I am, of course *mortified* that this happened, and offer my deepest apologies.

Deepest thanks to @zero, who found a major cocktease in Chapter 3 of THE LEATHERMAN’S HANDBOOK--a couple of pages were missing from the middle of a hot scene!

If you have purchased an EPUB/ebook version, whether through Safeword Press or Amazon, email me and I will send you a new version.

If you ordered a paperback, please let me know ASAP and I will figure out the best answer based on how many people want a fix.

(Please use the same email you used with the order so I can match them up.)

And especially here on Mastodon, please feel free to ask any questions you want! More or less an ongoing AMA.

@Safewordpress press Joins us to Discuss the challenges of bringing a classic Leatherbook back to mainstream print, and the importance of keeping our communities history alive, warts and all.

WEB: https://kinkyboyspodcast.com/a/1Dy

APPS: https://episodes.fm/1014077562/episode/aHR0cHM6Ly9raW5reWJveXNwb2RjYXN0LmNvbS8_cD00NDM4

#queerHistory #leatherHistory #leathermen

Safeword Press is proud to be a sponsor of IML.

Like the community as a whole, IML isn’t perfect, but is still the foremost in-person gathering for Leather in the U.S.

The press won’t have a booth there this year (but maybe next year!). We (well, I) will be there, though!

But if you’re there . . . look for a surprise in the official guide. 😏

@robdaemon I had no idea it existed until a couple of years ago. I finally found a copy and realized that this might be a book *a lot* of folks might need.

Introvert? Same here--that’s why I read about social activities before doing them. 🤣 But there are lots of ways to be part of such a broad community. It will involve getting over that first hump, yes, but there are lots of ways to make it work. You’ll likely find there are *a lot* of folks in the same position, even at sweaty parties.

I appreciate everyone who is asking how best to support us. You are encouraging me to do better, and I’m listening.

A couple of words about how best to support Safeword Press with this release:

It is an unfortunate truth that our biggest margin comes from the paperbacks distributed by A-. After that, it is EPUB through our site (https://www.safeword-press.com/shop), and then EPUB through A-.

I don’t like that fact and I am trying to change it to work more through other small businesses. (And, frankly, to get off That Platform because these are the types of work that could be censored at any point.)

@robdaemon The play/movie JEFFREY (Paul Rudnick) was all too non-fiction for me. “Let’s just cuddle like bunnies!”

A big part of what’s been interesting about the HANDBOOK are the time slices:

The original publication (1972) was pre-AIDS and pre-internet.

The Millennium Edition (2000), which this edition is based on, was in the middle of both AIDS and the internet--but still had mail-order ads in back.

This edition (2025) is, thanks to PreP, closer to the position of the original work.

It may take work to get there, and it may take seeing through obscuring veils of ego (others', and also your own), but there *is* a place.

You belong.

Here.

With us.

. . . or just dismiss without even bothering to judge. It can feel like walking into a hall of mirrors and it isn't clear who is a trustworthy guide.

Sometimes it takes an old, wise voice to say "that's all bullshit."

I'm not wise enough to be able to say that credibly, but maybe Larry is.

If this is something that spins your gears and turns you on, there is a place for you. You belong here, with us.

The HANDBOOK is one of the books I wish I had available to me. And I was *shocked* when I saw how much it cost.

That needed to change. And I decided to change it.

Entering the Leather community can be fraught. Not only is there resistance from the outside (family, friends, etc.), but it can also feel like there is resistance from the inside: cliques, un-fun hierarchies, ossified reviewing panels who will judge . . .

A journey into Leather should be a journey to becoming more fully yourself--which is a complex thing.

It is difficult not to have some regret at the years I spent just reading about all of these fun things. (And that's what I do: I read before I do.) Because I've discovered that this is a community I should have been in long ago. It has always been there for me; I have not been there for it.

I probably would have devoured the HANDBOOK if I had known about it back then. But even when I started going to gay bookstores (shout out to Lambda Rising!), I didn't go to *that* section.

After years of orbiting the Leather community like a prissy comet, I realized that it held something for me. A little play here and there, a trip to Mid-Atlantic Leather . . . and I realized what was happening.

I was finding a tribe of my own.

Aside from just advertising THE LEATHERMAN'S HANDBOOK, which I am extremely excited about, I wanted to say a few personal things about what this project has meant to me. 🧵

I was scared of Leathermen.

I came out in the mid90s (during the raging years of "the catastrophe" of HIV/AIDS, as Townsend called it) and even then still wanted to be "not one of *those*." They were scary and rough, and too honest about sexuality.

So like a parody, I avoided essentially all sex, not to mention Leather.

Every repost is very welcome. This is a (very) small press and I’m terrible with social media (and trying to improve). But the farther this spreads, the better. I know there are communities out there with folks who aren’t on social media, or only billionaire-owned social media, who might not see this. I’m trying to reach them too.

(And, yes, trying to get away from the billionaires as soon as feasible. Right now, Amazon makes for the best margins, but I want to get away once it is possible.

On . . . edge?

Ready for release?

IT’S TIME.

Cum get your hands on THE LEATHERMAN’S HANDBOOK and celebrate the Golden Anniversary of an underground classic that shaped the Leather world.

Special cover by the phenomenal Ego Rodriguez!

AVAILABLE THROUGH SAFEWORD PRESS (and a m a z o n (for now)).

SAFEWORD PRESS--EPUB: http://bit.ly/3Sa6i0p
Amazon--paperback: https://a.co/d/hiAvuw6
Amazon--EPUB: https://a.co/d/1vDilGr

https://www.safeword-press.com

“We spotted thee from across the glen and wondered if thou wished to live deliciously.”

@robdaemon If you can send me your postal code at info@safeword-press.com (or DM, which ever you prefer), I can send one of the “author’s copies.” But I’d want to figure out the cost to send so you can make an informed choice. 😄