When is something considered erotica?

[Southern_girl29]

My WIP will have a couple of sex scenes. They are in the middle between mild and graphic. What makes something erotica? Does it have to be very graphic?

[Giles English]

Um, it depends how many hands the reader will devote to holding your book. ;)

Suggest you go read other recent books in your genre. You'll find - for example - that a sprinkling of explicit scenes would be unremarkable in modern mainstream fiction, chick lit and romance.

My understanding is that your agent or editor wouldn't be put off if you went "too far" for your market, but they might ask you to tone it down. This is a commercial, not artistic, decision.

[veinglory]

A few graphic scenes would be totally normal in fantasy, romance or thriller but might cause problems in other genres. There is work sold as cross genre erotica (erotic this or that) with only a few sex scenes in a novel length work but it is on the very lightest end of the genre ("sensual"). To shelved as erotica per se (not cross genre) it would typically be at least 50% sexual material (not necessarily sex but sexually charged interactions).