Acquired Tastes XLIII: Gay Pulp Fiction, Part 62 - An Interview with Timon from Hommi Publishing

Acquired Tastes XLIII: 

Gay Pulp Fiction, Part 62

An Interview with Timon from Hommi Publishing

We interrupt this regularly scheduled program to bring you a Wonderland Burlesque exclusive. Don't worry, we'll get to more of the Gay Way book covers next week. This week? You're in for a treat.

As I was searching for a certain book cover, I was lucky enough to stumble on a relatively new store that specializes in vintage gay pulp fiction. Yes... the real McCoy!

Hommi Publishing is my new favorite haunt. And its proprietor, Timon, has been nice enough to answer a few questions and share some info on his web venture.

I urge you to click on the link and check out his stuff. 

You can download an ebook version of a classic gay pulp novel and pay exactly what the book cost at the time it was published. We are talking two, three bucks, folks. What's not to love? And he also has scans of all the covers to capture and ignite all your pervy little dreams. 

In addition, he's selling the actual books - and while he's not exactly giving those away, based on what I've experienced on eBay, he's priced them at or below current market value. I've already purchased several. At first, I went bargain hunting - and was so impressed with the quality, that I decided to do more than dip my toe in the water. My most recent purchase? Two Trojan Book titles - both priced below market value and both in incredible condition. 

He ships immediately and before I knew it, they were waiting for me in my PO Box. By the way, all the books shown (and many more) are currently available for sale at the site.

He also has audio books, if that's your thing and a podcast series where he reads the books. Visit the site, and you have an opportunity to vote for the next contender (I voted for Tricking With Dad.)

The site is easy to navigate and well put together. Ordering is a breeze, too. I created an account because I knew almost immediately that I'd found my new hang. It makes for a stress-free check out.

But why listen to me prattle on, when you can get the info from the man himself? 

Let's learn what makes Timon tick...

Oh! And bargain hunters! Make sure you read the whole interview, because Timon is offering a one-time-only special for the readers of this post! (Thank you, Timon!)

--- ---

1/ How did you become interested in vintage gay pulp fiction?

I write fiction - all kinds - and I wanted to get a good idea of how good erotica’s written. How long should a sex scene be, how much lead up to it, and all that other stuff. Most of the books I found on Amazon couldn’t even get my dick hard, much less inspire me. So, I returned to the masters.

2/ What was the first vintage gay pulp fiction novel you read and/or purchased? Where did you find it? How old were you at the time?

The first one I read… I don’t remember the name. It was one of those two-books-in-one deals, and it saved my life. My freshman year of college, I spent a couple of weeks with my grandmother out in the middle of New Mexico. No other queers, no porn… it was a nightmare. But in the lone “adult shop” in the area, they had one gay paperback. I read it at least five times in those two weeks. I don’t remember if the pages were stuck together or not when I snuck it into her kitchen trash the last day I was there.

3/ Did you ever have a porn stash? Where did you hide it?

I assume you mean while I still lived at home… I was raised as a hardcore fundamentalist - my hair couldn’t touch my collar and I couldn’t wear shorts or watch television. My sister and mother couldn’t cut their hair, wear pants, make-up, jewelry, etc. My access to porn was limited to my imagination, my experiences with my cousins (that’s Louisiana for you)… and the stuff I drew and wrote myself. I had my (very poor) renderings of guys selling cock from broken-down lemonade-stand-looking-things (and whatever else I could think up) hidden in the bottom drawer of my desk in my bedroom. Mom found them, and a decade long battle ensued.

4/ What is your favorite vintage gay pulp fiction novel? Favorite genre? Best author of the genre? Favorite cover? (And why?)

Favorite Title: Well, I’m a twisted bastard, so… “Big Rig Rapist” from the Rough Trade series. It was the first Rough Trade book I bought, and I just knew they were all going to be that awesome. They are not.

Favorite Genre: Force and Incest. As to why… well, that’s a story for my therapist.

Best Author: F. W. Love. He writes for the Adonis Classics line (which is one of the most consistently well-written series of all of them, along with HIS69), and his books usually cover the subjects I like. He also doesn’t spend much time on the things that gross me out—like shit.

Favorite Cover: That changes all the time. I really like the illustrations on the HIS69 series. Right now my favorite is “Backfield in Motion,” because it cracks me up.

5/ What inspired you to create your website/store? What’s for sale?

I had no intention of making a store. During the pandemic, I was buying the books, scanning them, and then reselling the books. But then eBay changed their rules. I’d have rather had a baseball bat shoved up my ass. I was stuck with thousands of dollars worth of books and no reliable way to sell them. So I started trying to push them on the site I already had for my writing.

As for the ebooks, I was going to try to recoup some of my losses by setting up a Patreon and offering a different number of books each month depending on the tier. Taking into account different people’s tastes, the quality of some of the books (some of them really suck), and all that… it was confusing as hell.

But, then I saw that there were sites selling hetero fuck-books, so I said “Screw it,” ditched the Patreon, and just put the ebooks up for sale.

And there is everything in the store. Any kink you might want to read about, it’s there. Most of the books on my site would be banned by the larger retailers because of the content.

6/ How long have you been in operation? Is it a one-man operation? Is it profitable? How many hits do you average a week?

I’ve been in business selling my own books for five years now. As for the vintage store, I started it in December. It is not even remotely profitable. I’m still waaaaaaaayyyyy in the hole, and don’t expect to get out for a long time (and that’s just taking the money into account, not the thousands of hours I’ve spent.) But, I sell the books for their cover price (which seems like pennies these days) and I like having the books available for people, and I like the people I’ve met because of it.

As for hits, it’s in very poor standing right now… but the people who do show up stick around for a while. Who has time to work on SEO? There are just too many books to go.

7/ Did you scan and create all the PDF/epub files yourself?

Yes. I have a fairly good process now. It takes about an hour to scan a book, because I do it in a way that does no damage whatsoever to the book. I don’t have to open it any farther than if I were reading it.
As for the rest of the process, that all depends on the font the publisher used, how many marks are on the pages, and about a hundred other factors.

But, I do it all myself.

People are starting to send me txt files of books, but I hate reading them, so I turn them into pdf’s and epub’s, too. I want the books that sell on this site to be as professional looking as my personal books are on Amazon.

8/ How much of your life does this eat up?

Is “all of it” an acceptable answer? At least five hours a day.

9/ What methods of payment does your website offer? How do you determine shipping? Are you still offering a code? What’s it for?

At the moment, I take PayPal. They have rules about what can be sold with their system… and they’ll probably cut me off. When that happens, I’ll figure something else out.

On the paperbacks I sell, I don’t charge shipping. But, I do only ship inside the U.S.

The only public coupon code out there is the one I just made for your readers. It’s a one-time-use coupon for 50% off ebooks and audiobooks in the vintage store. Just use the coupon code 'wonderlandburlesque'.

10/ I see you have a number of books for sale on your website. Are you selling everything in your private collection or are you holding stuff back? What are you holding back and why? How many books were/are in your collection?

I try not to hold onto anything physical. I’ve moved too many times and have packed and unpacked more than any sane person should. I used to have more than three thousand books (non-dick-intensive), and now I keep five. So, I’m not holding on to any of the books. But, at the moment, I have over 600 ebooks. They are much easier to pack.

11/ Where/how did you purchase the bulk of your collection?

I can still say that most of the books came from eBay. But, that’s about to change. Soon, the bulk of the collection will have come from people across the country letting me scan their books—for which they are well compensated in smut, my eternal gratitude, and the occasional promise of life-time blowjob coupons.

12/ So, I have to ask: given that many of these authors wrote under pseudonyms and that most of the publishing companies, due to censorship laws at the time, were fly-by-their-seat operations, leaving no traceable information, what is your position about securing the publishing rights to these books? Do you see this as doing the community a service here, by preserving this history?

It’s impossible to track most of the companies down and figure out who the copyright owners are now. There’s no way to know if the authors signed contracts that let the rights revert back to them after a period of time… sorry, I couldn’t type that with a straight face. I seriously doubt they had any provisions in their contracts.

What it comes down to is: there are a lot of hetero books scanned, preserved, and available for reading.

We homos deserve no less.

13/ Are you continuing to collect books for your private collection? Is there any particular book you're trying to find?

I NEED: Adventures of a Highschool Hunk IV by Tom Hardy (from the HIS69 imprint). There are a few other series that need completing, but that one is an obsession. (See below.)

Adventures Of A High School Hunk 

Book IV

Author: Tom Hardy

HIS69448

14/ How can others help? Why is this important to you?

Anyone who has a collection? Let’s talk. I can make it worth your while.
In all honesty, if I reach the end of my money and the end of people willing to help out, I might return to pre-pandemic sanity, but now that this has gone so far, I want to keep it going.

15/ What other obsessions, hobbies, collections occupy your time?

Before this started, I wrote at least three hours a day. That’s what my degree is in, and I’m fairly good at it. I have a mystery series and a scifi series (with homo protagonists, but no sex) selling under another name that I’m pretty proud of. I would like to get back into that obsession. I run two writing groups and occasionally give lectures.

So, in short, words and stories are my fucking life.

--- ---

I want to thank Timon for taking the time for this interview. He's so charming (and such a good writer), I didn't have to do any editing. So, in other words; he wrote today's post!

Hey, do yourself a favor - pop on over to Hommi Publishing and check out his wares. It's a fun place to visit. Remember to use that special code. Oh, and I almost forgot... there are a couple of free downloads. Yes! Vintage gay smut for nothing but a little space on your hard drive. Simply poke around a bit... you'll find them. I did.

 

Well, that's all for now. 

Next week, we'll take a look at the next dozen Gay Way titles. 

Until then...

Thanks for reading. 

--- ---

Love For Sale: Boney M.