Kinky protagonist - too risky?

[MarkEsq]

The author Tom Sharpe had an MC who enjoyed being tied up and spanked (ok, caned if we're being technically correct). His are satrirical novels and I was wondering whether a similar quirk would go over rather differently for an American publisher. It seems to me, having lived on both sides of the pond, that sexuality is less easily discussed (witness the bare-boob-at-the-Superbowl furor that barely raised an eyebrow in Europe).
Any thoughts on having a generally decent but secretly wild MC get into all sorts of amusing but x-rated trouble?

[veinglory]

Interesting question. On a different issue I was surpirsed at how well the novel (now TV series) Darkly Dreaking Dexter diod with a sociopathic serial killing hero. I would have sworn that would never have worked, but it was a good book. A kinky heor might be a bit outside the box but it could still work?

[NeuroFizz]

Go for it, Mark. Done well to invigorate the story, not sensationalize it, I don't see why it should be any kind of hinderance. Remember, people on this side of the pond are prudish in public, but not necessarily when they crawl inside the covers of a good book.

[WestofMars]

One thing you might want to check out: I have a friend who had to revise two words out of her recent book because Wal-Mart wouldn't carry the book if those two words remained. Will something that Wal-Mart refuses to carry be a stumbling block to getting it published with a major house?

[JeanneTGC]

It will also depend on your genre, and how mainstream within that genre you're trying to be. (Mainstream fantasy, as an example, isn't heavy on the romance, let alone sex, of its participants. But there is a TON of less-mainstream fantasy that is, you'd just sell it differently and to a slightly different audience.) There's plenty of room for kink in almost all genres (other than children's and, I'd guess, YA, but could be wrong there), but you'd have to be sure you were hitting on all the other cylinders for the work, too.

It probably goes back to the adage that if the piece is great and really well-written, it'll sell.

[Scarlett_156]

Readers will accept just about anything you throw at them if it's well-written and entertaining. I've met plenty of people in RL who come off as very wholesome, churchgoing, family type people-- and then one day you find out they're kinky as hell. Sometimes it changes my opinion of em and sometimes it doesn't seem like such a big deal. I've also met people who give me the impression they've bowled with the devil himself-- and they turn out to be sweet, mild-mannered, and harmless.

[Stacia Kane]

I agree. And just because some people had a problem with a white man ripping off a black woman's top and exposing her breast to a family audience, doesn't mean they'd have a problem with kinkiness in adult literature.

I write erotic romance. I've written girl-on-girl and man-on-man, I've written anal, I've written menage, I've written BDSM, in addition to all manner of girl/man or girl/vampire or elf/elf or girl/demon. And I think it's all pretty hot, and I love writing it. Am I a prude, then, because I didn't think Janet's boob exposed in that manner was appropriate for my children to see?

No. I just understand the difference between adult entertainment and family entertainment. If your book is an adult book (by which I mean aimed at a general adult readership, not an "adult" book), I say go for it.

[willietheshakes]

There's no reason our characters should be less kinky than their creators...

[Susan Gable]

I have just been reading a fabulous fantasy series published by Tor in which the protagonist is a courtesan/whore who has been marked by one of the gods as one who finds pleasure in pain.

The "kink," if you will, is not written in a graphic way, but there's no denying it, it's right there on the page -- and it's an incredible series.

The author is Jacqueline Carey, and the books are:

Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen, and Kushiel's Avatar. (There's another new book out that continues the story from another character's POV, but I haven't read that one yet. It's in my TBR pile though.)

They're sweeping, epic stories of politics, religion, and intrigue, and the heroine is one of the most unique heroines I've ever read.

So if you want to check out a fascinating "kinky" protagonist that works incredibly well, I highly recommend this series. (I also highly recommend them just to anyone who loves a terrific fantasy epic.)

Susan G.

[Mistook]

In America, there's already a very strong underground cult/fetish market where something like that would be embraced with open arms. If it had more substance to it than just the kinky sex, it would then likely percolate upward into the mainstream.

[WriterInChains]

FWIW, I'd read a book like that. I look for books about different kids of people, and have found some cool authors that way. If the kinks were interesting and done well (and there's a good story too), you'd go on my "read everything they write" list for sure. I read a lot of Women's Fiction, but can only take so many suburbanites/norms at a time -- have to balance it out with folks I have more in common with. :)

[MarkEsq]

Thanks all, I'm glad everyone is so positive. I hope to portray my MC's kink as something wholesome and natural to him, despite the label of perversity or hilarity others might attach. I'd like to use it to highlight what I see as a rather high level of hypocrisy on the subject of sex. The Janet Jackson boob incident is a perfect example of that -- to suggest a child might be corrupted by seeing a boob beggars belief. It's the first thing they reach for as babies! Anyway, that's a discussion for another time and place, so thanks again for your input.

[Maryn]

Another one to check out is "Miami Purity," about a former stripper who's perfectly willing to play along with her boss' BDSM games if it means keeping her job and enjoying his favoritism. I'd expected it to be substantially kinkier than it turned out to be, but I understand it found a definite niche with adult readers, many of whom are not interested in erotica (since the sexual behavior was not the focus of the story).

Maryn, whose reaction was lukewarmitude