Two writers frustrated with uneven depictions of queerness in literature advocate for wider stories

Be queer, be protagonist! That’s the tagline of Ladys and Moonscape, a new queer publishing house created by partners Nachanok Yuwapoom (Ladys) and Apinuch Petcharapiracht (Moonscape). A manifesto like that was born of frustration that LGBTI characters languish in coming out scenes, begging for acceptance.

“Can we skip them?” asked Apinuch. “Our characters don’t come out. They also display an unapologetically LGBTI messagging. In Death And The Maiden, Stella is essentially just a boy in a skirt.”

Nachanok agreed. “If the entire story is about coming out, it sends the message that society must accept us. But it’s not the only thing that we want in life. LGBTI want to succeed just like straight people. In fiction, while parents may disown them, they can still move on, like in Karunya, where you have the trans man protagonist Lalana,”

Two authors from Phetchaburi met their fans at the independent bookstore House of Commons in Bangkok last month. Death And The Maiden and Juveniles And Other Stories are published by Penguin Random House SEA. On the other hand, Karunya will come out with the same publishing house later this year.

Apinuch began writing stories in high school through blogging. A factory-trained kitchen manager from Dusit Thani College, she is now helping manage the family dessert store and her own cafe. But she loves to watch people in real life and make stories out of them. “What if they were together?” she said of her working process. These include The Church Of Lost Hope and Madam Karavika’s Shared House For Writers.

During Covid-19, Apinuch became acquainted with Nachanok, who lived next door and attended the same school. Nachanok was then seeking to drop out of medical college and write Beau Is Non-Binary Of Everything. Unlike Apinuch, whose fiction is founded on empirical knowledge, Nachanok draws into the experience of his own life.

Despite utterly different identities, they have one thing in common: the desire to share their work with a planet-wide public. We were ineligible because international book fairs only recognize publishers, distributors and literary agents — not freelance authors. And so, they started a queer publishing house.

‘Only two of us are running it,” Apinuch laughed.

Initially, they released small print runs, or 100-200 copies, of their works. They began planning a book launch calendar in the second year. Whereas mainstream publishing houses can survive on the proceeds of national book fairs over the course of years, they have to fill in all seasons. On top of that, they are already doing more work, such as working with distributors, maintaining a social media presence and giving talks.

“I just want to be able to write,” Apinuch said. “A [self-published] author must be able to write and sell.”

Their learning curve has been steep, as sadly many independent bookstores have gone out of business.

“It is like burning the Library of Alexandria,” Apinuch said. “Yet we have remained by each other’s side through bad and good. Making our books available on Shopee at least compensates for lost income for now.”

Only after the third year, Apinuch said, will they enter the make-or-break moment. More support is needed for the publishing industry to reduce printing costs. Chain bookstores must also stop discarding. They are now distributing copies to bookstores across the provinces. They are also targeting a mainstream market via distributors. With the exception of Boys Love (BL) and Girls Love (GL) feeding the lion’s share of the market, not queer literature, Schin told us.

“If people enjoy writing something that is popular, that is good. But if they do so, they will swim in a red ocean and lose the chance to amplify minority voices. Karunya would not have existed if I wrote for the market. The initial number was only 60 pre-orders, but I was determined. Now, attention from the media has reached a new group of readers, such as trans folks.”

“[For those who want to build a publishing house] Apinuch and Nachanok advise them to know who your readers are (example Teenage girls, Office ladies or your target) and they already got the tagline.

“Stick to your tagline. I’m looking at queer characters, not slice of life or fantasy genre, per se,” Apinuch said.

Apinuch said that the BL and GL boom was once helpful for normalising same-sex relationships. Nachanok said higher competition can help improvement quality but in the long run you have to look at other factors. They argued that what drives the development of queer literature is that “writers can make a decent living from it”.

“Legalisation [of same-sex marriage] won’t increase the number of LGBT writers, but it does enable LGBT characters to break through a kind of glass ceiling. Without it, they will be tethered to making medical decisions from in front of an operating room. Now they can talk about other things,” said Nachanok.

Death And The Maiden was adapted for a stage play last year. But they weren’t thinking about an adaptation while writing. They wrote that they are not good at writing dialogue. Once, a director even asked Apinuch to stretch out the then-we complete story so the story suits more for series, the deal was broken. In order to reach a larger audience, they hope that Blue Hour and Karunya be realized in different media.

Both authors recently submitted manuscripts to different writing contests and also different international publishing houses. Nachanok: Karunya and Ms. Kent & Me was shortlisted in the S.E.A. Write Award for 2024. This is because Adaline & Other Short Stories won first runner-up for best short story collection while Orlando In A Glimpse came in second runner-up for best 2024 novel at the 7 Book Awards. In the first round of the Kanokpong Songsompan Award, one of the competing works is a short story by Apinuch titled The Victorious Deer Will Take The Head Of The Defeated.

“It is costly to send hard copies, as well as to translate it,” Apinuch said. “Getting our names out on the international map will ease up negotiations. Most important, it will increase sales.”