The Key Words Include Romance For A Reason
Jul
21
2005

Rather than give attention to those who are so desparate for it they waste their time attacking others in the genre, I think I’ll talk about why erotic romance IS romance and why I think readers respond to it so well.

1. Sex is romantic. I know! Shocking isn’t it? But it is and readers of erotic romance know it and that’s why they buy it. They realize that there’s nothing dirty, shameful or distasteful about sex between people who share a connection. In fact, far from it. Romantic sex is hot!

2. The sex in my books has a point. Sex in porn doesn’t have a point. Aside from being boring and plastic, it has no value other than the visual of fucking or whatever they’re doing. Sex in my books has value. It deepens connection, it expresses fear, yearning, desire, sadness, anger, love, lust, frustration – it’s about the people involved and who they are to each other.

3. People like to be aroused, they like to be turned on and titilated and they like for it to be for a reason. Not a lot to ask I think. Whereas porn just makes you laugh and is generally produced for men, erotic romance is written by and large, for a female audience. Maybe I’m spoiled, but my readers are smart people. They want to be entertained but they want it done well. If they wanted porn, they’d buy it, but they want context with their sex. (and this is not saying that people who like door closed sex scenes don’t have brains – I’m talking about my readers)

4. Erotic romances may have a lot of sex in them but they also are about a romantic relationship between people. Oh I know, we shouldn’t include anything more than dyads of a male and a female (according to the purists) but that’s just stupid and bigoted. Love is love. And your imagination is fun! Use it. Vampires and shapeshifters and menages – all things that don’t happen in real life (the menages may from time to time), but they’re fun to read about. But no mistake, just because they have sex together, they still have a romance.

5. Calm down. Seriously. It’s really quite simple. There are enough readers out there for all of us to write for. Stop insulting them by telling them they are consuming porn or that they are all crackheads for sex. Just let them read what they want. Oh, and stop hating on everyone else, it makes you look petty and jealous.

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