Back to previous page

What bookpuppy.co.uk is about:

1 To help develop other writers of gay erotic fiction by providing advice, editing, support and a place to display and try out new work. Our aim is to build up a team of writers who supply their work in return for free membership. We usually only put up five or six new stories each month as we go for quality rather than quantity; there are already too many sites with hundreds of (badly written) stories that, in my opinion, degrade the art of erotic writing.

2 To give readers of gay erotic fiction a quality site.

The writing team and how it works:

When a potential team member contacts us I read the sample of their work that they have sent in – I’m looking for potential more than anything else, the writing doesn’t have to be outstanding, I get greatest pleasure from seeing writers develop and improve.

I then send out information about what is involved (which is all the blurb below) and if we are both happy with the arrangement then I set up access to the members’ area. If the new writer looks at it and feels it’s not right for them then that’s fine, I cancel the membership and don’t use the submission. If they do then we work together on the submission and publish it on the site.

There is no formal requirement for the amount of stories any member of the team should provide. Although we like to put up around five or six stories a month we can always put less or more and you don’t have to send a new one every month to stay in the team. Your membership lasts for as long as your work is on the site, whether that’s one story or 100 – obviously we’d like more than just one though!

We are also in the process of putting together the network. I have used message boards and forums before and, quite frankly, hate them. They are easy to use and administrate but, because they have to be in the public part of the site, (outside of the CCBill protected area) they are open to spam and abuse. I had to rebuild an entire site recently as someone or something put a spam e-mail sender programme into that public part of the server and we were inadvertently sending out thousands of spams on someone else’s behalf.

So what we are working towards is personal contact, that is: writers supplying a contact email address on their profiles, (or you can have any contact come through me and I will pass it on – to keep your email private.) Just like chatting to your friends via email, you can send comments, introduce yourself and get in touch with each other as much or as little as you wish. Ordinary members can also send you feedback if they want but, in my experience, they tend to either not bother or send comments like ‘great story’ which, although good to hear, isn’t specific enough to be helpful.

If and when you do get some good ‘reviews’ though you can quote them on C.V.s and submissions to publishers, using bookpuppy.co.uk as the reference.

I also send out emails to the team members when there is some news and am working towards a (manual) bulletin board in the members’ area.

What are the benefits of the writing team?

Honestly: for us – we get to use your writing to boost our content and don’t have to write so many new stories ourselves every month.

For you:
1. Feedback from other writers including me and Neil.
2. Editing suggestions, (me again and they are only suggestions).
3. An objective view of your work.
4. A chance to collect ‘reviews’ that you can use when submitting your work elsewhere
5. Our on-line advice pages, writing tips and updates.
6. Help with preparing things for submission elsewhere, from shorts to novels. This can include preparing e-books for sale on e-book selling sites.
7. The links: we are always looking out for publishers who are looking for submissions – both on-line and print and who pay. And also for competitions with prize money, we update the pages when we find new links and information.
8. Our e-books – you can download and read them.
9. The short stories and on-going stories.
10. The image galleries.
11. You can advertise your own websites for free
12. And of course, being part of a supporting group of people who like to write similar material.

A few other things:
1. There is no formal contract between us other than you accepting what I have outlined here. If this is a problem for you then I’d suggest keeping relevant correspondence (emails) between us.
2. We don’t even consider stories that involve rape, incest or under-age sex (for titillation) – we’re not here to censor but we have to adhere to the rules. Many novels and stories address these subjects and if it’s not gratuitous then that’s a different matter. If in doubt let me see the manuscript.
3. Bestiality and heterosexuality – no thanks. (Bi-sex is o.k.)
4. To help me prepare a story for the web – it’s better to double space between paragraphs, it makes text easier to read on a screen. (But not between lines of dialogue – there are tips on layout in the members’ area.)
5. If you want you can send me information about yourself for an “author’s profile”. I’ll put this in the members’ and public areas – publishers also look at our site so you never know what offers you might get. You can also send a photo as long as it’s you! And a contact email address wouldn’t hurt.
6. Any feedback I or the other writers give you will be constructive and honest. We’re not in the business of saying ‘darling you were fabulous’ when we don’t mean it; so be prepared for honesty.
7. The competition: this is a new thing for us and the first one has gone really well. Just because you are one of our writing team does not mean you can’t enter – unless you volunteer to be a judge in the same competition of course. Our judging is impartial.
8. Money: because we can’t pay you we offer other things instead. If you want us to promote and sell your e-books (if/when you have an anthology or novel etc.) we can work something out but we’d have to pay you with a sterling personal cheque or via Paypal. It’s not impossible.

By the way, to avoid confusion: we are bookpuppy.co.uk – not to be confused with bookpuppy.com (who registered their name on the same day as us but have nothing to do with us or gay erotica as far as I know, spooky!) nor to be confused with badpuppy.com or any other small canines.