use to read some of this... they just might learn something. I know I did.

but her books are still written by formula. I read four of her books and they seemed simplistic, predictable and repetative. Her writing is not nearly as good as Barbara Hambly, for example.

Some are better than others. But if you thought a zombie run amuck through a maternity wing of a hospital was predictable, I'm not sure I want to spend any time in YOUR head.

I've read a number of Hambly's books too. Some are better than others as well. I wasn't that hot on her vampire concept, but maybe that's just me.

There are several LGBT publishing houses that include sf in their lines.

A lot of my friends are "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer" fanatics. I never got into "Buffy" myself (I never really gave it a chance), but I understand that it had a huge appeal to audiences. And one of the main characters (although, not the title character) was a lesbian, and I think the show had some gay-related storylines, so maybe that's saying something.

So I think there would be a market out there for what you're proposing, and I would say that this market is largely untapped. I would also say that the quality of the writing, not the identity of the characters, would be more important to gay readers.

And when you think about how dismal reality is becoming, who doesn't like a little fantasy reading now and then? :)

As long as they aren't of the Harlequin Romance ilk. :scared:

I've long enjoyed vampire tales, particularly Anne Rice's work.

and I am a binge reader (usually four and five books at a time, about a hundred or so books a year, no kidding)

Elizabeth Moon did some great successful early fiction (all forms of mix-it-up-ica), and there is a lot of fantasy and science fiction out there that "suggests" some kind of non-standard romance, but as you know editors and publishers are the gate keepers and all they see is $$.

First and foremost are sales - harsh truth. You are either a "popular" writer or a "literary" writer, and the two vary all the way down the line, even in plot, pacing and resolution. Pop writers have to have cleverness, a mad pace, a cliffhanger every three pages, while a literary writer can take his or her time and really evoke a reaction; the difference between the fun and satisfaction of a quickie and falling in love with every curve and hollow and phrase of a literary tale.

I think if you're going to use it as a device it's been done, and on its own does not have the broad appeal that a publisher would book money on. If you use it as a matter of fact aside to the story - I'd point you to "Dream Dancer" by Janet Morris as an example - a pansexual space trilogy where bisexuality is just taken for fact, then the real factors of the story - milieu, idea, character, event, all create a story that is memorable and engaging, and sellable.

There are a lot of witchy, vampy, demonic pop books out there, thank you Buffy. It's hard to distinguish now - everybody is camping or vamping it up, a.k.a. Mickey Spillane meets Angel.

As an author you know - the story will write itself. If it's a good story, as you would tell at a campfire to a group of friends, and if it makes you resonate to the characters and care about their fate and believe in the story then everything else is just background.