Welcome to our first monthly call for guest bloggers! Each month we will put up a list of topics, prompt questions, or specific kinds of people we’re looking for submissions on/from.

For this first call, we want to hear from some teens, twenty-somethings, authors, agents, and editors. We’re interested in co-written posts as well, so if you want to grab a friend or colleague to write with you about one of these, that would be great! We’re also interested in interviews. Below are some prompt questions about specific things we’re really interested in hearing about. Your post can touch on multiple questions, but it doesn’t need to!

How to Submit a Guest Post: Email your submission to vee@gayya.org You may use one of two formats:

1) Email us with a little bit about yourself, your topic idea, and a link to your blog/other writing sample (see note below). We will consider and get back to you based on the quality of your writing samples, if we think your take on the topic would be a good fit for our blog, and how many other submissions we get.

2) Email us the blog you would like to submit in its entirety. We will review the submission and get back to you within the week!

A couple notes:

Please be aware that we try to avoid repeating similar takes on identical topics. The more specific you can be, the more likely we are to accept your submission. Don’t hesitate to send in a few topics (no more than 5) and we’ll let you know which ones we can accept.

Please keep your post between 250 and 1,000 words. If it is over or under either of those numbers and you feel the length is necessary, include a line in your email explaining why.

If you are a teen or twenty-something interested in writing about one of these topics but don’t know if your writing will be “good enough” or don’t have a writing sample, PLEASE send in your idea anyways! We are happy to work with you to develop, edit, and polish your post.

How to Submit an Interview:

We’re open to interviews of you, and interviews that you would like to conduct with someone else. For both, you will have to come up with the questions.

If you would like to submit an interview please email us with a little bit about yourself, a link to your blog or social media, which type of interview you would like to do, and all of the interview questions (answers are not necessary). If you will be interviewing someone else, please get their agreement beforehand, and include information about them as well.

The deadline for submissions is the 30th of January. You should hear back from us within the first week of February!

(Also note that we’re always open for guest post submissions on any subject. See here for more details.)

Email me at vee@gayya.org if you have any questions.

I look forward to reading your submissions!

 

Some prompt questions for subjects we’d like to hear about from TEENS (open to twenty-somethings as well):

  • Are you a casual reader of queer YA, or are you very critical? Do you have a place where you review them?
  • Do experiences in queer Young Adult novels reflect your own?
  • What effect do queer YA novels have in your life?
  • Do you read books with queer characters that identify differently than you?
  • If you read a lot of queer YA, how do you do it? Library, bookstore, e-books… Do you ever feel like you have to hide what you’re reading?
  • If you read fanfic, how do you think the representation matches up?
  • Why is it important to have queer YA books?
  • What was the first queer YA book you read?
  • For older teens or twenty-somethings: As you grow further from being a young adult, have you stuck with queer YA, or moved more to NA or Adult? Why?

 

Authors:

  • What is the publishing world like right now for books with queer characters? It’s been awhile since we’ve heard of anything being ‘straightwashed’ but it doesn’t seem to be exactly in a completely accepting place yet.
  • We’ve heard it said that publishers will only take a certain “type” of queer: no one who’s ace, aro, trans, bi, pan, intersex. OR, they aren’t allowed to have happy endings, or only coming out stories, etc.
  • If you’re a self-pubbed author, or pubbed from a small press, do you think that makes a difference? Are you able to have more diverse types of queerness? If so, do you think it’s easier/harder to sell it? Additionally, do you ever find yourself editing queerness out because you think it won’t sell?
  • We hear a lot from authors who are adamant about more representation for queer teens, especially ace, aro, nonbinary, trans, pan, intersex, and bi. But most of the ones who say this haven’t written anything like this. Why is that? Is it just that awareness has been raised so suddenly that they’re already wrapped up in other projects? Is there another reason? If so, how do you think we could change it?
  • What kind of research do you do for queer characters? In particular, we’re wondering if you have gone to tumblr or other sites where queer people talk openly about their experiences, the things that drive them up the wall about how their identity is represented, how they’d like to be portrayed…etc. Though of course we’re interested in the other research that you do!
  • Has your book received any criticism from LGBTQIA+ people? What do you do with it if you have?
  • For authors who haven’t written any queer characters: is there a reason you haven’t written any? Do you plan to?
  • Has something of yours ever been edited to near-ambiguity?
  • How would you like to see the publishing industry change?
  • How would GayYA be able to serve you better, as an author? What types of things could we do that we haven’t been doing? Or what things are we doing now that we should definitely continue with?

 

Agents/Editors:

  • Does your editing/acquiring process change when there are queer characters? Have you ever ‘edited out’ queerness?
  • Do you do research on the identity the author is representing?
  • Does the queerness impact who you try to sell it to?
  • Do you think agents/editors/publishers only accept a certain “type” of queer?
  • If you are queer yourself, do you think that affects how you look at manuscripts?