Putting Out: The Essential Publishing Resource for Lesbian and Gay Writers - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1573440337 ISBN 13: 9781573440332

Publisher: Cleis Pr, 1998

Synopsis

Gay and lesbian writing, publishing and bookselling is booming in the late 90s. PUTTING OUT provides complete information on hundreds of book publishers, online magazines and web sites, magazines, newspapers, and newsletters, as well as theater groups and agents, all of whom publish, produce or agent gay and lesbian writing. Includes helpful how-to essays by Patricia Nell Warren, Scott O'Hara and others on writing and selling gay erotica, freelancing for lesbian and gay magazines, publishing an online magazine and starting your own publishing company.

About this title

About the Author

Edisol Dotson's writing appears in Christopher Street and Bay Area Reporter. He lives in San Francisco

From the Back Cover

Lesbian & Gay Studies/Writer's Reference Putting Out is the essential reference tool for all lesbians and gays who write to reach an audience: Book publishers, magazines, newspapers, theater groups and agents, all of whom publish, produce or agent gay and lesbian writing Phone numbers and email addresses of editors who welcome manuscripts from new writers How to submit your book to editors and agents-and what specific kinds of work they are looking for How to publicize and market your book Plus helpful how-to essays by Patricia Nell Warren, Scott O'Hara and others on writing and selling gay erotica, freelancing for lesbian and gay magazines, publishing online, and starting your own publishing company! Updated and expanded to include world wide web resources

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

from PUTTING OUT Schloop, Spooge, Spunk: a Syntax of Sex by Scott O'Hara "What's the hardest part of writing porn?" people ask me. Foregoing the obvious double entendre, I prefer the more literal, "Learning to type with one hand." In reality, writing porn doesn't differ noticeably from other forms of writing. You still need to observe all the basic rules (at least, to the extent that you want people to understand you; William S. Burroughs didn't worry about such technicalities, and he seems to have done all right). The problem is that some writers seem to forget the basics, figuring it's "just porn-no one will notice." And, well, they may be right; but it's my contention that porn doesn't have to be "just porn." It can be great writing, too- and why not? Hence, a few reminders. Give your readers some credit. They've got imaginations. Give them some exercise. It's my contention that anyone who reads a book, even the most basic of books, has to have an imagination. The others are watching videos. So let them romp a little bit. Just because it's porn doesn't mean that you have to tell them everything. Sometimes implication is more titillating than description. ... Which brings us to the bottom line of porn: write what turns you on. I never write a porn story unless I have a hard-on; I can't imagine doing so. If it doesn't even turn you on, how the hell do you expect to turn other people on? This doesn't mean that you have to write the same story, over and over; I keep coming up (not cumming up, thank you) with new fantasies every day. My basic rule is to follow my dick into a story. I don't plot it out in advance; I just keep trying to imagine what twist will turn me on the most. Usually it has something to do with the unexpected, the unusual, and often the irrelevant. Whenever I start getting too close to cumming (yes!), I always try to throw in a digression, something to slow the reader down, to puzzle him a little, maybe even infuriate him. Frustration is the biggest turn-on I can think of. Finally, and this is the point on which many, if not most, porn writers really fall down: Don't lose your sense of humor. Sex is fun, for crying out loud-or at least it should be. It's also frequently absurd, comical, and incredibly anticlimactic. I'm not saying that you have to make the sex in your stories as farcical as the sex you had last night; just remember that your basic function is as an entertainer. Sex is entertainment; so is humor. They mix remarkably well. There's a writer who has a particular trademark style, which includes the mention of "Lake Lothario" and "Oleander Avenue." I've read entire books of his, waiting for the key words to show up; this man has a sense of humor about his writing, and he doesn't let it stand in the way of describing some real down-and-dirty, quirky, kinky sex. Is it literature? I'll leave that for the literary historians to decide. It sure makes me splooge.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cleis Pr
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1573440337
• ISBN 13: 9781573440332
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 132
• Editor: Dotson Edisol W.