BU Research Blog

I just wanted to share some good news, I have just found out from Edinburgh University Press that just after a few months of the hardback  release of my book Straight Girls and Queer Guys: The Hetero Media Gaze in Film and Television  (that was written while on study leave, funded by Fusion) that they are going to bring it out in paperback. As we all know getting your academic book published in paperback is not necessarily an easy task.  Many publishers want to publish in hardback as the first edition, as this achieves a higher value of sales when offering the books to libraries.  Also I have to confess myself that a hardback edition often is a handsome prospect, as the product may well last longer, and you can put in a place of pride on your bookshelf collection.  That said, a paperback edition is very desirable, as students might be able to afford their own copy, and maybe general audiences might take interest. Some publishers leave it a while before they will consider the prospect of a paperback edition.  For example my second book Gay Identity, New Storytelling and The Media originally came out in hardback edition, and it took almost three years before they considered a paperback edition.  This however was not an easy prospect, I had to argue why the book should come out in paperback, including collating reviews that were made of the book, and also finding lecturers and teachers that were using the book in university or schools, and then presenting affidavits.  At the same time sometimes you do get a paperback edition as a first edition.  I was fortunate that my first book (way back in 2007) Documenting Gay Men, Identity and Performance in Reality Television and Documentary Film did actually come out in paperback, and I remember the excitement in seeing a copy of my very first book in this form, thinking of high sales and a wide readership.  Whilst this book might not have achieved the attention that I thought it would, I am very excited that it seems to be used widely in education, as every now and then I get payments for photocopying use of that very book from the publishers themselves. Roll on a few  years, and some eight books later, which includes my most recent book Pedro Zamora, Sexuality and AIDS Education: The Autobiographical Self, Activism and The Real World which I understand may well come out in paperback, often it is hard to come to terms with expectations in publishing form/output.  For example one of my main concerns, rightly or wrongly, is that I possibly over value the notion of the ‘hard copy’ over the E-Book.  Also I do see a return to the hard copy, particularly evident if you go into HMV (or even some supermarkets) and you see the proliferation of Vinyl. From Taylor Swift and One Directon to Daft Punk, contemporary popular music artists are revisiting this wonderful hardcopy form.  Concerning academic books, probably the best compromise is having both the prestigious hardcopy (hardback) alongside the affordable hardcopy (paperback), working alongside the virtual copy (E-book). This meets expectations and pleasures in cultural form – which maybe connects to nostalgia, at the same time keeping an eye on a changing word, that thrives on access and sharing.