Erotica Books

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Erotic Romance (Complete Idiot's Guide to)

Alison Kent

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Writing about love & sex 5 out of 5 stars.
18 of 20 people found this review helpful.

My understanding of the romance genre is so old that I had no idea that the romance genre had even sprouted an erotic subgenre that allowed for explicit sexual content. I still thought of romance books as teases--something that got you all hot and bothered and then shut you out of the "good stuff". While there's still plenty of romance to be found that follows that set of expectations, now you can find erotic romance as well.

However, lest you think it's about gratuitous sex, it's part of the definition of the genre that the sex has to further the plot and the character arc. It can't be tacked on. Sex is part of how the characters change, fall in love, explore themselves, and so on. But because it's an erotic romance rather than erotica, it's still about falling in love.

Warning: This should be obvious, but I'm going to make it very clear just in case. This book is about writing in a genre that includes explicit sex scenes. That means that this book contains material about writing explicit sex scenes. It isn't meant to be titillating in its own right, but it is frank and blunt and doesn't shy away from necessary detail and discussion.

Alison Kent has a knack for writing; that much is obvious (in fact, I think I'm going to have to get my hands on some of her fiction!). She's thorough, informative, blunt, frank, and above all, entertaining; I never felt that she sacrificed one aspect for another. She's utterly comfortable with her subject matter, which makes her the perfect author to write about such a potentially sensitive topic.

She discusses all sorts of writing topics, applying them to the erotic romance genre quite handily. She also provides thorough coverage of the unique needs of erotic romances with respect to the role of sex in the plot and writing erotic sex scenes.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in writing romance, erotic romance, or erotica--although the focus of the book is definitely erotic romance, writers of the other two types of story will find much of value here as well. It would also make a fascinating read for fans of the genre who want to know more about how it works and what their favorite authors do. The tips and hints are highly useful; the range of topics covered is extensive; and the author makes the book fun to read (not to mention extremely informative). I have a newfound respect for the genre now.

Editorial Review:

The basic rules for turning basic instincts into blockbuster success.

Erotic romance reigns supreme as a big category of women’s fiction—a billion dollar business serviced by a new breed of uninhibited writer. This book is the necessary how-to for first timers and a terrific guide for seasoned professionals as well, who are putting their racy—and lucrative—fantasies to paper. Now, for the first time, a veteran erotic romance author shows exactly what to do—and how.

• The first book to guide writers to succeed in this multi-million dollar genre
• Explores how to set up a plot and write good, steamy sex scenes
• From a best-selling experienced author
• Includes resource section for research tools and further reading
• Interviews with top editors in the field
• Foreword by Kate Duffy, editorial director at Kensington Publishing and founding editor of the genre

How to Write a Dirty Story: Reading, Writing, and Publishing Erotica

Susie Bright

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Authors of erotica have it rough, says Susie Bright in How to Write a Dirty Story. Their work is often judged before it is read. They are assumed to be sex gurus. And if memoirists find it tough to share their work with friends and relatives, imagine what it's like for sex writers. A third of Bright's book is devoted to general publishing issues. The rest deals specifically with erotica and should appeal to anyone whose writing includes sex scenes. Bright, who has been dubbed the goddess of American erotica, is refreshingly straightforward about her subject. She likens a great erotic story to a great striptease act. Ideally, an erotic story takes all the time it needs, arouses both the reader and the author, is judicious with clichés and dirty words, and doesn't involve a complicated description of body-part placement or an excess of sex noises. Most important, a sex scene propels the story forward. If the story would work just as well without it, the sex scene shouldn't be there. And the good news? Even "really bad lovers can write great erotica." --Jane Steinberg

The Joy of Writing Sex: A Guide for Fiction Writers

Elizabeth Benedict

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The Joy of Writing Sex 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The information has been very helpful to me during my writing.

Very Disappointed 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I agree with the review that says this book is dull, dry and boring. Very hard to get into, and hard to stick with it.

I am an aspiring romance writer and bought this book to help me write the love scenes. It did not meet my needs in any form whatsoever.

This book is more a discussion of the different types of sex: heterosexual, homosexual, masturbation, incest, rape, adultry, etc, and would be better categorized at such. It also seems to be aimed at those who write sex scenes that are just for the sake of sex, not scenes about love shared between two people. While it may be helpful to some, it wasn't to me and my writing.

This is the first time I've ever requested a refund from Amazon, it was that bad.

Editorial Review:

Even though writing about sex probably ranks on the joy scale somewhere between reading about it and having it, Elizabeth Benedict feels that many writers don't do justice to the act. So she has developed a novel idea: a guide book for fiction writers seeking to create better sex scenes. Benedict, a teacher in Princeton University's Creative Writing Program, doesn't concern herself with pornography but rather with a contention that sex scenes are pivotal in carrying the plot, story and character of some novels. Her point is emphasized through many interviews she conducted with authors on their experience with and views on writing about sex. Now, if she would only visit the film industry . . .

Passionate Ink: A Guide to Writing Erotic Romance

Angela Knight

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Well worth the price! 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This is an educational and entertaining guide to writing erotic romance by one of the most successful authors in the field. In fact, it's so good that it prompted my first ever Amazon review! Here's why: There are a lot of great books out there on writing, writing romance, even writing erotic romance (Alison Kent's book, which is excellent, comes to mind.) However, for me, this book was worth the purchase price for Ms. Knight's explanation of manuscript formatting and word count alone. Extremely helpful!

Editorial Review:

The forecast is in: the future of romance is hot and steamy. But riding the wave to success takes more than stringing together a couple of sex scenes or opening the bedroom door on your traditional romance. In her brand-new "how-to", USA Today bestselling author Angela Knight shares the down and dirty details on writing erotic romances that will keep your readers coming back for more. Passionate Ink (un)covers the erotic novel from conception to completion. Straight talk, no purple prose. First, Angela will show you her useful writing techniques that have made her a successful author. Then, she'll teach you what's hard (besides that!) about making your erotic romance erotic: action, both in and out of bed, the anatomy of a sex scene, eroticism and 'kink', and good dialogue, or talking dirty without sounding dumb. If you want to enjoy the heat, then strip off your inhibitions and take a dip.into Passionate Ink.

Chasing Danny Boy : Powerful Stories of Celtic Eros

Mark Hemry, Jack Fritscher, Neil Jordan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Bedside book for the living room, OR--- 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Chasing Danny Boy is a wonder of a book!This collection of short stories is that rare thing- the combination of intelligent and steamy.The settings of the stories range from modern Dublin, to the mythic past, including some with Irish-American settings and people. Many aspects of the (now) global gay culture are represented.The characters range in age from late teenagers with other teenagers, to men in their forties. There are decorative sketches at the beginning of each story, and brief biographies of each writer.Every time I re-read this book I am startled again, at how very good it is.

Editorial Review:

Featuring NEIL JORDAN, Oscar Winner: The Crying Game and JACK FRITSCHER, Winner, Best Fiction.

New voices dare to break the ancient silence. DUBLIN. New Storytellers reveal the erotic sizzle under the Irish skin. BOSTON. Wherever in the wide diaspora of the world the Irish are, the millions of them are in your culture, your music, and, likely, in your genes. CHICAGO. This dazzling collection of new stories tears down the lace curtains of sentiment and stereotype. NEW YORK. Brilliant, fresh young writers shout out the hidden homoerotic literature of Irishmen everywhere in the world: ancient romantic warriors to mythic Dublin punk/boyz. LONDON.

Conflicting Desires: Notes on the Craft of Writing Erotic Stories

Han, Li Thorn

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Loved it! 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

First, as the title to my review would indicate, I have to say that I really loved this book. However . . . this is a book about writing, not necessarily about writing erotic stories. As a mystery writer, I found it helpful and fascinating, with many insights and useful tips. And there IS information about crafting love scenes, but I really think the book is more valuable than that. If it seems I am being vague, it's probably because I am having difficulty describing exactly what this book taught me. Basically, I learned that I need to take my time writing these difficult (for me, anyway) passages, and that point of view is paramount. But there is so much more to be had in this little gem of a book! I could see people being frustrated if what they wanted was a how-to on writing erotica -- this is more for writers whose stories incorporate love scenes and how to make them flow naturally, and (of course) how to make them hot!

Editorial Review:

Storytelling qualities such as plot and character development often take a back seat in erotic fiction--and why shouldn't they? The reader picks up a dirty book for one reason: to be turned on, right? So why should a writer bother with all that craft stuff? +++ But what if there were more to it than that? What if readers wanted a real novel with a real story that satisfied emotionally and intellectually--as well as erotically? +++ It's possible to craft a story to satisfy those readers. This book will show you how.

Images of Rape: The "Heroic" Tradition and its Alternatives.(Review): An article from: Renaissance Quarterly

Craig Harbison

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Editorial Review:

This digital document is an article from Renaissance Quarterly, published by Renaissance Society of America on December 22, 2000. The length of the article is 1536 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Images of Rape: The "Heroic" Tradition and its Alternatives.(Review)
Author: Craig Harbison
Publication: Renaissance Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: December 22, 2000
Publisher: Renaissance Society of America
Volume: 53 Issue: 4 Page: 1218

Article Type: Book Review

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Elements of Arousal: How to Write and Sell Gay Men's Erotica

Lars Eighner

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Excellent "how to" book for all fiction writers, not just erotica writers 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The title is in some ways misleading, as "Elements of Arousal" is one of the best books on writing fiction I've ever read, regardless of genre. Yes, it's an excellent "how to" for writing gay men's erotica, but it's also a superb course on both the craft and business of fiction writing in general. It won't suit everyone, as the writing examples used are very explicit erotica, but on the other hand the examples used are certainly memorable, and Eighner uses them to great effect in teaching various aspects of the craft of writing.

Even this revised edition is now over a decade old, and some parts of the section about the business side of writing are now seriously outdated, but it's still a useful guide to practical aspects of selling one's work. The book is currently out of print, but is readily available second-hand and in an a web version, and is well worth tracking down.

Serious Pleasure: Lesbian Erotic Stories and Poetry

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Women's Erotic Encounters & Fantasies 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

39 Excellent stories from these authors -

Maria Jastrzebska -
Berta Freistadt
Bernadette Halpin
Caroline Halliday
Mandy Dee
Pearlie McNeill
Storme Webber
Tina Bays
Jewelle Gomez
Barbara Smith
Cheryl Clarke
Esther Y. Kahn
Caroline Trusty
Diane Biondo
Cherry Smyth
Liann Snow
Barbara Smith
Mindy Meleyal
Nina Rapi
Cheryl Clarke
Fifi
Terri Jewell
L.A. Levy
Fiona Cooper
Amanda Hayman
Ruth Bowen

How can you miss with story titles like "Some orgasms I'd like to mention".

I bought this book because it was discussed as recommended reading by Tee A. Corinne the editor of the anthology `The Body of Love'.

From the back of the book - Good girls, bad girls, in love or out, young or old, we wanted to read about lesbians making move, desiring other women, desiring themselves, making each other dizzy with lust, turning each other on, delighting each other beyond belief, taking each other not heaven and back...

The Erotic Writer's Market Guide: Advice, Tips, and Market Listings for the Aspiring Professional Erotica Writer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Sorely Lacking but Very Much a Necessity 3 out of 5 stars.
67 of 68 people found this review helpful.

I was one of those eager writers signed up to pre-purchase this title long before it was published. Aside from going back and forth with Amazon about the continuously changing publication date, lack of information and updates for us buyers, and finally giving up on the opportunity to buy this unique offering all together, I was thrilled to hear that it had finally been published and is available for the masses. A published market guide for the erotica genre in book form? It never existed until now and has been sorely needed, which should make it a relative godsend for sex writers everywhere...

But it's not that miracle we've been hoping for.

The book touts being a project handed down from one dreamy-eyed associate at Circlet Press to another, until someone finally put it together. It shows. All of that time and separate authors didn't go into creating a comprehensive, well researched, completely detailed, and painstakingly accurate list of erotica markets. There are only 95 pages of actual market listings in the entire book, hardly enough pages to even be termed a "book," which may be why "the collective" added all the other junk in the remaining 145 pages between the covers.

The authors state in useless Chapter 1 that this "isn't a handbook on 'how to write a story'" and then proceeds through many chapters to tell you just how to do that. If you're completely new to the world of writing, in any genre, you'll appreciate knowing that tax deductions are available to writers in the US, how other authors choose their pen names, or being warned to develop a thick skin about rejection letters, but you won't get much else from the editorial content in this book. You'll even be laughing at advice like the recommendation to avoid distractions while writing, not threaten or bribe potential editors, and that you don't have to have experienced everything you want to write fiction about. The authors also go on and on about how sex writing should not be viewed as taboo and to let your inhibitions and hangups go as a writer so much that you begin to wonder if they still harbor these hangups about sex writing themselves. These lengthy chapters present more common information than common sense itself...just enough for a beginning writer to wonder "oh, I need to know about that?" and then not find the detailed information to actually help them through that aspect of the writing life. If you're looking for any information about the legalities, decisions, fears, business, marketing, etc. of writing itself, refer to the masses of OTHER books available on those subjects. And the authors here instruct you to do the same just before continuing to waste our time and take up way too much paper dabbing at different aspects of the writing life.

If you're buying this book for the listing of markets for your erotica, sex, and porn writing as I was, you'll find 5 pages of those e-Book publishers that just can't be avoided, 39 pages of magazines and periodicals (including e-zines), and 56 pages of book publishers. The list of markets is far from comprehensive or accurate. Comparing this book's list to the spreadsheet full of erotica markets I've created for myself as an author fully entrenched in the genre now, there is an alarming amount of missing potential markets for your work... large, obvious, long existing, better paying, and well known markets completely overlooked. And my list started from scratch barely a year ago. I also recognized several markets listed in the book that no longer exist, haven't existed for almost a year, and can be found out as such by a quick trip to their website, which posts that very notice or no longer exists at all.

Sure, markets change and publications and editors come and go like the wind, but why would the authors of The Erotic Writer's Market Guide bother to actually list defunct markets and pubs no longer in circulation, even including their own speculation and personal comments, and not verify the accuracy of their own listings by even a quick check of the current status of a market's website? The listing for Playgirl magazine alone is TWO editors behind in accuracy and incorrect in payment amount. Where I know full guidelines are available for markets, they're not included here. You still have to send off for guidelines (but you always should to maintain completely accurate info) yourself. Also beware of all the non-paying markets listed here, not exactly what you wanted to pay the book price to find and not even including those truly beneficial non-paying markets that continue to result in lots of fans, feedback, and visitors forwarded to our own sites for those of us in the genre who've benefited from working them in among our paying market submissions.

The resources section at the back of the book is just as incomplete...just astonishing considering the authors of this book are supposedly working authors and editors in the erotica genre themselves. If I was able to discover the markets, organizations, market listing resources, etc. all by myself over the last year, "the collective" should've been able to list them in their book. Maybe these authors should've taken the time to send out a mass inquiry to existing erotica writers, editors, and publishers and asked them to share their own personal collections of markets to form a true and very valuable listing... or at least inquired with the members of the Erotica Readers & Writers association. And perhaps then this first market guide for this wonderful genre wouldn't reflect so badly on the genre itself, as it currently encourages the perception that erotica isn't anything to take seriously, there are few serious markets for it, and erotica writers don't have quite the skillset or professionalism of writers focusing their efforts in mainstream genres. (The authors and editors at work here couldn't even place page breaks in the right places to ensure all the information regarding one market was kept together and easy to use and refer to...you'll find a title of a publication at the bottom of one page and have to turn the page to read the details about it.)

All in all, this is not the comprehensive and accurate resource for erotica markets it should be, can be, or that you're expecting. It has large, numerous, embarassing holes in it. BUT it is still the only collective listing of its kind, a tool that will hopefully evolve over time and become, for the erotica genre, what other listings are for mainstream markets. And there are a few markets listed here that I hadn't found myself, which is like gold in this genre where markets are hard to find, not always paying, and exist only in small numbers. And that alone makes purchasing this book worth the money and the time I spent laughing at it; it'll pay for itself in the very first short story I sell to a new market.

Is this book all that it could've easily been and all that we writers need or expect it to be? No. Is it still an indispensable tool and a must-buy for writers of erotica, porn, and sex in fiction or non-fiction? Absolutely.

And hopefully any future edition of The Erotic Writer's Market Guide will solicit the input and incorporate the knowledge of a larger circle of writers actively working in the genre.