Climaxing All Over Your Pages

By

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February 15, 2022

pexels-alexander-ant-4585185 — Photo by Alexander Ant from Pexels

Assuming none of your characters reached orgasm during your foreplay scene (which is as legitimate a way to write it as any other) or didn’t get through the seduction and realize they didn’t really like one another when all was said and done, you could very well find yourself on the slow burn to climax. Now, whether the orgasm/money-shot/end of the seduction/foreplay will as much mark the end of your story, be just one bright, naughty passage you write with more to follow or happens early on, or it will rush at your reader in one wild night of your characters first meeting, managing into a local bar backroom where they roll each other naked across a busted bag of confectionary sugar and reach nirvana, who can say?

Your intention might very well be to get your characters on edge but keep them from coming. I tend towards this kind of setup in lots of my short erotic fiction. Sure, I have plenty of good old bed-rocking orgasms in my pages (and in my life, thank you very much, sometimes even with another person in the room!), multiples even when possible, gooey, fun, creative moments I hope are white-hot to the reader. But there are plenty of times I only allow my characters as far as seduction and foreplay, setting up a great big tease, searching the thematic questions about whether or not these two people will meet again, or even if they even want to. I tend toward this kind of ambiguity in my writing, as it is infinitely more interesting for me. But for those of us who want to write a good climax, here are some thoughts.

I’d say tickle into the climax at least a bit of what you have already let the reader know about your characters. They have spent some time getting to know one another, let them, and your reader, benefit from what’s been learned. For instance, during the seduction and foreplay, if you have made it clear that one or even both of your characters are aroused by roleplay, you might want to use this knowledge in their climax. Conversely, don’t throw in an unsubstantiated surprise here or reverse someone’s behavior unless warranted. A sub, suddenly turning dom as they come, need have at least some impetus why they might suddenly change their approach in mid-stretch. Although, if you write it right, one character suddenly so turned on when roiling up to orgasm suddenly traipsing down a path they never have can have arresting erotic possibilities.

Other parts of the climax to consider are:

Do you want your characters to climax during the same scene?
Do you want them to orgasm simultaneously?
How descriptive might you want to get in the specifics of what goes on and what comes forth?
Is there more to the climax than just the release? Some admission, a revelation, or something beyond human experience that occurs when one or both of your characters come? Climaxing is a great big body-rocking occurrence; I can easily see it flipping the ON switch to someone’s heretofore secret superpower.
As mentioned, will this be the end of your story, or are you planning a denouement?

If your dealing with more than a short story here, this climax might just be one of many that will occur across a story with multiple plot lines. Or the start of your story might be two people roiling towards their big moment, coming, then the rest of the tale opens up about what happens now.

As much or as little significance you give to the climax is again your call. I just think, like seduction and foreplay, the climax is important and can be damn fun to write. Remember, lots of readers are following along step by step with you here. They get heated to the appropriate passages you give them and might indeed allow for the old one-handed tickle when you get to your climax.

No matter how you write it, you want to keep true to these readers.

Naughty Memoirs; Erring On The Side Of Discretion

By

Ralph Greco

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February 15, 2021

pexels-ekaterina-belinskaya-4674372 — Photo by Ekaterina Belinskaya from Pexels

The subject I am tackling in this installment can add up to quite the sticky wicket when it comes to erotic writing (and God knows, not everybody likes their wicket all that sticky). In one’s naughty scribbling, especially in the adult fiction one creates, one (be one lucky enough to have had some fun or have shelled out an inordinate amount of cash over the years) often plucks ideas from that which they have experienced as much as from what one fantasizes about.

But what happens when one takes their pen or flying fingers to an erotic memoir? How discreet should you be in making your real past into a story?

If you cover your shapely, possibly blushed posterior enough by changing names, places, and even tweaking action here and there, you can pretty much get away with masking real stories/memoirs. I’d recommend this, at least a little. Your exes usually don’t want to be outed, would probably rather there wasn’t a hint of them in your reiteration; discretion really is the better part of valor here.

But lots of writers want to stay as true to their experiences as they can, and charge full speed ahead by writing real names, specific places, and step-by-step saucy action into their memoirs.

I’m talking less compromise here and more maturity.

Have you a care for an ex sex partner, a smidgen of good taste, and seeing as we are presently in the throes of rabid connections through social media, you might want to err on the side of not telling tales out of school even when you are telling ‘those’ kinds of tales.

I have been working on a memoir for a while now, a full account of some of my wild and woolly years of singledom, specifically as this time in my life relates to the kinks I have enjoyed with some wonderful ladies. But I’ve changed names, places, and shifted times, as well as also writing this book under a pseudonym. I don’t feel I’m compromising myself in any way and truly feel in my heart that the only way I can get this story told (and I do want to tell it) is to do all I can to hide identities.

As I always say here, you do you.

Proceed as you feel best. In fiction, you’ll certainly have more opportunities to distract your reader off the scent of a real person, place, or time. And while you can do the same in a memoir, I feel the trick when spinning as true an account as you want to (or dare) is to try and stay as close to the truth as you can while still maintaining discretion.

Remember, there are lots of naughty stories to read, write, tell, and Jill and Jack-off to in this great big world of ours. If you are contributing in any way to the erotica of the world, no matter what it is you are writing, please consider discretion.

The ass you keep from getting kicked could be your own.

So, You Want To Write Dirty Words: 5 Tips On How To Start Your Naughty Scribbling

By

Ralph Greco

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November 17, 2023

DirtyWords-Small — Photo from https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/writing-dirty-words-ralph-greco/1143819024

Whether you are an old hand at scribbling flowery prose or long screeds or just trying your hand at getting down some thoughts, sometimes we come to be quite surprised at what can come ejaculating out of our metaphorical pens.

But what happens if the stuff you happen to write is naughty?

No worry. There is hope for you. In fact, there might be some lucrative avenues to pursue with your salacious prose. At the very least, you might be able to finally get out of your head some of those hot and heavy fantasies you’ve had stored up. Maybe, in fact, by writing some of this stuff down, you could muster the courage to find a partner to try some of your more interesting interests.

Don’t be afraid; here are 5 tips on how to start your naughty scribbling:

1. Write it.

First and foremost, get that stuff that’s been percolating in your brain, out. Write it. Go ahead; nobody is looking. Don’t worry what the words might be, what form they might take, if you deliver more a stream-of-conscious puking than an actual story. Just get it out of you.

2. Don’t worry about what is coming out.

Whether we act on them, or even admit to them, we all have fantasies. Some are deep, some we would never entertain in real life, and some keep us up at night. Writing dirty words lets us let this stuff out, and just as you shouldn’t worry about the form you’re writing takes (at first), you should also not worry about the content. Go back to point #1…get it out.

3. Somebody somewhere said writing is rewriting, which is true…to a point. But don’t worry so much about rewriting, the proverbial ‘nip and tuck’ of editing, at first.

Rinse and repeat points #1 and 2.

4. You might be able to sell it.

Yes, there are places to sell this work.

A quick souring across the net (or even this site) will prove that there are indeed places for your naughty scribbles, be they fiction, non-fiction, a blog, etc. You might not make millions in your first few months out there or even get paid. But with a little digging, you might just find some places to sell your dirty writing.

5. You are not the only one doing it. Be it an E.L. James and her “Fifty Shades,” or your old

aunty typing away in her upstairs spare room, you’d be surprised how many pro and non-pro writers alike are typing up some sordid scene or working out some fantasy across pages they keep hidden in a folder on their desktop, disguised with the name “household receipts.”

Take solace that you are not alone in what you are thinking about and writing.

Now, go back to point #1 and have at it!

Ralph Greco, Jr. indeed knows what he writes about above, being a pro writer in the adult space for the past 20 years and having just penned: Writing Dirty Words: The Not-So-Sexy Reality of Making a Living Writing (and the Occasional Crack of a Whip)

EROTICA OR PORN: THAT IS THE QUESTION…OR IS IT?

By

Ralph Greco

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April 1, 2021

picture capture credit: from the 2015 film Fifty Shades of Grey

You say tomato, I say, shut the hell up about tomatoes already. Really, when it comes down to the oft considered distinction between erotica and porn, I have no idea what the difference is, and what’s more, I’m not even sure that there is a difference.

I have always felt that porn is more A-into-slot-B kind of stuff, where erotica fills in the gaps between those slots. Still, I can’t offer a definitive consideration of the differences; to me, it’s a subjective eye-of-the-beholder kind of a thing (and as Woody Allen said, “If the beholder is blind, just ask the guy next to you”).

Unless a publication you are trying to sell a story to sets a hard and fast distinction with their guidelines, or you know well from past readings of their stuff how intense/detailed downright dirty your story can get, I wouldn’t be too worried about what it is you are scribbling. As I told you in my first installment, write it, then worry about what it is later. I see all too often writers trying to fit their latest opus into a specific category, metaphorically battering round pegs into square holes of their prose trying to keep things in line with what they think they are creating. This worry puts unnecessary, and an all-too-early restriction on your writing.

Porn, erotica, a mix, and matching of a few genres, let it fly, I say, and who cares, really, in the end, what it turns out to be?

Let me tell you a little story…

E.L. James, the writer of the super-popular Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, began that saga as fan fiction. She simply let fly her fevered imaginings across a “Twilight” series fan fiction page online but was told right quickly, that she couldn’t be appropriating the characters from that popular vampire/werewolf series in the way she was (if she ever hoped to do more with her scribbling in a professional manner). So, she excised the “Twilight” peeps and tropes, recreating an original tale and soon…well, the rest is history. The point here is that E.L. did not worry so much about what she was creating. However, she was metaphorically spanked over it later (and given what she writes about, one could assume she likes a good spanking, real or otherwise), and her further tweaking led to unimagined success.

I don’t think she ever much cared what it was she was typing, be it erotica or porn, let alone even if it was completely original, at least at first (and to be sure, this writing in the style of or even using characters and settings from an author you love is an ok way of beginning to build your writing muscles; just don’t try and pass these efforts off as original).

In the end, defining words like porn and erotica is akin to using a word like ‘kinky.’ A spanking between one couple might be the high-water mark of the wildest action either person has ever managed in their sex play. To others, it is a mere usual Tuesday night after-dinner activity. So, really, can we settle on a specific definition of what kinky means, when it seems the word would mean something different for each person? And as with what you might think is kinky as opposed to what I might, I can’t very well tell you what you will think is erotica.

I’m not trying to be obtuse. I realize that I can’t sell a hot and heavy story (and even there, our definitions of ‘hot’ and ‘heavy’ are probably different) to The Saturday Evening Post when that particular publication’s readership is pretty much G-rated for families. What I am on about here is the consideration, first and foremost, if what you are creating is erotica or porn, what actually is erotica vs. porn, and should any of us care about the difference when creating erotica or porn?

The world needs both, as far as I’m concerned.

Porn or erotica, let’s call the whole thing off. Just write.

Should You Take That Writing Gig? Five Red Flags Your Potential Employer Might Wave

By

Ralph Greco

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September 15, 2021

pexels-elina-krima-3343253 — Photo by Elina Krima from Pexels

Part of the freelance writer life, at least mine, un-agented as I am and writing across lots of formats and genres (it’s not all just chocolate sauce dripping on robots’ nipples with me), is to consistently look for writing jobs. There seems to be a bunch of them out there. But don’t be fooled; quite frankly, a lot are right shite. Too many supposedly “legitimate” employers are looking to rip a writer off and still many more, have no clear idea what they want and what a fair price is for the scribbling we do.

How then does one cut the fat from the meat, sanely vet these jobs, keep from falling into the trap of spending time, energy, and sometimes even money on a job that is not going to pan out?

Here are five red flags to be on the lookout for when searching through those writing jobs.

1.) You see the same ad over and over.

While Craig’s List is the lowest common denominator for most things, and I think I find maybe 1 job out 20 there that I send resumes out for, it is a place I do check on occasion. But if I see the same ad for freelance writing needed from the same poster frequently (or every day as I do this one ad) there might a reason why this position isn’t ever filled. No, it’s not because the employer has a ton of work! Beware.

2.) They ask for specific samples.

This is not an absolute red flag, but I have come across enough would-be employers out there asking for ‘samples’ from writers they are considering. What always prompts my suspicion here is that it would be all too easy to cull a bunch of samples for writers hungry for work (which most of us writers always are) amass a bunch of free pieces, then never have to pay anybody.

3.) The payment is unspecified or “contingent upon.”

Sorry, but there are tons more net businesses and those ‘going-to-be-the-next-big-thing’ ideas than are those that are genuinely successful. Waiting for your pay contingent upon how much or well a site sells views, downloads, etc. or not ever given a set price per work (or however else the employer wants to set up your pay scale) are sure signs this might not be the employer you want to deal with.

4.) They take forever getting back to you.

In this day and age, as I have mentioned before, there is no reason not to get back to someone in a timely manner… that is, if getting back to them in a timely manner matters to you. If it does not matter to your possible employer than it shouldn’t matter so much that you work for them.

5.) Even if they do get back to you in a timely matter, you don’t know what the hell they are talking about.

This is no small point and something I have encountered more than once. From my experience, there is usually nothing malicious here, and the employer isn’t trying to be obtuse, it’s just that I come to a communication loggerhead with them. Even if two people want to work together and a good amount of the preliminary is worked out, there are just those times that even the most reasoned and well-intentioned employer and employee can’t seem to understand what the other wants. As I say, I have been in this pickle a few times, my writing just doesn’t hit the mark they were hoping for, even after I have been paid, or I just can’t seem to hit on the vision the employer wants, despite how much we come to talk about the work.

In Conclusion:

Granted the above are only five points you need to watch out for when looking for a job. The money might be great, the potential employee the nicest person you have ever spoken to, but for the reasons above and many more, there are times you’d be well cautioned to take a job. Yes, I know you want to work, I know the writing jobs are few and far between. But not all jobs are for all people or are even worth pursuing at all.

Learn How To Write Erotica From M. Christian

By

Janet Lovelace

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June 1, 2021

Sexpert’s very own M.Christian will be spreading the joy of writing erotica with his special online class for AsYouLikeIt, a women-owned adult pleasure shop based in Eugene, Oregon. Get the basics of translating passionate fantasies into beautifully raw erotica by signing up now!

Who is M. Christian?

M.Christian is a renowned and respected author, editor, and publisher. Respected equally for his staggering imagination as well as his chameleonic ability to write convincingly for any and all interests and orientations, his short fiction has graced the pages of anthologies such as Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, and many other publications.

Photo courtesy of M.Christian

His fiction has been collected into books such as the Lambda Award finalist Dirty Words, and others such as Speaking Parts, Filthy Boys, BodyWork, Bachelor Machine, Skin Effect, and the recently released Hard Drive: The Best Sci-Fi Erotica Of M.Christian. As a novelist, M.Christian has further demonstrated his versatility with titles like Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Brushes, Painted Doll, and the rather controversial gay horror/thrillers Finger’s Breadth and Me2.

And he will be the guiding light for both budding writers and successful professionals in Sex Sells, a two-part online class where he shares every bit of wisdom and technique he’s gained in his almost 30 years of experience as a prolific and prominent contemporary erotica writer.

Sex Sells, Part 1: Getting Started As An Erotic Writer

In this special online version of his popular writing class, M.Christian will playfully and enthusiastically get into everything you ever wanted to know about turning your imagination into actual stories and books, which could very well pave your way into someday actually getting paid to write erotica!

Here you’ll learn the essential basics, such as finding inspiration, what can make (or break) an erotic story, forging interesting characters, the ups and downs of plot, making sex scenes that sizzle, great exercises to juice up your erotic imagination, how to stay motivated, dealing with your inner critic, as well as all kinds of tips and tricks to managing your emotional well-being as a writer.

Sex Sells, Part 2: How to Sell Your Erotic Writing

The good news is that now, more than ever, the market for erotic books and stories is booming. The bad, though, is that getting from passionate amateur to successful professional can be an extremely rough one — that is if you aren’t well-prepared for the harsh realities of the erotica writing biz.

In this class, you’ll learn all about how and where to submit your books and stories, pay rates, royalties and rights, social media and PR, the pros and cons of self-publishing, the care and feeding of editors and publishers, how to write for a wide variety of erotic genres, the importance of stretching yourself as a writer, plus how to deal with the inevitable emotional kicks-to-the-ego that can come from sending your work out into the world.

Where do I sign up for Sex Sells?

The introductory class, Sex Sells, Part 1: Getting Started As An Erotic Writer will be held on Sunday, June 14, 2020, from 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM PDT. Tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite.

The advanced class, Sex Sells, Part 2: How to Sell Your Erotic Writing follows on Sunday, June 28, 2020, from 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM PDT. Tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite. It is highly recommended to take the introductory segment prior to this advanced class as important writing basics will no longer be covered.

If you’re looking to pick up a new sexy skill or just looking to try something new while we’re all at home, give these classes a whirl and discover the fun and fulfilling world of erotica writing!

View Event on FB – https://www.facebook.com/events/3868248766549671/
Find MChristian on social media:
Twitter: @MChristianzobop
Instagram: mchristianzobop
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mdot.christian
https://www.facebook.com/zobopmchristian

Get My Blood Boiling With Some Foreplay

By

Ralph Greco

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May 2, 2022

Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash

My part two of this three-part article of the essential parts of erotica, this time foreplay, again sees us traipsing down very personal considerations. As much as I can’t tell you how to set up a seduction—where it should take place, how long it should be, etc.—I can’t give you the specifics on the foreplay scene or scenes you might create.

I am sure you and I could find some common ground on what turns us both on. But beyond these, there is a cornucopia of stuff that gets you going in the bedroom that doesn’t mean anything to me and vice versa. That’s the fun thing about us humans; we all like different things for different occasions with different people. Finding out what gets a new lover all squiggly is one of the best parts of getting to know somebody. With this in mind, you need to include or at least consider this variety in what you write in how you approach your fiction’s foreplay.

If you are especially creative, you might have your characters engage in foreplay you would never attempt. It’s fun to stretch yourself this way. Or you might have two (or more) people involved in your story who might not be your gender. Or even human. Again, all this keeps your creative juices flowing and might bring you to some conclusions about what is lacking in your sex life you might want to try next time you get into some foreplay.

I also feel it’s essential to make seduction and foreplay separate parts of the action. They don’t have to be; as I mention in almost every one of my pieces for this column, the way you write your tale is up to you. But if you can manage some delineation between when your characters meet and first sniff each other out, then get their hands on one another and manage some fumbling around one another’s erogenous zones, your reader will benefit greatly. Following this, a foreplay scene does not always have to get your characters into exchanging body fluids and orgasm.

Then again, it might.

Again, how long or short it takes you to get your reader from seduction to foreplay, how much distance you cover in paragraphs and pages, as well as in how much time passes in your story between these two points, is up to you. You might not even write something that employs a linear narrative, jumping around with flashbacks, or even with time travel. I can’t say that when your reader first comes to your seduction and foreplay that these two happen in the logical progression, we usually know these to happen.

If we assume your characters are getting closer as they step from seduction to foreplay, then most likely, these scenes and all the rest of the stuff you are writing are building a deeper, hotter reading experience for your reader, which is exactly what you want.

But watch out, you know what’s coming (and I do use the word ‘coming’ specifically here!) next.

Please don’t hate me, Grammarly, but I really don’t give a f***

By

Ralph Greco

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March 15, 2021

pencil-1758276_640 — Image by AxxLC from Pixabay

I just hit a “Centenary Superhero” milestone with Grammarly (don’t worry, I didn’t know what it was either). In using the basic grammar program, which I do indeed recommend, I get reports on my writing from the company all the time. In addition to this new milestone, I am presently 82% more productive, 29% more accurate, and use 93% more unique words than the rest of Grammarly’s users.

Well, whoopie for me, huh?

Actually, between you and I, I don’t rightly give a rat’s dingus. If I could stop Grammarly’s insidious checking in and reporting on me, I would. I don’t need their tickling of my taint. I don’t rightly care how I measure up against others. I don’t even want to keep score on what I’ve managed to do.

This writing thing, penning naughty words, and mainstream stuff, is my livelihood. I am not in a competition or along for the ride of social media approbation. Sure, I want an audience. Sure, I love it when people connect with a story or come back to me and tell me how something they read of mine gave them a nice warm feeling (just as long as I don’t have to help them wipe up). And I especially like when I give forth on a class of would-be writers, as my buddy and fellow writer M. Christian and I have done on a few occasions at the kink conventions we have presented at… and hopefully will present at again with all this COVID b.s. is over. But I don’t care a whit about the opinion of some algorithm.

This Grammarly update speaks to a more significant dilemma of our modern world, and one I shan’t really dive into here. But generally, because of social media infecting our lives as it has (or more precisely how we have infected ourselves with it), people find it very hard to do anything without a response. People sign-up for exercise programs and eat well campaigns, enjoy Zoom instructions, pretty much get together across digital platforms consistently.

Sure, I’ll give you the pandemic. I know that has pushed us into isolation more than anything we have ever experienced on the planet. But why do we need confirmation so bad, the return tweet, and the ‘like,’ the fellow dieters? And why would Grammarly think I’d give a… well… a rat’s dingus, that I surpassed one of their milestones?

I’m too busy writing, which you should be too!

Shooting Up The Old Mental Enema To Relieve You Of Writer’s Block

By

Ralph Greco

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July 1, 2021

This is one of the areas of writing (and there are a few, believe me) where I am not very learned. Simply, I never suffer from the all-too-common, writer’s block, so I have never personally needed to combat it.

Sure, I suffer from the lazies, sometimes I will do all I can to avoid sitting down to write. Still, for the most part, I have so many projects needing completion, that fluttering from one to the other to another keeps my mental muscle exercised enough that I don’t get stuck or blocked.

Image by luxstorm from Pixabay

I’m not saying I get much work done this way, in fact, I probably get less work done on one specific thing than if I just concentrated on one piece of writing and didn’t start another until I finished the first. But I get bored quickly, especially of my own writing and this is the way I have always known to work.

As I always say with this or any endeavor…you do you, I do me; we all have our approaches.

Even though I don’t suffer from writer’s block, I know it is ‘out there. There are plenty of writers do face it from time to time, some lots more than others. What I can an offer, and what I have noticed that works for others, that, in theory, should get your juices flowing, is to push yourself back from your desk, get away from what you are trying to slog through, take a break from the writing for a time.

Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay

Getting your mind off the work and your ass out of your chair (and disconnecting from social media, screens, online, etc.) is the first and best solution. Besides, we writers need to refuel, get out and about, sniff some new stuff into our brains, marinate, give forth and take in… just like anybody else does. No matter how much you want to write, how it might be your bread and butter, you need a break, as does anyone else.

Isaac Asimov was famous for declaring that he was on vacation all the time when writing. He felt that the writing he did—being taken away to different worlds, delving deep into iconic creations and characters—was all the break he ever needed. I know most writers want to be writing, even when they aren’t, but all Asimovian considerations aside (and really, there was only ever one Isaac Asimov), the first real way to break through your block is to break away from writing.

You could also try to plow through by assigning yourself writing of a wholly different nature than you are presently into or have ever managed. If you are stuck trying to write yourself through some bodice-ripper, open up a new document instead and try to pen an article on fly fishing or start a new blog post on another topic.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

What usually gets us hitting the wall here (beyond burn-out) is that we have been attempting to do the same kind of thing for too long (again, another reason why I don’t do this). If you can’t or don’t want to step away from the laptop or desk, ok, keep writing, but try writing something different, or even wholly opposite to what’s got you stuck.

Lastly (and you are going to have to take a break here to do this): read. When people come up to ask me how to start writing (a subject I tackled in my first column here), one of the things I tell them is: if you want to start writing, well, you damn well better start reading. For me, reading is the very best vacation, as powerful and vital to me as any actual trip I have taken. It cleans out my cobwebs, sets me traveling, and feeds me the words and techniques of other scribes; what could be better?

So try this.

Image by chloestrong from Pixabay

Try everything above, actually. I think one, two, or maybe all three will get you through the log jam.

I hope something does.

I have heard that Aaron Sorkin, writer of such successful stuff as T.V.’s “The West Wing,” and movies like A Few Good Men, Charlie Wilson’s War, and Moneyball, takes multiple showers during the day to keep his writing muscles warmed.

I am sure you have heard of plenty of writers who go for the old walk ’round the block or take in a round of handball with a bud.

Some, yes, smoke, and imbibe, but I don’t do either, and I’m not sure if this kind of distraction will do much more than blot you for a while (it worked wonders for old Dylan Thomas, until it up and grabbed him). But who am I to say what will work for you once you find the solution to writer’s block.

I just hope whatever enema you chose it keeps you unblocked often.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Featured Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Hooray For The Erotic Anthology

By

Ralph Greco

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September 1, 2021

In the book publishing game, authors are usually advised a few months prior to their book being published, so as to gear up the old P.R. machine. I was just told about an erotic anthology I’ve placed a story in, coming out in November, from the good folks at SinCyr Publishing. (Here are some pre-sale links Here and Here, if you are so interested; sorry for the cheap plug) I have been published by this company before and I can say that both their eBooks and print versions are of the best quality… .and their authors top-notch.

Even a little old author named Ralph Greco, Jr. is pretty good. I look forward to reading his short story and all the others, written by authors Kristan X, Elizabeth Coldwell, Sprocket J. Rydyr, Jordan Monroe, Eve Ray, Louise Kane, Elliot Sawyer, Dilo Keith, Colton Aalto, Zak Jane Keir, Allison Armstrong, gathered together for the new book called Scandalous.

I’ll pepper social media and my other contacts until the November 30^th release date (and after) as best I can. Luckily with an anthology, you have all the other authors who are onboard pushing in their own way so that one usually sees a pretty wide-ranging coverage of the title.

This is just one of the reasons we erotica writers love anthologies.

Another reason is that you get to rub shoulders (mostly only digitally though) with authors you might never get to meet. Sometimes this leads to introductions being made, friendships forming, and maybe even some work coming your way from your new author buddy when they come across a lead they want to share.

Authors are also good for placing that weird little story you might not have yet found a home for. I have often found a specific theme of antho submission call sparks my memory with a “Hey; I have that story about spiders and leather that would be just perfect for this…Spider and Leather-themes antho.”

Another good thing about anthologies is they can introduce you to a publisher who might be putting out more books in the future. I felt warm and fuzzy sending a new story to SinCyr because they had treated me so well before, the introduction had already been made, they were aware of my quality of work. Not that it was a slam dunk that they’d use another story of mine for Scandalous or any new book they were publishing. But I did have somewhat of a track record with them, all because I had submitted and been picked for one of their past anthologies. And sometimes, a publisher is more open to accepting a one-off story from a writer or a bunch of them submitted over a few years before they will consider a stand-alone single-author collection or a novel…if even the publisher is looking for these.

Really, I am all for anthologies. Readers like to gobble them up because they can get a bunch of stories from a wide range of authors and don’t have to commit to just one naughty scribe. And often, those readers will seek out one or two writers they especially liked from the antho, and those authors could make another sale with other books they have written or their work appears in.

It’s a win-win across the board here! So, let’s say hooray with erotica anthologies, even when they are Scandalous.