So yesterday, when I was going through my rankings obsessively (because honestly, should I be working at work? Pfft. I should be writing... which I did a little. Just dragging on this last Cheri story. Someone should flog me? Husband? Where are you?) I noticed that almost all of my books got a borrow except for Trillionaire and the JKC ones. A little confused, but happy for the ratings bump! Hell, even the romance story I wrote--ghuls get no love, I swear--got a borrow, and it ... well, I love the story myself, but obviously it's not everyone's cup of tea.
Now, mysterious fan, read them so I can get paid! Heh.
Seriously though, I have noticed that once a book that's part of a series gets borrowed, the next, then the next does too, so I actually think there's a couple people out there who are doing like I thought they'd do: readin' 'em for the stories, not just the sex. Of course, the Dominating series is all femdom, and unconnected, but I was meaning the scifi stuff or the JKC. I think that's groovy as hell. I like erotica, don't get me wrong, but I'm finding that just writing erotica for the erotica... leaves me flat. I have to have a story. I love cramming as much sex and dirty nastiness in there I can, but there's gotta be a story, a reason why, not just 'you're hot, let's fuck'. People can watch porn for that shit, yo.
Maybe it's worth making the distinction between "stroke" and erotica. Erotica has classics in it that are part of the literary canon whether anyone likes it or not. Not that we're making high art on the one hand, but on the other hand, how our work will be judged in the long run is out of our control and none of our business.
ReplyDeleteAnne Rice's Beauty series are not just sex scenes strung together by some excuse for a plot, and they are some of the best-selling erotica of all time. Right now the best-selling erotica comes in the form of full novel-length stories badly written by E.L. James.
But if they're so badly written, why do people like them so much? They have a story that people like. They have characters people like (or perhaps love to hate). There is some kind of connection happening.