Favourite themes

[Miranda Forbes]

What are your favourite themes for erotic stories - spanking seems to be very popular but what else do you like to read about? Does girl on girl stuff turn you on even if your straight? Please spill the beans as we aim to please!

[MarkRamsden]

I've been told by more than one woman (well, two actually) that straight men playing with each other is hot. It's not that easy to find, perhaps because gay sex is strong in the market and bisexuality remains a hard sell - loathed equally by straight and gay.

As we all know the sky falls in if two men kiss, but the popularity of Brokeback Mountain would seem to confirm that some women are gagging for this.

MarkRamsden.co.uk

[Miranda Forbes]

Ummm - very interesting! Ladies - does this float your boat?

[DMWCarol]

Miranda Forbes said:

Ummm - very interesting! Ladies - does this float your boat?

Yes, definitely. There's loads of slash fiction out there catering to that demand and I know lots of other women who love reading it.

[Beverly Langland]

I can understand why as a publisher of erotic anthologies you are keen to identify themes. I believe several publishers (Black Lace comes to mind) actually produced questionnaires for their readership. As you suggest, several common themes quickly became evident from the returns. At the time women wanted adventurous independent heroines and a sexually dominant, rugged, charming, hunky and romantic hero. Who doesn't? They wanted stories set in exotic settings, somewhere to help them forget the domesticity of home life. When it came to sex women wanted stories involving submissive females, group sex, flagellation, spanking, bondage and fetishism, in fact sex of all kinds. You name it, women wanted the opportunity to read about it. I don't believe things have changed too much since. The bottom line is women want sexual variety even if they cannot actually enjoy such freedom in reality. Isn't that what fantasy is all about?

Of course, there is always a danger of over-analysis. What is erotic to one person may not (and generally isn't) erotic to the next, which is why we should rejoice when we find a partner who shares our particular inclinations and interests. I personally find the soft skin on the back of the knee most erotic, yet on more than one occasion have been swotted like an annoying fly when attempting to fondle said area. Also, I find clothes erotic, or perhaps I should clarify: I don't find nakedness erotic in its own right, even in literature. We all have lumps and bumps we don't consider particularly attractive, yet to make all our heroines 'perfect' creatures soon becomes tiring and the characters unbelievable. Now, just because my preference is to have twenty stories with the heroine tightly corseted and tottering around in high heels doesn't mean most readers will agree. So when it comes to choosing particular themes I'm rather dubious.

My personal view is that people find individual stories erotic not themes, just as they find certain situations, voices or even the back of the knee erotic. A woman who may not be inclined to read lesbian stories may still find a story of two females drawn into a sexual situation, highly arousing. Truth is, and as shocking as this may seem as far as female erotica is concerned (ruining the nice girl myth again) — anything goes. Even the idea of watching two men making love will appeal to some women when written in the correct context. We are discussing fantasy, after all. Imagination is a strange and wonderful thing! What matters is what has always mattered in good fiction — realistic settings and well-drawn characters — add some conflict and you have the makings of a decent story.

Of course when choosing the right erotica to buy we all look for guidance, whether we know what we want to read or believe we know what we don't want to read. I think Xcite have chosen the correct policy of mixing general anthologies with volumes of a more specific focus. Themes such as spanking and bondage are broad enough in scope so as to allow considerable interpretation. I suppose as editor this is down to you Miranda. General or mixed anthologies give those new to erotica or readers wanting variety the opportunity to experience the strange worlds of the erotic writer. We are a strange bunch after all. Keep the waters muddy. Remember variety is the spice of life.

[Miranda Forbes]

Thank you for that - I agree with you in so many ways. Most people reading erotica are looking for escape and also sometimes for new ideas and themes to add spice to their relationship. Next year we are adding to our specific themed books with our first lesbian anthology, Girl Fun One and also a colection of stories celebrating sexy larger ladies called Ultimate Curves. We are also publishing our first novels - something I held off from since mostly I find erotica works much better in the short story format - if your characters have to stop to have a shag every five minutes it can be really hard to keep a sensible plot line going! That said I think we have been lucky to secure some great writers and it will be interesting to see how things develop.

[Kristina Lloyd]

M/m is hot! It's hugely popular in erotic romance right now (which in some ways is ahead of erotica when it comes to giving women what they want because the genre doesn't have to worry about alienating its male readership). I think women kink for guy-on-guy much as men kink for girl-on-girl - it's double of what you fancy!

A lot of women are now reading and watching gay smut. I hosted a guest blog with gay author, James Lear, on Lust Bites (RIP) a while ago which I titled: Why do women like my cock-filled gay porn? And I think the answer's in the title - lots of cock! James (aka Rupert Smith) is a wonderful writer with a strong gay and female following.

I'm straight and f/f does nothing for me. Traditionally, erotica has assumed all women are bisexual and it simply ain't true! I think it's a hangover from the days when porn was aimed only at men. I'd love to see some m/m from Xcite - with a couple of sexy guys on the cover, please!

I'd also be interested in reading straight and bi male-voiced erotica (an anthology called Hard Talking?) It seems a lot of men adopt female pseuds or write from a female POV (because the female voice is, and always has been, more popular than the male in erotic fiction - again, I think that's down to smut's traditional audience being men). My own publisher, Black Lace, insists its female authors write primarily from the female POV. That seems such a shame, and quite unfair, especially when half the authors at Nexus, the guys' imprint, are men masquerading as women or are writing female POV fiction.

I think Xcite are moving in a great direction and it's wonderful you're not just sticking to pre-conceived notions of what readers want but are actually asking them. This is a fantastic forum. Thanks for the invite!

Kristina Lloyd

[Mr & Mrs J Jess]

We both enjoy reading of situations people are found in, that just throws up all sorts of erotic scenarios.

[Elizabeth Black]

I know from readers that m/m really turns them on. Not so much f/f. Women like hot male bodies going at it so they can imagine themselves benefiting from it. :)

[Elizabeth Black]

I personally like paranormals, especially ghosts. Ghosts figure prominently in many of my stories. I know that the most popular paranormal is vamp. I wrote one vamp story a few years ago for Scarlet, but I haven't tried it since. Shifters are also popular. I created a shifter character in the past, and she's going to be included in a future book of short stories.

[Lucy Felthouse]

m/m is great - so I'd definitely like to see more of this!

I can't wait to read some of the novels you're publishing, they look great. And I'm hoping to submit something to Ultimate Curves!

[Leeds Erotica Festival]

Definately, straight boy on boy is a dead cert in my eyes! And you're right, it is hard to find.
MarkRamsden said:

I've been told by more than one woman (well, two actually) that straight men playing with each other is hot. It's not that easy to find, perhaps because gay sex is strong in the market and bisexuality remains a hard sell - loathed equally by straight and gay.

As we all know the sky falls in if two men kiss, but the popularity of Brokeback Mountain would seem to confirm that some women are gagging for this.

MarkRamsden.co.uk

[Leeds Erotica Festival]

I personally do enjoy particular themes more than others, although I do find all sorts of things sexy. Particular themes put me off as well though. Female submission to dominant men is a turn on for me where as dominant women rarely is, and can in fact be a turn off. Spanking is sometimes good but sometimes I find it a little dull. It tends to be a little repetative in my eyes. Thats just me though! I like it when a story is innovative more than anything and when in pushes me a little, maybe with odd scenarios that almost dare the reader to find them erotic. To me it doesn't matter if the scenario would work in real life - its a fantasy. I think girl on girl is sexy, and boy on boy, and straight and group (and I'm a girl, just to clarify). The erotic author I would most admire is George Bataille, even though I don't find his writing particulary sexy (more disturbing than anything!). But, they do challange the notions of what is erotic and what is perverse. Not a writer to have an intimate moment with though...