There are also some people who see it as a hobby and so relate it to ‘having fun’. It is fun…when it’s going well and just flowing. It’s also work. It’s also maddening and frustrating when it’s not flowing, when you’ve worked really hard and someone misses your point entirely or just hates it anyway, or an editor is telling you to maybe heighten a sex scene you don’t want to heighten or asking you to alter something to suit housestyle or ‘could this character not do this and maybe do this…’ etc. LOL. Okay, often editors are wonderful. I’ve been lucky. I’ve learned a lot from them. No one is always right, including me, including my editors. It’s all opinion at the end of the day. A writer friend of mine believes authors shouldn’t apologise — it is ‘their’ creation when all is said and done.

There are some writers who have switched publishers and even some editors who have left the business because they are sick of characters having sex before they’ve barely said hello so you’re not alone.

I think a lot of authors feel the same way as you do. Ones that actually write a story. I feel incredibly annoyed when authors write short stories, and if it’s 12 pages long 9 of it is made up of foreplay and sex. I don’t take into the lousy excuse of the characters have already been established in a story previously. Publishers should just warn readers: Book contain only sex scenes. Saves those who want a story a lot of trouble.

I’m sorry but any reviewer who says, “Damn you have to read a PLOT to get to the sex scenes” is just not worth listening too. I can understand if the relationship aspect takes a long time coming into. Like there was a story I read, and it was probably about 150 pages or so, and the relationship only got started in the last 40 pages. That doesn’t mean they started having sex by then, it means that they didn’t actually get together. Which was a bid, sad for me because I felt I was reading two separate lives, there wasn’t a build-up to their friendship and ultimately their relationship until the end; which was a poor rush job.

I get people want to “see” the sex. But if they want character boinking into the first three pages, then I can’t take their opinion seriously. Any reviewer who says that, will not entice me into taking their thoughts seriously.

I just saw your newer post, and I wish you the utmost luck with it.

As to the next m/m contemp…I’m trying! My time is not my sodding own at the moment. Sigh. I’m also fighting the editing urge because as it develops I want to go back over and keep deepening it when what I should do is get the first draft down and then work on it.

That’s probably why, if I were ever to write a book I’d opt not to publish ‘e’. I think that really put me off, and at the heart of things, to me at times that’s all e-pubs care about. Sure they want a good story, but more sex the better. I’m not one to generalise here, but I see it all the time. I buy books and out of the 100 pages they deem as a “novel” at least 85 were made up of sex scenes.

I guess for me I don’t buy books for the ‘erotic’ nature. Hell I could no without the sex. P.A. Brown who published L.A. Heat with Alyson (and now through MLR Press). The first edition had the whole fade-out style when it came to sex scenes, which I preferred. I’m not sure if the new edition through MLR Press has included sex scenes now? I did read the original publication, which was (is?) free online, and that had sex scenes in it. Even though she wrote them well, I again did not feel it was needed.

I suppose the whole point of the e-market is the very fact people can push boundries, and write explicit sex scenes and BDSM etc. However, when the becomes the focal point of the whole book, you can’t call it a story.

I only feel bad for talented authors (imho) who feel they need to get a book out fast. There are some who should just stop piling out crap. I rather wait a year or two for my favourite authors need book. After all, there isn’t going to be a lack of reading material between that time. As with yourself, other than your short story in the ‘I Do’ anthology, I haven’t read anything else of your material, due to the fact nothing you have written has interested me. I know you’re a good writer, and I am waiting for another m/m contemp from yourself. However, I have no problem waiting and would rather see something polished and well-written then 50 short stories or novellas that are just going to make me cry

The not enough sex thing can be disheartening. Not all my stories would fit the market. They wouldn’t find a publisher, not because of the story but because the story has to match up with a publisher, and I hate putting anything into a book for the sake of it. Hype is a strange thing as are some awards. I don’t care what anyone says, we’ve all read some acclaimed book and wondered why was it so successful when another excellent book failed. I also agree there can be this pressure to get the next book out asap. It’s something that’s even sneaking into the mainstream print industry. Used to be authors were discouraged from putting more than one book out a year. That’s not the case now, not if they’re household names that will sell.

I like writing, I thought I wanted to be an author, however I realised I’m just too lazy and in truth couldn’t be bothered. I submitted a piece to a e-publisher once, and was rejected because there wasn’t enough sex.

I am more likely to stop reading an author, as opposed to stop visiting the publisher. I think in the comments section of that DA post, many authors were scared of the very fact.

See that’s just an opinion though, like myself I sit there thinking why J.K. Rowling is so scared? I dislike the Harry Potter franchise, but I understand that it wouldn’t be so popular, if it weren’t deemed enjoyable to millions of people around the world. I don’t think the writing is bad, nor do I think the stories are. I simply, in this case don’t get the hype.

Yup, there are too many e-pubs who open up their doors, and think they know how to sell/write a book. You don’t need to have a back long, as long the River Nile to be seen as a “author” not to me anyway. However, it is where and when you submit.

I guess I’ve been lucky in my epublishing experience. I don’t read as many ebooks as I would like because I spend too much time in front of a screen as it is so I’ve been very selective. As with print, I tend to follow authors I know I’ll like and then try a new one now and then. If we don’t click or I feel the work was bad the chances are I’ll likely never read that person (and depending on the presentation, that publisher) again.

There’s also another ‘behind the scenes’ argument to this. Publishers will put out work that sells and, inexplicably, sometimes bad work outsells anything else. Even in print I can read an acclaimed book and wonder why it did so well. LOL. But you’re right and the sad fact is in the e-market there are many more opportunistic people willing to set up a business with little thought. Because the costs are lower at the start they’re more likely to give unknown writers a chance on something they might not otherwise publish, which is both good and bad for the writer. For writers, there can be good reasons to write for the e-market but that’s another blog.

I do feel for e-authors who actually write good stories. But the bottom line is, I’ll read 99% more crap in e-book format that I will ever in print.