WEIRDBEARDPRESS
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OUR 22 PUBLICATION CATEGORIES
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2) Drama 3) Erotica 4) Essays |
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9) Horror 10) Humor 12) Memoirs 13) Mysteries 14) New Age 15) Poetry 16) Psychology |
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17) Religion 18) Science
Fiction 19) Self-help 20) Sexuality 21) Sociology 22) Travel |
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ESSENTIAL
WORKS
for
all authors and readers
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Atheism and Freethought
include all forms of unbelief (including disbelief) in deities and divine
beings, along with the religions rooted in their supposed attributes and
actions, among them creation, faith healing, incarnation, magic, miracles,
reincarnation, the resurrection of the dead, revelation, and spiritualism. The
heading embraces the viewpoints of agnostics,
antitheists, atheists, Brights, doubters, freethinkers, materialists,
naturalists, secular humanists, skeptics,
and critics of religion in
general. It may occasionally address
arguments raised by deists, Objectivists, pandeists, and
pantheists, though Weird Beard
Press regards these ideologies as
distinct from freethought. Seeking to
foster tolerance among disparate ideological worldviews, we prefer a
non-confrontational approach to unbelief that seeks to enlighten the minds of
believers rather than attacking or ridiculing their faith (not unlike author
Guy P. Harrison’s 50
Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True).
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We
are interested in the effects of uncompromising religious belief on personal
and social development, particularly with regard to women, children, and
minorities. Do most clergypersons, for instance,
particularly the most prosperous and prominent among them who obviously care
more about profits than people, genuinely believe the doctrines they publicly
profess? What do they ultimately hope to
accomplish in their careers as religious leaders? Do many truly believe they are above the law
when it comes to marital fidelity and financial accountability? On the positive side, what sorts of prejudice
do unbelievers face in today’s world, particularly in Asia and the Middle
East? What happens in a family of
unbelievers when a young person adopts a religious viewpoint (or joins a
church)? Whose “family values” are
likely to prevail? The ideas presented
should always be fresh and topical, and the narratives should avoid
slander.
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Drama includes plays and
other theater pieces for virtually all performance media (radio, screen, stage,
and TV, among others). Shorter pieces
may be anthologized, in which case royalties will be split equally among the
different authors according to the number of works each contributes to the
collection, regardless of length. Plays
tend to sell poorly and are rarely produced in any format, though it’s always
possible a work will be “discovered” by an agent from Broadway or
Hollywood. A few independent films have
started out as plays. More often than
not they can often be successfully marketed to student drama groups, and
sometimes only at a discount. The
published versions should be suitable for the general reader and not burdened
with a lot of technical stage directions or lengthy descriptions of screen
effects. We welcome the full gamut of
subject matter in all major genres.
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Subgenres
include absurdist (such as Harold Pinter’s
groundbreaking play The Homecoming), avant-garde (or experimental, such as
Charles Ludlum’s Mystery of Irma Vep), comedy (like Neil Simon’s Odd
Couple), cringe (like TV’s The Office), farce (such as David Rogers’s May the Farce Be with You), history (like Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, though this play transcends
the genre), kitchen sink (like
Shelagh Delaney’s Taste of Honey), melodrama (perhaps like Tennessee
Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,
though many would object to the classification), monologue (like Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues), musical (like A
Chorus Line), satire
(like Christopher Durang’s controversial Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You), thriller (like Joseph Kesselring’s Arsenic
and Old Lace), tragedy
(like Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible), and tragicomedy
(like Henrik Ibsen’s Wild Duck). The term melodrama,
it should be pointed out, has become almost pejorative in recent decades due to
its stereotypical situations and stock characters (typically troubled hero, threatened heroine, vicious villain, vamp, parent, and servant) – except in Asia (including South Asia)
and Latin America, where it thrives mostly as a popular TV genre featuring emotionally
overwrought families as protagonists.
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Drama
and theater criticism form a
parallel genre in this category. Shorter
pieces may be anthologized.
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Erotica is defined as
narrative fiction focusing on sexual activities and relationships that is
carefully crafted to stimulate the intellect as well as the body. It can push limits but must not violate
social taboos regarding, among other matters, the right to consent and certain paraphilias. The best erotica, though sexually explicit,
fosters introspection into the dynamics of arousal,
attraction, pair bonding, intimacy, devotion, isolation, family stability,
and overall satisfaction with life,
often while providing a critique of the duplicitous social mores that
characterize most societies today. Why
is it more socially acceptable for men to cheat on their partners, for example,
but not for women? Should more people
consult sex therapists about compatibility issues, and if so should sex
surrogacy be fully legal and widely available?
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Erotic
memoirs should be fictionalized to protect the privacy of the parties
involved. Because tension must be
maintained until the (literal) climax of a narrative, short stories enjoy more
success in this genre than novels.
Longer works should feature at least one climax, and preferably two,
every 3,000 words or so. Shorter works
are normally anthologized, royalties again being split among the various
contributors based on the number of titles featured in the collection and not
on the length or word count of the material.
Most are published under one or more pseudonyms.
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In addition to the broad headings of straight, gay, bisexual, and transgender erotica, we recognize the
following subgenres: abuse of authority,
anal, bareback, BDSM, bears, body modification (from shaving to branding), body part fetishes, body
type fetishes, clothing and fabric
fetishes (including angora, fur, leather, rubber, and silk), cosplay, cowboys, crossdressing, ethnic and race fetishes, exhibitionism, femdom, food fetishes, frigidity fetishes, group sex, historical narrative, infidelity,
kink, mate swapping, medical, oral, paranormal, polyamory, porn industry fetishes, power play, prostitution, religious
(including nunsploitation), romantic, sexual inexperience (but never involving minors), sexual mania, solo and mutual masturbation (with or without sex toys), subculture fetishes (punks, thugs, and
so on), supernatural (including
incubi and succubae), urban life, voyeurism, and workplace encounters.
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The blind, deaf, mute, and differently
abled all have sex lives that shouldn’t be ignored (or ridiculed), as long as
the participants are of sound mind otherwise.
The genre can overlap to some extent with Fantasy, Horror, Humor, Mysteries, Science Fiction,
even Poetry. If a narrative features strongly erotic
elements, it will be published as Erotica and
restricted to adults for purchase.
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Erotica
criticism is a fledgling parallel genre some aficionados of the genre may
also want to explore.
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Weird Beard Press as a
rule does not publish erotica involving bestiality, erotic
asphyxiation, incest, mayhem, mental incapacity, necrophilia, pedophilia, rape, or scatology. Rare exceptions may be made in the case of
aliens, particularly shapeshifting aliens, and spiritual entities such as
ghosts or vampires. Sexual activity
should always be consensual. Persons in
comas or vegetative states can’t consent to sexual activity (though in some
jurisdictions their spouses may believe they have a right to initiate it), nor
can anyone who is asleep, drugged, or otherwise unconscious.
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More
specific information about erotica may
be found here.
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Essays are works of
non-fiction, each typically running between 2,000 and 10,000 words in length
and expounding a personal opinion on any of a wide variety of topics. We seldom publish political essays because
their subjects tend to be ephemeral. If
your topic captures the Zeitgeist, however, we’ll give it due
consideration. We invite submissions on
timeless topics connected for the most part with cultural studies, psychology,
sexuality, and sociology. Most are
anthologized, royalties again being split among the various contributors. Longer essays may be divided into
sections. Entire books are often made up
of a series of essays building an argument point by point.
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Fantasy Fiction incorporates magic and/or preternatural creatures such as
elves and dragons into a fictional framework that often draws on mythology to
explore and develop psychological archetypes to comment on the human condition.
Many narratives take place in a medieval setting, though this is by no means
necessary or even recommended. The rules governing each story – or cycle of
stories in a continuing series – must be self-consistent. A summary of these rules may be requested by Weird Beard Press
before publication to ensure that continuity is maintained.
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Subgenres include absurdist (like Joseph Heller’s Catch-22), bizarro (like Andersen Prunty’s Zerostrata), comic (like Sir Terry Pratchett’s
Discworld series beginning with The Colour of Magic), dark (like Stephen King’s Dark
Tower series), fabulist
(like George Orwell’s Animal Farm), fairy (like J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel The Hobbit), heroic (like C.S. Lewis’s Out of the
Silent Planet and its sequels), high (like Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings), historical (like Marion Zimmer
Bradley’s Mists of Avalon) low (Lewis Carroll’s Alice
in Wonderland), magical
realism (like Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude), steampunk and its offshoots (like Jules
Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under
the Sea or Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age, though both titles
are usually classified as Science
Fiction), and urban (like Neil
Gaiman’s American Gods).
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Fantasy may
overlap somewhat with Science Fiction,
which typically takes a more rational approach to the subject matter. Fantasy explores the means by which the
imagination may be exercised to address issues of personal discovery, coming of
age, the acquisition of wisdom or specialized, knowledge, the use and abuse of
power, productive conflict resolution, the art of compromise, rebellion against
oppression, recovery of strength or youth, and death and its hypothetical
aftermath.
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[6]
Fiction and Literature consist of carefully structured prose narratives of
virtually any length derived from elements of the imagination that draws one or
more multifaceted characters through some type of conflict – internal,
external, and often both – to at least a partial resolution of contending
forces, its overall purpose being to analyze the makeup of human psychology and
sociology by creating believable examples to study and follow. Authors who claim they write fiction only to
entertain their readers should realize how their presentation of a narrative
reflects their personal system of values.
In other words, how an accomplished author writes about war will reveal,
even if covertly, how he or she feels about the subject, even if author is ostensibly
of two minds about it. Thus they must
take care to set viable and humane ethical examples in their writing. The narrative’s theme need never be simple
(“for or against”) but it also should also never be equivocal. The key to successful plotting is forging a
progressive but plausible interrelationship among the events that build toward
the resolution, even if they are narrated out of sequence. Readers will typically be able to identify
with at least one of the characters, who often serve as exemplars of a
particular ideology, even though they typically embody some sort of personal
conflict.
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A story’s main character (or
characters) must be presented (through various means, including dialogue) in
greater detail than minor characters, and both animals and even inanimate
objects may occasionally be personified as characters, as in Jack London’s Call
of the Wild.
Beyond these basics, each narrative creates its own rules for handling
exposition and dénouement. These should naturally be logical and
self-consistent if not always strictly realistic.
Mainstream fiction, as opposed to genre
fiction, describes situations found in everyday life, often to analyze the
relationship between (and increasingly among) the sexes, while typically
avoiding the sensationalism inherent in Horror,
Mysteries, and Science Fiction and the seeming illogic of Fantasy and Humor –
although it may include aspects of any of these subsets. We also publish Literary Criticism under this banner.
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We have folded Chick Lit, Hen Lit, Lad Lit, and Boomer Lit into this category. Chick Lit consists of
mostly lighthearted literature that focuses on women and their relationships,
typically including but never limited to romantic liaisons. Not to be confused with what we term
bittersweet romance, which is concerned almost exclusively with serious
romantic involvements and which as a rule Weird Beard Press doesn’t publish, Chick Lit instead explores its
characters’ personal aspirations, among them education, motherhood, career,
income, familial responsibilities, political ambitions, and social standing,
and how these factors often conflict with one another in the face of various
setbacks. As a largely postfeminist
genre, Chick Lit boldly embraces all
aspects of female sexuality, including lesbianism and bisexuality, all handled
with a witty, engaging touch. Examples
include Marian Keyes’ Watermelon and
Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary.
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It has recently branched out into a
number of subgenres reflecting the values and tastes of its main characters –
who may be variously African American,
Asian American, Jewish, Latina, Muslim, South Asian, or Southern
– and who pursue a variety of career options, from domestic servant to
presidential hopeful. Unless it belongs
to a more specialized genre like Science
Fiction, most identifiably ethnic
literature is classified under this general heading: such as Eric Jerome
Dickey’s Milk in My
Coffee, Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club, Isaac Bashevis
Singer’s Enemies:
A Love Story, Julia Alvarez’s How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, Mohja Kahf’s Girl
in the Tangerine Scarf, Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake,
and Erskine Caldwell’s Tobacco Road. The
Hen Lit (or Matron Lit) subgenre takes up the issues of women over forty, among
them boomerang kids, divorce, grandparenting, widowhood, intergenerational
romance, retirement, illness, and impending death (like Nancy Thayer’s Hot Flash
Club). In spite of its
popularity, much of Chick Lit’s
potential remains largely untapped. It’s
been dismissed as sexist by some critics, but we believe its wider implications
are waiting to be uncovered.
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If a woman can’t have everything she
wants in life, for instance, what’s ultimately standing in her way? Can society be changed to accommodate her
full potential, allowing her to be simultaneously a wife, a mother, an
executive, and even a mistress if she so chooses? If it can, should it? What about women who prefer more traditional
social roles? What about sixty-year-old
women who want to bear a child? Whether we’re
talking about shoes or ships, one size definitely doesn’t fit all. Regardless of their biological age, do girls
really just want to have fun? Unlike
most romance novels, Chick Lit
needn’t be written exclusively by women.
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A parallel subgenre, Lad Lit or Dick Lit (like Nick Hornby’s About a Boy) examines men’s issues, including male
bonding, rites of passage, and adventure stories set in venues where women
traditionally never venture – which may nonetheless be related from a woman’s
perspective. It rarely takes up
specifically gay themes, though it can address the subject of bisexuality,
particularly as it affects long-term heterosexual relationships. Encompassing postmodernist bestsellers like
Bret Easton Ellis’s Less Than Zero, the genre’s roots go back at least as
far as Bill Naughton’s 1963 play Alfie (which was subsequently novelized and
filmed). James Dickey’s 1970 Southern
Gothic/survivalist novel Deliverance is another well-known example, though some
would classify it as Horror.
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Fictional studies of aging that don’t
focus primarily on relationships may be classed as Boomer Lit (like Anne R. Allen’s No Place Like Home). These often draw heavily on the popular
culture of the Baby Boomers’ formative years – and are frequently written by
Boomers’ adult children.
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Film and TV Criticism
analyzes audiovisual narrative works according to a variety of interpretive
theories. Beginning with journalistic
reviews of films and TV shows by actor, cinematographer, director, producer,
studio, subject matter, or time period, it proceeds to academic evaluation of
film and TV production as an art form. Film theory explores film and TV as
expressions of social mores and values as interpreted by individual artists,
often as adaptations of written or spoken material. It taps into the fields of anthropology,
culture studies, gender studies, linguistics, photography, psychoanalysis,
semiotics, and various aspects of sociology across various genres. Authors should be able to present complex
theories, among them the auteur, feminist, formalist, and structuralist,
in a scholarly way that general readers can understand without difficulty. The best films and TV shows say something
about the cultural milieus that produced them.
Did the family sitcom Leave It to Beaver, for
example, accurately reflect the character of American society in the early Cold
War era during which it originally aired?
More importantly, was it supposed to?
Art doesn’t always, and perhaps need never, mirror life as we live it,
even if it passes as “true to life.”
Skilled critics decode their significance for the benefit of viewers
living in other times and places.
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Genres,
which frequently overlap, include but are not limited to action (like Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai), adventure (like Frank Borzage’s Strange Cargo),
altro
mondo (like Gualtiero Jacopetti’s Mondo Cane and its sequels), animation (like Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas), biopic (as distinct from documentaries,
often in that they take greater liberties with historical facts, like Miloš
Forman’s Man on the Moon),
buddy film (like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), chick flick (like Beaches), children’s
(like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), cinéma
vérité (like Orson Welles’s F for Fake), comedy
(from Some Like It Hot to Madea’s Big Happy Family), coming-of-age (from The
Wizard of Oz to The Life of Pi), crime
drama (like Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train), cult (like John Waters’s Hairspray),
documentary (like Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me),
drama (from Come and Get It to The Human Stain),
educational (like A
Nightmare on Drug Street), exploitation
(like Louis J. Gasnier’s Reefer Madness), fantasy (like Shrek and its sequels), giallo (like Mario Bava’s Blood and
Black Lace), historical
(from Howard Hawks’s Land of the Pharaohs to Morten
Tyldum’s Imitation Game), horror (like Jacques Tourneur’s Cat People),
mainstream (like David Lean’s Doctor
Zhivago), martial arts
(like Enter the
Dragon), melodrama
(such as Like
Water for Chocolate), musical
(like The Sound of
Music), mystery (like
Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief), noir
(from The
Postman Always Rings Twice to The Salton Sea), pornography (like Curt McDowell’s Thundercrack!),
prison (from The Hurricane to The
Shawshank Redemption), road
(like Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider, but
not the Crosby and Hope Road to… films
beginning with Road to Singapore, which are
properly classed as buddy films set in exotic locales with occasional romantic
songs), romance (like Love Story),
romantic comedy (like Breakfast
at Tiffany’s), science
fiction (like 2001: A Space Odyssey), slasher (like Francis Ford Coppola’s Dementia
13), splatter (like
Herschell Gordon Lewis’s seminal Blood Trilogy,
sports (like The Hustler), spy (from The 39 Steps to The Bourne Identity and its
sequels), teen (like The Breakfast Club), travelogue (like Under the Tuscan Sun), war (like M*A*S*H), western (from Stagecoach to Unforgiven),
and women’s picture (like both
versions of Imitation of Life).
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There are many subgenres as well. Video distributors tend to market any film
not released in English (or occasionally by an American company) under the
macro-genre foreign. Each of these has its own specific genre:
Michelangelo Antonioni’s Italian-language classic L’Avventura,
for example, is a drama with elements of mystery; Ingmar Bergman’s Swedish Persona
is a psychological drama verging on horror; and Jean-Luc Godard’s French Breathless
(À bout de souffle) is a crime drama laced with doomed
romance.
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Authors should demonstrate a thorough
understanding of the history of their subject, not raving about a remake
without a careful appraisal of the original within its own cultural
context. Most of all, readers should be
shown something about media that they would most likely have missed on their
own without the insight you bring to the subject.
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GLBTQIA+ Studies
examine issues of sexual orientation and gender identity against a background
of anthropology, the arts, biology, ethics, history, literary theory, medicine,
philosophy, political science, psychology,
sexology, and sociology. (Transgender
persons may of course be straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or asexual in actual
practice.) Often combined under the
heading Queer Studies, GLBTQIA+ Studies begin with the
contributions to history made by gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex,
and asexual individuals, particularly in times and places in which the social
climate forced them to keep their orientation and/or gender identity a secret –
if they came to terms with it at all. Queer Studies further explore the
changes in public attitudes toward non-heterosexual people throughout the ages
– from the “abomination” identified in the Hebrew Torah to the struggle for
marriage equality in the 21st century.
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In terms of understanding the
biological role played by multiple sexual orientations, are we any more
enlightened than our ancestors? Is
sexuality actually more fluid than is generally thought? Is it an essential element in human identity
or more of a social construct as described by Michel Foucault in his History
of Sexuality?
Is everyone born (or perhaps conceived) more or less bisexual, as
Sigmund Freud once theorized in Three Contributions to the
Theory of Sex, and do most of us develop a more
specific orientation as we grow? Is the
Klein Sexual Orientation Grid more accurate than the older Kinsey scale?
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To what extent is homosexuality
triggered by genetic factors, prenatal hormones, birth order, epigenetic
inheritance, or a combination of these?
Are there in fact different types of homosexuality, gayness, and or
queerness, at least one of them patrilineal in origin and at least one other
matrilineal? Do these factors tie in
with the butch/femme, active/passive, and top/bottom dichotomies? On a more mundane level, what is the
coming-out experience like in different cultures and communities? What impact does it have on the families
involved?
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Authors may approach these issues
subjectively or objectively, and should as always write about realities they
know personally. We’re particularly
interested in first-person accounts of bisexuality, which many still regard
(erroneously, we think) as a transitional phase between heterosexuality and
homosexuality. How much damage does
widespread misinformation do to society as a whole, especially in the greater
contexts of homophobia and transphobia?
How much truth is there behind the stereotypes? Queer
Studies also review GLBTQIA+
themes in world literature (and other media) through the ages, from what
remains of the poetry of Sappho to the latest yaoi
comics. We’re interested in the
viewpoints of authors of all orientations, such as Michael Chabon’s Mysteries of Pittsburgh,
Carolyn Parkhurst’s Lost and Found, and
Michael Thomas Ford’s Changing Tides.
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We
recently added Transgender Studies to
this general heading. These address
issues of gender identity apart from (or together with) sexual orientation,
including transsexuality, intersexuality, non-binary sexuality, crossdressing,
drag, and asexuality. The subject
remains poorly understood by the general public, so narratives should eschew a
confrontational stance in favor of a considered clarification of the details of
the transgender experience, which properly speaking is not a category of sexual
orientation. How does gender differ from
sex, for example? How do transgender
individuals grow and develop in a society that offers few if any resources for
those coming to terms with their gender identity? How do they “live as” what society brands a
member of the opposite sex? What kind of
relationships do they establish with others?
What is it like to “come out” as transgender? What kinds of attitude do they encounter, and
how do they educate others about their identity? How do you personally define the term non-binary? What, finally, are the proper terms for the
various types of transsexual?
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Weird Beard Press is interested in memoirs and
short stories on the subject, particularly first-person narratives but also the
stories of cisgender persons who are in relationships – whether familial,
platonic, romantic, or casual – with transgender persons. Awkward subjects may occasionally be broached
in the interest of halting the spread of misinformation, but stereotypes must
naturally be avoided. Studies of transvestism (or crossdressing), including memoirs
related from an insider’s or outsider’s perspective, may fall under this rubric
as well, depending on the role it plays in the life of the transvestite.
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Horror encompasses fiction
intended to create fear, dread, shock, and terror in the minds of readers,
often by means of supernatural agencies such as demons or ghosts or of
supernatural powers such as ESP or witchcraft.
It can touch the darkest recesses of human nature by exploring the inner
lives of psychopaths and murderers. It
taps into our deepest repressed fears of sex, injury, chronic illness, death,
and life after death. Because even
antisocial main characters can be viewed as exemplars, authors should be
careful not to glorify either overt cruelty or sadism for its own sake, though
these elements may appear in horror fiction.
…
Subgenres,
all of which may overlap to a certain extent, include apocalyptic and postapocalyptic (i.e., dealing with surviving the
end of the world and its aftermath, like Richard Matheson’s I Am
Legend), crime (including true crime, like Thomas Harris’s Silence of the Lambs), erotic (like Poppy Z. Brite’s Love
in Vein), extraterrestrial
(or alien, like Scott Sigler’s Infected and its
sequels), fictionalized nonfiction
(like Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood), gothic (like Matthew Lewis’s novel The Monk), Lovecraftian (including the Cthulhu Mythos), microbial (like Michael Crichton’s Andromeda
Strain), monster (like
Stephen King’s It), occult (like Peter Straub’s Ghost Story), paranormal (like Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes), psychological (like Katherine Dunn’s Geek
Love), revenant
(including ghosts, vampires, and zombies, like Max Brooks’s World
War Z), revenge-of-nature
(like Peter Benchley’s Jaws), rustic (i.e., involving out-of-the-way places where primitive
attitudes and customs hold sway, as in Shirley Jackson’s story “The Lottery”), shapeshifter (including werewolves and magicians who can regain
lost youth, like Guy Endore’s Werewolf of Paris), speculative (offering a scientific or
quasi-scientific explanation for frightening phenomena, like Dean Koontz’s Strangers), splatterpunk (or gore, like David Schow’s Kill Riff), and urban (like Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby). These subgenres may overlap with each other
and with major genres like Erotica, Fantasy, or Science Fiction. Again, if
the erotic elements predominate, the project will be published as Erotica and restricted for
purchase to adults only.
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Humor uses various
narrative strategies, typically including irony, to induce amusement or
laughter while subtly commenting on aspects of human nature, relationships, and
sociopolitical configurations. It finds
a place in virtually all genres of fiction and many of non-fiction, such as Memoirs and Sexuality, but must be handled carefully so as not to give undue
offense, particularly with regard to matters of sex, race, religion, ethnicity,
physical ability (whether mental or physical), and socioeconomic class. That doesn’t mean these subjects are
completely off limits as the targets of humor, only that the context should
make clear that any prejudice based on ignorance is socially
counterproductive. Thus the apparently
racist language used in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
which may have sought to suppress, is on closer examination found to constitute
an indictment of the attitudes prevailing in the time and place portrayed in
the novel. That said, Twain’s text was
composed in the third quarter of the nineteenth century and would most likely
not be approved for publication today as written.
…
Most
humor is ethnocentric and is often misunderstood by those outside the culture
that sustains it. Also, because humorous
writing is typically considered more lightweight than more serious literature, Weird Beard Press will
determine which category best suits the material. Subgenres, which may overlap,
include absurdist (or surreal), black (or dark, involving death,
terrorism, and war), blue (involving
sexual situations and toilet humor), character
(involving one or more idiosyncratic personae), cringe, dramatic, farcical (involving comic
exaggeration), observational (and
situational), parody (including
mockumentary and spoof), romantic, satirical, and wordplay.
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Languages and Linguistics
cover dictionaries, phrasebooks, grammar guides, and other textbooks that
facilitate the learning of modern languages.
Manuscripts normally have to be vetted for accuracy. In practice only a handful pass the
test. We will consider material in dead
languages like Latin, Sanskrit, or Sumerian, though we may not be able to
reproduce the original scripts. We are
also interested in constructed languages (also known as conlangs), as long as the reference material is both original and
comprehensive. Conlangs like Esperanto
and Volapük are partially or wholly derived from natural languages, of course,
so it’s the presentation that must be original and not copied from other works,
not necessarily the vocabulary or grammar.
…
Weird Beard Press also
publishes books about effective reading, speaking, writing, and communicating
in sign language (which will usually include diagrams, drawings, or
photos). Authors may also submit
below-par writing for inclusion in our series of style guides.
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Memoirs are personal recollections
of events that an author has experienced either directly or indirectly. The narrative is presumed to be entirely
factual, though the names and other details may be changed to protect personal
reputations and to preserve family secrets.
In the absence of objectively verifiable facts, the perspective will
naturally be limited to the author’s own, which may not be as comprehensive or
as impartial as contemporary readers would prefer.
…
Memoirists,
it should be noted, often have an agenda that others who took part in the
proceedings detailed in their memoirs might not share. Authors must consequently be careful to
present their work as objectively as possible, in part because someone
somewhere may ultimately want to refute the details provided. Caveats that acknowledge the limitations of
human memory may be required at the beginning of the narrative. That said, we encourage writers to pursue
their passion and narrate events as they recall them from whatever vantage
point they choose. We understand that
memories mellow with time. We just ask
contributors to exercise compassion and empathy in their retelling of the
circumstances of their lives and the historical events (such as abuse, addiction, ambition, anger, depression, deprivation,
doubt, education, false accusations,
fame, fear, greed, grief, guilt, homelessness, illness, migration, misunderstandings,
neglect, poverty, recovery, shame, success, unemployment, war, and wealth) that impacted their lives, while keeping in mind the immortal
lines from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby: “’Whenever you feel like
criticizing anyone…just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had
the advantages that you’ve had.’” Family
members may collaborate on memoirs that may later be published in bulk for sale
and distribution at family reunions and other events such as weddings, births,
and funerals. Oral recollections may be
transcribed and edited for this purpose.
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Mysteries
feature suspicious occurrences, typically including one or more crimes and a
scheme of detection that offers a solution to a puzzle suggested by the
narrative, such as who is ultimately responsible for the disruption in the
social order and how or why events unfolded as they did. Mystery fiction must be carefully paced to
make the best possible use of suspense to draw in and ultimately satisfy the
reader. If a narrative leaves certain
elements unresolved, it is usually a good idea to have a sequel at least
outlined.
…
Subgenres,
which frequently overlap, include amateur
detective (or sleuth, like G.K.
Chesterton’s Father
Brown series), animal
detective (like Lillian Jackson Braun’s Cat Who Could Read Backwards
and its sequels), bumbling detective
(like TV’s Columbo), caper (or heist, like
Donald Westlake’s Hot Rock), cozy
(like Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple in Murder at the Vicarage and
other novels), courtroom (or legal, like John Grisham’s Pelican Brief),
culinary (which typically include a
few recipes, like Rex Stout’s Too Many Cooks), ecological
(or environmental, like Cecil
Dawkins’s Rare Earth,
ecoterrorism (like Michael Crichton’s State of Fear), espionage
(or spy, like John le Carré’s Spy
Who Came in from the Cold), exotic
locale (traditionally but not exclusively set somewhere in the Third World,
like Graham Green’s Quiet American), femme fatale (like Dashiell Hammett’s Maltese
Falcon), futuristic
(like Jonathan Lethem’s Gun, with Occasional Music), giallo (sensual and violent thrillers
involving outcasts, like Fredric Brown’s Screaming Mimi), gothic (including the child-in-peril
and woman-in-peril, formerly known as damsel-in-distress, subtypes, like Daphne
du Maurier’s classic Rebecca, inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre),
hardboiled (like Mickey Spillane’s I, the Jury),
historical (like Diane Setterfield’s
Thirteenth
Tale), howdunit (like
Francis Iles’s Malice Aforethought), industrial /commercial (like Dave
Egger’s novel The Circle), inner
city (like Donald Goines’s Dopefiend), locked room (like Ellery Queen’s novel The King Is
Dead), medical (like
Tess Gerritsen’s Life Support), minority
detective (who may be a woman, GLBTQ, a member of an ethnic or racial
minority, or any plausible combination of these as long as the overall
narrative treats the person with dignity, like openly gay detective Dave
Brandstetter in Joseph Hansen’s Fadeout and its sequels), noir (like Jim Thompson’s Killer Inside Me), police procedural (like Ed McBain’s Killer’s Payoff),
political (like Richard Condon’s Manchurian
Candidate), private
investigator (like Roger Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress), psychic (like Victoria Laurie’s Abby
Cooper, Psychic Eye and
its sequels), psycho killer (like
Robert Bloch’s quintessential Psycho and its sequels), romantic (like Angel Sefer’s Spellbound in His Arms), rural (like Stephen King’s “Children of
the Corn,” collected in the anthology Night Shift, or David Pinner’s Ritual, widely believed to have inspired The Wicker Man),
suburban (like Ira Levin’s Stepford
Wives, which incorporates elements of Science Fiction), supernatural
(like Andrew Klavan’s Killer in the Wind), tart noir (like Laura Lippman’s Baltimore Blues
and its sequels), uniquely abled
detective (one with a physical, neurological, or psychological impairment,
like TV’s Ironside or Sid Halley in Dick Francis’s Odds Against),
and whodunit (like Mary Roberts
Rinehart’s classic The Album).
…
Both plot and characters should always
be inventive and never rely on clichés or stereotypes. Narratives shouldn’t
glorify violence for its own sake.
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New Age encompasses an
eclectic variety of Eastern and Western ideological disciplines focused on the
spirituality of the self and its transcendence by means of meditation,
mysticism, communal living, and other practices. Most New Age theories reject the claims of
rational inquiry and envision a higher alternate reality in which a different
set of metaphysical principles apply, including the Law of Attraction and the
Law of Karma, within an intricate framework of beliefs. In spite of a large body of “traditional”
literature, its often extraordinary claims push it to the fringes of science
(or even relegate it to the realm of pseudoscience). The efforts of most of its proponents to
protect the environment and to inspire greater harmony and productivity in
human relations by integrating time-honored traditions with present-day pop
psychology are nonetheless to be commended.
…
Popular
topics include alternative medicine
(including the use of cannabis and psychedelic drugs), ancient advanced civilizations, ancient wisdom, anthroposophy,
Ascended Masters, astrology, astral travel, aura reading,
biofeedback, chanting and mantras, clairvoyance,
cryptids, divination (by means of crystals,
dice, dominoes, I Ching, playing cards, Ouija boards and other oracles, pendulums, runes, smoke, the tarot, tea leaves,
and so forth), dream interpretation,
enlightenment, the enneagram, ESP, extraterrestrials and
UFOs, feng shui, freemasonry, the Fourth Way, the Gaia
hypothesis, herbalism, holism, hoodoo
(as distinct from voodoo) the Human Potential Movement, Indigo
children, Kabbalah, neuro-linguistic programming, New Religious Movements (or NRMs, like Discordianism, Esoteric Christianity, Gnosticism,
Goddess Spirituality, Neo-Paganism, New Thought, the Radical Faerie Movement,
Rosicrucianism, Satanism, Sufism, Thelema, Theosophy, Wicca, and Zen, among others), naturism and nudism, numerology, pyramid power, reincarnation,
ritual magic (beginning with simple
affirmations), shamanism, spiritual healing, spiritualism and channeling, tantra,
transhumanism, vampirism (in actual practice, not in fiction), veganism and vegetarianism, voodoo (the Afro-Caribbean religious
tradition, not the ghoulish hype that’s grown up around it), and yoga.
Always be mindful what courses of action you recommend to readers. Asceticism, to cite a common example, doesn’t
work for everyone. Similarly, burning
sulfur indoors might drive away evil spirits, but it’s more likely to produce
toxic fumes if precautions aren’t taken.
Works on the subject of philosophy
may also be published under this banner.
…
Because they often stand at odds to
skeptical inquiry, New Age teachings by their very nature invite criticism from
the scientific community. Weird Beard Press
publishes that kind of criticism as well, sometimes under our Atheism and Free Thought banner, and
sometimes under New Age. These critiques should attempt to enlighten,
not to denigrate or ridicule occultists and their work. What is it they’re seeing, hearing, or
otherwise experiencing, for example, when they communicate with aliens, angels,
or spirits? How can the future be seen
before it happens? Are those who foresee
it simply following a trend, or somehow tapping into events that have been
foreordained? Are all actions
predestined, or merely some of them?
We’re most interested in testimonials by persons living New Age
lifestyles, particularly healers, psychics, shamans, and witches, in skeptical
societies.
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Poetry draws on the
rhythmical elements in language, such as alliteration, assonance, meter,
onomatopoeia, repetition, and rhyme, to arouse a range of emotions in the
reader or hearer. Incorporating
allusion, ambiguity, irony, metaphor, metonymy, simile, symbolism to convey
multilayered meaning, typically in verse, it takes a variety of forms, most of
them highly structured, a few seemingly random, to build powerful images that
stimulate the intellect and move the soul.
In spite of its expressive power, however, poetry is widely regarded as
lightweight literature. It is often
relegated to the status of filler in magazines and newsletters. As a result it yields little profit in and of
itself.
…
Weird Beard Press
typically publishes short blocks of poetry interspersed with short essays or
prose sketches that somehow complement or elucidate the poems’ themes or moods,
such as a literary explication. These
may be biographical in nature as the author chooses. Poems may be published in anthologies that
feature the work of several authors.
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Psychology is
the comprehensive study of the mind and its role in behavior. Because most of our contributors are not
professionals in the field, our publications under this heading are typically
based on personal experience and will overlap to a large extent with Self-help – even though the research conducted may be extensive.
…
Weird Beard Press even
publishes pop psychology with disclaimers stating that the findings result
largely from the author’s personal experience and investigations and not based
on academic research. Any challenges to
prevailing medical theories must therefore be carefully defended. Many will provoke heated discussions in
social media if not also elsewhere.
Studies may focus on the individual, the family, groups of all types
(and especially but not exclusively informal and nonconformist groups like
cabals, covens, gangs, and urban tribes not fully
sanctioned by society at large), interpersonal relationships, anger and stress
management, behavior modification, personal growth and development, states of
consciousness (including sleep and dreaming), personality, motivation, mental
health care, creativity, states of mind and mood disorders (including
depression), addiction and recovery, neurological conditions (like autism), and
workplace dynamics. Shorter articles may
be anthologized under a specific topic or theme.
…
Specialties
include abnormal, applied, behavioral, cognitive, comparative (which compares animal
behavior to human behavior), criminal,
cross-cultural, death and dying, developmental,
educational, existential, forensic, game theory, grief and near-death, health,
holistic, humanistic, industrial and
organizational (I/O, including ergonomics), institutional, internet,
military, moral, music, parapsychology, personality, positive, religious (evaluated from a scientific
viewpoint), sexual, social, somatic (including aromatherapy, hypnosis, and meditation), and transpersonal (or spiritual).
…
Authors
are encouraged to share their experiences of various types of psychotherapy,
from acquiring it in the first place (which is not always easy or even possible
these days), to find the right therapist, program, or support group that
everyone needs, to profiting by the help psychotherapy can bring.
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Religion explores
the teachings and practices of the world’s far-flung faiths in relation to
anthropology, economics, education, history, law, literature, media,
philosophy, psychology, and sociology to foster understanding of belief,
conviction, tradition, and dogma. We
encourage authors to approach the subject from a predominantly secular,
cross-cultural, and comparative point of view and not to draft an apologia for
a particular denomination or sect.
Religions have traditionally been grouped according to the broad
geographical areas in which they predominate: African, Eastern, Indigenous American, Oceanic, and Western. To this list we add Classical,
which covers bodies of mythology that no longer support major world religions,
such as the Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Nordic, Roman, and Sumerian traditions. Others
classify religions along denominational lines, thus Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christianity (among others);
Conservative, Orthodox and Reform
Judaism; Shi’a and Sunni Islam; Shaiva, Shakti, and Vaishnava Hinduism; Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism; and so on.
In Melton’s Encyclopedia of American Religions, researcher
J. Gordon Melton groups the religions practiced in North America into two dozen
or so families based on common origins and shared doctrines, including the Baptist, the Latter-day Saints, and the Christian
Science-Metaphysical, among others.
…
Weird Beard Press is
interested in the so-called new
religious movements (or NRMs), which are often dismissed as cults by
mainstream believers. Is that sort of
assessment fair? What purposes,
furthermore, does religion fulfill in human psychological and social development? Do some succeed at these better than
others? Do religions evolve by adapting
to changing socio-economic conditions?
Is there really a distinction between the sacred and the profane? Is religion compatible with modern science? How does religion change over the course of
centuries and, if so, what propels those changes? What is the correlation between poverty and
piety? Are scriptural works historically
accurate, particularly in their depiction of miraculous events? Why are young adults increasingly leaving
religious institutions? Finally, has
religion outgrown its usefulness in society?
…
Narratives
can be highly critical of religion in general but should not openly denigrate
those who practice them. A truly
enlightened society values freedom of religious expression. That said, Weird Beard Press doesn’t publish inspirational
fiction or exclusively Christian self-help books, though our self-help titles
may include Christian themes, such as the traditional twelve-step program. We also prefer not to use the word spiritual when referring to religion
(“I’m not religious; I’m spiritual”); its meaning is at best ambiguous.
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Science Fiction,
also known as the literature of ideas, is speculative fiction rooted, whether
firmly or loosely, in scientific principles current at the time the narrative
is composed and generally featuring technological advancements. Unlike Fantasy
and Horror fiction, it typically
offers plausible, though sometimes understated, rationalizations for the
phenomena it describes. Although authors envision the future (and may even try
to predict it) by projecting past and current trends, the best science fiction
speaks either directly or indirectly to readers’ present-day reality as its
authors ponder humanity’s place in an expanding universe. It should always be innovative, and should
stimulate (if not actually challenge) the intellect as well as the
imagination. It should transport us to
otherworldly realms without losing sight of its fundamental humanity. One of the genre’s aims is to define what
makes us truly human.
…
Subgenres
include alternate history (like
Philip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle), apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic (like
Pat Frank’s Alas, Babylon), artificial
intelligence (AI) and robotics (like Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot) , climate fiction (like J.G. Ballard’s Drowned World),
comic (like Becky Chambers’s Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet), cyberpunk (like William Gibson’s Neuromancer and its sequels), Dying Earth (like Jack Vance’s Dying
Earth and its sequels), erotic
(like Philip José Farmer’s Strange Relations), far-future (like Vernor Vinge’s Fire upon
the Deep), first-contact
(like Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's Roadside Picnic), gothic
(like Peter Watts’s Echopraxia), hard
(like Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars and its sequels), mundane (like William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson’s Logan’s Run),
military (like Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship
Troopers), near-future
(like Paolo Bacigalupi’s Water Knife), New
Wave (like John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar), parallel
universe (like Neal Stephenson’s Anathem), pocket
universe (like Philip José Farmer’s Maker of Universes and its
sequels), social (like Margaret
Atwood’s Handmaid’s
Tale), soft (like
Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s Canticle for Leibowitz), space colonization (like Ray Bradbury’s
Martian
Chronicles), space opera
(like Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game and its sequels), spy-fi (like Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat and its
sequels), steampunk (like Michael
Moorcock’s Warlord of the Air), superheroes and supervillains (like
Jonathan Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Amazing Adventures
of Kavalier & Clay), time
travel (like Madeleine L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time), and utopian (whether dystopian, like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World; eutopian,
like H.G. Wells’s Modern Utopia, or a combination of the two, like Greg
Bear’s Slant). Authors may be asked to clarify their
intended theme or message if it isn’t apparent from the narrative.
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Self-help
offers instruction in personal development – whether behavioral, economic, educational, emotional, intellectual,
interpersonal, physical, marital, psychological, spiritual, vocational,
or a combination of these -- typically without the direct professional
assistance of the sort provided (often in exchange for hefty fees) by doctors,
gurus, lawyers, life coaches, personal trainers, social workers, yogis, and the
like. Many narratives will focus on the
work of support groups or twelve-step programs.
Most will be based on personal (that is to say, non-clinical)
experience, often within the same long-term relationship, family, company, or
community.
…
Authors should think the premises
behind them through carefully without losing sight of the broader social
context. What would happen, for
instance, if a large number of people acted on the advice or example provided in
the text, say by becoming more assertive?
Who, if anyone, would have cause to complain? Could there be a backlash? Case histories – or at least a variety of
real-life examples – are always helpful if they can be provided. Authors may have to include
professional-looking diagrams, drawings, or photos to illustrate their
work.
…
Subgenres
include advice, aging, alternative
lifestyles assertiveness, asset management, childbearing, commitment,
creativity, creativity, dating, education (including adult education
and homeschooling), financial success,
fitness and weight loss, interpersonal communication, job search, making and keeping friends, marriage,
meditation and mindfulness, memory, motivation, networking, overcoming bad habits (like addiction,
anger, anxiety, guilt, procrastination, shame, and worry), parenthood, personal
investing, persuasive behavior, positive psychology, pregnancy and childbearing, self-esteem, separation and divorce, spiritual
growth, and work-life balance. How-to
books form a parallel genre, including, among other topics, arts and crafts, amateur filmmaking, fishing,
blogging, composing music, all sorts of cooking
(including backing and canning, but usually not cookbooks), critical thinking, dancing, debt reduction,
decorating, drawing and painting, gardening,
gymnastics, learning to play a musical instrument, martial arts, pets, photography, playing sports, podcasting,
singing, starting a small business, survival
skills, web design, and writing. We include most types of reference books in this category.
…
Weird Beard Press
doesn’t publish self-help books of an overtly religious nature, say on a par
with Mike Lutz’s Discovering God's Will for Your Life: Your
Journey with God.
Mainstream books may incorporate religious doctrines (such as “Have
faith in your ambition,” for example, and even include quotations from
religious sources (such as “Seek, and ye shall find,” from Matthew 7:7 in the
Christian New Testament). We may be able
to direct authors of inspirational self-help texts to another publisher who can
review that kind of material. Clichéd
themes (such as “Dream your way to wealth”) are as always to be avoided. Freshness and originality count, so authors
should be aware of earlier works on the same subject, even if they’re no longer
in print. They should be careful to
avoid topics that have been done to death before.
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Sexuality
reviews all aspects of human sexual activity, whether mental or physical (and
including asexuality), in relation to biology,
ethics, history, law, literature, media, medicine, politics, psychology, religion, sociology, and zoology. It studies sexual development, dominance and submission, dysfunction, fetishes, intimacy, orientation, paraphilia, relationships,
repression, reproduction, satisfaction,
and subjugation (as for instance in
a brothel, a harem, or a prison).
…
Which
aspects of sexuality are products of nature and which of nurture? It has been halfheartedly suggested that our
gametes are the basic expressions of our fundamental identity – our true
selves, as it were – and that all human culture, emotion, and physiology came
about, through the process of natural selection, specifically to enable the
exchange of genetic material. Thus all
our anatomy, architecture, art, and technology were designed to bring the sexes
together to transmit favorable genes to future generations. Does sex exist solely for the purpose of
procreation, for instance, or does it serve other functions? Why do double standards persist in otherwise
advanced societies?
…
Should a woman be able to terminate her
pregnancy on request within its first or second trimester? Should the father of an unborn child be
afforded a say in the decision? If he
isn’t married to the child’s mother, should he be allowed to disclaim all
paternity rights and responsibilities, including that of providing financial
support to his child during the latter’s formative years? Do the rules change if the mother is married
to a wealthy man who is willing to adopt the child on the condition that the biological
father relinquishes all parental rights?
Should sperm donors be allowed to remain anonymous? How much sexual education is suitable for
preadolescents, particularly in a society that may be described as saturated
with sexual imagery? Should marriages be
arranged, and, if so, by whom, and according to what criteria? Is polygamy the most effective deterrent to
marital infidelity? Should polyamory be
socially stigmatized even though it’s fairly common in actual practice? Can convicted sex offenders be rehabilitated,
even if it’s through drastic measures like chemical castration, or should they
be incarcerated for life?
…
Subcategories not mentioned previously
include aging, andropause, anorgasmia, body image, childbearing, childrearing,
commitment, contraception, cybersex,
dating, definitions of marriage, divorce,
eugenics, exhibitionism and voyeurism, feasibility
of abstinence, foreplay, genital hygiene, genital modification (including castration, circumcision, and
clitoridectomy), group sex, guilt, hookups (formerly known as casual encounters), incest, infertility, loss of interest, masturbation, men’s studies,
menopause, performance enhancement, phone
sex, pornography, pregnancy, prostitution and sex work, puberty,
rape, roleplaying, sex toys, sexless marriage, sexology, sexual
discrimination, sexual equality,
sexual harassment, sexual promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), spousal abuse, swinging, and women’s
studies. Most publications will
overlap with Self-help.
…
Delicate topics not appropriate for
publication in erotic fiction may be approached as non-fiction provided the
authors intend to share information, promote intelligent discussion, and offer
help instead of airing personal grievances.
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Sociology
examines the origins, development, and structure of human societies, cultures,
and ethnicities along with the various roles the individual plays within
them. It touches on almost every aspect
of human interaction, including anthropology, culture, economics, education,
history, law, literature, media, politics, psychology, and religion. It traces the growth of industrialization, radicalism,
revolution, secularization, social
mobility, and urbanization that
have occurred gradually throughout human history, and more rapidly since the
end of the 18th century, principally as a result of the spread of
technology. Contemporary sociological
theories trace their origins back to five classical traditions: conflict theory, Darwinism, functionalism,
symbolic interaction theory, and utilitarianism, all of which have
developed offshoots over the years, such as anomie theory, dramaturgy,
feminism, Middle Range theory, rational
choice, and social exchange. Authors should always proceed with a sense of
social responsibility, even if they remain largely critical of society’s
values, objectives, or methods. As
usual, any serious challenges to prevailing trends should be carefully
documented.
…
Weird Beard Press is
interested in publishing books that help people from all backgrounds and walks
of life become healthy, productive, respected members of society without their
having to sacrifice their individuality on the altar of conformity. Do undocumented immigrants expect to
assimilate into their host societies, for instance, even if they don’t adopt
the language of the majority? Do they
hope their children will? Is a truly
egalitarian society possible? If so, it
is desirable? Do the most widely held
theories of social dynamics ignore too many facts? Is society really under the control of its
wealthiest one percent? If so, do they
have its best interests at heart?
…
Specialties
include ageism, censorship, civil rights,
climate change, criminology, cultural taboos,
demographics, deregulation, deviance, diplomacy, disability, discrimination,
diversity, drug use and abuse, ecology,
economics, education, ethics, ethnocentrism, feminism, food production
and distribution, gentrification,
globalism, hunger, immigration, industry, inequality, inheritance,
labor, leadership, marketing, marriage and family, the media
(including social media), networking,
obesity, political oppression, politics,
population dynamics, propaganda, public health, racism, resource distribution, sexism, social class, social
privilege, social stratification,
subcultures, suicide, terrorism, unemployment, war, wealth and poverty,
welfare, and workplace dynamics.
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Travel comprises travel
guides covering individual cities, counties, provinces, states, or regions
united by a single language, religion, or culture. These may take the form of reference books,
travel diaries, or memoirs, and often have to be vetted for accuracy. Most will also have to be updated at least
once every year or so to remain current.
This task is sometimes assumed by new authors. Narratives can also focus on various modes of
transport, such as cruise ships or railways.
Authors of travel guides should avoid culturally and politically
sensitive subject matter, which can sometimes be addressed under the heading of
Sociology. Short essays may be anthologized, although some
degree of collaboration is usually required among contributors to produce a
comprehensive text that readers can trust.
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WEIRDBEARDPRESS
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