Help in classification

I write what I think of as sadistic erotica. The stories have extensive plots and fairly developed characters. The sex is mainly s/m. Now comes the problem. While the s/m stuff is mostly consensual, the consent does not come out of the desire for a D/s relationship and the recipients of the punishment are not masochistic or even submissive. The recipient of the pain (female) does it simply for large amounts of money, to get revenge, to infiltrate a gang of sadists, to get a better job, to get someone's help, or even out of love or affection. The women are strong, confident and often deadly and the "good guys/girls" do not use names like bitch, slut, whore and so on. The recipients know what they are getting into and mostly have the ability to avoid the pain by giving up their benefits or objectives. Oh, and they are rarely chained, tied up or restrained in any way.

Oddly enough, most of my fan mail is from women despite the very explicit nature of my work.

I have received objections to my work being labelled BDSM as it does not fit in the lifestyle. I have even had complaints about the use of s/m or s&m as there is no masochism in the stories.

So, getting to the point, can anyone suggest a better description or classification. As I said, I am trying 'sadistic erotica', but does that mean anything to anyone? Because of the very specialised nature of my writing, I would like a potential reader to know exactly what they are getting, both to better attract the target audience and to warn the others who expect mainstream BDSM.

MarkEsq said:

It does sound interesting. How about D/s (Domination/submission)? The men dominate these women and they do submit, forvarying reasons, so it seems to fit. And I think implicit in the D/s classification is the possibility, even likelihood, of sadistic acts.

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That is an interesting idea, thanks. My main concern is not to accidentally squick mainstream BDSM people and Romantic Erotica readers who are expecting SSC and some kind of emotional realtionship. The stories are action/adventure/mystery tales tied into a sexual theme i.e. the plot requires the sex or arises from the sex, and the only relationships may be unrelated to the sex e.g. simple freindship, loyalty to colleagues, as part of an assumed identity, etc. Also, as you would expect, the villains are not all that concerned with SSC. For example, my latest WIP has s/m scenes ranging from an interrogation in a (real) dungeon, sadistic parlour games played as entertainment for an audience, fairly gentle sex between a master and a voluntary contractual slave and going all to way to straight lesbian sex between a senior military officer and a servant.