People ask me all the time, is erotica just a fad? Well, I don't know, is sex a fad?
Let's look at this last half-year of craziness in the right perspective. It wasn't one book that suddenly got popular. It was the Internet and social networking catching on to ebooks and erotica. The entire genre has had a huge surge; yes, that one book was an absolute blockbuster, but it wasn't alone.
We're looking at a perfect storm of opportunity for erotica. Ebooks; digital reading devices; social networking; and the ease and anonymity of purchasing has led to erotica and romance and YA and teen all becoming big buzz areas, because people like talking about them on social networking, and they like reading them. Yes particularly women for all of these topics. Women read, and women right, and women talk about what they like. Yes, in ways men just don't. Otherwise, thrillers and shoot-em-ups and military fiction and legal mysteries would be the new big thing.
The other thing that has helped is the way we want content now. Used to be an author was dead stuck on one book a year. That was as much attention a publisher could muster up to get one author's book into the fronts of stores. Build excitement, build anticipation, build that pyramid of paper near the front door, and it was a recipe for success. But you know what's changed everything for storytellers? Netflix. Yes, Netflix. Now when a consumer gets interested in a new series, the entire thing is available on Netflix, and we consume content voraciously. People will watch an entire season of Orange Is the New Black in one week. Or six seasons of Lost if you caught on late. Book content creators (authors) now face voracious readers (consumers of content) who want the next installment right away. Yes, Mr. Patterson and his twelve books a year stirred this pot first.
So what does that all bring us to? Authors who need to churn it out. Readers who want something new constantly. Devices making it easy to buy and easy to deliver without chopping down a forest. So what does that mean for authors? Shorter fiction. Yes. Novellas.
Novellas are bigger than they've ever been. Ever. And they are biggest of all in erotica. People want cheap; people want new delivered all the time. And yes, attention spans are a lot shorter now than ever. But it's not about attention span -- it's about what we're used to. A movie in two hours; a television show in an hour. We want the story told and wrapped up in a shorter amount of time. Then we want to get to the next episode or next story or next movie. It's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just a change in the anticipated story arc. Beginning, middle, climax, end in less than 100 pages.
If you want my advice, and I'm wrapping up here abruptly, because the kayak is waiting for me to take it out on the lake, start writing novellas! Let me know how it goes.
Bob
SMHIOF@gmail.com
Bob is the senior editor and a co-founder of Insatiable Press
But this is his personal blog, and all statements and comments, opinions and thoughts are all his own.
