Video porn pretty much flat out sucks - and not in the way I like it. :) I think that's why literary erotica sales are still so high. Erotica is the one fantasy which everyone is afraid to try to translate properly into the medium of video or film. No 'respectable' actor, director or writer will touch the stuff, unless its couched in so many subtle and artistic touches as to neuter its purpose. Video porn is fantasy done dirt cheap. Usual budgets are, I believe, in the low five figures. Meanwhile a really crappy, low budget, straight to video dog of a 'real' movie will have a budget 100 or even 1000x as much. Western society has a love/hate relationship with sexual fantasies. They sell like crazy, but almost every part of society treats them with disgust and suspicion. So what you get is anonymous people having not very passionate, not very realistic sex.
And that's pretty worthless, as far as I'm concerned. Because I need to know who these people are, and I need a buildup, an entry, a description of what makes their sexual antics exciting and arousing beyond the mere act of the physical. Yes, I like to see attractive women, particularly naked ones, but there needs to be more to it than that. Mind you, video operates at a considerable disadvantage, for it can't explain what's on her mind, can't show you her arousal, her heat and passion, particularly since the actress is rarely capable of demonstrating it without words.
And of course, it's even more impossible with BDSM. The authorities are even more suspicious of this particular genre of erotica.I once had an editor try to explain to me how worried he was about the violence in a book I'd written. The violence was no more than you'd find in any other detective novel, but mine was erotica, and so, even thought none of the violence was sexual in nature, I had to edit it. Video porn/erotic has even more problems in that regard. They have to stay so far away from anything which hints at lack of consent they can't even write a story of seduction. That's why every porn actress drops her clothes the second the male actor touches her. Ever seen one have to be persuaded, convinced, seduced? Not in video! Can't have the female showing any reluctance, because that would hint the male is pressuring her in some way, or not taking 'no' for an answer. So no reluctant, hesitant, uncertain females in porn videos, nosirree! They're all, well, nymphos.No predatory males plotting and planning on how to seduce. Just routine physical acts, with positions changed every thirty seconds for a new camera angle.
Which, I guess, is good for my sales. :-)
Very well stated! And yes, good for your sales indeed! With porn (video), there is no build up, no back story, no other information offered other than two or more willing participants that do the same old routine acts for a cheap thrill.
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm reading erotica, there is all of that and then some. I read far more graphic and intense scenes than anything I have watched on video. Especially in regards to BDSM or forced/consensual scenes. On video, you are merely watching the scene play out, while reading you are imagining yourself in that situation and that makes it all the more intense.
I believe society as a whole is too prude and uptight to be open about pornography and erotica. It is taboo. Some observations I have noted regarding erotica: nobody knows I read it unless I tell them because thanks to technology my Kindle keeps my reading preferences anonymous. So I could be sitting on my break at work, reading my kindle and nobody knows I'm reading something that they likely could never imagine even on their best day. It's easier to be risky with books and the content of it. I also believe a good portion of people are too lazy to read to make a big fuss over books such as yours...although I think the titles and covers are a dead giveaway :)
I've looked at the site you've indicated and found several books I'm interested in. I was wondering if you've done any books including erotic breastfeeding? The only thing I found close are your vampire books piercing breast flesh and feeding (blood) that way. Also, I've enjoyed several of your books but the ones I've read pretty much all end the same way...a women broken down to her basest sexual form, shared by several men, turned into prostitutes, strippers etc. That may be your intent however. I know I'd like to see a little more "happily every after" but still maintain the intensity of sex you have.
ReplyDeleteRe Booklover's comment. As I think I wrote in another post, my style of writing has changed quite a bit over the years. The earlier books tend to be, for want of a better word, 'nastier'. That was the way I thought those sorts of stories were supposed to turn out, so that's how they turned out. I'd say your comment is fair with regard to, say, my first 100 books. But I've been slowly changing since then, and certainly those in the last couple of years have changed enormously. Now if a woman ends a story as a sexual animal, if you will, it's because she likes it that way, thrills to the idea. But I do try for happily ever after now as much as possible. I even found myself, while editing a book (Destiny's Need) for posting on Amazon, re-writing the old ending. The original had her sold to a nasty Arab sheik with a penchant for sadism, and I changed that to a much nicer, kinder guy who would be a sort of master/husband/protector. So if you want books with kinder endings I'd look for those written in 2010/2011 or perhaps in 2009. Not that all the previous ones had bad endings, but the newer ones are less likely to.
ReplyDeleteOh I forgot: breast feeding. It's not something I've done a lot of that. I did mention breast pumps in a few books, so that the women could give milk, but didn't go into any level of erotic detail on men sucking the milk from their nipples. Coincidentally, I'm writing a book now where I have given a thought to that because the central character is a new mother who is still breast feeding. I'm a little concerned about how Amazon will treat that, though, when it gets around to being posted in a few months time.
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