New Victoria Publishers: Riding a Revolution

Continued from page 1

Although one person is assigned to edit a
book and communicate with its author,
they make major decisions collectively:
which books to publish, and the changes
they want the author to make. (All ac-
cepted manuscripts are rewritten at least
once.) They ask the book's author for
suggestions on cover design, which is al-
most unheard of in mainstream pub-
lishing.

New Victoria publishes lesbian fiction
with a feminist underpinning; mysteries
and romances are the most popular cat-
egories these days. According to Lam-
perti, "Women in particular want to read
about real people and want characters to
have some depth. There are enough
books about weak women, so we prefer
books that have strong women." The
books are fun and fast-paced and tell real
stories. Recent books have dealt with
the political situation in Argentina
(Mari), and alcoholism and dysfunc-
tional relationships (Cody Angel). An
upcoming mystery has a background of
childhood sexual abuse.

Books published by mainstream publish-
ers often have a shelf life of as little as
six months. As a lesbian publisher, New
Victoria has a commitment to keeping
all its books in print. This commitment
is increasingly causing a dilemma and a
debate among lesbian publishers. Print-
ing a new run is expensive, and profit
margins are very small. If a book sells
only a few copies a month, it can take
years to recoup the expense. Capital tied
up in inventory is not available for other
projects, and cash flow becomes a real
problem. Right now all of New Victor-
ia's books are in print, and Dingman and
Lamperti want very much to keep them
available.

Although New Victoria has published a
variety of books, it is probably best
known for the Stoner McTavish myster-
ies. The newest, A Captive in Time, pub-
lished in 1990, is their biggest seller yet.
Normally, they print 4,0()0-5,000 copies
of a book, expect to sell out in two years
and then reprint it. The first print run of
A Captive in Time was 7,000 copies, and
it was reprinted in the first year. Stoner
McTavish's adventures are available in
German, and two different publishers are

talking about translating them into other
languages. Sarah Dreher fans will be re-
lieved to know that the next installment is
in the works and is scheduled for publica-
tion in June 1992.

Dingman and Lamperti see much more
good lesbian writing than they did when
they started. They receive two to three
readable manuscripts a week, and each
month there are fouror five manuscripts
that they consider carefully. The lag time
between acceptance of a manuscript and
the book's appearance in a bookstore
keeps getting longer because their back-
log of accepted manuscripts keeps getting
bigger. More mainstream bookstores are
carrying their books, more libraries are
buying them, and more of their books are
being reviewed. Although still small by
mainstream standards, sales are growing
at about 20 percent a year.

Still, they find‘ publishing six books a
year to be manageable and have no plans
to grow beyond that. Lamperti wants to
be able to keep editing books herself; she
doesn't want to become a business man-
ager. Someday, if she can find the time,
she would like to write more novels.
When asked how she feels about being in
the middle of this revolution, Dingman
says, "Growing up in the '50s, nothing
ever felt like it_fit. Nothing seemed to
match the way I saw myself. I never saw
myself reflected anywhere...'Ihe impetus
to be a publisher comes front wanting
everyone to know that there are lesbians
out there and that it's OK to be a lesbian,
because certainly I never experienced that
growing up. I don't even think I heard
the word until I was out of high school.
We all have heard stories like that...The
impulse to publish has something to do
with wanting more people to see that it's
OK that we're here, that we're public, that
we're visible, and that we're happy about it."

New Victoria's new titles this summer are

Kite Maker, a romance by Candace Lee

Van Auken, and She Died Twice, a mys-

tery by Jessica Lauren. In the fall they

will issue a fantasy called Shadows of Ag-

gar by Chris Anne Wolf, and Touch of
Music, a romance by Dorothy Clarke.

For more information and a catalogue,‘
you can write to New Victoria Publishers

at P.O. Box 27, Norwich, VT 05055. V

 

September 1991