Erotica tropes?

lyann88

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What is expected to be in an erotica novel? I read online that if you have more than 4 sex scenes, than it's considered erotica. Is there such a thing as mass market erotica?
 

InkFinger

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I will have to let someone else comment on classification to give a book answer, but I've read a lot inside and outside the genre and I'd say it's more of a quality thing than a quantity thing. There are plenty of Romances that have a fair amount of sex, it's just blushing sex. I know of at least a half dozen science fiction titles with more than four sex scenes. Fantasy? Have you read the Song of Ice and Fire? No one is claiming that Game of Thrones is Erotica. So let me modify my statement above, it's more a quality and ratio thing. GoT has erotic scenes, but they are balanced by troves of swords and intrigue.
 

veinglory

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Sex scenes do not make a work genre erotica. In recent years I have seen multiple explicit sex scenes in books listed solely as genre fantasy or romance. In previous decades it was even more common to see sex included in many genres. Whatever your central genre is, there are probably many examples with explicit sex.

To be genre erotica the book needs to be about sex/sexuality or as it is often phrased "the characters sexual journey". Although I would argue that many erotica books are about some other aspect of sexuality and character development is absence or not central.

Yes there is mass market erotica, but if you go to your local large book store you will probably found it hidden in a remote aisle or under non-fiction/sexuality.