For years, I strived to publish a story with
Circlet Press. I admired
Cecilia Tan as an editor and a writer, and I wanted to be connected to
Circlet Press and
Cecilia Tan. My story, Medusa's Mistress was rejected by Tan, but she sent me a very detailed critique. Later that story was published by
Alyson Books in their anthology,
Ultimate Lesbian Erotica 2008. Finally, I published my story, Transplant in the
Circlet anthology,
Up for Grabs edited by
Lauren P. Burka.
Circlet has always been ahead of its time in genre combining and quality erotica. I highly recommend their books.
1) What do you see in the future for Circlet Press?We've seen tremendous changes over the past three years where we've gone from a traditional book publisher to mostly a digital publisher with a few trade titles, but at its core our business is the same. Ninety percent of what we do is the same as it ever was -- it's that last ten percent of how we put the book in the hands of the reading public that has changed. The book industry is going to continue to change and hopefully we'll keep up with -- or just ahead of -- the pace of that change. We were forced to go digital by the sagging bookstore market sooner than a lot of our peers, but most of them are now being forced to follow, like Alyson Books and Dorchester. The part that's the same? On the editorial side, we're still seeking out the best erotic science fiction and fantasy and delivering it to the reading public, then putting money back in the hands of the authors. That hasn't changed.
2) Does Circlet plan to release print volumes of any of your e-books?We're doing very limited releases in print on demand only. The business model of printing up thousands of books and having them molder in a warehouse while you hope against hope that either Barnes & Noble or Borders will give a damn about them is dead.
3) What is the difference between your imprints?We technically have four imprints, though two of them have not seen any new publications in a long time, and a fifth is on the way.
Circlet Press, our main imprint, is for erotic science fiction and fantasy.
Then we have these:
The Ultra Violet Library: non-erotic gay and lesbian science fiction and fantasy
Circumflex: non-fiction celebrating the erotic imagination
Luster Editions: erotica and alternative sexuality fiction that is not sf/fantasy
Clasp Editions: paranormal erotic romance
I should note for any aspiring writers out there that we do not accept over the transom (unsolicited) manuscripts for any of these imprints. The only thing we accept unsolicited is short stories for the various short story anthologies we do throughout the year. We do anywhere from 12-25 of these a year, so there are many chances.
4) What do you look for in sf/f erotica?I look for a strong main character, an authoritative and unique narrative voice, a positive take on sex and sexuality, and if possible a new or interesting sf or fantasy concept. Basically, I look for good writing which portrays sex and sexuality in a good way.
5) What are your dislikes in the genre?Cliches. The whole point of combining erotica with science fiction/fantasy is not to just take the worst cliches of each and glom them together. It's to use each genre as a lever to pry the other out of their comfortable little boxes. If you don't, you just get a lot of "alien anal probe" stories.
6) Why do so many of Circlet's e-book's start with the title "Like?" Is it a theme?The "Like" series is a whole series of ebook-only short story anthologies, with from 3 to 7 stories in each volume. Each book is on a different theme. The only thing they have in common is their format: short ebooks.
7) Does Circlet plan on having another contest?I'm unsure right now. I would like to do another contest because it always bring in new writers we haven't worked with before. But the last two volumes, Best Fantastic Erotica and
Best Erotic Fantasy, had to be crowd funded to raise both the printing costs and the prize money, and I don't want to go to that well too often. If we could get a corporate sponsor for the contest, on the other hand, I'd do it every year.
What is more likely right now is that you're going to see a "Best of Circlet Press" volume along the lines of Erotic Fantastic appear every other year or so, with the very best stories pulled from the 25-50 anthologies we will have published between print volumes. As with everything in the down economy, it will depend on money and cash flow.
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