At the beginning of each year, I write a summary post for my mainstream writing blog. The idea behind it is to inspire me with my writing aims for the year ahead and to let any followers see where I’m taking my ideas.
Similarly, as the year comes to a close, I produce another summary, in which I report on how my past year has gone and how successful I’ve been with my literary targets.
On the surface, my mainstream writing appeared to have the upper hand for the entire year, but in the background, throughout 2018, I always had at least two erotica projects. In terms of meeting targets, I exceeded them with erotica, because somewhere along the line I played around with two new ideas and they both came to fruition before the year-end.
In support of the opening graphic, here are the release dates:
May—Curious and Camping: An Erotic Adventure; published.
June—Quiet Night Inn: and other erotic stories; published.
November—Being a Good Girl: An Erotic Novella, published.
December—Sharing: An Erotic Novel, published.
I have an erotic novel at an advanced stage, A Class Act, which is in my Work in Progress. It will be my first of this genre next year. I also have the groundwork prepared on three novellas and a book of poetry, all in line for 2019.
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In terms of reading erotica I’m sorry to report that recently, I’ve yet to find that magical product—a book that is a ‘book’ which I can read and justify a public review. Call me Mr Picky, but something between 25–50 pages doesn’t constitute a ‘book’, and at the equivalent of $2.50, it also doesn’t suggest value for money. I don’t care how indecent the content is if the writing isn’t decent.
As I’ve said before, I’m not the be-all-and-end-all of erotic writing, but there is now definitely a premise that a nice cover is a way to a reader’s heart. I fail to see the point of a front cover which portrays a stunning, statuesque brunette with a deep cleavage when the main character is a slim, bi-curious teenage boy who is merely feminised, not transformed into a different body.
Yes, there are supposedly only seven main plots in creative writing, but in erotica, we have now reached the point where we have college scenarios involving a desperate need to get money, the sex-change experiment (pills, potions, and lollipops), and then of course, the ‘sister’ of whoever who becomes a cheerleader—yeah, whatever.
Oh, let’s not forget the stories where a little saliva rubbed on a certain naturally tight orifice is sufficient to provide ‘lubrication’—I don’t think so guys. The result of such lubrication would not be an unexpected instant of pleasurable pain and then ecstasy—it would be extreme pain and lasting mental scarring for the passive partner.
Well, as we leave the old year behind, I thought I’d express those thoughts on why I continually fail to find erotica worth reviewing.
Above is my erotica catalogue as I consider new ideas. You’ll see that I’ve now produced three novels, two anthologies of short stories, a five-part series of novellas, and a standalone novella—which I’m sure won’t be the last of its kind.
There is one other thing to think about as we head towards 2019—I’ll be continuing to depend on realism, plotting and full-length stories in my work. Just saying ….
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Tom Benson - Erotica 
For once, you and I can agree on Erotica, Tom.
The sheer amount of trash out there is astounding, and I’m very grateful that Readers’ Favorite don’t review it; I do sometimes get requests from James to review specific books.
I’m not in the least surprised you can’t find a book in the genre worth reviewing. Carry on writing stories with a plot and perhaps the incompetents will see the error of their ways – if not, you’ve cornered the market.
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Hi Sarah. I’m delighted to see your name and though I write erotica among other things, I can understand where you’re coming from. If I had ten per cent reviews of my sales in this genre I’d be happy. I’ll see how long I can keep it up. 🙂
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You raise some interesting points here, and not just in respect to the erotica genre but in wider literature too. I certainly agree that marketing a 25-50-page story as a ‘book’ (with a full novel length price-tag to match) doesn’t lie easily with me; there’s nothing wrong with stories considerably shorter than the accepted length of a novel, but personally, I’d like to see a whole new shorter-length category or section for such works for those readers who actually prefer shorter length stories (and there are many who do, myself included on occasion). As for the price being related to word/page count, I’d rather read, say, an exceptionally good 30-page story (and would consider it better value for money) than say three or four hundred pages of unedited drivel. That being said, if an author is putting their work for sale out to the public then said public are entitled to expect a high level of literary merit in a story of whatever length, but nonetheless, I do object to being offered a twenty-minute read with £2.99 price-tag whatever its quality, especially when I can hop along to Bookbuba and get an already well-received full-length novel for a third of that.
Moving on more specifically to erotica, I think it has fallen into the trap of many other genres, of authors continuing to write shorter length stories, possibly a consequence of KDP’s previous payment system favouring such works, but also as a means for an author to produce what looks like an extensive catalogue of writing. As it happens, shorter length erotica works for me – several hours reading of titillation certainly wouldn’t be doing my heart of blood-pressure any favours – which Is partly why I enjoyed ‘Coming Around,’ but I’ve read a couple of short stand-alone erotica stories, and quite frankly, in a lot of cases I’d seen better written and more believable scenarios among the dog-eared and sticky pages of well-thumbed copies of Razzle and Fiesta that were invariably left lying about (in my much younger years of course). With regards to reviewing erotica, even exceptionally well-written stories, I’m sure for a lot of readers, reading erotica is their naughty secret so to speak, so putting their name to a public review might not immediately spring top mind (I mean, the giggles and teasing of teenage daughters/sons or scrutinising looks from the missis?).
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Hi Paul. I agree regarding paying the price for quality is fine. In terms of erotica as a genre, the main reason I believe so many ‘authors’ produce short books is that it allows for a greater output of their rubbish. Many of them repeat the same names in different stories or use a variety of titles but the story is effectively the same each time. If possible if I don’t review, which is most of the time, I do try to contact the author.
Most of them from what I see are out to make a killing for a little output. I’ve seen erotica ‘authors’ who produce a ‘book’ every month and the standard is sufficiently bad to suggest that each book is a first or second draft. It doesn’t do anything for the credibility of those like us who are putting time and effort into what we do. 🙂
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I agree with you both to a degree about short books. I simply won’t buy them. I think writers like Lesley Hayes have the right idea. She’s very good at short stories, but she puts enough together in one volume to make them worth the cost, and a real bargain when she occasionally reduces them. It says a lot about her writing when I do actually buy without waiting to see if she does reduce them.
Erotica is “churned out”, but have you noticed the glut of “Christmas” stories suddenly on the market in December? If I wanted to do that I’d have to start now! There is an incidental – surprise to me – likeness to the Christmas story in Two Face the World, and I have used that in advertising, but it’s a full-length book suitable for reading at any time.
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