Don Weise’s Views
Don Weise is a publisher/editor who has been working in LGBTI publishing for over twenty years. I’ve worked with him in the past, and he edited my novel, Fangsters, with Riverdaleavebooks.com. I met him a while back when he was senior editor at Alyson Publications when Alyson bought the rights to An Officer and His Gentleman. I have never worked with a more gentle editor than Don. I know gentle might sound like an odd word to use, but it’s the best way to describe my experience with him. He’s also a very interesting man and through a series of e-mail exchanges I’ve learned a good deal about more than one topic. Huff Po recently did a great interview with Don where he talks about LGBT publishing, the changes we’ve seen, and what changes still might happen.
DW…I think that with publishing at the big houses becoming so blockbuster-oriented, it leaves little room for midlist titles which is what most LGBT books are. Relatively few will sell over twenty thousand copies. However, that leaves the field open for small presses, gay and otherwise, to bring out more LGBT literature. The readers are definitely there.
I recently had a conversation with an author and we were both saying the same thing. And both of us have done indie publishing, but we both still prefer working with small presses.
You can read the entire interview in full, here.
Victoria, TX Kicks Gay Dancers Out
In a Texas town I’ve never heard of…Victoria…a gay couple dancing together was allegedly kicked out of a “straight” nightclub.
A dance club for heterosexuals (yes, they exist!) in Victoria, Texas is being slammed this week after ousting a gay couple for dancing together during a country music song. The director of operations at Cactus Canyon claims he was trying to “maintain the peace,” though we’re pretty sure he was just jealous of the couple’s superior dance skills.
Full story here: http://www.queerty.com/straight-texas-club-boots-gay-couple-for-violating-same-sex-dancing-ban-20131226/#ixzz2odKG1om1
The owner of the club has since apologized and claims it was all a misunderstanding. ACLU of Texas has offered to assist the couple.
One of the reasons I set my Glendora Hill series in Texas Hill Country is because I know a lot of gay people who live there and I’ve never once heard them complain of discrimination…at least not any more than in any state in the US. Trust me, I have plenty of Pennsylvania discrimination stories from first hand experience. So I think this is an isolated incident, and one that could have happened anywhere in the US. It’s important to point those things out so people don’t misinterpret things.