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PARADISE PRESS
fine writing by lesbians and gay men |
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NEW in 2012 Gay Life, Straight Work Donald West Prisoner 537 Elizabeth Lister 2011 Titles Behind the Mask Winston Green Cocksuckery e-book Ian Stewart Gazebo Short story journal The Monkey Mirror Elsa Wallace People Your Mother Warned You About Edited by G. Abel-Watters The Queer Businessman Paul Mann Seeking, Finding, Losing John Dixon IN PRINT First and Fiftieth and other stories Martin Foreman Homo Jihad Timothy Graves The Last Cargo Ship Paul Mann A Little Chat and other stories Michael Harth Merle Elsa Wallace Nailing Frank Paul Mann A New Man in Old Steine Graham Robertson Oysters and Pearls poetry anthology The Physent and other stories Michael Harth The Picnic and other stories Michael Harth The Queer Commando Paul Mann Queer Haunts an anthology of ghost stories Rid England of This Plague Rex Batten The Seaman's Mission Paul Mann A Sense of Loss and other stories Martin Foreman A Short History of Lord Hyaena Elsa Wallace Slivers of Silver poems by gay men and women Stowaway Paul Mann Weekend Martin Foreman FORTHCOMING Bokassa's Last Apostle Rod Shelton Guru on Hire Michael Harth 
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Self-Publishing Michael Harth The history of self-publishing goes back a long way and includes such outstanding authors as Thackeray, Robert Burns, Virginia Woolf, Beatrix Potter and Lord Byron, besides many others just as well-known. Today, digital technology makes it easier and cheaper than ever before. There are a number of options available to anyone who has sufficient faith in their work to invest time and money in bringing it out, though in this brief article I cannot do much more than list them. However, one warning before you decide to follow this route; you are most unlikely to get your money back on a first print run, let alone make a profit, so you have to be able to afford the cost of whatever route you decide on. One self-publisher gets round this by producing erotica for a specialised market (under a nom-de-plume), and these sell in sufficient quantity to subsidise his 'legit' work, on which he doesn't expect to cover his costs (an expectation so far fulfilled). Writing your book is in fact almost certainly the easiest part of the whole process and quite definitely the most enjoyable, while getting it published by a commercial publisher is much more difficult than, say fifty years ago, when there were numerous 'gentleman publishers' who were not totally dominated by the need to make a profit. Quite often they would bring out books they believed in, or thought should be published, even when they were aware they would lose money on them, subsidising their sale from the profits on other more commercial titles. Unfortunately, in publishing as in most other spheres, the accountants have taken over. This is particularly disastrous in an arts-related field like publishing, since the only thing accountants understand is money, and profit is not the sort of goal that will ensure high standards of writing. Even with commercial publishers, practically all first novels make a loss, unless there is some tie-up with the world of sport, television or some other interest of the idiot masses - though perhaps it would be more politic to refer to them as culturally challenged. This makes it even more difficult nowadays for new writers to get started. Of course, most of us will still want to try our luck in the commercial sphere, but we shouldn't be too discouraged if we garner nothing but rejection slips: J P Donleavy's The Ginger Man, for instance, received 36 of these before it finally found a publisher, and there are plenty of similar instances where perseverance paid off. Unfortunately, gay material seems to be particularly difficult to place. In spite of the fact that most booksellers nowadays have a gay and lesbian section, most publishers still shy away from the genre, while the dedicated G&L publishing scene is now even smaller than it was a few years ago, bringing out only a few titles per year. There is a common preconception that only if you are being paid for your work are you a true author, but this is nonsense. There are quite a number of small presses who might be interested in publishing your work, though there may be no payment other than receiving a copy of when the book / booklet / magazine appears. Not only does this help to get your name known, but there is always the chance that it will be seen by someone who has a further use for it. One author had a poem published in a small press which was subsequently reprinted in nine anthologies which paid a fee each time. But if you decide that no-one else is likely to take your masterpiece on, what options are you left with? The easiest, and the least trouble to you, is putting it online. There are commercial organisations that will host your work and pay you a percentage of the fee each time it is downloaded, though of course they have to agree to take it on in the first place. I have no information how successful this is in commercial terms, though I personally wouldn't use the service, as a potential reader, unless I had an electronic book-reader and at the moment these are unrealistically expensive. However, I suspect that the format will one day take off and become a serious competitor to regular books. One such organisation is no-spine.com, and I recommend a look at their website, where they have many pages of useful advice for authors, even those who don't want to use this particular outlet. If you are well versed in computers, or you can afford to fund it, or both, you can set up your own website. Paradise Press author Martin Foreman has site devoted to his latest collection of short stories, First and Fiftieth, (www.firstandfiftieth.com) which is well worth taking a look at. Then you can publish the work yourself. Your book doesn't have to be novel-length. If you want to produce something of no more than, say 48 A5 pages, it could be stapled and your unit costs would be minimal, although a special stapler might make them more expensive. Admittedly, booksellers aren't keen on books without a spine, but if you have an idea of your potential market, you should be able to place sufficient copies to make the enterprise worthwhile and you will be a published author. This is particularly suitable for a poetry collection, but short stories and playscripts can also be published this way. If you do intend to bring out your work yourself, there are a number of stages it will need to go through. These can all be done by an individual working alone, or in the case of GASPS / Paradise Press, with the help of fellow authors / publishers. Some authors believe that a manuscript is ready for publication the minute the final sentence has been typed. Personally, however, I consider that after one has finished a piece, one should put it away for a minimum of three months before one goes back to it. One should then be able to look at it more dispassionately and attend to the process of making the second draft. This can be repeated if you feel necessary. If you can attend Gay Authors Workshop meetings or something similar, you will be able to benefit from the comments of other members when you read out sections of your work. Sometimes these are on minor details but occasionally more fundamental matters are brought up. I have now got into the habit of not publishing anything until it has been 'workshopped'. Assuming that these stages have been gone through and the work is now deemed by the author / publisher as ready for publication... Editing If the book is accepted by a commercial publisher, the person responsible is the commissioning editor. They will then provide the services of a line editor, who will do a full edit, which might include restructuring and continuity, as well as a copy editor, who concentrates on style, consistency and punctuation. This can be a salutary experience, most particularly for that publishers' nightmare - the don't-touch-a-comma-of-my-writing type of author. Self-publishers should be aware that editing, like proof-reading, discussed below, is best done by someone other than the author. If you haven't an eagle-eyed friend or fellow-author willing to undertake the task, there are professionals who will do an excellent job for you. Don't be the kind of author who resents editorial suggestions and corrections: a good editor is a valuable aid. Proof-reading also needs an eagle eye. If you are laying out the text yourself to submit directly to a printer, you should get someone else to do this. If your work is typeset, you will get a page-proof. You need to read this meticulously - if it is your own work, starting from the bottom of the page helps you to see it afresh. Keep corrections to the minimum; you are likely to be charged for each change unless it is a typesetting error. Remember that your book will be mass-produced and not the Book of Kells. Style guidelines These can refer to language - how long a sentence should be and the number of adjectives used - and should be understood and either accepted or ignored by authors finding their own voice. However, style guidelines that refer to layout and punctuation, either of the specific publishing house or in general use, should generally be adhered to. Readers are familiar with commonly accepted standards of punctuation and will find your work more difficult if you Decide TO be, erratic about. Such ThingS. Cover This must also be designed. Remember it is a marketing tool and the very first thing to attract or put off your potential readers. If possible, get it designed by someone with experience. This may cost some money - or may be relatively cheap if it is designed by someone who is starting to make a name for themselves - but whenever possible avoid an amateurish cover. Printing There are several options. Plenty of commercial printers advertise online or in the yellow pages. I recommend that you get a minimum of two estimates, and preferably more. Don't imagine that your chosen printer will pay any attention to the actual content, which means it is entirely up to you to make sure they have full instructions, and this includes all sorts of details you may not have thought about, but which will leap out at you afterwards. Several firms now offer a print on demand service, and many also offer copy-editing, typesetting, design, printing and binding, although of course using any of these services adds to the overall cost. A print run can be as small or as large as you choose; a typical price in 2003 for printing from print-ready files was £5.63 per unit for a run of 20 copies of a 128 page book, down to £2.52 per unit for a run of 200. This is for A or B standard book sizes. B (198mm * 128mm) is the most useful size for ordinary length books, but whatever you choose, it is important to pick a format that fits conveniently into booksellers' and library shelves: this emphatically does not include A5. Note that you will be expected to provide copy in pdf or Quark format, which means you will either need to acquire and learn these programmes or to contact someone who can convert your word-processed files for you. And be aware that these are considered camera-ready format and you are unlikely to be given proofs before printing. (Incidentally, although there is no VAT on book production, any other services, such as editing or cover design, will incur VAT.) Other issues that the self-published author must consider include inclusion on the Whitakers, which lists every new title published in the UK and is the primary tool for booksellers ordering books, and application for an ISBN - an International Standard Book Number, without which distribution is almost impossible, and compliance with the British Library CIP Programme. Then there is distribution and marketing, possibly the most difficult areas of all. Commercial publishers employ reps to persuade booksellers to stock their titles, but a lone author is likely to have to do repping him-/herself, which can be both depressing and discouraging. Much of the trouble lies in the fact that an enormous number of books are published each year, a large proportion of which don't sell and up remaindered, pulped or a mixture of the two. This is where print-on-demand can suddenly seem an economical method of getting books out: even though the cost per individual book may be higher, it is surely better than boxes of over-ordered books under the bed or in the loft. A magazine such as Writers Forum carries advertisements for all the services mentioned above - and several others that I have not mentioned. All these reasons and others led to the formation of GASPS, which offers its members the reassurance they are not working in isolation. Members can and do call on the help of other members for such vitally important matters as editing and proofing and provision of ISBN numbers, while the fact that our publishing arm has several titles on its list makes it more of a proposition to booksellers than going around trying to persuade them to stock your one title. But whether you apply for membership with GASPS or decide to go it alone, good luck with your publishing venture - there is nothing more satisfying to an author than seeing his/her work finally in print and on a bookseller's shelves. For more insights into self-publishing and on publishing through GASPS / Paradise Press, click below. Publishing through GASPS / Paradise Press Alan Keslian A British Homo Publishing Collective Ian Stewart |
Paradise Press authors: anthologies 
Rex BATTEN 
John DIXON 
Martin FOREMAN 
Timothy GRAVES 
Winston GREEN 
Michael HARTH 
Elizabeth LISTER 
Paul MANN 
Graham ROBERTSON 
Ian STEWART 
Elsa WALLACE 
Donald WEST 
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