Self publishing is the way to go for just about every form of art these days. There is little sense in paying the doorman when there's another door, albeit a smaller, and more difficult-to-squeeze-through door just a few feet away.

I'm really looking forward to reading this book as soon as the queue for holds at the library dies down. Seriously.

Authors of less controversial books have pretty much the same complaints. Gone are the days when most authors, especially new ones, can expect support from their publishers -- advertising, travel expenses, serious bookstore placement efforts, anything.

Christopher, I would keep on the publisher's case anyway in case something shakes loose. Especially when time comes for the paperback edition. Fer chrissake, this book made it onto the NY Times bestseller list (top 30) for a few weeks.

And when negotiating with the publisher about your second book, I'd demand better treatment in the contract if they want the book at all. Do you have an agent who knows the inside of this biz and can negotiate for you?

Alan M.
Polyamory in the News
http://polyinthemedia.blogspot.com

P.S.: Chris, you did know before you signed up with Harper Collins that it's owned by Rupert Murdoch, right?

Alan M.

I have a book with Collins--they gave the first one in the series okay but non-wonderful support. After it sold very well, the second one is getting a lot more publicity love. I've been on both sides of the fence (as author and editor), and it's just really hard for a publisher to give all their books the love they deserve. Once one succeeds, suddenly you're on someone's radar.

The authors of "Sex at Dawn" actually went further than not offering "how to save your traditional marriage" advice; near the end, in the section, "Everybody Out of The Closet", they urge us to explore non-traditional relationships, including those usually called polyamorous. We Americans might pride ourselves on our mighty First Amendment, but we have a hard time practicing it. (Kind of like monogamy...) Thomas Paine's "The Age of Reason", which mocked organized religion with the full force of Paine's considerable wit, got him enormous amounts of hatred here, even though we supposedly have freedom of religion in our First Amendment as well. Radical and dangerous ideas will always receive bitter opposition, no matter what the stated vanities of the listeners have for their supposed open-mindedness.

Thanks to Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá for writing such a great, original book, and to L'Etranger for giving it even more favorable publicity.