…there were these three writers who set up this Yahoo group so they could chat/bitch amongst themselves about writing, other writers, publishers etc. Nothing unusual there except they forgot to lock their posts and they went viral and the whole romance e-book community read a lot of stuff they weren’t meant to. Oh dear. Anyway, one of their posts I read had one of them saying something along the lines of she was off to ‘write porn.’ Yes. An e-book romance writer saying that. Shock. Horror. Ho hum. I remember that post, along with the many others I have filed away, because the writer chick who wrote it was at least honest. The more stories that get subbed to Scarlet Harlot Publishing the more I realize e-book land is equating porn for romance, in ever increasing amounts, and I’m not seeing that same parallel with established print book market. It asks the question - are e-book writers money hungry I-do-anything-for-a-buck writers? Yes. Are they pandering to women who are tired of ‘normal’ sex? I believe so. Are e-books, as one person pointed out to me, ‘corrupting the moral fabric of society’? My answer to that is for corruption to work, people must be open to temptation and you cannot corrupt without need or greed.
My point? As much as I have been thinking about the stuff that gets sent to me – and no, Harlot is not technically open for submissions because I barely have time to spit - I find I am led by business sense and the lure of $$ when it comes to publishing. Yes, I will and have published e-book porn/romance and make no apologies for it.
E-book land - Welcome to temptation.
I don’t know whether you’ve noticed but virgins are everywhere at the moment…at the least in romance land they are. You have the too stupid to live virgin who doesn’t get the hero is after her arse until she is flat on her back under him and then you have the oh-my-god-I-need-to-lose-it virgin. Oh, and let’s not forget the virgin who stumbles across the shape shifting wolf pack of five who need a virgin for whatever half arsed reason to make their lives complete. Why so many virgins? Is it a fad? Do we want to see innocence corrupted? Do we want to go ‘aww, how sweet’ and ‘bloody hell, he’s going to put all that into her?’ Yes, yes and yes. Frankly, romance writing world has become cruder than I’ve ever seen it. Why is that? I pondered this question with a male friend. What is it women want? Why are we reading virgin books? Do we want to remember when? Do we want to see the virgin literally shafted by a wolf pack of five men? Do we see virginity as an expendable commodity to be made money out of? Do we not value innocence anymore? I don’t know. He was very quiet on the subject. Smart man.
I have to admit that this - http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-thevirginsale-668537-144.html Scarlet Harlot story that was subbed to me by an old Pommy (English) friend made me think about where I stood on the issue. Do I publish what I believe is romance or do I not be a prissy prude and say to hell with it? It may seem old fashioned but we – and I include myself - seem to be manipulating everything that has an ounce of purity in it into some dirty erotica story and branding it as romance to sell to women. As I said to my male friend, you have to wonder what women want. Tenderness? Passion? Or in the Aussie vernacular a good root and onto the next man? Is that romance or are we beyond that now if there is the promise of an orgasm?
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