What Does the Loss of Insightout Mean For Gay Publishing?

On the question of what the future holds for publishing, Weiss points out, “Gay books are doing really well. The irony is that we just got bought by a bigger version of ourselves.” 
 
Weiss attributes what is happening with gay publishing to the changing landscape of the publishing business in general. He explains: “They decided to close three imprints. My imprint, Carroll & Graf, is one of them. But the decision was financial. Carroll & Graf doesn't just publish gay books. My list was primarily gay books, but my list is only a small part of Carroll & Graf publishing. I was doing 25 to 50 a year that were gay, but Carroll & Graf was publishing 150 books or more a year.” 
 
His chief concern is that the decrease in promotions and publishers will hurt authors with new and different voices in general, which will, by extension, harm gay authors. “I worry across the board as publishers tighten their belts. I worry whether or not writers who want to do something different or who are independent will fit in with the more stringent publishing culture. This goes on all the time in publishing. People lose their jobs all the time. People shut down all the time. There is a lot of reshuffling. Publishing is in flux. Gay people are part of that so we are in flux.” 
 
But is the decline in gay publishing and promotion of gay books of any great concern? Or should gay and lesbian authors see this as an opportunity to be more integrated into the mainstream?
 
Ford answers: “It [the integration] goes along with the whole idea that gay people are becoming more and more mainstream. The assumption is that we don't need these kinds of books. I think that's a ridiculous statement. People want to read about their own lives. This is true whether you are a person of color, a woman or a gay person. Anything that is not white heterosexual male is not portrayed as widely in the arts. Of course, people are going to want to see their lives.” 
 
Hartinger feels gay literature, and the promotion of it, is important, but feels integration into the mainstream is perhaps a positive reflection of the changing times. “Traditionally, gay literature has dealt with issues like AIDS or coming out, but what's happening now? We are integrating our gay identity as one facet of rich lives . . . This means there is maturation. This same maturation is happening with gay literature. It is much more than being black and gay or having HIV and being gay. It is one aspect of a richer life.” 

This is a view shared by Hermance. “Twenty years ago we had a huge AIDS section. AIDS isn't over. But the people writing and buying books on that subject declined. We don't get more than five or six AIDS titles into the store a year. You can contrast that with the hundreds of titles that would come out on that subject in one year 20 years ago, but, there are so many topics that have not been touched.”

Hartinger also dispels the idea that the audience for gay literature is made up of only gay men. “The majority of my readers aren't gay,” he says. “Some are straight women and some are male. I don't write for an exclusively gay audience. Gay people are a minority of my readership.” 

So what does the future hold for the gay books that Insightout promoted?
 
Ford replies: “I was an editor before I was a writer. That's why I believe these are financial decisions. As a writer, I hope that someone will step up to say that this is important to have a book club for gay and lesbian people. Who that would be? I don't know. Maybe . . . Alyson or one of the smaller presses?” 
 
Labonte shares a similar hope, saying, “My experience is that voids, when they exist in the industry, are filled.”

Weiss agrees that there will be a resurgence to fill the void. “I also believe we can turn this around,” he says, “depending on how ambitious we are. I wouldn't count on straight people to come [up] with a vision for us to follow. I think we always set the course for ourselves. There is always someone pushing things forward. For example, here at Carroll & Graf I was the force pushing things forward. When things change, you are never certain whether there will be that same vitality in the same way again. But I know for myself I will go on and continue to do gay books. It could be an exciting time.” 
 
Hartinger is optimistic, too. “Gay books are important because literature as media does not require the investment that television does. Therefore, books are able to take more chances. I like to say that what you are watching on television now is what we as writers were dealing with five or 10 years ago. Literature can be the place where these are first explored. You don't need a mass audience.”

“On television,” he elaborates, “you can have a gay couple, but in literature you can have gay mystery, science fiction and all of the genre stories . . . We can tell these stories further from the mainstream . . . You can have a book about an African American or Asian gay person. You can have such a niche audience in books that you will never see on television.”