Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Erotica Writers = Quote Machines
As some of you know, for about a week or so I've been working on a piece about how mainstream publishers such as Harlequin and Avon Books are starting lines of erotica and erotic romance. These are books that are a step above your traditional romance novel. They're still very plot-driven, but in place of phrases like, "lady flower" and "throbbing manhood" they're, well, slightly more explicit. These books are aimed at women.
I've been talking to a lot of people in the book industry, from the mainstream editors and writers to the women that started selling the books over the internet years ago. They're the best for quotes, since the big publishing houses essentially yanked their business model without so much as sending a thank-you note.
Last night I spoke with Tina Engler, who was one of the very first to create a viable business from erotica with her website, Ellora's Cave. We started talking about selling erotica in mainstream bookstores, such as Borders and Barnes and Nobles. I asked if the explicit nature of the books posed a problem. Would booksellers be open to this?
She said that some managers were more open minded than others, but stressed that erotica as a genre filled a specific need: It legitimized a woman's sexual experience. Basically, if a woman reads these sorts of books, they don't feel quite so strange about whatever their own fantasies may be. Makes sense.
"But what about the language?", I asked. These books were hardly filled with the flowery euphamisms often associated with romance novels.
Engler paused a moment. "Well," she said. "Sometimes a cock is just a cock."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
