Infuriatingly Cross-Genre
So, let's talk about things that make me fly into a rage.
So Real!Book crosses three genres: (Epic Fantasy/New Adult/Gay Erotica). I suppose if I ignore the fact that Main Protagonist begins his journey right before his 16th birthday I could cut it down to just Epic Fantasy/Gay Erotica, since the majority of the other POV characters are much older. Anyway, every time I tell people this split of genre it is assumed I would have to go through an LGBTQ publishing house because of the "alternative lifestyle" nature of the main couple.
Let's take a break and talk about how much I hate the phrase "alternative lifestyle". Could anything get more heteronormitive? On top of that the word "alternative" basically means "choice" if that wasn't bad enough... /rage/
To go back to my main point, Real!Book isn't a story about a "gay Main Protagonist" it is about Main Protagonist. His homosexuality is not the defining point of who he is as a person, but one of many pieces of what makes him, him. One of the main "soap box issues" I am trying to address through my work is to illustrate how stupid it is to categorize people by their sexual preference, and the whole society of one of the main islands in the archipelago is tailored to this goal. If the industry wasn't so heteronormitive I wouldn't even have to put "Gay erotica" as a cross genre. Epic Fantasy has a lot of romance, and a lot of sex, but because it predominantly heterosexual sex, they don't even need to cross genre it into "romance" or "erotica". To be fair, my sex scenes often push well over 5,000 words when I do them... but all of those words are necessary dammit! >.> <.< >.>
Anywhoo Epic Fantasy is the genre under which Real!Book mainly falls, but I'm scared to even submit a manuscript to a publishing house that focuses on it because I just *know* they'll be all "So, you know that part where their dicks touch? Yeaaaahhhh we're going to need you to take that out, mmmkay?"
Anyway, June is my Nano-Finish-the-manuscript-already month, so I guess I should stop procrastinating thinking about this and just go back to cheating and getting ahead on my 50,000 word goal.
Bah.
So Real!Book crosses three genres: (Epic Fantasy/New Adult/Gay Erotica). I suppose if I ignore the fact that Main Protagonist begins his journey right before his 16th birthday I could cut it down to just Epic Fantasy/Gay Erotica, since the majority of the other POV characters are much older. Anyway, every time I tell people this split of genre it is assumed I would have to go through an LGBTQ publishing house because of the "alternative lifestyle" nature of the main couple.
Let's take a break and talk about how much I hate the phrase "alternative lifestyle". Could anything get more heteronormitive? On top of that the word "alternative" basically means "choice" if that wasn't bad enough... /rage/
To go back to my main point, Real!Book isn't a story about a "gay Main Protagonist" it is about Main Protagonist. His homosexuality is not the defining point of who he is as a person, but one of many pieces of what makes him, him. One of the main "soap box issues" I am trying to address through my work is to illustrate how stupid it is to categorize people by their sexual preference, and the whole society of one of the main islands in the archipelago is tailored to this goal. If the industry wasn't so heteronormitive I wouldn't even have to put "Gay erotica" as a cross genre. Epic Fantasy has a lot of romance, and a lot of sex, but because it predominantly heterosexual sex, they don't even need to cross genre it into "romance" or "erotica". To be fair, my sex scenes often push well over 5,000 words when I do them... but all of those words are necessary dammit! >.> <.< >.>
Anywhoo Epic Fantasy is the genre under which Real!Book mainly falls, but I'm scared to even submit a manuscript to a publishing house that focuses on it because I just *know* they'll be all "So, you know that part where their dicks touch? Yeaaaahhhh we're going to need you to take that out, mmmkay?"
Anyway, June is my Nano-Finish-the-manuscript-already month, so I guess I should stop procrastinating thinking about this and just go back to cheating and getting ahead on my 50,000 word goal.
Bah.