Today I am very excited to welcome Geoff Knight & Ethan Day to Joyfully Jay.  Geoff and Ethan are here to talk to us more about the launch of Wilde City Press, a new publishing company they have started focusing on all genres of fiction and featuring gay male protagonists. Wilde City Press opened its doors on April 17th.

Here at Joyfully Jay we are always looking for new and exciting additions to the genre and so I thought it would be fun to talk to the guys a bit more about the new press and what we can expect.  Ethan and Geoff also brought one of their new releases as a giveaway, The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men by Eric Arvin.

So please join me in giving them a big welcome.  Hi guys!

 Wilde City Press Banner


Ethan Day:  Hello, and thanks so much for having us!

Geoffrey Knight: Hi JJ, we’re pleased to be here, thanks!


So first off, can you tell us a bit more about Wilde City Press?

ED: Wilde City is quickly turning into an actual destination! When we were developing the site, Geoff and Adrian foresaw an actual living and breathing city and we quickly began thinking of it in that manner. So much so that we’re now planning an actual series set in Wilde City!

GK: Yes, we got very excited when the name and the look and feel of it all started to come together. We wanted to conjure up a kind of Art Deco city full of jazz and illegal booze and swingers and socialites and Great Gatsby type figures. We even started to draw maps and name places. Here’s the little blurb we have on our website:

Welcome to Wilde City, a metropolis of male fiction brimming with the best in Gay Male Romance, Gay Male Erotica and Gay Male Mainstream books; a place inhabited by the most talented writers in the industry whose page-turning tales will make you laugh, cry and beg for more!

From stories of romance and desire, to thrills and spills, you’ll experience all the fun and fantasy, all the suspense and steaminess, of a city that only sleeps when you do.

You’ll find stories of Gay Romance on just about every corner of Wilde City. Look out for those lingering gazes between strangers as they pass by on the Boulevard of Hopeless Romantics, or book a table at Wilde City’s Gay Rainbow Room and watch someone’s fingers brush against the hand of a man longing to be kissed. Yes, in a city this big, romance is everywhere.

But many other gay worlds exist within Wilde City. Walk through the cobblestone alleys of the Old Docklands and you’re sure to stumble across something that will chill you to the bone. Venture through the haunted mansions of the old Parisian Quarter and you might catch a glimpse of a handsome ghost, or powerful werewolf, or a vampire hungry for your blood. Or perhaps you’d prefer a laugh with the gay characters you’ll meet on Vaudeville Avenue as they bumble their way through life looking for Mr. Right… or Mr. Right Now! Or buy yourself a ticket to gay adventure atop Wilde City’s Empire Tower and board the Wilde World Airship for an action-packed trip of a lifetime!

Then again, if you’ve come to Wilde City for action of a different kind, welcome to a city teeming with Gay Erotica. You’ll find sex in almost every back alley and respectable dive in Wilde City’s notoriously naughty Pink Light District. Or for something that’s sure to turn you on, visit Mr. Charlie Harding’s exclusive black-label sex soiree, ‘Charlie Harding Presents’… because why not get the best in Gay Erotica from the Expert!

It’s time to go Wilde… this City is calling!


You guys are going to have three different lines within Wilde City.  Can you tell us more about them and what types of books we can expect from each?

ED: One thing Geoff and I both talked about when we first began discussing the idea of possibly starting a press, was how we hated the fact that so many of the gay bookstores both around the country and the world seem to be vanishing at an alarming rate. Part of the fun and excitement of going to that brick and mortar bookstore was discovering new books and authors. We always went in with one or two particular books in mind, but left the store with unintended treasures.

It was that experience we wanted to make an attempt to recreate – at least within the confines of gay fiction. From the beginning our plan for Wilde City was to create an online fiction department for books that feature gay male protagonists. With that in mind we created the three lines: Romance, Erotica & Mainstream. If all a reader is interested in purchasing is Romance – the site features a way for them to bring up only those titles. But our dream is that the Romance reader will come to Wilde City and see the book they intended to purchase sitting next to a Mainstream title on our virtual shelves. Or vice versa, the average gay-fic-lit reader will pick up that Romance title they might not have otherwise been exposed to had they not come to Wilde City.

There are so many great books out there, and we want to publish all of them – regardless of whether or not they fit neatly into a particular genre box.


Will all your books be new releases, or are some things going to be republished with Wilde City?

cowboys and vampiresED: I’d say the bulk will be new releases, though I can’t see Geoff or I ever passing on a great book simply because it’s been released through another publisher in the past. I know Geoff has his eye on certain books as do I. Marc Harschbarger’s fab Deep Dish series is a great example of that. Hank’s Cowboys & Vampires and Carol Lynne’s Ghosts of Alcatraz as well. Hank is writing a third book to go along with books one and two which are re-releases. And Carol is going to be writing a brand new sequel to go along with Alcatraz, which is still a favorite of mine – I can’t wait for that one!

GK: Yes we’ve got some great re-releases coming up, but also lots and lots of brand new shiny stuff from everyone’s favorite m/m authors. We also want to introduce a bunch of established writers to the m/m crowd, people who have been writing gay fiction for years but haven’t necessarily been exposed to m/m audiences before. Authors like Owen Keehnen and Jon Michaelsen and as Ethan mentioned Marc Harshbarger. These are authors who are telling funny, thrilling, compelling gay stories and we’re hoping there are lots of readers out there who might like to dip their toes in the water of something a little different to what they’re used to, but still involving gay characters that we can all care about.


Wilde City officially got off the ground on April 17th.  What releases were available on launch day?  What can we expect after that?

the pearlGK: We kicked off our Gay Mainstream line with Hank Edwards’ exciting Cowboys & Vampires (the title says it all), and we launched our Gay Romance line with a brand new story from Sandrine Gasq-Dion called A Betting Man, which is a short romantic-comedy that’s full of laughs and love! In our second week we released my coming-of-age romance The Pearl into our Romance line, and we unleashed Eric Arvin’s epic The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men which I have to say is one of the most astoundingly beautiful and original books I have ever read. Next up we’ll be launching Charlie Harding Presents, which is our exclusive, black-label Gay Erotica line! We’re so excited about Charlie – he’s one of the most famous adult entertainers in the world and we’ve signed a deal with him to release an exclusive range of the hottest stories around. We’ve got some great erotic talent writing for the Charlie Harding Presents line, and some hot newcomers whom we’ve discovered, including Patrick Darcy from Ireland who is obsessed with sex and rugby… expect lots of sweaty bodies on the field and off in his series Confessions of a Gay Rugby Player!


About how many books to do you expect to publish a year?  Will they all be digital or do you plan to release print versions as well?

ED: We will definitely have all titles of an appropriate length available in print. I still prefer a paperback over my Nook at times. Eventually, we plan to have at least one release per week in each of the three lines. Not sure what that works out to a year? Geoff, you got a calculator? : )

GK: I do have a calculator LOL. We’ll probably be releasing between 100 – 150 titles per year. But we’ll have fewer authors and more titles by those authors. We don’t want to grow so big that we can’t look after our talent. We want to be committed to taking care of the people who are writing these amazing stories for the world to read.


So there are lots of publishers out there with m/m and GLBT releases.  What made you guys decide to start up your own press? Is there any particular focus to what you will publish or specific goals you have for your books?

ED: This is probably another one of those Geoff questions, lol. He’s sort of the Pied Piper that I find myself happily following around. He’s the biggest reason that I’m doing this. Geoff is infectious in the best possible sense of the word. Outside of that, man…I just want to have a tiny role in publishing good books.

GK: A tiny role, LOL! That’s not gonna happen! And I wouldn’t have taken this on if Ethan didn’t say yes to joining me. This is a really good question. There are some amazing publishers in this business! People like Laura Baumbach (MLR Press), Tiffany Mason (Resplendence) and Elizabeth North (Dreamspinner) have all been inspirations to us and do an incredible job. I suppose what we wanted to do a little differently was try to cater to readers of all gay fiction, not just m/m romance, and hopefully get people to read something they may not normally read or have ever been exposed to. Great examples of this are Eric’s Mingled Destinies, as well as Owen Keehnen’s hilarious upcoming release Young Digby Swank about a young gay boy growing up in a strictly Catholic household. These are fantastic books that we know lovers of m/m will cherish, but may not have otherwise tried.


If readers want to check out your line up, where can they buy your books?

ED: Other than Wildecity.com, we’ll eventually be releasing all of our titles on the secondary retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Apple, Amazon, ARe, Kobo, etc. Typically about a month after they release on our site, they’ll begin to show up on the retailer sites.


Anything else you want to tell folks about Wilde City?

ED: Keep checking back every week! There’s so much more to come, we’ve barely scratched the surface!!!

GK: If you jump on www.wildecity.com you can sign up for our weekly “WOW! What’s Out Wednesday” newsletter that will let you know what is out every week, as well as tell readers about any events and promotions and discounts!


Thanks again so much for stopping by today guys!

ED: Thanks for having us! : ) I’d also like to say a great big thank you to all those peeps on our facebook page and all across the internet for all the support and encouragement, you guys have been incredible motivators for Geoff, Adrian and myself over the past 6 months. To all the authors who bravely stepped out onto that ledge with us – we sincerely appreciate your faith in us. And thank you to everyone who has come and bought a book from the Wilde City over the past week!

GK: A big ditto to that!


ethan day wilde city

geoff knight wilde city


Giveaway

mingled destinies of crocodilesEthan and Geoff have been kind enough to bring one of their hot new releases, The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men by Eric Arvin, to give away to one lucky winner. Just leave a comment below for your chance to enter.  The contest closes on Sunday, May 5th at 11:59 pm EST.

  • By entering the contest, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
  • Winners will be selected by random number.
  • If you win, you must respond to my email within 48 hours or another winner will be chosen. Please make sure that your spam filter allows email from Joyfully Jay.