(no subject)

[erastes]

Last week I applied to the Eastern Daily Press (my local paper) to have a blog on their website. I told them that I wanted to write a column about the woes and occasional joy of writing and getting published (or not)

I was accepted, told that I'd be unmoderated but they expected me to keep out of trouble and any complaints would be investigated, and that they'd set me up if I sent them bio, info etc. Which I duly did.

Today I got this response: They couldn't be bothered to spell my real name correctly, which is great for journalism!

"Thank you for that, but I feel I must disappoint you. Having taken advice from the EDP concerning your website, I must inform you that its content is not considered appropriate for the EDP brand.

In addition, you already have a blog and having Googled your name, Erastes comes top of the list.

Perhaps I should have checked earlier so please forgive me for any inconvenience or expectations I may have caused."

I wrote back:

Well, I can't say I'm not disappointed, but not really surprised - the newspaper made it fairly obvious that it was pretty homophobic with their cartoon last week. Sadly I hadn't seen that cartoon until after I had applied, and I would not have done so had I seen the cartoon first. However - I was not going to discuss anything regarding the subject I wrote about, (I am aware that not everyone would like that) but was planning to merely share my experiences in writing, give advice to other budding authors and write amusing anecdotes with regard to my frankly silly editors. It looks like this incident in itself will be worthy of being written about!

I'm sorry that "the brand" is so prejudiced. Perhaps one day the newspaper will realise that romance novels can be written about more than just men and woman and that love doesn't depend on gender.

The cartoon I refer to would not have been allowed had it been similarly poking "fun" at black people or muslims – it referred to the recent problem with the Catholic church wanting an exemption to the government ruling that they must include same-sex couples in their adoption plans. There was a little old lady from an adoption agency having tea with a clichéd gay couple – both overweight, one more girly and camp, the other butch and studded. There were gay pictures and gay posters all over the wall in case we hadn't got the point that they were GAY (because you can always tell that someone is gay just by looking at them, can't you?), and the butch one was pouring tea and said "I'll be mother." It caused a lot of complaints, one even from a solicitor from here (who is hetero and roman catholic to boot) – he was furious about it, wrote a letter of complaint which was actually published over last weekend. Good for him.

Never mind. Their loss. Now at least I know why they have ignored my request to review my novel. Subject matter notwithstanding, you would think that a local author would be newsworthy. But obviously not!

Onwards and upwards!

Comments

[alankria.livejournal.com]

Onwards and upwards!

Exactly!

And it pleases me immensely that a Catholic man complained about that cartoon.

[mroctober.livejournal.com]

Hey, I've been published a lot and am unable to get any notice. It's the genre.

[ejab62.livejournal.com]

Oh, they missed out on a wonderful possibility! There are so many people who want to write and it could be very inspiring to read about your journey!
Shame. Like you said - it's their loss.

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

No surprise. It is pretty difficult to have an audience through an "official" channel. Last week was the first birthday of my bookstore: in one year I have had about 3/4 books reading per week. In two occasions, I have first showed a short documentary about lesbian love among teens and second hosted a book reading for an essay about gay love in the history. 2 events among 200. And many people now continue to ask me if my bookstore is a homosexual bookstore. I don't know if it is the lack of places who allow this events, or the rarity of the event itself.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

So it's appropriate to make fun of homosexuals and to promote stereotypes in a supposedly objective press, but it's not appropriate to respect people who write about them as human beings?

I see.

That tells me more about Eastern Daily Press than the editors probably realized.

[leatherdykeuk.livejournal.com]

Gah! Buggers.

You're better than that petty homophobia.

[sabethea.livejournal.com]

That's ridiculous, and you deserve better than that paper, clearly. Look for a bigger (in all senses) paper, perhaps?

I write romance, but the things that frustrates me most is that you seem either to have to write gay fiction or het fiction. There's not much market for stories in which you don't know whether the main character is going to end up with a girl or with a guy :-/

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry that happened. It's something I've run into a few times -- I will generally not get business from conservative clients, for example -- but the universe time and time again connects me with the people I want to do business with.

Additionally, having done a ton of work for local newspapers: it's a grinding, beat you down environment. You'd be building your name in a local market, true, but is that where your readership is? It took me a while to realize that for me the answer was "No" but I suspect that'd be the same for you as well.

Also: we don't want to give you exposure because you're already well established is a crock of shit. I bet if "Insert famous person here" wanted to write for them, they'd jump at it.

Thirdly (Fouthly?) I'd approach their competitor. Think of the headline: EDP homophobic in hiring practices? I'd cover that like white on rice if I was still in the trade and local to you.

[semioticwarrior.livejournal.com]

Idiots. Idiots!

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

Thirdly (Fouthly?) I'd approach their competitor. Think of the headline: EDP homophobic in hiring practices?
Ha! That was going through my mind too.

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

They shouldn't be thinking so much about readership they might lose as readership they might gain!

Regardless, they're cowards.

"you would think that a local author would be newsworthy"

[dubaiyan.livejournal.com]

I would! "You already have a blog" o.O

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It pleased me mightily too.

*G*

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I think gehayi summed it up beautifully further down - that it more acceptable to mock homosexuals than to write about them as if they were human beings.

hmmm.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Well, it's only a local paper, perhaps I should aim higher!!!

*G*

[erastes.livejournal.com]

That's bonkers. It's like if you picked 1 out of 200 reading nights to be Sci-fi you'd hardly be accused of being a sci-fi shop!!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. You think they would want to repair the damage, wouldn't you? *sigh* Their loss!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

You are right. I shall set my sights higher!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Hmm. That's a very interesting point. However I can't see why not - there must be a TON of bisexuals who have stories like that and would love to read them!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Well it was nothing but a blog, not exactly a job, nothing more than Live Journal. I was going to make it more of a "writer's experiences" rather than anything specific about what I wrote. I suppose people could have googled Erastes, but they could have easily said "we'd rather you didn't mention your writing" which would have been more polite, and then I'd have to turn them down.

There isn't really a main competitor, the EDP is the biggest in the area, but I might try a bigger paper and mention how I got turned down by the provicial paper.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It was "the brand" thing that got me. Like a local paper is a brand like Coca cola or something. And actually, what it actually ended up like sounding like was "the brand is homophobic and we'd like to keep it that way, actually"

[erastes.livejournal.com]

nod nod nod!

Re: "you would think that a local author would be newsworthy"

[erastes.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

completely baffled by the whole thing...

[sabethea.livejournal.com]

Well, there MUST be. But find a market, I can not. Which is why at the moment I'm pestering Mills and Boon for work, but I'd feel happier with a market where there was a chance of having a bi character. (Not that I personalise my characters, obviously....)

[sabethea.livejournal.com]

So very much you're better off without them.

[moshi.livejournal.com]

They don't know what they're missing out on, and nor do the readers of the newspaper. :/ A column like that would have been a little goldmine for new authors.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It would have been interesting. However, I'm going to the Norwich writer's group in a week, I'll bring it up there. bar stewards.

*snug*