The Gay Publishing Company :: Business Plan -- Executive Summary

publishing company that aims to satisfy the needs of two audiences. First of all, we will be a publishing outlet for authors from all around the globe who have written gay-themed leisure-intended literary writings they wish to share. Second, we will be a publishing house that solicits, promotes, and distributes reading material for folks who enjoy reading about gay life in the world.

Why a gay publishing company?

Gay writers have struggled to get published more than the average writer for many years. Initially, the struggle was based in concerns for profit that caused mainstream publishers to reject gay submissions outright or to demand major rewrites—to remove "the gayness." More recently, as mainstream publishers started recognizing the gay market (and trying to recapture some of it from smaller, "braver" publishers), financial turmoil hit the publishing industry as a whole. Before long, the only way any undiscovered author could get published was to pay their costs up front and either self-publish or buy into a vanity- or subsidy-press program.

Products and Services

The Gay Publishing Company will work with gay writers to publish their materials, but not as a subsidy- or vanity-type press. Instead, we will combine

to enable gay writers to be published, without oppression or manipulation, at no expense to them, providing entertainment to gay readers and enlightening more of the general population with top-notch and respectable literary gay-themed literature.

To that end, The Gay Publishing Company has already collected (without a significant advertising effort) fifty-two submissions (as of October 1, 2008; our first anniversary)—full-size novels (including two agented manu-scripts), short stories, scripts and screenplays, memoirs, and a cookbook series; we've also accumulated (again, without advertising to a great degree) dozens of subscribers/readers. Potential authors and subscribers continue to contact us almost daily. To serve our two audiences, The Gay Publishing Company will grow and transition, over the course of roughly eighteen months to two years, from an online serialized e-newsletter to a virtual and then print magazine to e-books/audiobooks and print paperbacks.

Oh, and if you are wondering, exactly what is our niche? How are we different? The Gay Publishing Company will serve a niche of early-stage writers who need editorial assistance to get their materials published. It will also serve a niche of readers who enjoy gay-themed publications of all lengths, treatments, and genres. We are primarily different because no other gay publisher uses the traditional publishing model to nurture writers to maturity. In addition, no other gay publishers provide a constant stream of gay-themed leisure-intended literary fiction and memoir for reading via a subscription service.

Marketing

Industry-wide, more than one hundred gay books (primarily novels and anthologies) are scheduled for publication in the first half of 2009, a signal that the market for gay fiction is showing signs of solid growth. Further evidence of growth is the fact that roughly two dozen independent presses (excluding private presses) now publish gay books (again, primarily novels and anthologies), along with new and established imprints and subsidiaries of larger entities, parts of gay media corporations as well as mainstream publishers.

In dedicating our resources and focusing our energies on gay writers and readers, The Gay Publishing Company also plans to help the gay community in relevant ways. As examples, two nonprofit outreach programs will be initiated as funding allows: our author scholarship fund and our "Teaching Acceptance" program—both key components in our total mission. We also plan to incorporate internships in editorial services, publishing, marketing, and online services as soon as possible. And, we will support enlightenment efforts of the gay community in the realms of writing, reading, and publishing.

Income

Notes
¹ through affiliate links with a gay bookstore and a national bookseller;
    includes DVDs, CDs, and books—gay and mainstream
² T-shirts and other pullover clothing with logos, as well as mugs,
    blank books, bookends, and other products
³ ad space is available in both the virtual edition of the magazine
    and the print version
⁴ salary from the-freelance-editor will drop off as theGayEditor
    becomes more involved with the publishing company
⁵ assumes 50 virtual subscriptions/mo, 25 print subscriptions/mo
    and only 70% renewal rate (the industry average) after Y1
⁶ includes two months of print sales through subscription and
    two months of sales through brick-and-mortar bookstores
⁷ estimates are calculated by multiplying 70% of previous year
    (as renewals, per industry avg) and adding new subscriptions at
    the same 50/25 rate estimate as used elsewhere
⁸ includes e-books and paperbacks; since timing and quantities
    cannot be determined at this point, these estimates are total guesses,
    used simply to reflect our efforts!

Management

Leading the management team is theGayEditor—editor, publisher, and founder of The Gay Publishing Company. theGayEditor has served as an editor or director of publications at organizations in Ohio and for the state of North Carolina. He has most recently assisted writers with editorial services and publishing advice on a full-time freelance basis. Working with theGayEditor is an advisory team of volunteer associates: a published and an aspiring author, an Internet/IT technical assistant, an accountant/bookkeeper, an Intellectual Property lawyer, and four outside members of the local business community (we are currently missing a publishing industry professional, a marketing professional, and a nonprofit sector advisor). Paid contract staff will be brought onboard as soon as necessary and feasible.

Financials

To accomplish our goals, begin serving our audiences, and lay the groundwork for our other efforts, The Gay Publishing Company is seeking minimal funding of $50,000 to begin operations as outlined throughout its business plan. We anticipate that The Gay Publishing Company will begin supporting itself within four months and be turning a comfortable profit (which will apply to our nonprofit efforts and our print book publishing efforts) during our second year (based on conservative estimates).

The Gay Publishing Company