WWGSS

If you write about gay relationships, or even just stories about gay characters, it's hard to get published. The gay market is a tiny one within the larger fiction market. And these days, whatever they say, most mainstream publishers are only interested in blockbuster novels. By definition, gay-shaded stories will never be that, because we are just 5 or 10% of the population. It's true that many women like romantic m2m tales -- half my readers are women, but then I write what I call 'original slash', which is perhaps a bit different from much of what gay writers produce, with obvious exceptions, such as Patrick Gale or Armistead Maupin. However, even these famous authors who appeal to women as well as gay-shaded men are not 'blockbuster' sellers -- though give them their due, they've sold far more books than I have! (Both highly recommended authors, by the way, if you're looking for a good read)

So... where does one get published? For me, I started with online groups. And one of those was WWGSS. You have an audience. They might well read your story. They might even like it. And if you are a reader yourself -- and most authors are -- you can read other authors' stories, and enjoy them. At the end of every month, the owner, Michael Gouda, who is himself a published author, removes all the comments on the stories, so you are left with an archive purely of stories. By now, the archive is huge: WWGSS has been going for nine years. The group's guidelines discourage stroke stories -- sex for sex's sake -- so the bias in the stories is towards romantic m2m.

Each week, Michael updates the home page photo. There are extensive photo albums in the group, as well as the stories. The two pics attached to this post are the latest from the WWGSS home page.

It's well worth a visit. Quality varies, but there are enough good stories there, from authors who otherwise we might never get to see, to make membership worth while.

And thank you Michael, for making it possible for the tyro I once was to get read. Without you and others like you, I might never have got to where I have.