Episode 343 – Self-Publishing Lesbian Fiction or Something Equally Non-Threatening with Elizabeth Andre

Mark interviews Elizabeth Andre (AKA Karen and Victoria) about her/their journey through writing, collaboration, and the new book SELF-PUBLISHING LESBIAN FICTION.

Prior to the interview, Mark reads comments from recent episodes and shares a word about this episode’s sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by ScribeCount (affiliate link). Spend less time logging in to multiple platforms and crunching numbers, and more time writing and marketing your books thanks to ScribeCount’s handy all-in-one interface.

In their conversation, Karen, Victoria, and Mark talk about:

The background of how Karen and Victoria got started as writers, and then about how they met and why they started writing togetherKaren’s earliest memories coming up with playtime stories with her younger brother that took on a “soap opera” and “serialized” formatThe concept of how to earn money that came down to one of two things: Sell drugs, or write pornResearching the writing of gay male porn by getting magazines and reading through themComing up with numerous euphemisms for the male sex organ appendageHow Victoria comes from a long list of writers, including her father and how she wanted to be anything BUT a writerThe two of them each discovering the joy and the magical allure that is journalismBeing one of the many writers who was “Sherry Lovelace” for the UK edition of Penthouse MagazineMeeting at a Gay Journalist Convention and clicking, but not really having that much in commonDiscovering that, despite the “common wisdom” from traditional publishing, money could be made from writing lesbian fiction. That shift, of course, came from the rise of self-publishingWho the readers of gay male fiction and lesbian fiction areThe origin of the pen name Elizabeth AndreSome of the logistics of how the two write togetherWho the book Self-Publishing Lesbian Fiction is for, with an analogy of an off-the-rack suit and a tailored suitThe tally of the $35 and $45 dollars owed from various publishers and platformsThe term and use of “Sapphic Fiction” and how it is more inclusive of lesbian, bi-sexual, trans, and non-binarySome of the barriers that arise when writing lesbian fictionHow self-publishing can overcome so many of the barriers within traditional publishingAnd more…Karen, Victoria, and Mark at 20BooksVegas in Nov 2023. (In background, Todd Fahnestock from EP 340)

After the interview, Mark reflects on a couple of topics brought up, specifically “serialized playtime stories” and the “tailored” work of writers.

Links of Interest:

Self-Publishing Lesbian Fiction: Write Your Own WaySmashwordsAmazonElizabeth Andre on social media:https://www.tiktok.com/@elizabethandrelesfichttps://www.instagram.com/elizabethandreauthor/https://www.facebook.com/elizabethandreauthorhttps://twitter.com/Elizalesbianhttps://substack.com/@elizabethandreScribeCount (Mark’s Affiliate Link)How to Write a Howling Good StorySmashwords linkPatron Coupon for 75% offEP 290 – Thanks for the Inspiration, Jim TurcottMark’s YouTube ChannelBuy Mark a CoffeePatreon for Stark ReflectionsHow to Access Patreon RSS FeedsBest Book Ever PodcastLovers Moon PodcastThe Relaxed AuthorBuy eBook DirectBuy Audiobook DirectPublishing Pitfalls for AuthorsAn Author’s Guide to Working with Libraries & BookstoresWide for the WinMark’s Canadian Werewolf BooksThis Time Around (Short Story)A Canadian Werewolf in New YorkStowe Away (Novella)Fear and Longing in Los AngelesFright Nights, Big CityLover’s MoonHex and the CityThe Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and AutomobilesYippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Elizabeth Andre has been self-publishing lesbian fiction since 2014. She writes cozy paranormal mystery, lesbian romance, science fiction, and young adult stories. Before turning her hand to fiction, she was a newspaper reporter for many years, and she has the paper cuts to prove it. She has won many writing awards including a Goldie from the Golden Crown Literary Society for fiction and a Peter Lisagor Award from the Chicago Headline Club for journalism. Elizabeth Andre is actually two people, a married interracial same-sex couple (Karen and Victoria) living in the Midwest.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0