We at Ylva Publishing are very excited to announce the launch of the imprint, Queer Pack!
What is Queer Pack, you ask? It is going to be home to queer literature, written for queer people, by queer people.
Why is it separate from Ylva? Queer Pack is going to be its own imprint due to the simple fact that Ylva focuses on women loving women, with an emphasis on lesbian and bisexual women. Queer Pack will be looking for trans, non-binary, intersex, genderqueer, anything queer authors who have written interesting stories about characters who are trans, non-binary, intersex, genderqueer and, you guessed it, anything queer! We want to carve out a spot within the publishing world in which queer people can easily go to find high-quality queer fiction and non-fiction, written by queer people. Does that sound awesome to you? Because it sure does to us.
Why is this important? Unfortunately, the publishing world (and, well, the world in general, but that’s another blog post entirely) is dominated by white, cis, heterosexual men. Delve under that into LGBTQIA+ publishing, and it’s flooded with cis, gay fiction about men – the reason that at Queer Pack, we will not be publishing stories about or by cis men, or cis gay men. Probe even further, and we can find lesbian fiction (which, of course, we are a big, big fan of here at Ylva, and that’s not going to change). However, the problem lies in the fact that it’s nearly impossible to find fiction and nonfiction filled with characters who break the mold even further by being trans, non-binary, genderqueer etc. And this doesn’t even speak about fiction including characters who are POC, different ethnicities, from all countries and continents – another facet we will be pushing hard for over at Queer Pack.
I think we can all agree as to why representation is important. Everyone deserves to have a mirror to see themselves in; everyone deserves to see their story told. Not only this, but by having stories out there, a window can be provided to allow for other people see into worlds they wouldn’t normally see, experience, and learn from. To enable queer people to have a voice, we are hoping to supply a place, nay, a home, for these voices to grab a megaphone and get their stories out there and heard.
So, have you written a story with a trans princess who rescues her non-binary crush from a fire-breathing dragon, only to find their crush didn’t need any rescuing because it turns out the dragon was just lonely and looking for a pal? Here’s your space to send that story to. Have a nice coffee house story about a genderfluid science geek who’s just trying to save some money to go to college and get their life started, when they meet the love of their life, a customer who only comes at night, appearing vitamin D deprived, and keeps eyeing their neck? We want your story. Do you think about writing a tale about an asexual trans guy whose friend has been sucked into a plot for a bank heist and is trying to pull him in, too? Write it.
Want to read about any of these? Heck, we do! And soon, you will be able to head here to find it all.
How’s that for exciting?
G Benson, Queer Pack commissioning editor and Ylva author.
To follow Queer Pack on social media platforms, please visit us at Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram.
This is so awesome! I’m extremely proud of Ylva taking this step – a huge step forward for the queer community
How exciting! Think of all the stories to tell. Hats off to Ylva for always being at the head of the pack.
You are filling an important gap and opening up a passage for voices as yet unheard. Here come great stories written at excellent standards!