Today’s Guest is a bit special. I asked Tristan for an interview as I knew something about the background to the formation of his website, All Male Romance. AMR is basically a promotional platform for writers of gay fiction, and the impetus behind it a testimony to the courage and determination of the people involved, and their refusal to be suppressed.
I’ll let Tristan take it from here…
* * * * *
When Chris asked me to write about this, I was excited and then worried… Then I paused for a week or two thinking about what to say.
The inception of All Male Romance came about from several not-so-nice events, and some private conversations I had with a few friends on Facebook. I guess the largest being the “disappearance” of Linda Reilly. Mark Bowne and I talked about that for a while after it happened, asking each other, “Why the f*** was her FB account deleted?” It seemed unfair. And after e-mails were not returned to me, I began to question what happen to her?
I really cannot disclose everything I have found out since then, but let’s just say it is not nice.
I began to think that standing alone can get people picked off easier. Maybe she felt alone in her existence? Then I thought about everyone else out there going it alone. Even all the way down to the tiniest thing as marketing. Her website was gone but maybe I could do something about it.
I was on Authonomy ages ago and found that I tended to “taut” the writings of others way better than I could ever try to pimp myself. Then it dawned on me, “Why not do that for authors?” I know for a fact that Authors have to market their own stuff. Publishers do some, but if an author isn’t out there shouting from the roof about their book, then shortly after its release people will forget that it’s on their to-be-read pile! Believe me!
So, I started to think about how I could do that and who I wanted to “market”. I never really did it professionally and I thought it would be a fun way to learn. I am a jump-in-the-deep-end type of person. So, I leapt! I made a list of a few authors I would ask to “join” the group as a way to market books I truly enjoyed and wanted the world to read.
Mark Alders and Andrew Grey were at the top of the list!
All Male Romance was born! I created pages via .php and made each author page to look like their home page. I am not a genius and I know squat about computers so I was not about to learn how to create web pages. I asked a few authors to join as a way of free advertizing for them and a way for me to do something I loved- share books I LIKE with everyone on the internet! Shadows of the Mind was one book that meant a lot to me as it showed me I could like Sci-fi AND m/m and find it all in one book!!! How fun is that? And after reading Love Means… No Shame and actually meeting Andrew Grey, I was hooked on m/m romance, and thinking about the significance of no being ashamed of one’s self.
Now, let me get one thing straight, I am not perfect. MANY of the things I believe in I am not at liberty to share freely. Life is NOT how it is in romance novels. A person can not always leave the past behind and start over somewhere. Or with someone else. Sometimes life has to be lived out one day at a time and fitting all the pieces together can be messy, making avoidance the only viable option. YES, avoiding the inevitable can be painful and often wrong, but sometimes there is no other choice.
Don’t even get me started on gay people coming out, or remaining in the closet! Sometimes the closet door is the hardest thing ever to open and it is no body’s right to pressure the person on the inside. Each person’s life is THEIR business. And then there are the people the “out” other people. THAT is something I think is totally wrong! People are private for many reasons, and not all of them have to do with sexuality. Sometimes it is as simple as a pen name. Do you want your PTA-going mother of six neighbor to know you write hacker-horror novels about kidnapped ten-year-olds? I think not. Discretion and privacy are a part of life. Sexuality included.
Back to the topic at hand… All Male Romance was my way of talking about books and promoting authors I enjoyed. Mark Bowne liked the idea and so did a few other people. So, it was like a group decision. We founded it J … Then, not so long after, Mark passed away. It was tragic. Mark and I talked a lot and I miss him and his wisdom. That is why the site is dedicated to him and he continues to have a page to link his stories on fictionpress. Mark Bowne was a wonderful man! MANY MANY people miss him! I could not let it stop me from pressing on. Mark loved writing and reading and we talked books. (Kei was in on some chats too, and I know she misses him.)
Not long after I had the site running, I had other authors asking to join. It was fun. Exhilarating! I had people commenting on how great the site was and how it was neat to find all their favorite authors in one place! I think that is what made it cool. Yes, there are sites like GLBT bookshelf, and blogs that are run by a “group” of authors, so I am not completely unique. Oh, well. Still, it has been over a year and many of the same authors are still in the group! As some leave, others ask to join.
This is not a high-paying job. L (Which is why I’m glad it is not my only job.) For the amount of work I do, I basically make nothing, but I think it is fun and I will continue to market the authors in our group! This year we started “ad” spots. (thanks Andrew for that suggestion!) There is also, now, a cost to join. On the other hand, we sponsored a table at The Rainbow Book Fair and several authors in our group were there! That was fun! It was great to promote authors on more of a public forum. The AMR group handed out CDs with pdf files of free-reads to 50 book fairers. Lots of SWAG handed out to hopeful readers! Promotion costs and I in no way profit from the authors. (I hope they know that.)
What I want is more traffic to our site! With over 20 authors, it only stands to help boost sales. Selling books helps the authors! AND, I get to chat with people online (FB, and Goodreads) and make friends, and learn were the market is going. Trends and want not. This all helps me to market my website.
I guess this answers Chris’ question. Or maybe it was just a lot of me rambling. Either way, thanks for reading.
Ciao for Now!
Tristan
When Chris asked me to write about this, I was excited and then worried… Then I paused for a week or two thinking about what to say.
The inception of All Male Romance came about from several not-so-nice events, and some private conversations I had with a few friends on Facebook. I guess the largest being the “disappearance” of Linda Reilly. Mark Bowne and I talked about that for a while after it happened, asking each other, “Why the f*** was her FB account deleted?” It seemed unfair. And after e-mails were not returned to me, I began to question what happen to her?
I really cannot disclose everything I have found out since then, but let’s just say it is not nice.
I began to think that standing alone can get people picked off easier. Maybe she felt alone in her existence? Then I thought about everyone else out there going it alone. Even all the way down to the tiniest thing as marketing. Her website was gone but maybe I could do something about it.
I was on Authonomy ages ago and found that I tended to “taut” the writings of others way better than I could ever try to pimp myself. Then it dawned on me, “Why not do that for authors?” I know for a fact that Authors have to market their own stuff. Publishers do some, but if an author isn’t out there shouting from the roof about their book, then shortly after its release people will forget that it’s on their to-be-read pile! Believe me!
So, I started to think about how I could do that and who I wanted to “market”. I never really did it professionally and I thought it would be a fun way to learn. I am a jump-in-the-deep-end type of person. So, I leapt! I made a list of a few authors I would ask to “join” the group as a way to market books I truly enjoyed and wanted the world to read.
Mark Alders and Andrew Grey were at the top of the list!
All Male Romance was born! I created pages via .php and made each author page to look like their home page. I am not a genius and I know squat about computers so I was not about to learn how to create web pages. I asked a few authors to join as a way of free advertizing for them and a way for me to do something I loved- share books I LIKE with everyone on the internet! Shadows of the Mind was one book that meant a lot to me as it showed me I could like Sci-fi AND m/m and find it all in one book!!! How fun is that? And after reading Love Means… No Shame and actually meeting Andrew Grey, I was hooked on m/m romance, and thinking about the significance of no being ashamed of one’s self.
Now, let me get one thing straight, I am not perfect. MANY of the things I believe in I am not at liberty to share freely. Life is NOT how it is in romance novels. A person can not always leave the past behind and start over somewhere. Or with someone else. Sometimes life has to be lived out one day at a time and fitting all the pieces together can be messy, making avoidance the only viable option. YES, avoiding the inevitable can be painful and often wrong, but sometimes there is no other choice.
Don’t even get me started on gay people coming out, or remaining in the closet! Sometimes the closet door is the hardest thing ever to open and it is no body’s right to pressure the person on the inside. Each person’s life is THEIR business. And then there are the people the “out” other people. THAT is something I think is totally wrong! People are private for many reasons, and not all of them have to do with sexuality. Sometimes it is as simple as a pen name. Do you want your PTA-going mother of six neighbor to know you write hacker-horror novels about kidnapped ten-year-olds? I think not. Discretion and privacy are a part of life. Sexuality included.
Back to the topic at hand… All Male Romance was my way of talking about books and promoting authors I enjoyed. Mark Bowne liked the idea and so did a few other people. So, it was like a group decision. We founded it J … Then, not so long after, Mark passed away. It was tragic. Mark and I talked a lot and I miss him and his wisdom. That is why the site is dedicated to him and he continues to have a page to link his stories on fictionpress. Mark Bowne was a wonderful man! MANY MANY people miss him! I could not let it stop me from pressing on. Mark loved writing and reading and we talked books. (Kei was in on some chats too, and I know she misses him.)
Not long after I had the site running, I had other authors asking to join. It was fun. Exhilarating! I had people commenting on how great the site was and how it was neat to find all their favorite authors in one place! I think that is what made it cool. Yes, there are sites like GLBT bookshelf, and blogs that are run by a “group” of authors, so I am not completely unique. :S Oh, well. Still, it has been over a year and many of the same authors are still in the group! As some leave, others ask to join.
This is not a high-paying job. L (Which is why I’m glad it is not my only job.) For the amount of work I do, I basically make nothing, but I think it is fun and I will continue to market the authors in our group! This year we started “ad” spots. (thanks Andrew for that suggestion!) There is also, now, a cost to join. On the other hand, we sponsored a table at The Rainbow Book Fair and several authors in our group were there! That was fun! It was great to promote authors on more of a public forum. The AMR group handed out CDs with pdf files of free-reads to 50 book fairers. Lots of SWAG handed out to hopeful readers! Promotion costs and I in no way profit from the authors. (I hope they know that.)
What I want it more traffic to our site! With over 20 authors, it only stands to help boost sales. Selling books helps the authors! AND, I get to chat with people online (FB, and Goodreads) and make friends, and learn were the market is going. Trends and want not. This all helps me to market my website.
I guess this answers Chris’ question. Or maybe it was just a lot of me rambling. Either way, thanks for reading.
Ciao for Now!
Tristan
Visit All Male Romance HERE
In Chez Chris today, I have an interview with–no, let me rephrase that. I have a conversation between RJ Scott and her partner in crime, Diane Adams. Foolishly I’d said to RJ, “I’d like something from you and Di about your new werewolf book and how you came to write it.”
“Oooh!” she said, “I’m sure we could do something.”
Then this arrived… I love these crazy girls!
***
Poor Chris Quinton said we should do a chat for her blog. So, Diane and I dived in…
RJ: So I get to ask a question first… what is Sam’s hell did you think you were doing writing a book with RJ Scott?
DA: I figured “Hmmm, I want to sell a gazillion books, what should I do?” The answer to that was pretty obvious. Oh, I mean, I wanted the challenge of writing with a well respected author. (Really I thought it’d be fun, but that’s the boring answer)
RJ: well it’s certainly been fun… hard work as well given the Americans are always in bed when I am up…
DA: That’s cause you UK sorts have the oddest hours. Strange way of talking too (Oh wolfie 2, change the “que” to line), but mostly you’re okay. And it was fun when I managed to catch up with you, lol.
RJ: We need someone to ask us questions…this isnt working… who can we find… BEANY!
DA: LMAO – okay, yeah, that’ll be good, um, I mean she’d be good 
. Though I think I’m pretty amusing.
DA: We can start over.
DA: You know I’ve been trying to get you to write with me since our days of writing that unmentionable F word stuff. So, I finally got my way (it only took about three years). And it was fun! So tell me, why did you agree to do it?
RJ: Because I think you write awesome stuff… I love your writing…it’s very poetic…lyrical… also you can make sure I get rid of all the wardrobes, trousers and torches….
DA: Oh, such lovely reasons (blushing now). You know I think you are an awesome writer. We can’t have any que’s lingering around and the what is it you said about the road construction? lmao. You know it’s a wonder we understand what the other is saying at all! I’m not sure how you do it anyhow. I could never write a book with characters based completely in another culture. I’d never remember boys can wear jumpers in England and wash up with a flannel.
RJ: See, the difference is, in England, in UK, we are clever…ROFL…
DA: ummm huh. I thought you were supposed to be polite too. (is it bad to say England? Is England still there? I really don’t keep up with things well).
RJ: Is it still there? Yeah… I am English, BUT the Welsh and the Scots and the Irish are clever too… hence the UK…
DA: I see it’s just us American, European, Australians who fall on the wrong side of clever LMAO ( I think we have made a wrong turn again haha!)
RJ: Anyway back to the book… coughs… so… Jamie was totally your creation… did he just pop into your head fully formed as a character?
DA: Well, he introduced himself to me but I didn’t really know who he was until I started writing. I rarely have more than a description and a vague idea of personality before I start writing. I’ve read a lot about character sketches but there’s no way I could complete one on my characters until the book is finished. Then it seems rather pointless. I don’t make character lists before hand either, the characters appear in the story where they belong, that’s when I find out who they are. How do you manage with your characters? (are they just running amok in your head, breeding bunnies?)
RJ: I know that *insert character’s name here* is a cop or a vet or a millionaire… I know that *character 2* is a barista, or a writer… past that it kind of hits me when I start writing…
DA: Neither of us is much of a preplanner, one of the things that makes writing together really interesting. I can feel how much we’ve learned as we get into the second book we are really getting a feel for each other (pardon the pun).
RJ: I can’t wait to see what we make Doug do…
DA: and Sam, who really isn’t even Sam at all. I like it that his character is secret even from himself. It’s going to be fun to find out what’s hidden inside (like chewy nougat or a crunchy nut).
RJ: Well in chapter three… no one is reading this right?… well, in chapter three the shit really hits the fan…
RJ: I have a question – how is your Making Of A Man series going? And when can I read the next part?
DA: No one will see this… so tell me all the good stuff! MoaM series is going great, I’m working on book four now. Clark’s Story, and you’ll get to it sometime next week, lol. I wish everything came as easily for me as writing the Making of a Man books. What are you up to these days?
RJ: Just releasing my next YA book and writing Heart Of Texas #2… *Cowboy Christmas*… Riley’s past comes back to haunt him in a life changing way… nods…
DA: That sounds really dramatic! I’m looking forward to your YA I don’t read many of those but I enjoyed your first one. Are YA harder to write?
RJ: Yes and no. I dont know about you but when it comes to writing a sex scene in the M/M books we write there is sometimes this feeling of *been there done that* almost *insert A into B*… I mean how many more ways can writers describe sex? That is why in your books and mine we focus on the emotions behind the act. So in the YA books, I focus on the emotions even more. In book 2 of the Love series there is a sexual act but it is so sweet and innocent…
Do you find writing sex hard? No pun intended.
DA: Sex is my least favorite thing to write. Mostly that’s true because of the things you mentioned, I worry about it reading more like a “how to” manual than an erotic scene. So the emotions, which are individual to each character are vital in making a difference. Probably only 10 or 15% of any given book is a full out sex scene (some even less than that) but I have spent longer writing those scenes than any other. I have learned that sometimes what seems stilted when I’m writing, reads fine after the fact so I push on.
It seems like M/M readers soemetimes anticipate a certain amount of sex in a book. That used to make me nervous but readers know me a little better now. How do you feel about that, do you now, or have you ever felt pressured to include graphic sex as a part of your books?
RJ: I had that very question when I released my earthquake fic…I mean the two guys are running from forest fires and are both injured. So they are not gonna stop off for a quick shag behind a burnt out car… But i was worried. I think there is an expectation in M/M readers for sex, mine included! It’s not enough to say I love you anymore, the love has to be shown to be real.
It reminds me of a quote in Throwaway… goes to find…
“Research had given him the basics, Tab A into Slot B using Product C after ensuring Product D is firmly in place. The mechanics of it were simple. The prospect, however, of having an A that big anywhere near his B was mildly worrying.”
ROFL…
DA: Ha! I have to admit it’d worry me. It’s easy to get sidetracked worrying about sex because how much is too much and you lose the story and it’s just repetitive instead of arousing…how much is too little and you lose the readers hoping for some heat. I’m telling you, it can feel like a tightrope sometimes. For the most part I’ve solved that by not thinking about it. I write the story and much like the characters who appear when needed, the sex happens when it’s appropriate. Then I groan and say, “gawd, I have to write sex now, thanks guys” lol. It’s really not that bad but I prefer writing the romance and the dynamics of the relationship more.
Speaking of which you are a very strong plot writer, whereas my stories are all character driven. I am in awe of how you do that, devise such interesting story lines and bring the characters alive as well. I get so caught up in the dynamics of character development that is almost always the focus of any given book. Do you think we reached a pretty good balance with that writing Shattered Secrets?
RJ: Yes I do… we have a good plot with the wolf breaking and the hints at the end about the *********, but we also have a very intense character in Rob and a irreverent character in Jamie…and thank you for saying nice things (what is it you want?)… oh and regarding the sex, a very good mutual friend of ours, Chris Quinton, writes GAPGAP in her manuscripts if thinking about how to write the sex holds up the story.
DA: That’s rather brilliant. I can see it now – “I”m done!” off to the publisher it goes, only to come back “GapGap?” Seriously my editor would have a blast with that, haaa. I gave a character the last name of Rubble once, just as filler. It nearly went to print that way! Still, moving along and coming back to
it isn’t a bad plan at all. I’ll use “pokepokesucksuckgaspgasp” actually that might be good enough! Heh. or how about, “Please insert favorite sexual act here.” I guess in the end there’s really no getting out of it and sometimes I end up with something wonderful like the first sex between Alex and Jared.
Personally I think the hottest sex I’ve written is between Grey and Drake, my angels in Rearranging Stars. Not sure how much of a judge I am of my own writing. I mean, lol. Tell us which book contains your hottest scene. I think it’s that barn scene in Heart of Texas.
RJ: Yep, I think from what people have said, the barn scene in HoT is definitely my hottest scene… rofl… all that naked flesh just standing and …. guh… rofl… and yes, the sex between Grey and Drake is *hot*.
DA: See how I picked out the hottest thing you ever wrote. I so rock! Well, sadly other duties call so we’ll have to continue this delightful chat another day. Just remember “road construction” “standing in line” and “parking lot” and we’ll be just fine…oh and keep Sam out of “jumpers” will you?
RJ: Sam has a jumper in his wardrobe and it is a pale pink colour. It is his favourite jumper. He wears it when he goes out clubbing with his torch so he can see the way.
DA: I wish I could draw so I could illustrate the picture for you that drew in my mind. A guy in a pink dress carrying a wooden flaming torch down a busy night street. I love it! and I loved having the chance to talk to you, RJ. Time to get back to work on Wolf 2. Thank you for having us, Chris!
RJ: Yeah, thanks, Chris, for having me here and putting up with Diane Adams… rofl…
Bye, Diane! Have a good day y’all. xxxx
DA: Bye RJ! I’ll try, ma’m 
and you do the same xxoo
RJ: Indubitably, my dear Diane, one will…
***
See what I mean? I think that’s the reason they work so well together – apart from their talents, they are both happy lunatics! *g* Now I’m off to buy Shattered Secrets and Rearranging Stars…
Thanks for the great conversation, RJ and Di.
RJ and Di also have solo works out there to be grabbed – RJ’s Eoin, the third book in her Fire trilogy due for release on September 17th, and Di has the already mentioned Rearranging Stars, all three books are from Silver Publishing, with covers by the award-winning Reese Dante.
Buy link for Shattered Secrets HERE
Buy link for Rearranging Stars HERE
Buy link for Eoin HERE
I’m starting a new enterprise – well, new to me – inviting guests to ramble, rant, promote and/or be interviewed. So for a variety of reasons, I thought I’d start off by contacting one of the e-publishers who have accepted my books; Manifold Press. They are very small, very British, and concentrate solely on Gay Romance. So, without further ado – and with ample supplies of tea and biscuits – sit down, make yourself comfortable, and meet Manifold Press!
As Manifold Press has now been in operation for something over a year, Chris, one of our regular authors, has suggested that it is probably time for us to introduce ourselves a little more fully – and perhaps also explain what we can offer to aspiring (or indeed experienced) authors.
The Manifold Press project actually started life as a conversation over lunch between two authors who weren’t very happy with their publication options. For long and complicated reasons neither really wanted to go down the ‘find-an-agent-and-turn-pro’ route, being well aware of how difficult and time-consuming that can be and nervous of the degree of self-promotion involved, but the e-book publishers were mostly based in the USA and required a certain specified proportion of explicit sex in each book – and a good percentage of them insisted on American spellings and word usage even when the story was not set in the USA. These were two requirements which frankly we had a bit of trouble with; we share the belief that it should be the characters who determine what sex scenes are included in the narrative and when – we can’t force them to do what they don’t want to do – and we also have the odd and (to some people) unreasonable view that if a book is set in the UK the characters should buy petrol rather than gas and use taps rather than faucets. In short, we wanted a publisher that would do things our way rather than expecting us to fit in with theirs – and the solution to that problem was of course blindingly obvious; we would just have to go into publishing ourselves.
The next year or so was what you might describe as a learning curve, and a pretty darn steep one it was too. We had to f
ind out how to make and distribute e-books, for a start, and in this we were ably assisted by Hooper, our resident geek, who evaluated a lot of formats for us and assessed likely future developments. This is one of the reasons we only produce a limited number of options; Hooper’s belief is that, as with other technological revolutions in the past, the field will soon settle down to a limited number of standard formats which will all be mutually interchangeable, so we opted for trying to do a few things well rather than a lot of things badly.
In fact that’s our philosophy in a nutshell. What we haven’t mentioned so far is the hilariously small budget we had available for launching this project, and if we told you about the figures themselves you’d laugh yourselves silly. At any rate we had to think very carefully about how we would spend what little money we had, and there were two things we felt we just couldn’t manage without – professional proof-reading and ISBNs. We wanted to offer the very best product we could with the resources available to us, and as we have a couple of friends who are qualified proof-readers we were able to negotiate rates with them which would not bankrupt us before we started.
As for the ISBNs – well, there’s not a huge amount we can offer our authors as you will shortly see; the rate of royalties we pay is 
not as high as some other e-publishers – although we do offer them our individual attention and are willing to take chances on books some e-publishers might not even consider – but an ISBN is forever. When the book itself is no longer available, those thirteen digits will still always represent that particular work by that particular author – and somewhere there will be a permanent record that the work existed. In fact we go further; as we have ISBNs we are able to place deposit copies of our books in the British Library. (We send them on CD.) Our authors may not be the next John Grisham or J K Rowling, but we can at least guarantee them a modest measure of posterity!
We wouldn’t want you to think, though, that we don’t have the highest possible opinion of our writers! We started off by exploiting all the contacts we could think of and bringing in people we knew slightly but who we knew could write. We were very lucky in that respect – we found several established authors looking for new challenges, and one or two first-timers who knew that they had stories to tell but wanted a level of hand-holding other publishers weren’t willing to provide. Some of these have become personal friends; some are just names on an e-mail and we wouldn’t recognise them if we bumped into them – the level of personal involvement is entirely up to the authors themselves.
This is a good point at which to stress that we like the authors to be the ones driving the process as far as possible. We don’t 
issue a contract for a book until it’s complete, for example. (In fact we’d prefer not to read works-in-progress; there’s nothing quite so disappointing as getting all excited about a book which is never actually finished.) This means that our authors are not under pressure to finish their work to meet an inflexible deadline. When we feel the book is in reasonable shape, however, we start talking about technicalities – contracts, royalties and publication dates. We aim to publish two books every three months in our second year – which is just about all our human resources can handle – and we usually need a window of about 8-10 weeks for proof-reading and editing, depending on the word count and the author’s availability. That means that we’re always thinking a good six months ahead; at the time of writing this, in mid-July, our August books are all ready except for the last few details and our November books are with their proof-readers. One of our proposed February 2012 titles is still being written, the other is currently being read, and we are already starting to turn our attention towards next May for which we have one potential book pencilled in.
When it comes to revisions, we like to discuss things thoroughly with the author. We’ll often call in an expert – there is a sequence in one of our August books which features a present-day English courtroom scene, for example, and we happen to know someone with extensive legal experience who was able to read it and advise accordingly. However in cases of disagreement we won’t impose our will on the author; in the last analysis it’s the author’s name on the book, and although we can often assist we will only rarely insist.
Now, as to covers, maybe we should explain our choices. In a book-store, very often it is the cover that 
attracts the potential reader. To that end, and because we are in no position to pay for the services of an artist, we have settled on a simple house-style. All our covers feature photographs (with the honourable exception of ‘Thrace’ whose artwork came from a stock illustration site) because they’re relatively easy to deal with. Our books may not have to jostle with others on open shelves, but if they did you would easily be able to tell which ones were ours! We stick to the same utilitarian font for our titles because it’s readable even at a reduced scale. We retain the same layout because it’s simpler like that and also because we think it’s clear and straightforward and that’s how we’d like people to think of Manifold Press – as a no-frills, value-for-money, does-exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin sort of operation with the sole aim of producing high quality fiction at a modest price.
We’re delighted to say that so far our authors seem to be finding their experience with us a positive one. We pay our royalties quarterly on the dot and although we’ll never be millionaires we are not terrifyingly in debt either. More than this, we seem to be making a lot of friends and we have a regular pool of customers who keep coming back each time. Also now that we’ve expanded to make our books available through Rainbow and (soon) All Romance eBooks – who can offer instant downloads and credit card payment facilities which are simply not available to us given the small scale of our operation – we find we are becoming better known all the time.
To anyone with a script they may be considering submitting to us and who may be in some doubt about the likely level of
returns we can say this with complete honesty; your royalties from Manifold Press will not buy you a new house or a holiday in the Bahamas, but they will certainly finance the occasional treat – a DVD box set, a theatre ticket or a pair of shoes, perhaps. We can also help to get your name and your work better known, which will always be useful on your CV, and put you in the position of being able to obtain a wide variety of feedback on your work. We can’t turn you into a superstar, but if you have superstar potential we can certainly give you a platform for displaying it! In short, if you have a book completed or nearing completion which meets our requirements – specifically as to having gay protagonists and an element of romance – and you feel this is the sort of deal that would be attractive to you, we’d be very happy if you’d get in touch.
Visit Manifold Press HERE
Because Real Life has been a bit of an uncooperative b**ch for the last few weeks, the 1st of the Month Fic hasn’t been written yet. It will arrive, honest, I just don’t know when…
On a more productive front, Game On Game Over has just crept over the 50 k mark, and I only have a couple of scenes to finish. Then it’s off to my beta-readers for their input.
I’ve also completed a ‘Five Things’ interview for friend and fellow author RJ Scott, which was a little different to the norm and fun to do.
Brief Encounters Reviews are having a ‘Fortnight of UK Authors from March 21st to April 1st’, and I’m one of their featured authors. I’ve been interviewed, but not sure yet when it’ll be posted. They specialize in reviews of short stories, and my Torquere Sips qualify *grin*.
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