Q&A: Ask a Published Author

[Lori]

Are you a writer with dreams of being a published author someday? Here's your chance to ask published authors for tips, tricks and advice.

[Ralph Gallagher]

What M/M publishers are there that have YA houses or have YA lines? I know MLR operates Featherweight Press for all their YA books, but I haven't really seen any others.

[Ez]

Noble does.

https://www.nobleyoungadult.com/Defau...

[Ralph Gallagher]

Wow those covers do not look like Y/A books. I can't see covers that look like "drug-store" romances appealing to teenagers.

[Lori]

Ralph wrote: "Wow those covers do not look like Y/A books. I can't see covers that look like "drug-store" romances appealing to teenagers."

They do look a little "Harlequinesque" don't they?

[Ez]

Yeah, a little bit. :) That line is brand new. I think they only started it last month maybe?

[Lacey]

Also, have any of you looked through their website? Although they don't have many books listed yet, they have search categories like 'extreme kink' & 'sensual romance.' I thought a widely-accepted characteristic of ya was the lack of emphasis on graphic sex. Am I wrong?

[Lacey]

Yeah, I've read ones that alluded to it or had the sex scenes fade to black. I guess the extreme kink and the D/s and FemDom tags just sort of threw me :)

[Ralph Gallagher]

What is "extreme kink" for a high school student? A homework fetish? =P

[Summer]

According to a site I read, Noble just started the YA genre. Bryl Tyne writes as B.J. Holt and posted this in the fall of 2010...

YA publisher Noble Young Adult call for submissions:

Romance for Young Adults, ages 16-25.

Sub-Genres (encouraged): Mystery/Suspense, Sci-Fi, Historical, Fantasy, Action/Thriller, Western, Paranormal

Gender and sexuality of characters are never an issue. Feel as free to submit your story about Joe and Hazel, as you would submitting a story about Joe and Brandon, or Hazel and Tabitha, or Joe and Hazel and Tabitha, or Joe and Brandon and sometimes, Sue, who was born Bob but is now, Sue, and all the villains, bullies, and mayhem each of your characters face in the wake of “young love”. Just keep it lively, keep it real, don’t sugar-coat the consequences, and leave the preaching to the parents.

Noble YA is looking for stories that address any topic (sub-plot to the romance or as part of the romantic thread) a young adult might encounter in his or her life, including but not limited to, sexual orientation, sexual experimentation, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, drugs, drinking, peer pressure, school, gangs, family issues, etc. Don’t let that stop you from submitting you sweet-sixteen romances or your quirky heroines or heroes, though. If young adults would love your story, Noble YA would like to read it.

* Lengths: 5,000 words and up.
* Sensuality Levels: Vary depending on the line (see Sweetheart, Foreign Affairs and YA for more details). Please use honest, “real” language and descriptions that fit your characters’ personalities.
* Content: We’re open to anything…but remember, these are romance novels. The level of passion between the main characters must be authentic and palpable. Other than that, feel free to explore any new, uncharted territory you can imagine, or re-do a well-worn plot in such a way as to make the story uniquely your own.
* Most importantly, we seek stories that touch the reader, and that contain characters they’ll remember long after they’ve finished reading the book.

What we will NOT consider under any circumstances:

* Pedophilia. No sexual relations of any kind between adults and underage children.
* Necrophilia.
* Bestiality, in the traditional sense of the word. Werewolves and other make-believe creatures are acceptable.
* Incest.
* Snuff.

[Summer]

Maybe the kink is for those closer to 25 than the 16 they have for YA ages.

[[deleted user]]

I noticed you mentioned that Bryl Tyne is writing YA under a different penname, and I've heard a couple of others say the same thing. I was planning to write my YA under the same penname as my adult fiction. I figure it lets the YA reader know I write adult fic when they're ready to read it. Thoughts on using separate pennames vs. the same penname?

[Summer]

Summer Michaels is my pen name. We have had this discussion in the writing/critique group. I think for some it is a matter of teens reading their work that isn't for their age group. I would like to write YA for M/M and non M/M genres, I plan to write in the non M/M genres with my given name. Here on GR, you can put your different pen names on your author page so fans can follow you, no matter what you write.

[Lacey]

Summer wrote: "Maybe the kink is for those closer to 25 than the 16 they have for YA ages."

Yeah, I guess you're right; that would make sense. I just didn't get as far as the guidelines page.

[Lacey]

Kerry wrote: "I noticed you mentioned that Bryl Tyne is writing YA under a different penname, and I've heard a couple of others say the same thing. I was planning to write my YA under the same penname as my adul..."

I think having a pen name for YA would be a clear-cut way to distinguish between the types of stories you write, and there would be no confusion with young people buying your books. However, if you decide to use the same name, you could just separate them on your website - have all your YA on one page and the adult stuff on another.

[Lori]

We discussed different pen names for M/F and M/M in the big group. The opinions were varied on whether, as a reader, you preferred the author to write M/F under one name and M/M under another.

[R.J.]

I wrote my YA story under the same pen name as my adult MM... RJ Scott is my writing pen name...

DO people here think that is a real problem? Any advice appreciated...

p.s. The most of my first sales on my YA book were from my Adult MM readers...

[Ez]

I agree with MJ. If I write M/M YA, it would probably be as Piper Vaughn, which is the name I write my adult M/M stuff under. Maybe I would make a separate section on my website or something.

If I started writing M/F (adult or YA), then I would probably use a separate name.

[R.J.]

Mine is all M/M... and from a purely marketing point of view, I have an audience as RJ Scott, so we'll have to see how that goes. I set up a new website for marketing the books seperately.

[Summer]

I plan to write all M/M under the Summer pen name, but M/F under my real name. My husband is a teacher, the only reason I have a pen name. I will be helping with overnight field trips and such, so I didn't want it to interfere. Some people can just be so closed minded.

[[deleted user]]

If I were to write something besides m/m, I'd probably use a different pen name for it, too. Don't see that happening in the near future, though :)

[[deleted user]]

Ralph wrote: "What M/M publishers are there that have YA houses or have YA lines? I know MLR operates Featherweight Press for all their YA books, but I haven't really seen any others."

Hi Ralph,

Here's my running list, though it's certainly not comprehensive:

Prizm Books (all genres)
Cheyenne Publishing (historical fiction)
JMS Books LLC (all genres)
Lethe Press (mostly speculative fiction)
Bold Strokes Books (all genres)
Regal Crest Books (all genres)
Kensington Books (mostly contemporary realistic/paranormal) - agented submissions only
Tu Publishing (speculative fiction with POCs only)
Untreed Reads (e-book only)*
Queerteen Press (all genres)
InGroup Press (all genres)
Fantastique Gearworks (steampunk)


I'll update as I go, I guess, but that's a good starting point for anyone who's interested in publishing LGBT YA fiction.

* These presses aren't specifically M/M, but they do publish books with LGBT content.

[R.J.]

That is an awesome list... *saves* I self pubbed my YA short... seems to be going well so far...

[Ez]

Ooh, thanks for the list, Hayden. :D

[[deleted user]]

Forgot to mention, guys, that Kensington only accepts agented submissions. I edited my post to reflect that. And two other pubs aren't specifically M/M, but they do accept LGBT fiction.

[K.Z.]

Kensington has put out some top-notch GLBT fiction. For a commercial NY house, they've shown real guts.

[Byron]

I have to say I've been mighty impressed with the titles I've bought from Kensington... and still want to get a couple more. Also I've found the paper editions easy to access here in Australia. Smaller print houses can be difficult to get out here.

[[deleted user]]

Let me try this again. XD JMS Books, LLC recently opened up a YA imprint, and they're re-releasing their YA titles through it.

Queerteen Press

At the moment, the site's still under construction, but at least you can access their pages for submission guidelines, et. al.

[[deleted user]]

And yet another small press that accepts LGBT YA, even encourages speculative fiction for LGBT teens:

InGroup Press

You can read their submission guidelines and their eagerness to take on speculative fiction over here.

[[deleted user]]

Small LGBT press specializing in steampunk fiction (and they accept YA submissions):

Fantastique Gearworks

[Ralph Gallagher]

Featherweight will take books in any genre. ;)

[Jo]

Jupiter Storm (Jupiter Gardens Press) takes YA paranormal, science fiction, urban fantasy, metaphysical (spec fic, I suppose I could have just said...). They're the non-romance imprint of the romance e-pub Pink Petal Books. Jupiter Storm would consider GLBT, I'm quite sure, given that Pink Petal publishes some GLBT romance. I'm published with Jupiter Storm under this name, and I have a couple of GLBT characters in one of my series with them, though those characters haven't come out yet in the books that the publisher has seen... My editor knows about them, though.

[Byron]

gah.. I am really starting to dislike the term 'spec fic'.. or speculative fiction, I just don't see a huge need to encompass so many sub genre's by one term..

Jo Ta for the heads up to get some more reading tho.. (and at least I'll be able to find you there!)

[Jo]

Byron, I'm not a big fan of the term, but it is easier to write "spec fic" than list all the subgenres...Same reason people type "LOL" instead of "I'm laughing out loud," I guess. :)

And yes, I exist there :) I'll exist at Featherweight soon as well; my first novel with them is on the Coming Soon page and may be out within the next couple-few weeks.

[Byron]

Jo - after I typed that last message, I realised that I sound like a stalker... Gah.. I'm sorry..

I do understand people using 'spec fic', but just lately I've started seeing it EVERYWHERE... sometimes old terms are the right terms. Marketing Guru's just like to change things for the ease of use and it's just not right.. (steps off his miniature little soap box..)

[Jo]

Byron, nah, it's cool :) I was taking it as a sign that you really want to read my books, and I can't have a problem with that. LOL

[[deleted user]]

I wonder now if we should have a separate thread that's a listing of presses that publish LGBT YA fiction that we can update as we go. I think people wouldn't be able to know right off the bat where to look, given this forum's heading.

[Jo]

Hayden, I think that's a great idea. That might also be a good place to put calls for submission for LGBT YA manuscripts, unless we already have a place for those...

[Byron]

Hayden wrote: "I wonder now if we should have a separate thread that's a listing of presses that publish LGBT YA fiction that we can update as we go. I think people wouldn't be able to know right off the bat wher..."

Definitely!!

[Angie]

Hello all... Malinda Lo author of Ash is going to be stopping by the YA Book Club to answer questions if you want to stop by. http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/7...

She recently became a goodreads author too if you just want to fan her:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

[Kaje]

Caitlin wrote: "Kerry wrote: "I noticed you mentioned that Bryl Tyne is writing YA under a different penname, and I've heard a couple of others say the same thing. I was planning to write my YA under the same penn..."

It's a tough choice - I chose to write YA under a different pen name, because I know as a teen I obsessively read the backlist of favorite authors and I didn't want a teen to come on my explicit stuff unawares. But I don't keep the two identities in locked boxes, so if someone wants to cross over they can. We have everything from authors who use the same name, to others who don't let the two pseudonyms touch. Part of the consideration is whether you want to do things like school readings and interacting with teens in your author persona. If you do then using a name which includes explicit adult titles may result in problems.

[Jo]

I'm one of those who tries not to let the two pen names touch. I write adult romance (both hetero and M/M), and I don't want teens accidentally stumbling on my adult stuff, because I have some very X-rated scenes. My daughter, who's almost 17, is quite annoyed with me because she'd like to read some of my M/M and I told her she can't until she's 18.

I'm a little more open about the two personas here; I don't think I actually name my adult romance alter ego, but I occasionally, especially on the "What's on your mind" thread, mention my adult books. And I'll be blurring the lines later this year when Featherweight Press releases my novel Fresh Meat; the main character is a 15-year-old boy who grows up to be the love interest in one of my M/M series. (Featherweight, if anyone here doesn't know, is the YA imprint owned by MLR Press, an M/M romance publisher. My series is published by MLR, so Featherweight's doing the YA trilogy I've spun off from it.)