Need help building a reading list...

Hmm... you know, the best erotica I've read has mostly been free stuff in various internet archives. Unless you specifically want to analyze novel structure and sex scenes per page count and that sort of thing, which you would be hampered in doing with ebooks anyway, I would personally recommend exploring all the free stuff that's out there.

Also, question, you want straight sex I assume, since you don't mention gay or lesbian erotica as a genre? I read mostly gay science fiction and fantasy erotica - I can think of some good straight pieces but, they are probably all extreme in one way or another... with the possible exception of some fanfiction.

Some of the stuff I've read lately has been tame, but falls into erotica. Try JR. Ward, Gena Showalter, Kresley Cole, Jenna Black or Kim Harrison. All pretty good IMHO.

Gay stuff and lesbian stuff are each their own genre for the prosaic reason that they have very distinct audiences.

Well, I've been trying to think over what have been some of my favorite erotic pieces. I don't think any of them fulfills all of your criteria, lol. I'm not really sure where the border between steamy romance and erotica is, or the border between extreme and not, a lot of them are unfinished, and a lot of them are fanfiction. Also almost half of my favorites are incest so leaving those off left me with fairly few possibilities. So I guess I'll just link to some of my favorites with notes about what they are, and you can take your pick whether to read them.

Thoughts of an Unnamed Earth Explorer by Zuzanny
http://www.geocities.com/zuzannylancaster/Harry.htm
This is an m/herm erotic romance between a human and an alien, it involves rape by a plant (I think that happens off-camera though, it's not a sex scene) and pregnancy. Overall it's sort of a science fiction/mystery type plot. Although it is marked 'to be continued' it felt finished to me.

Hatching a Plot by Dragonfly
http://www.asstr.org/files/Authors/Dragonfly/hatching_a_plot.txt
This is a short, complete m/f story which I found to be adorable and funny. I suppose it's urban fantasy or magic realism. The theme is sex toys, preferably really large ones. I love all of this author's work so if you like this you might go up a directory level and check out the others. Some are f/f or f/alien animal thingy, some are more extreme, I picked the mildest one.

Jamala by Mark Stretch
http://www.msgotu.com/ms/txt/jamala1.html
f/computer, postapocalyptic science fiction, theme is massively multiple pregnancy (some people would consider it extreme), it's sort of non-con but not rape or torture. I'm not sure whether it's supposed to be complete or whether it ended at the end of act one of an intended longer story, but either way it has some closure. The other stories by this author and any others in the archive pretty much all have a theme of massive pregnancy, so if you like one, check out the others, if not then that's fine too.

Dragon Pits by Amaretto Sour
http://www.amasour.com/pits.html#d02
I love almost everything Amasour has written, I just picked this one because it has shapeshifters, but if it doesn't catch your fancy go up a level and look at the other options. I particularly like the fairy tale collection and the unfinished Black Magic, but a lot of people like Prisoner best. Also, you can actually buy some of her books online, so it's the closest to professional example I could come up with. Probably more on the romance side than the erotica side though.

The Last Pure Human by TwistedHilarity
http://www.twistedhilarity.com/fiction/long/tlph.html
Science fiction mhuman/mcatboyalien - No sampler of sff erotica would be complete without someone going into heat and/or lifebonding, both of which happen here. Incomplete, a new chapter is due out some time this week. Probably has the most and hottest sex of all these examples, also is quite funny in places. Not real heavy on plot though.

Poison Apple by RobinRocks
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3813281/1/Poison_Apple
This is a Death Note fanfic, so if you don't want fanfic, skip it. But it's complete, novel-length, and I thought the Snow White theme throughout was awesome, as is the tension found in many Deathnote fanfics because the pairing is between the world's greatest detective and the man he suspects of being the world's most famously uncatchable serial killer.

Kindness of Strangers by Juxian Tang
http://juxian.slashcity.net/kindness1.html
A Fushigi Yuugi fanfiction, but it's a AU reincarnation fic so most of it is understandable even if you aren't familiar with the story. Complete, probably novella length, m/m, historical (post WWI), theme is post-traumatic-stress-disorder and falling in love with someone who speaks a different language. Not entirely sure if it counts as erotica, the sex is kinda understated.


Bleh, there were two furry erotic stories I wanted to add to this, but I am not having any success at googling them >.>

You should also look at a little book called "Going Down", it's listed with one of two subtitles, either "Lip Service from Great Writers", or "Great Writing on Oral Sex". It pulls from sources like Henry Miller and Anais Nin. Short snippets from longer works, but great stuff.

I was thinking it was important to include some furry (anthro) stories because there are some classic fantasy erotic concepts that only work when at least one of the characters is an anthro. Transformation especially, and the more niche interest of unbirthing for example; also vore although I'm not into that myself. And one of the two stories I wanted was a slavery erotica, a popular classic category that spans several genres. I probably should have found a cuckolding example too, but that's a genre that I'm interested in because I find it baffling, not because I like it, so I probably wouldn't pick a good example. I honestly don't feel like I made a good list because there are so many distinct and interesting fetishes/erotic tropes that aren't represented there, but it's something to start with anyway, and I hope you find it useful.

I think the Susie Bright anthologies, with the possible exception of the last two, are a good selection with variable but generally high quality.

I recommend stuff by Kathryn Harrison, Kate Pearce, Zane, Noire, and Emma Holly.

And I have a book out in print, too, MARKET FOR LOVE, under my erotica pen name Jamaica Layne. It's pretty "vanilla" erotic romance, straight M/F sex with no kink, and a happy ending. It's definitely the tamest of my erotic novels and a good intro to the genre.

For an example of an m/m romance (i.e. gay male romance aimed at a primarily female audience), I've put my earliest one up on my website. It's *not* typical of either the current m/m romance market or my current work, which is why it's no longer commercially published, but you might still find it useful as an example of erotica with a genre romance storyline. The first two volumes are a fix-up novel (i.e. a set of short stories that together make up a novel-length story arc); there's also a sequel short novel in Volume 3, and a novelette written for St Patrick's Day.

The Syndicate; Volume 1

Jules' stuff is great. My sig line also has one of my free M/M erotic romance novella's which was previously published by Torquere.

thanks for taking an interest in my work, Annalise. Let me know how you like Knight Moves. It's definitely kinkier than Market for Love.

SFLP said:

I'm also more looking at book-length, rather than short stories, so I can see how others - in popular erotica - pace the stories etc. So I guess, part of what I'm looking for is sex scenes per page count, structure, etc. I'm also trying to find out what is working for people commercially.

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Just chiming in here with a comment. Trying to aim for some target of "sex scenes per page count" is perhaps not the best way to look at the situation. You'll find almost all publishers and definitely all readers want the right amount of sex for the particular story. I've definitely seen comments/reviews of books that mentioned when the sex didn't fit very well into the story, as if the author were trying to get in more scenes. Readers love great, hot, appropriate sex for the story and the characters.

Also, are you talking about straight erotica, with no romantic element, or erotic romance, where two characters form a romantic attachment. What publishers and readers are looking for are quite different for each of those.

I'd suggest reading a lot before you even start to consider writing, and not to look for some sort of formula. It all has to be integral to the story and more importantly what's right for the characters, so concentrate on crafting the best characters then they'll figure out for you how much and what kind of sex to write.

An example: one story I read had the two main characters basically always f***ing... Maybe that works for a brand new relationship, but this book covered several years. They never made love or really varied the intensity of their sex. The story ended up revolving on how much sex the author could cram into each chapter, rather than what those characters would do and how they would treat each other if they were really in a loving relationship.

Other people I talked to about the book said the same thing, and they didn't find it realistic at all, or even hot or enjoyable.

I'd say to read what people here have suggested, but more importantly, read books from your target publishers and see what they are buying and what people are reading. Go around and look for reviews of books from those publishers, to see what readers are saying about them.

Hope that helps.

--Em

Contemporary - Megan Hart's novels are excellent. Broken is my personal favorite, but Dirty and Strangers are also very good.

Paranormal - Syndey Croft's ACRO series and Jackie Kessler's Hell on Earth series. Jackie's book straddle the paranormal romance/erotica line for me, but they're written in such a fun, balls-out voice that I'll rec them to anyone.

There are also memoirs. Don't know if these count but I recently read Sleeping Around and Breaking the Rules by Catherine Townsend.