other writers in the upcoming Elementary Erotic

[missviolet]

If you want to read about the other six authors included in the upcoming Elementary Erotica collection (of erotic steampunk Sherlock Holmes stories), check out their bios on the Sex In Sepia blog, which run by the collection's editor J. Blackmore. Since I write under a pen-name, my bio is quite succinct and boring, but I really cannot include

Comments

[cuddyclothes]

These days they aren't called vanity presses, it's called self-publishing. You may think that's an arbitrary bit of syntax. But with the computer and the infinite possibilities for people to put out their own stuff, it often serves an author better to self-publish than to try to find a publisher in what is now a very frightened, conservative marketplace.

[missviolet]

Er, isn't that the same thing? Vanity press as distinguished from a commercial publisher? I don't think it's necessarily 'vain' to want to self-publish, and I'm sure many do it because they prefer to, but nonetheless, I think quite a few self-published authors would like to sell their work to a publisher and make a profit, rather than self-publish, which is very often a loss. Anyway, it's not intended as an insult (or else I'd be insulting myself, because I plan to self-publish with a vanity press).

However, reading the Wikipedia article, apparently some people consider the term insulting. I guess things have changed a lot since Vantage ran their deceptive ad in the back of the Times Book Review. I will try to be more sensitive.

[missviolet]

I guess I'm just hopelessly out-of-date. Way before the Interwebs, they were all called vanity presses. Some were very deceptive, just as you described. They'd pretend to be real publishers and capitalize on people's dreams, hopes, and aspirations. But even the respectable ones, who made no bones about the pay-for-publishing business model, were referred to as vanity presses. It wasn't always derogatory, just a term to distinguish between self-publishing and commercial publishing. But nowadays, some people find the term offensive. Although I think it's quite descriptive and certainly don't take offense to it (I consider it somewhat tongue-in-cheek; many self-published authors to manage to make a profit, even in the days when we called them vanity presses), I don't want to rub anyone the wrong way. So, I shall try to eliminate the term from my vocabularly, which won't be easy because I am old and set in my ways, but I don't want to be insulting to anyone. However, in my case, I would be self-publishing out of vanity rather than because

[missviolet]

Aw, thanks! I think I need to write three more stories, minimum, to have enough to collect together. I also cannot wait to read your story when Elementary Erotica is published. Looking forward to it!

[tripleransom]

Did you ever get around to writing that collection of H/W stories? I'd pay for it as an ebook. Srsly. Let me know!

[missviolet]

I am so touched that someone is still reading my LiveJournal even though I haven't posted anything to it in ages! Yes, I am still working on my Holmes/Watson stories for publication. I know an editor who might be either interested or at least willing to give me some tips and recommendations for getting it published. I do have my heart set on a bound, printed edition along with an e-book, even though e-books sell better. So if I don't self-publish, I'll probably want to reserve the right to self-publish the print copy and go with a commercial publisher for the e-book. That is, if anyone wants to buy it - I may end up self-publishing both. But it's definitely in the works, and although I am scarcely half-done, I do have three finished stories (one was published in Elementary Erotica, the other in My Love of All That is Bizarre - there are excerpts of both on this journal, under My Writing, as well as my first Holmes/Watson story "The Violin Concerto."). The story I am currently working on involves Holmes during his college years.