Saturday, February 10, 2007

Erotic Romance? Or Not

Mrs. Giggles has a post up about this topic and I have to agree with her. More and more the erotic romance/romantica has become stilted, stiffling, boring. Insert tab A in slot B and move it around a bit, bam, we're done. And what were the characters feeling during the entire sex scene? I have no clue because the author didn't tell me. *sigh*

I have to agree where she talks about trends:

A while ago, there were a furor when Robin Schone wrote a scene with anal sex and there were the usual pearl-clutching that later died out when everyone decided to write such books as well. So for a long time "erotic romance" simply means "same old love scenes, just add anal sex". And now, I can see the trend happening - only now, it's the same old love scenes, just add BDSM after the usual vamp/furry/ghost obligatory ingredients.


Let me say, that I used to be frequent buyer from Ellora's Cave but lately I've been frequenting Samhain Publishing. Why? Two reasons. First, because I prefer contemporaries and they usually have more paranormal, futuristic, and sci-fi books available than contemps which is disappointing for me. Second, if there are contemporaries available, they usually contain BDSM and/or menage or M/M and I can't get into those. They just don't float my boat. When I go to Samhain I find a variety of books to choose from and not all their "red hots" contain BDSM, menage, etc., which is refreshing. Give me a plain old M/F contemporary and I am in heaven.

I have a poll up about ebooks and publishers readers frequent over on the left. Feel free to cast your vote if you've got a minute.

What are your thoughts as to the "trends" in erotic romance/romantica? Are you able to find the type of book you enjoy? Am I in the minority or the majority?

10 People Gabbed:

reviewer said...

For me, it all depends on the length of it. With EC I find that the shorters ones are all sex, no story.

I have had no trouble finding a good love story in a super, or super plus novel at EC.

Lori said...

I find that I am buying more over at Samhain as well. And for the same reasons. I find it very difficult to weed through all the really freaky paranormals at EC. And there are some really freaky ones. And, while I know there are still some great books over there, I find I just don't have the time or the energy anymore to hunt them down. I'm sure I'm missing out, but I figure I'll get to them eventually by WOM.

reviewer said...

I have never even heard of some the sites in the poll. I think I tried to buy from Loose-ID, but they didn't accept Payapl, so I just went back to EC.

Ann said...

Try me! Try me! I told Anne privately that I wasn't going to make a fool out of myself but what the hell *gg*.

I write EC contemps with a lot of story. Alot of sex too, but also alot of story. Only one -- Out of This World -- is about aliens. But even then they're completely humanoid with no extra or weird appendages ;)

Anonymous said...

Ack! (panicking author running around like chicken with her head cut off) Not really. I have to admit, I lean toward more romance than kink when I buy books. I like hot sex, but sexual content is not what motivates me to buy. I'm in it for the story. Got to have the story with a full romance. I'm old fashioned that way.

I buy from wherever I can, no specific loyalty or preference, but there are houses whose shopping carts defeat my intent.

Portia Da Costa said...

I mostly read - and write - contemporary erotic romance and women's erotica. I don't mind reading about BDSM and I do write it, but I only like to read it when I think the author actually understands the power exchange behind it, and the fact it can be subtle rather than overt.

I don't like reading any kind of kink where it's obvious it's just been put in because it's on some kind of checklist.

I've begun to experiment with both reading and writing paranormals, but I'm afraid I can't get with the weirder stuff like dragons and gargoyles and fishmen and whatnot... LOL

I've heard a lot of good things about Samhain... I think I'm going to have to check it out!

Thanks for very interesting post.

All the best

WendyPortia

Lori said...

Now Sarah, relax. You know that I'll buy your books wherever they are. And Ann, I buy yours, too.

But browsing for books is just too hard to do at EC these days. I think that was what I was trying to say. Even their categories on the left nav aren't well enough delineated. I find that I still have to weed through a lot of stuff I don't like just to find a few I do.

Anonymous said...

LOL! Lori!

Thank you.

Ann said...

Phew! Thanks, Lori! And if I won an Eppie/Capa/whatev. I'd definitely thank ya'll!!

Grammy Ingrates!

Ps--word verification is OY. LOL. My favorite term of exasperation.

Anne said...

Chantal- I have a heck of a time finding a decently written and edited book at EC. The quality of their books has gone down hill, at least in my perspective... though I do still have my favorites that I buy no matter what like Sarah McCarty (of course), Kate Hill(no doubt), and Ann Wesley Hardin(you go girl!).

Lori- I'm with you 100%. Slogging through the excerpts from new authors and all the crap just isn't worth it to me, so unless an auto-buy author for me has a release at EC, forget it.

Sarah- I love your books... as if you didn't know that. *G*

Ann- I love that you're not afraid to stick your name in the midst of things *G* You so rock.

And the damn grammy ingrates is right! Ungrateful bastards. I'm thinking of turning word verification off since we don't have spammers, but if we get them, I'll have to turn it back on *G*