Last week we discussed some of the obstacles
erotic authors face in terms of how our genre is viewed by others. Thanks
to preconceptions over sex writing, expectations of publishers over sex and story
structure, and the fact that readers are often seeking erotica more for graphic
sexual arousal than anything else, there’s little appreciation for erotica and
romance as a legitimate and more complex style of storytelling.

But another reason good erotic authors struggle to be
more fully recognized for their actual talent is because there are a lot of “erotic” works on the market
that are written badly. It’s not a
rule of the genre…but thanks in part to those previously mentioned obstacles
and in part to the ease with which writers can now self-published, there are
lots and lots of amateur, untrained, aspiring writers putting out material that
falls short of skillful writing. As our friend Tamsin points out in her
article, there’s a mistaken assumption that just because a writer may have great sex, they can write great sex. I’ll go beyond that
even more to say that many aspiring writers out there believe that because they
may have story ideas, perhaps a supportive group of friends serving as beta
readers, and access to self-publishing services, they are ready to start
selling books.