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AE: More fiction seems to be coming out first in paperback, skipping hardcover altogether. Do you see that trend?
MJ: Yes. For a long time it wasn't done because media outlets wouldn't review directly to original paperback.

AE: Snobbery?
MJ: Exactly. It was also a way of setting a high bar, so you were limited in the number of books you had to review. Of course, now you have the self-publishing movement, which is not helping, because it just adds more titles.

AE: Are more people self-publishing gay fiction because the professional gay writers are all of writing mainstream fiction?
BH: Yes, because the professional writer has to make a living, and until very recently, it has been almost impossible to make a living writing anything gay. So all the professional gay writers have been writing for TV or movies, or mainstream fiction. Gay readers have had nowhere else to go--they have to buy the existing gay books if they want to find gay characters, and they want to support the industry. But at the same time, a lot of these books wouldn't really survive if they weren't gay, if they didn't have the passion of gay readers. So to some degree, I think it is a good thing that our books are being tested in the fires of mainstream, that there is some competition for gay readers' attention. Books used to be the only place to see gay people, the only way for gays to see themselves reflected was in a book. Now that they can turn on TV and see gay characters, I think that the bar is being raised and we need to write better books.

AE: So is writing books with gay themes considered a more viable career option now?
BH: I think the younger generation is writing gay stuff, but I can't think of any mainstream authors that are starting to do gay fiction; there seems to be more of a migration the other way--towards writing mainstream fiction, once they are able to succeed in the gay fiction market.
MJ: I don't really think writing gay fiction launches you any further into writing mainstream fiction, other then allowing you to practice writing and get better at it. I don't think that you build an audience among gay fiction and the publishers come to you and say, "Oh, now we think you can move to the mainstream." I don't see that happening. I just think people are more or less saying, "I'm tired of trying to make a living of this, I am going to write for a wider audience."
BH: But on the other hand...making a living in the book business, it's 50% royalties from your book, but it is also movie, audio, and foreign rights, speaking engagements--that is 50 percent of my income now too. Ten years ago, none of that was available to a gay writer, there was no interest in the foreign rights, your gay book was never being a book on tape unless it was Rubyfruit Jungle. Even then, maybe it wouldn't be. Now all of that is open, now they are all receptive to us these days.
MJ: It is kind of a hot field, at least for now.

Look for the second installment of the interview next week;
learn more about the authors at BrentHartinger.com and MichaelJensen.com

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