When people hear the words “Erotic Literature” they often flush and get a bit embarrassed. For some reason, the genre has a reputation of possibly being very dirty and being aligned with what you would find it on a website if you search a couple of fairly dirty and sexualized words. However, the erotica genre of literature is one that you need to take very seriously, especially if you're planning on becoming an author in the field. Published erotica authors take the genre very seriously because they see it as being just as serious as the crime writer, a romance writer, a historical writer, or even the drama writer.
The erotica writer is primarily targeting women as they are often the biggest buyers of this kind of literature. But that's not to say it's because they have boring sex lives themselves. They are simply exploring a story that has a bit more emphasis on an intimate act between a man and a woman, a woman and a woman, or a man and man. The genre focuses on the deepest desires while telling a powerful story around these intimate scenes. It's important to note that erotic literature is not just about the powerful experiences between the characters in the book. A lot of the literature is about the characters themselves, the plot line, and the motivations behind their decisions. It is the full story with everything else that you would find in other stories.
The sexual experiences within the novel just happened to be heightened bit.
You need to respect the reader
Whether you're writing a crime book, a historical novel, or even a sci-fi story, you need to respect the reader. You need to treat them as if they are a human being with feelings, intelligence, and a curiosity for the subject matter.
It is the same with an erotica reader. Just because people read erotica does not mean that they don't have any intimacy in their own lives. It doesn't mean that they are deprived in any way. It simply means that they're curious about this particular genre and like reading what happens between two people who fall in love or who have a heightened sex drive.
Respect the genre
If you plan on becoming an erotica writer, you also need to understand that it's not like watching the free videos you may be able to find online of two people engaging in a sexual act. It's about how you make love and how you respect each other. It's a story about how people come together and spend the night, perhaps making love or exploring each other's bodies. Perhaps you can compare it to what you see in mainstream movies - not the dirty ones, where the words on the page just describe the intimacy a tad bit more.
If you find that this is impossible to do while still trying to be a mainstream author, look at what the author of "50 Shades of Gray" was able to do with her words.
She was able to write sexualized scenes that turned readers on but still have a powerful story about a couple falling in love and experiencing relationship troubles. She even had a dominant male character and a female character that struggled to accept his controlling ways. But the two characters have plenty of sex which makes it more of an erotic novel than a mainstream romance.
Have you considered becoming an erotica author? Do you think you would be able to respect the reader and understand that erotica readers are not deprived of sex, simply because they enjoy this genre?
