gay romance Prejudice by Romantic Times Bookclub

I’m running an ad in the May issue of RT BOOKclub promoting my m/m romance novel, A BIT OF ROUGH, for the RT convention in Daytona in May. Part of the packaging for the ad asks you to send in a copy of your novel for review by the RT staff.

Well guess what? Today I learned through my ad people that a staff member at RT mentioned that while they had received the copy of my book for review, it would not be reviewed because it was gay fiction. She reports that this is not written or printed anywhere. She said that there had been another gay romance submitted (also not reviewed) but that with their current review staff, they (RT) didn't feel well equipped to review this particular ‘brand of romance’.

‘Brand of romance’? Do they think gay men walk around with a mark on their foreheads like a scarlet letter? I can’t believe in this day and age that this kind of unwarranted and out dated prejudice in writing is allowed to exist. Isn’t the literary world supposed to the cutting edge of exploration and new elements? Didn’t anyone there read Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx’s ‘Brokeback Mountain’? I’m not trying to compare my novel to her exquisite writings, but you get the idea.

We need to awaken their awareness of the m/m romance community around them.