Bold Strokes Books

by Len Barot

Thank you so much for this opportunity tell you a little bit about Bold Strokes Books, Inc, an independent publishing company focusing on LGBTQ literature. First, a very little bit about me (the publisher). I am a former surgeon and university professor and, in addition to hands-on running the company, I also write romance, romantic intrigue, and erotica as Radclyffe and a paranormal romance series as L. L. Raand. I have been involved in all aspects of publishing from the ground up for over a decade, having been initially published by a small POD publisher in the late 90s, then trying a short stint of self-publishing with Lightning Source, and finally deciding that publishing was what I wanted to do full time.

I founded BSB in 2004 and retired from surgery in 2005. My philosophy then as now is to publish mainstream-quality LGBTQ literature via mainstream marketing and distribution avenues. We are a traditional print publisher, not POD, and our titles are carried worldwide in bricks-and-mortar stores large and small (more on e-books in a bit). Our mission statement is twofold: 1) to create an opportunity for authors of LGBTQ fiction to bring their works to the mainstream market and 2) to provide editorial and developmental support for new and seasoned authors.

I personally oversee acquisitions with input from six editors. All our titles are rigorously edited in a one-on-one relationship between author and editor to assure that every title is the best it can be. By the end of 2005, we had signed 8 authors and published 12 new titles. We now publish over 60 authors, have an active title list of 300, and publish 5 to 8 new titles monthly. Read more…

One of the many wonderful things about books is the varied ways readers can enjoy them.   Not only to read, or listen, but some even make it to the visual medium of the big or small screen.

In my home, we enjoy all of the formats.  I’ll read anything with writing on it, be it a hardcover book, a paperback book, an ebook or a cereal box.  At a recent conference someone asked me if I ever purchased a book in more than one format.  I have to admit, I do quite often.  If I read an ebook -especially in non-fiction-that I think someone else will love, I buy them the print version.  Some authors I buy in both formats for a variety of other reasons.  Quite a few readers I’ve spoke with are almost exclusively one or the other, though.

As much as I love books themselves, I don’t do audio books.  I’m very non-auditory, and always lose track of the story.  My daughter and mother, though love audio books and listens to them everywhere.  Most adults I know rate their audio listening experience on the quality of the narrator.  Harry Potter’s narrator, Jim Dale, was amazing.  I hear raves about him. One YA series that has crossed boundaries from children to adults like the Harry Potter series has a very youthful narrator, and one person I spoke with recently said she can’t listen because she felt talked down to.

Read more…

There’s this great scene in J. R. R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit where Bilbo is exchanging riddles with Gollum.  It’s Gollum’s turn, and once again, he has delivered a long, rich, poetic monologue–and Bilbo is stumped.  Gollum comes to eat him, as is their bargain, and Bilbo starts asking for more time.  He is so frightened that all he can do is bleat the single word, “Time! Time!” 

And that, of course, was the answer.

Bilbo thought he was running short on time.  In fact, that pressure lead to his just-in-time delivery of the right answer.  Time is slippery like that.  We think we need more of it.  We tend to waste a lot of it.  And, often, we are able to pull off the required miracle in just a hair under the time allotted. Read more…

  (Tara Taylor Quinn and Kelly Chapman)

So here we are, stop four on The Chapman Files International Blog Tour.  We’re heading to Canada and Australia over the next few months, stopping in with the Australian Romance Reader Association blog, and stopping in England, too.  Kelly Chapman (for those of you who don’t know Kelly is the expert witness psychologist who is the continuing character in The Chapman Files, four books, out this fall) has never been out of the country so that should be interesting.  She’s another one of those who take on so much to do that she’s always getting in just under the wire.  I’m guessing she’ll be packing her bags on the way to the airport.

 Take the book club she’s in.  Kelly shows up for every single meeting.  And she always has the book read – even if she doesn’t particularly like the selection.  But she’s inevitably tired, too, due to having stayed up most of the night the night before to finish the book.  She was recently on the committee to beautify Main Street in Chandler, the little Ohio town where she lives.  She wasn’t just on the committee, she chaired it.  The original, gas light street lamps are now all freshly painted, their shiny black lamps striking against the pots of geraniums hanging from the arms extended from their poles.  One time when I went to visit Kelly at her office, I saw her outside and down the street with a watering can, going from lamp to lamp, giving the geraniums a drink.  The city water supply had been shut off that morning for some piping work.

Read more…