To Jules Jones (comment #30, #31)

Answer from William Maltese

Jules…thanks for the thanks.

I sometimes forget that, having been certain places at certain times and gleaned certain information, not everyone was right there with me, getting the same scoop and perspective on things.

As for Harlequin, if you think they’re conservative now, you should have seen them back before SuperRomances and their new imprints, when they were merely a reprint house for Britain’s Mills and Boon. Actually, they’ve come quite a ways, by way of making their books, their stories, and their sexual content more in align with most social mores most of the world over.

Even back when I was there to help them launch their more realistic and original work, the people in charge, behind the scenes, were more enlightened than the company’s staid reputation might have led anyone (readers included) to believe. People like George Glay, then the Senior Editor, was genuinely open to new ideas, even if he wasn’t ready, yet, to set the company on a pathway that would blaze the trail for m/m romance publishing.

A lot of a publishing company’s attitude is dependent upon the people in charge, and that in-charge can go from liberal to super-conservative in one change of an editor; as I mentioned, changes in editorial staff happen more frequently than most people realize, so whether or not a writer’s work gets attention, or finds acceptance, or ends up lost in the slush pile, often depends upon the luck of the draw.