THE SITUATION:

Writing is costly

* Writing a book takes YEARS of unpaid, solitary time
- hugely isolating and intensely frustrating, because it advances so s l o w l y, which spurs expense in dealing with disillusion and loneliness (keeping friends; going out; hunting sex; distractions and intoxicants)

* Only the WEALTHY or the truly MAD easily venture such resources
- the giants of English literature are typically rich (by far the vast majority), of seemly means (all the rest), or (irregularly) poor and driven
- editors most admire (and consequently champion) the elite, privately-educated (British 'Public School'), 'Oxbridge' English language style
- gay voicing still remains in the hands of those enjoying such fortunes
- lesbian publishing is much more diverse

* Meantime, Western homo living swallows precious time
- Abiding a pugnaciously antagonistic bureaucracy and a wilfully misled public; workplace discrimination; uncertain finances; delusional romantic entanglements an encumbered cruising; enforced body-shaping; the barrage of constant new 'must see' distractions; Internet, TV, homo media; scheduling-in busy friends; sometimes childcare responsibilities
- WITHOUT the published writer's traditional supports of bygone days (steady incomes; domestic staff; stay-at-home partners; extended family: more time to read & write in a pre-TV age: authors networking and getting known through their rooted fixity in little-changing locations)

* Even a VERY successful book can only net an author some mere hundreds of pounds

* As standards rise, a computer with a printer is increasingly essential
- modern editors won't accept the flaws typical to classic 'handwritten' books, which authors nowadays have to resolve at their own expense.

* Ink, paper and postage & photocopying costs add up really fast


Arts Funding is directed away from homo expression

* Many homos self-edit themselves: dismissing LGBT Art as DIRTY, or just BAD art

* Arts Boards have reflected this cultural norm since their very inception

* A July 2003 Mayor's Office study found that in all of London, the Duckie nightclub collective was the ONLY recipient of public funds for LGBT expression of any kind

* Since 2004, when Europe forced Sexual Orientation into UK Human Rights law, some LGBT individuals more keen on COURTING the Arts Establishment have won funding

* When starting PP, we spent MONTHS on unsuccessful applications for Arts funding
- inciting DRAMA and ongoing PUTDOWNS from a PP member ashamed to apply
- an exhausting bureaucracy, with complex monitoring and forms to be filled out
- LGBT applicants are made to compete against other needy minorities
- months of hard effort, diverted from our work; given to THE OPPRESSOR


Chain Bookstores

* Undercut struggling homo bookshop prices with volume discounts

* Feature incomplete token lesbian & gay sections; SKIMMING OFF the most profitable titles at cheaper prices than independent homo shops pay for them

* Chain stores demand SUBSTANTIAL payment for attractive placement or promotion

* Chain stores operate on principles of cutthroat accountancy
- every centimetre of shelf space must earn a prefigured return; most LGBT books can't shift enough copies
- they sell NEW titles: even if people are still buying the book, chain bookshops WILL NOT TAKE MORE, as newly released books sell fastest
- this short-circuits serendipitous sales or word-of-mouth promotion

* Chain bookshops are reluctant to handle books from small presses; requiring many phonecalls; repeated visits; free copies for their elaborate, in-house registration or payment procedures. Often they'll only accept books from EXPENSIVE book distributors


Publishing companies are backed into a corner

* Pressed consumers demand affordable prices
- ink and paper costs more for smaller print runs (about £5 for each PP book), while competing brand-new editions of famous English language classics sell for less than £1: mass-produced supermarket books for £3-£4

* Booksellers wrest an ever-growing 'discount' off the retail price to cover their profit
- minimum 35%, normally 40%, sometimes 60%: Amazon takes 70%

* Book distributors charge a substantial additional percentage

* Shops will only sell books on unbelievably advantageous 'sale or return' terms
- publishers deliver bookshops all of their stock for FREE
- shops pay only for the copies they sell, returning leftovers to the publisher at no cost to the latter (even if shopworn and unsaleable)
- LAMINATED book covers look and last better but cost more
- publishers have to pay all delivery and return costs (busfares soon add up)

* Media routinely demand FREE copies, even with very little likelihood of reviews

* The book trades is a hugely competitive, globalised business
- aggressively-marketed new books shove slow-moving titles off the shelves


THE SOLUTION:

Affordable New Technology

* Editing, formatting, typesetting and printing is getting easier with home computers
- Most computer users regularly use TYPESETTING feature (font and point size, adding page numbers through documents etc)
- WORD PROCESSING programmes increasingly factor-in book printing capability. New versions of MS Word, Wordperfect etc will layout books 
- support from adept friends and guidebooks helps one to learn these skills
- easy to use, low-cost, book publishing programmes exist (Clickbook etc)
- High volume, DUPLEXING laser printers are dropping in price
- With increasing numbers of people trained in desktop publishing, PRINT ON DEMAND one-stop book publishing services are also steadily dropping in price and becoming everywhere more easily accessible


LGBT Organisation

* Paradise Press grew out of GAY AUTHORS WORKSHOP (GAW) which was established in 1978, and has since hosted monthly writing workshops, quarterly newsletters, readings etc
- a longstanding, shoestring writers' group with FRIENDSHIPS, procedures, skills, history, some shared experience, and BOLDNESS

* The Gay Authors Self Publishing Society (GASPS) was set up to buy equipment and start a bank account
- six subscribing members paid £120 each to purchase a duplex laser printer
- Paradise Press was registered for ISBN Numbers
- PP is intended to a quality-controlled imprint for GASPS
- PP's diverse authors edit and proofread one another's books
- Rolling funds are required as we use up printers and their consumables

* In London we can buy discount paper, cheap ink cartridges etc, and we have access to inexpensive small book binderies

* Trying to make some money, we undetook small LGBT commercial printing jobs
- these only met their costs, WITHOUT earning enough to justify our efforts
- commercial jobs are a good means to learn how to print
- MORE THAN ONE PAIR OF EYES has to proofread everything

* GAW called for submissions to a LGBT Short Story anthology
- many writers seen into print in Gawp and Gaze did not stay with the group

* Gazebo story magazine began in 1999, printed with PP resources
- distributed free to GAW's 65+ members nationwide
- SOLD at some supportive venues (but most shops are uninterested)
- besides great stories, Gazebo informs people about PP, reviews PP books, and is distributed around homo media, the Arts Council etc
- Gazebo 4 was a womyn-only issue: Gazebo 5 has an equal number of womyn's and men's stories (many womyn writers take male pseudonyms); Gazebo 6 has just come out (Spring 2004)

* GASPS style sheets were circulated for authors to consistently format their book texts
- bookshops STRONGLY APPRECIATE that PP books fit standard shelves
- kindly FRIENDS designed PP book covers for a token fee, printing them for us with a colour printer, on heavier-weight paper

* Printing with word processing programmes, all pages MUST be gone through by hand to look for errors (stuck-together sheets, smudges or marks)
- we reprint any flawed sheets
- we then deliver sheets and covers to a small, local bindery
- PP sends formal registration forms to the British Library and booksellers' listing services

* The Queer Haunts 2003 anthology of LGBT Ghost Stories, and GAW's 25th Anniversary Poetry collection, Slivers of Silver, have seen yet more voices into print


Targetted Homo bookshops:

* Specialist homo bookshops can potentially provide direct access to the LGBT market
- these businesses already have relationships with RELIABLE suppliers
- new presses might compete with established commercial homo enterprises
- their niche usurped by chain stores, homo bookshops struggle to survive
- not all businesses profiting from the LGBT community are LGBT owned; yet some non-gay businesses provide support

* The pressed-upon people who make decisions about whether or not to stock your volume will not have the time - nor likely any great desire - to actually read your volume
- with dropping production costs they are steadily besieged by self-published authors, whose work has already been REJECTED by commercial presses
- famous established authors, publishing houses, and their various agents also badger these business-people for the visibility YOU want for your titles
- even homo businesses can be very slow in paying you for the books sold

* booksellers appreciate WORTHWHILE events, flyers and poster promoting their shops


Targetted Homo Media

* Homo media always support their regular, big-money advertisers (even if non-gay) over (usually less profitable) community-building projects

* Homo media workers actively (and openly) disparage REAL community products over the shinier, COMMERCIAL products marketed at them by slick heterosexuals

* We send regular, updating, Press Releases to all UK homo media
- even listings editors inevitably lose the info and forget to list our events

* We send review copies to homo magazines WITH BOOK SECTIONS
- NONE has provided any coverage without repeated follow-up
- NONE have reviewed our books without repeated follow-up

* We have carefully planned and hosted three successful, well-attended launch events, with readings, free beer and wine. We always take photos
- attendees come on word-of-mouth, flyers and authors' personal invitations
- chasing up the media with PHOTOS, more PRESS RELEASES, personal LETTERS and FREE COPIES has led to one or two further reviews


Best Successes

* The most marginal community or activist organisations help us most:
- Gay's the Word Bookshop (itself a former collective) hosts our PP launch events and prominently displays the books
- Housman's Books, a famous activist bookshop, although not fully gay- owned or run, gives PP conspicuous shelf space
- Duckie alternative clubnight lets us poster their venue to promote launches
- encouraged by reviews in Gay Times, the BIBLIOPHILE manager at the Prowler Soho gay scene store stocks out titles in a high-footfall shop

* In 2003 a PP member set up this low-cost website; we draw around 8 hits per day and have set up a system for book purchases on the PAYPAL system
- we've sold less than 10 books online: UPDATING the website takes time
- with fees, packaging and postage, profits seem unlikely

* Considerable efforts of every possible description, undertaken by individual authors to draw attention to their books and the PP have hitherto brought little substantive return but to keep an important sense of MOVEMENT afoot, which may have a cumulative effect.


WATCH for our forthcoming 2005 list of lively new titles! Let us know if you might be undertaking similar homo publishing endeavours in your region.


For more information on self-publishing or publishing through GASPS / Paradise Press, click below.

Self-Publishing Mike Harth
Publishing through GASPS / Paradise Press Alan Keslian