Welcome to the first of the (hopefully) weekly interviews! My first guest is Ash Penn, whose debut novel Stray has recently been published by Loose Id.

“Bar worker and serial slut Terry Seymour is hardly charm personified when it comes to romance. In fact, he doesn’t believe in love at all despite his latent desire for his best friend of fourteen years, builder Marc Pierce.

Dan Hutchinson is a young, homeless man living in a derelict house Marc’s halfway to renovating. When Marc announces Dan’s moving in for a while, Terry is understandably miffed. After all, it hasn’t been that long since Marc spilt with his boyfriend of a year, so why is he intent on bringing a total stranger into their home?

It seems to Terry there’s more to this arrangement than meets the eye. Marc must be providing Dan with food and lodgings in exchange for sex. And with the lusty vibes Dan sends his way, it’s not long before Terry succumbs to the boy’s talents between the sheets. But carrying on with Dan behind his best friend’s back is not easy. Or desirable. And when Terry’s plans to oust Dan fail, he’s the one who finds himself out in the cold.”

Thanks so much for agreeing to do this. To start, tell me a little bit about your novel!

The novel is called Stray, and it’s a m/m romance set in the UK. Basically, the narrator, Terry, is a bit of an anti-hero, in that I hope he’s the kind of guy a reader loves to hate. He’s not completely unlikeable but he comes pretty close sometimes. He also has a vulnerable streak running right through him. He’d probably beg to differ on that score.

Stray’s published by Loose id. How did you find out about them, and what made you decide to submit there?

I don’t remember exactly how I found out about Loose Id. It would have been about 3 years ago (I have a terrible memory). I’d probably done a search looking for good m/m reads. And I chose to submit to them because, although I’ve bought books from the main erotic e-presses, all my favourites have come from Loose Id. I’d also heard great things about them from other writers. So, the fact they sell good quality fiction and have an impeccable reputation, that’ll be why I chose Loose Id.

In terms of epresses in general, what do you feel are the pros and cons ?

The pros of e-publishing

1. It seems to me about the only way I’ll see my m/m romances published. I don’t know of any traditional publishers who are interested in taking on the genre right now.

2. Digital books are the future, so they say, and an ever increasing number of readers are choosing to download their books rather than buy them in a physical form.

3. Not having to wait so long for a book to release. It’ll take about six months or less from acceptance to publication for an e-book, whereas a traditionally published book will take far longer to hit the shelves

4. It’s not so much about the money for me, but royalty percentages are a lot higher with e-books than with print books.

5. I can bypass agents, cutting out the middle man and going straight to the publishers themselves.

6. As a reader, I can take my e-published erotica onto public transport with no one labelling me as a perv.

Cons

1. The relatively small sales numbers, although I’m prepared for this seeing as I write in a niche genre.

2. The probability that I will not see my book in Waterstone’s.

3. Other people/writers thinking I’m less of an author because I’m digitally published and they can’t hold my book in their hands (until it’s loaded into a machine first).

4. Most, if not all, e-presses are based in America. That’s not a bad thing in itself but it can be problematic for ‘foreign’ authors when trying to get a ITIN for tax purposes.

6. There are a lot of ’fly-by-night’ e-publishers out there that are here one minute and gone the next. I think it’s a good idea to sub to established presses rather than risk the brand new ones and having them collapse in a few months time.

So the pros and cons are equal in theory, but I think the pros carry much more weight than the cons. And I’m happy with my lot, so there are no complaints from me about not taking the traditional route to publication. Besides, to do that I’d probably have to change my genre, and I’m really not prepared to go that far.

If you found a comparable print press to Loose Id (in terms of niche, heat levels, sales figures, etc) would you have been tempted to take that route instead?

My initial response was yes, because I would love to see my book in print. Who wouldn’t? But thinking about it, there are a few print presses out there with great sales figures, Samhain for one, and yet I didn’t submit my first novel to them. I went straight to Loose Id. My decision was coloured by the fact Loose Id is where I buy most of my m/m reading material, not about whether they go to print or not. When I was writing Stray I always had them in mind to publish it. Of course, I shall be submitting to other publishers in future, including those which supply print books, but I really never intended Stray to go anywhere else.

How long did the process take from acceptance to publication? What were the major milestones for you?

I just thought of another con for e-publishing. Piracy. My book’s been out less than 24 hours and it’s already available on one of those scummy sites

I sent the partial of Stray to Loose Id in late September. Then I went on holiday for two weeks. When I got back I had the request for the full. Now, I was very naughty in that I hadn’t quite finished the book when I sent the partial. I did mention in my query letter that I was still working on the end as I couldn’t get it quite right. I soon found out the reason it was so elusive was because half the book needed rewriting. I had a huge subplot which infringed on other, more important, elements of the story- the romance itself.

It took me a further ten weeks to finally work out what was wrong and fix it. Fortunately, I have a very patient and understanding editor. But I really do not recommend querying anything that isn’t finished. Get it polished to within an inch of its life first as it saves the stress of a last minute panic.

Ten weeks after the request for the full, early December, I finally sent in the completed ms, and was accepted in January. I started my first round of edits in April. Apparently, it doesn’t usually take that long but my editor had several large books to edit before she got to mine.

I had three rounds of edits, then line edits, then the proof reader. That took me up to the 8th June. Then that was it until my release date on 29th June.

Obviously, because of the delay in sending the full, and the editor being busy, it took a little longer from submission to publication than is usual. But it was still pretty fast.

Major milestones? Getting accepted was the first big one. And writing hotter sex with the help of my editor and my crit buddies. I had to make those scene more sensory detailed. Sex scenes are really difficult for me. I’ve learned a lot over the past few months and while I might not write the hottest sex, I like to think those scenes are at least luke warm. And they definitely give an insight into character development and serve to move the story along.

Apart from the sex scenes, I really didn’t have that much to edit. I used a lot of words that can’t be used as dialogue tags, ie, he frowned, he laughed, etc so they had to go. And my commas were all over the place. I also rewrote a few scenes which I thought weren’t quite as effective as they might be.

I should also mention cover art. That was a big thing for me. It made my book ‘real’. I was particularly detailed in what I wanted, and I must have given my cover artist (Anne Cain) a few headaches with descriptions. She’s done a superb job though, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the end result.

Based on your experience, who would you reccommend epublishing to? Who would you suggest avoid it?

I would recommend e-publishing to any author who writes in a niche genre, i.e. erotica because there is a bigger opportunity for publication digitally. There seems to be a huge market for erotica in the e-publishing world right now and I very much doubt my m/m erotic romance would have been published otherwise. There are also good opportunities for authors who write fantasy, sci-fi etc especially with romantic/erotic elements involved. If those writers have tried the traditional route and it hasn’t worked out, if they’ve written something which is considered too great a risk genre or content wise for the traditional publishing houses to take on, then perhaps e-publishing is the way for them to go too.

Who wouldn’t I recommend e-publishing to? This is probably the obvious answer, but, anyone who is determined to see their work in the big bookstores. Anyone who stands a good chance of having their work published traditionally. An author with a YA fantasy novel to sell, for example, probably stand a far bigger chance of winning a traditional publishing contract that an author such as myself.

I think that about wraps it up in terms of what I wanted to ask. Do you have anything else you’d like to add?

Can’t think of anything right now, but if I do I’ll let you know. You asked some interesting questions, some that made me think about things I hadn’t really considered before. I’d also be interested to see how other writers answer your questions so I’ll check out your blog when the interviews go up.

Stray is available to purchase from Loose Id, and I thoroughly recommend you do!