firecat: damiel from wings of desire tasting blood on his fingers. text "i has a flavor!" (Default)
firecat (attention machine in need of calibration) ([personal profile] firecat) wrote in [personal profile] lizvogel 2020-10-12 09:39 pm (UTC)

I once co-wrote a book for one of those big how-to book series. The book did pretty well, so my co-author and I went back to the publisher suggesting that we do a second edition. The publisher (via our agent) said OK, but only if firecat is not listed as one of the authors. There were a few bullshit excuses given as to why, and then the real reason came out: firecat had a web site about polyamory; this publisher apparently disapproved of being associated with polyamory via one of their authors. (I was told by someone else who worked for the publisher that this particular division of the publisher's had a lot of conservative christians involved with it.)

Co-author and I thought it was ridiculous and it didn't harm us financially or career-wise. If we'd chosen to fight it we probably could have won? It wasn't fiction, and it wasn't the agent refusing to sign me. But I'm mentioning it as pertinent to the blogger's advice.

The original edition of the book continues to sell pretty well.

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