![]() ![]() Lots of dinosaurs.ĭinosaur erotica is the deviant fiction du jour, with hundreds of titles clamouring for attention on the Amazon store and a vocal and dedicated readership. To their horror/surprise, that market was dinosaurs. So just what is out there? And how strange does it get?Īfter trying unsuccessfully to replicate the success of 50 Shades-style S&M erotica, aspiring authors and college roommates Alara Branwen and Christie Sims (both pen names) embarked on an experiment to see just which strange erotic genres would generate them most money. For a shrewd would-be author, combine two or more of those genres, and with a little luck, you just might be onto a winner. It’s been done before. Genre fiction – especially that of the amorous variety, but also science fiction, fantasy, and mystery/thriller/suspense – dominates the e-book market. If 50 Shades of Grey proves anything it’s that there is, indeed, ‘riches in niches’. James created, from those humble underground origins, an empire, kick-started the e-book phenomenon, ushered in a worldwide (yet fleeting) vogue for light S&M, and ultimately, brought the term ‘ mommy-porn’ into the popular consciousness. ![]() Starting life as a fairly unassuming (though fairly kinky) piece of slash-fic based on the characters and themes of the hit tween novel Twilight, author E.L. Then there’s fan fiction’s wayward golden child, 50 Shades of Grey. Love Lord of the Rings but wish there was more sex scenes with Frodo and Legolas? Slash-fiction. In the mood for short novel in which members of the Power Rangers get it on? Slash-fiction’s got you covered. The precursor to the erotic e-book is surely the crude fan-fiction of the early internet, or, more specifically, slash-fiction, amateur literature based on popular characters and story lines, often with highly sexualised elements added. Where has this hunger for erotic fiction come from? Who’s reading it? And who’s making all the money? ![]() Romance readers are attracted to digital formats particularly, with e-book sales of romance titles doubling in the year between 20. Romance alone is responsible for around $1.3 billion in sales worldwide. In 2014 self-published books accounted for 31% of all e-book sales from the Kindle store, last year 40% of all e-book revenue went to indie authors and 25% of the books making Amazon’s e-book bestseller list were independent titles.Īnd what makes up the majority of those e-book sales? Romance and erotic fiction. How big is the self-publishing market? Huge. While some smaller and online publishers still manage to eke out a living, monolith online distributor Amazon has, for all intents and purposes, captured the market.īut, every broken egg is an omelette-in-waiting, and in this case, that omelette is the rise (or perhaps return) of the vanity publishing industry Wade so successfully exploited. The endless title options offered by the internet, affordable shipping and the rise of e-reading technology has seen traditional book retailers forced to either radically downsize their operations or close their doors altogether. Publishing production and consumption has changed radically over the last 15 years. The author’s triumph coincided with something of a perfect storm happening in the publishing industry. Wade’s success was about more than shrewd genre choices, market gaps or dumb luck however. Though generating more interest than her more previous attempts, none of the titles – including an erotic Jane Austen send-up, Pride and Penetration – took off, until one night Wade decided: “I’m going to write something totally freaky and crazy.”īy 2012, Wade was known as ‘the Queen of Monster Sex’ and was earning around US$30,000 a month. While Wade had no interest in erotic space opera, the suggestion got her thinking: What if she tried her hand at more transgressive, camp subject matter? While Wade (not her real name) enjoyed the process – writing, editing and uploading her work to Kindle Direct – the novels themselves were not popular, with sales stalling in the single digits and attracting sometimes scathing reviews.Īs despair set in, Wade’s husband proposed she try something in a similar vein to his current reading selection – a collection of short, kinky science fiction stories. When Virginia Wade’s daughter left home for college in 2010, the stay-at-home housewife decided to try her hand at a long-held interest – writing and self-publishing romantic fiction novels. *Almost all links decidedly NSFW, depending on where you work. ![]()
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