Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia

Transphobia and homophobia are major issues IRL, but I rarely, if ever, include them in my stories. My portrayals of homosexuality in the context of my fictional societies are idealized, I won't front. (I can't speak to trans* characters because I haven't written any(1), but I can tell you that I'd probably do something similar.)

I've heard it said more than once that excluding transphobia or homophobia from fiction isn't realistic, even in fantasy (which is my first and true love; coffee, I'm sorry, you're taking a backseat) and other non-contemporary genres.

I think that's horseshit. (I'd say pardon my language, but fuck that noise. ;3) To say that a world cannot be realistic unless there's some segment of society that rails against LGBTQ persons in vicious and often violent ways is absolute horseshit. I write my worlds without transphobia and homophobia because I believe that's something to aspire to, that's something societies can be capable of, be they fantasy or contemporary.

When I was younger, I was teased a lot (not viciously, but normal kid stuff). I was shy and introverted, and my escape was my books. I loved seeing new worlds where silly things like weight and clothing and that sort of thing didn't matter. It's important to have books that deal with transphobia and homophobia, but I feel it's equally important to have books that show places and times where it's not an issue.

Books that normalize LGBTQ characters, that show them as primarily a king, primarily a mage, primarily an accountant, and oh yeah, they're trans*/lesbian /bi/etc. are, to me, just as important as those that deal with the wrongs of society. That's what LT3 is aiming for, and that's why I write what I write.

(1) Footnote! I'd love to write a trans character, but quite frankly, I don't have the guts. I'm entirely and thoroughly cis-gender and I'm not sure I could do a trans* character justice. Maybe one day I'll have the courage and ability to make it work. In the meantime, I'm going to search harder to find and support the awesome work that's already out there.

 

Definitely go and check out the rest of the Hop posts; they're sure to be poignant and much better written than my little, non-scholarly thing. ^__^

Okay, so, giveaway. I'm offering up (1) a $50 donation in your name to The Point Foundation, an LGBTQ scholarship foundation that provides financial support to at-risk gay and lesbian students and (2) an ebook from my backlist, in the format of your choosing, anthologies included.

Winner will be picked at the conclusion of the hop using random.org. If you're reading this on my LJ, please hop over to my website to post a comment, as I'll only be picking from the website comments. To enter, please include your email address and what your absolute favorite LGBTQ story is. (You can leave multiple comments, FYI, on the off chance you forget something, but I'll only count you once. ^__^)

Third Party Vendors (An Informational Post)

I was told there'd be no math! :3 (Stealing that line shamelessly from LT3's CFO. ;3) Before I get started on this topic, I'm meaning this to be informational. A lot of peeps know third-party vendors take a cut, and I'm putting solid numbers out there for those who are curious about the exactitudes of that cut. ^__^

Okay, so LT3 supplies our books to eight or so third-party vendors. Third-party vendors get us more exposure and make people more inclined to buy our books while they're doing their other shopping (typically for books from other publishers). Sort of like the way WalMart and other stores picked up the super center model with groceries, general merch, and pharmacy and the like.

A rundown of LT3's third party vendors:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
iTunes
Kobo
AllRomance Ebooks
Rainbow Ebooks
Bookstrand

(We also do Smashwords, but their system is extra special complicated so for simplicity I'm skipping that one.)

Let's start with Amazon. If the book is priced between $2.99 and $9.99, they'll give you 70% of the list price. If it's less or more, you get 35%. But wait! Amazon distributes to a bunch of different countries (think Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.com.br, etc.) If you don't exclusively distribute with Amazon (the KDP Select program), you can only get 35% of the price in India, Japan, and Brazil. There's no 70% option there.

Barnes & Noble has a similar tier setting. If your book is between $2.99 and $9.99, they'll give you 65% of the list price. Anything else, you get 40%. No ifs, ands, buts here, just two simple tiers.

iTunes is simple and complicated. They give us 70% for all books, regardless of price. However! You have to match their price tiers. This is pretty easy for USD prices, as their price tiers pretty evenly match ours (everything must end in .99), but gets trickier when you start to do conversions to Euros, GBP, etc. >_<

Kobo also does tiered percentages. If you're between $1.99 and $12.99, you get 70%. Everything else gets 45%.

AllRomance and Rainbow Ebooks both take a solid 40%, giving us 60%, and Bookstrand splits it 50-50.

So what does this mean? Well, LT3 gives our authors 40% of the price from books sold through LT3, and 35% of the gross we get from third party sales. Here's what that looks like (math!):



(Apologies for the size of that image, but no way was I coding that table by hand. x__X;;)

There you have it. ^__^ If you've got any questions, drop 'em, though I may have to ping Sam to answer any tough ones.