[ SECRET POST #2418 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2418 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Pitch Perfect]


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[LeeSaem of Nine Muses, Kota of Sunny Hill, Lime of Hello Venus and Minzy of 2NE1]


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[ ----- SPOILERY SECRETS AHEAD ----- ]


















16. [SPOILERS for Harry Potter]



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17. [SPOILERS for Life]



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18. [SPOILERS for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic]



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[ ----- TRIGGERY SECRETS AHEAD ----- ]













19. [WARNING for abuse]



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20. [WARNING for sexual abuse]



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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 000 secrets from Secret Submission Post #345.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

05. http://i.imgur.com/E8hsg.jpg

[thene]

Wat. Do you read books much?

ETA: Just a sample of the genre books I've read lately... J by William Sanders and Silk by Caitlin Kiernan are about lesbians, one of the main pairings in Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds is a straight relationship in which the woman is trans. This is all just random stuff I've read since the beginning of this year. Right now I'm reading a novel ms for a friend in which two of the male main characters are FWBs. So I'm not sure why this is such a concern to you that it's distracting you from finishing your books.

[othellia]

You do realize that you're talking about fandom, right?

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know whether a balanced analysis of the current publishing world would entirely support your conclusion.

[(Anonymous)]

Have you ever heard of Doctrine of Labyrinths?

[caecilia]

you need to stop worrying about what's gonna sell and just focus on the story


ps m/m porn sells like hot cakes

[transcriptanon]

[Picture is black text over a blank cream-colored background.]

I'm currently writing a book series that I hope to get published some day. The only problem is, I know that it will probably never get published or, if it does, it will never have a fandom because the main love interests are both male.

I know that if I make one of the love interests female, I could potentially have a popular adventure/fantasy series on my hands. But I just can't make the change, because it wouldn't feel right for my characters.

Let's face it, homosexual book series rarely (never?) make it into the mainstream and this really upsets me. I feel my series will never have a fandom or any sort of popularity because the mainstream audience doesn't want to read stories about two guys who just so happen to be in love with each other. [sad face emoticon]

[iceyred]

May I suggest you google Brent Hartinger and see what comes up? I recommend his books.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, other future author anon, what is the focus of your story? Is it the romance or is it the action/adventure?

Say, if it is the action/adventure, maybe you would be able to tone the romance down and let the fans decide themselves. Because if being in fandom has taught me anything, fans are going to ship what they are going to ship and you might be writing main male and main male together but someone is going to see random female in background and ship her with one or both of them and really you have no say in the matter at that point.

Or, you can stop worrying about fandom and publishers and focus on writing what you love and stand up for your work and be proud of it whether it gets published or not.

[(Anonymous)]

>Story has gays in it
>Fandom won't have any interest in it
What kind of bizarro world do you live in where that's a legitimate fear.

I'm writing a fairly popular story online as well and I get people asking me at least once a week about who's gay and who he's most likely to fuck. Growing sick of it honestly.

[(Anonymous)]

As an avid slash fan...I unfortunately agree with you, OP. You're probably right that it wouldn't gain the popularity you're looking for. HOWEVER, you DEFINITELY could develop a cult fandom following if you market it and spread it around word-of-mouth in slash fandoms!

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe you could put the romance in the background, and make it more subtext-y and implied rather than confirming it out right? It'll be easier to make mainstream, and fandom prefers subtext-y couples over canonical couples anyway, so....

[(Anonymous)]

Depends? It's not exactly unheard of for something to be published with a non-straight lead, particularly since the publishing world tends to have more liberal standards. It's not garunteed, and straight romances are more common/more likely to do well, but not impossiable either.

(Sorry for the spelling errors, the tablet I'm using has a shitty keyboard)

[(Anonymous)]

For the life of me, I cannot remember the author's name, but there was an author of romantic suspense/thriller novels I read that had one of them as a m/m romance instead of a f/m romance. I don't know what fandom there is for the book, as I didn't look for one when I read it and can't remember the title now, but it at least was published by a mainstream publisher. (And, knowing fandom, I'd guess a m/m pairing would be even more embraced than a f/m pairing.)

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, grow up OP. Go look at fanfiction - I have a harder time finding a story WITHOUT homosexual characters...

[(Anonymous)]

ngl, OP, but if you think about getting a fandom first, I basically already side-eyed you.

Think about finishing the book first, not about gaining the fandom AFTER you finished the book. It's like you're saying how big of a stars I should pick? yet you haven't finished building the ladders that's supposed to take you to the stars.

[(Anonymous)]

so I guess you never heard of Brokeback Mountain then

[ariakas]

Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series features a gay couple as the protagonists, and it's reasonably popular. As was Lackey's The Last Herald Mage. It's not outside of the realm of possibility. Especially for a fantasy series, a genre that tends to be female dominated. You might even lure some slash fans in because of it (Flewelling certainly seems to have).

[(Anonymous)]

Fantasy has a tonne of gay characters. It's part of the reason I got into the genre as a teen. just look at the night runner series, action fantasy where the two main leads are guys who are a couple.

[(Anonymous)]

I feel like I've read variations on this secret several times before, and it always bothers me.

Firstly, I've read masses of fantasy books featuring LGBT characters. There are plenty of publishers who won't flinch from that kind of thing.

Secondly, your book probably won't much of a fandom whatever you do. It's a very rare occurrence (though as others have said, adding a gay couple is likely to draw fandom in rather than push it away). Most books just don't seem to inspire fannish activity in the same way as other, more visual mediums.

[(Anonymous)]

Your goal as a writer should be to be a working writer. Somebody who makes money, maybe even someday enough to live off. :) Or if you just have one book you want to write, then getting it out there for people to read.

Making a goal of getting a fandom is like making a goal of winning the lottery. Make your goals things you can control, like a certain amount of work put in, or learning more, or doing the best you can with your story.

Most books don't have fandoms.

[(Anonymous)]

Is this a repost? I swear I've read this before.

[(Anonymous)]

Admit it, OP: you're just trying to stir up recs for fantasy starring queer characters.

(And thank you for it. I'm familiar with several of the recs, but now I have some new things to look up on my next library visit.)

[(Anonymous)]

Stop whining and start writing. You don't even have the thing finished. It doesn't matter how many people read the book (if and when you finish it.) What matters is how it impacts those who do read it. Nothing else matters.

[(Anonymous)]

if the book fails to get published don't blame it on your gay characters...i know quite a few 'aspiring writers' who refuse to change their gay characters into straight ones to make a buck, yet that is the perfect excuse to cover for their failings as a writer...there's a huge gay market out there and if it doesn't get picked up it's not because it's 'gay'...i'm a lesbian but i'm a realist...fucking make your breeder monies then write the gay romance novel you've been dying to