At the beginning of 2026, I promised myself that I would finish a rough draft of The Celluloid Dungeon by June 30th. I was one day behind, but I did it.
The manuscript is in pretty rough shape, but it’s all there, no gaps or “find reference” notes. It’s over the maximum word count of 150,000 I set as a limit, and that’s even without the “Master Shots” chapter I had planned on the technical aspects of shooting BDSM for film and video. I think I can trim it down to under the limit, with the ruthless application of “kill your darlings.”
That raises the question of, what next? Earlier this year, I severed ties with the agent who had helped me publish A Lover’s Pinch, by mutual agreement. That leaves me currently agent-less. If I go through the commercial path of publishing, that means the work of finding an agent, the agent finding a publisher, and waiting for the publisher to publish it. To be frank, I am dissatisfied with this process, and if I did do it, there are a few things I would insist on doing differently.
However, conversations with other people who write in this particular sub-field of history have shown me the merits of self-publishing. I would retain full creative control and cut out the middle-man.
I would want The Celluloid Dungeon to be as professional and credible as possible. That means professional indexing, editing, proofreading, page layout, cover design, etc, and all of that costs money. Furthermore, I want the book to have as much visual material as possible (film stills, publicity photos, posters, etc), and in many if not most cases, that would require paying licensing fees. My current financial situation means that paying for all of that out of pocket is a possibility, but I would also consider various forms of crowdfunding.
I am under no delusions that The Celluloid Dungeon will be a blockbuster. It’s a niche interest book for a niche audience. So it might be best to treat it as such, the item of exchange between me and the small readership who will appreciate it.
