I’ve always been a big reader, I love to read. In fact if I could spend all day reading all the time I would. I do a lot of Lush reading, regular book reading, and on my iPad reading. I’ve been swapping books with my cousin, and most of them erotica books and I have noticed one thing that always seems to be constant. Is it just me, or…
Have you noticed that almost all the books that have a major amount of sex in it, the girl is young, naive, either a virgin or knows almost nothing about sex, and the guy is this billionaire sex machine with a shady past.
I see it time and time again in the books I read. They always make the girls in their young twenties, and the guys a little older than her, sometimes a lot older then her. She comes from a small trailer park, or small no name town, with nothing major ever happening in her life.
Where as he comes from the fast life, even as a kid. He comes from a shady past, with either- shit parents, no parents or crazy family members. He either comes from a well of “rich” family, or in most cases raised from the ashes of his traumatic childhood to become OVERLY successful in almost all senses but the relationship kind.
He’s a man whore, who fucks around so he can fill a void that no one has been able to fill. Until of course “she” comes around, and it is never by fate they meet, it’s always on accident, but never the less, he seems INSTANTLY in awe of her, where she’s weary of him. He falls fast for her, even though before her he was some man whore, and she still has trust issues.
Over time he woos her over until she’s madly, hopelessly in love with him. And then drama comes about and splits them apart again, until he proves that he is true to her.
And as always in the end, he is her one true love, she his, and they live happily ever after.
I’m not saying these books aren’t good, because they are, but why are they all so much the same? Do the authors get together and agree on this stuff? I’m just wondering.
If you’ve read any books with good erotica in it, that isn’t like this, please do enlighten me. I’d love to hear of them, so I can look them up on Amazon.
So, is it just me, or do you notice it also?
It's also the framework for any romantic fiction.
The female character is in idealised virgin. No sordid past. She's deserves good things to happen to her. He on the other hand has everything going for him but of course he's missing that final piece.
Sexually, he's worldly, she's as pure as the driven snow.
Publishers will give author guidelines like this because they know readers buy this stuff over and over again. Another publisher might insist he's a vampire.
It's lazy but a successful formula.
Warning: The opinions above are those of an anonymous individual on the internet. They are opinions, unless they're facts. They may be ill-informed, out of touch with reality or just plain stupid. They may contain traces of irony. If reading these opinions causes you to be become outraged or you start displaying the symptoms of outrage, stop reading them immediately. If symptoms persist, consult a psychiatrist.
Why not read some stories instead
NEW! Want a quick read for your coffee break? Why not try this... Flash Erotica: Scrubber I would agree, which is why I try as hard as possible not to fall into that same cliche with my own writing, even with short stories. I try to come up with realistic situations that the reader can find themselves in. None of my characters have ever been wealthy or had the means to travel around the world. It has been used so many times in so many books that anyone who writes within that same framework is just lazy, in my opinion.
From the erotic mind of A.J. Quick
I find these characters often have a bit of a 'Mary Sue' complex going for them as well.
The writer creates a hyper-idealized version of themselves and lives out their own sexual fantasies with the bad boy of their dreams - on paper. Both Twilight and Fifty Shades, which follow the same formula because they are based on the same concept, operate as estrogen stroke fiction. For some reason these small-town female protagonists with very bland personalities are written as capturing the complete focus and attention of these besotted worldly billionaires or otherwise powerful men, and most of the time we have no idea why. The focus is on fate and instant attraction - not in showing the reader in a tangible way why these two characters would ever be bothered with each other in real life or why Mary Sue's personality is so compelling.
Instead, it provides a template that the reader can use to project themselves into the storyline, since a lot of women who read this stuff are often small-town girls without wildly sexual or romantic pasts too. They're bored. They pick up these books, and instantly they're sucked in as they watch a good girl (similar to themselves) who instantly captivates everyone around them and gets the hot rich guy with the smouldering eyes (or fangs) to be instantly smitten and borderline obsessed with them. Yay.
If the girl had a slutty past or a dynamic personality, the target readers have more trouble identifying with her, and in some cases they may openly dislike her and what she stands for. The cool girl gets the cool guy all the time. It's far more rewarding to watch the clumsy, virginal, cinderella have her adventure on the dark side with some deeply flawed yet irresistible byronic hero. It lets you enjoy the bad boy fantasy but still projects that cliche image that society loves so much - that if a girl is innocent, naive and chaste and *waits* to have sex, she too will have her fun one day. And in the meantime, here's some books you can read to tide you over.
Hmm. I've only read a few eroticas (and I'm referring to published author eroticas when I say this) that follow that cliche. In my reading view: they are inspired by Twilight or 50 Shades. The authors might disagree but that's what it is to me.
In the publishing world what happens is that selling for profit becomes the main interest so they see a growing reader interest (which changes) and for a while will push, encourage, or require authors to write for that sub genre so there will be people who buy.
Only when people lose interest will they pursue something else.
My fav author, Charlotte Steine, is careful to avoid this. None of her stories are cliche which is part of the reason I like her so much.
I want to say that they're a particular sub genre, too, but I'm unsure of the categorization.
Read the synopsis carefully to avoid them or perhaps read an excerpt. Since the draw for readers who like them is 'business mogul' or what not it should be easy to spot once you know what to look for.
Erotica changed a lot because of 50 shades. Specifically: it brought a lot of readers who weren't interested in erotica into it. So there are a lot of spin offs. It drives me nuts, too.
Back in the day, the 80s and 90s, and earlier 2000s, erotica was often edgier, exploratory, and not so cliched. Anthologies of collected short stories were the norm then and various narrative voices and characterizations were more usual than not. As usual, once this "niche" had been established, the publishing industry (like most before it) wanted "cheaper, faster" product and hack writers were brought in to provide "erotic content" with all the expected cross-over genres, including the "sexed up" romance novels. When you have hacks writing cheaper/faster, you're going to get standardized, factory-worthy, cliche-ridden erotica. I agree with Metilda that everyone of the cheaper faster school of thinking has jumped on the 50 Shades of Gray bandwagon and churn out what is expected.
Look for older short story collections which include authors you haven't heard of in the mainstream erotica market. They are far more original.
You mean Anastasia's going to end up with Christian? Gee! Spoiler alert.
"Outrageous," I murmur.
My latest story is a racy little piece about what happens when someone cute from work invites you over to watch Netflix and Chill. 
