Black Publisher: From Net to BET

A small publishing house that markets entirely online gets big league attention from Black Entertainment Television Books and top book clubs. Also: Hitting the streets for Sept. 11 victims ... erotica goes serial ... and more, in M.J. Rose's notebook.

African American publisher Sadorian Publications only markets its titles online, but that doesn't seem to be holding it back. Sadorian's small press books are now reselling to mainstream publishers and to the top book clubs.

For instance, Boogie On Tuesday, by Linda Dominique Grosvenor, was bought by Black Entertainment Television Books. It will be one of the debut titles in the January launch of their Sepia imprint -– a trade paperback women's fiction line.

And Secrets of Gingerbread Men has been chosen by the Black Expressions Book of the Month Club, a division of Bookspan.

"We have an Internet tag team who write and do promotions for the company full-time," said publisher Dominique Riddick.

This winter, Sadorian will release its first collection of horror stories: Havoc After Dark, by journalist Robert Fleming.

Fleming also wrote The African American Writers Handbooks and Wisdom of the Elders.

Hitting the pavement: Come snow or freezing temperatures, Brian W. Vaszily isn't going home until he's sold 4,000 copies of his first novel: Beyond Stone and Steel: A Memorial to the September 11, 2001 Victims.

Starting Wednesday morning, he'll be on the streets of Chicago, Illinois, 24 hours a day -- except for bathroom breaks -- until approximately one book has been sold in honor of each victim.

Fifty percent of both the publisher's and the author's proceeds will be given to Sept. 11 charities.

The novel will be released in print and e-book versions by Hard Shell Word Factory.

"Through imagined characters, Vaszily does what no news story or survivor's account can: Brings us into the lives, loves, hopes and dreams of the departed people so much like our friends, our families, and ourselves in the minutes and moments surrounding each phase of the attack," publisher Mary Z. Wolf said.

Donations will go to the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund, a college fund for children of the victims.

"What better way to honor those killed than to help give their kids, particularly the needy ones, advanced education?" Vaszily said.

Erotica hot as ever: Here's one more publishing house that thinks sex will sell e-books. Bethany Burke and Frances LaGatta, co-founders of Wicked Velvet, are betting their serialized erotic romances to be the ones to catch fire.

Readers will pay a monthly fee and have access to all fiction in the members area. Opening chapters of six serialized novels are scheduled to be ready for the January launch, with another two on board by February.

Bethany Burke, a published historical author offline and an erotic author online, hopes to attract a readership from her adult membership site, which, she said, has the highest percentage of female members of any adult site in the world. The publishers will be offering a wide variety of erotica.

"We want our writers to be able to explore some of the non-politically correct topics, which romance novels seemed to have featured in the '70s and '80s and are now lacking, i.e., soft-core BDSM and spanking, harem/slave fantasy, abduction fantasy, etc.," Burke said.

Novels will be posting a chapter a month, and authors will get paid for each chapter as it is written. "Getting paid for a novel in progress is not only unheard of, but readers anticipating the next chapter post will give the writer instant feedback from within our members/authors forums area," Burke said.

Once the book is completed, it will stay on the membership site for several months. It will then be transferred to a separate site and sold either as individual chapters or as a completed e-book. Authors will get a percentage of these sales as well, providing further ongoing revenue.

Laughing at the book biz: Rubicon Media launched a website that will publish daily cartoons lampooning writing, publishing and bookselling. The cartoons are drawn by Julian Lake.

"I've been watching the publishing scene for years, and there's a lot to make fun of," said Lake, who's worked as a journalist and in the publishing industry, and has penned cartoons. "When I first thought of doing the site, I sat down and did 20 cartoons in an hour. There will be no problem doing one a day," Lake said.

The cartoonist cut his teeth on Gaywit.com, which is now a search engine leader in its category of "gay cartoons."

Lake's next cartoon book will be Domestic Partners, Inc., a collection of cartoons about gay life in the workplace.

M.J. Rose is the author of two novels and two books of nonfiction.
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