For example, my novellas of the Victorian Erotic Romance Trilogy are pretty steamy, especially compared to most of the historical offerings out there, but they're in no way erotica. However, for a long time I classified them in the erotica category at Amazon because I was concerned they were a little too hot for the average romance reader, especially your typical historical romance reader, who seems to be a bit more conservative than paranormal or contemporary readers. The problem with putting them in erotica is that they then must hang out with books with titles like Daddy's Little Whore and Doing My Stepbrother. (LOL I've tried to use titles that I've never seen before, but these may be in existence for all I know. It's a wild crowd over there.) Anyone who likes those titles wouldn't be satisfied with the story I insist on including, especially the history that makes its way into the stories.
I applaud All Romance eBooks' decision to differentiate between these two genres, and I encourage Amazon to do the same. This is a decision that has nothing to do with segregating one genre or the other and everything to do with providing customers with clear distinctions so they can purchase items more effectively.
10 comments:
Such a good move. The timing is funny for me though, I just had an author interview last week where I asked her where the difference was between romance and erotica, LOL. I'm all for the new category! Book Savvy Babe
I hope Amazon gets on board with it too. It's needed. :) Thanks for stopping by, Book Savvy Babe (love the name!).
Thanks for explaining what each genre means. I think having separate categories is a good idea too.
I've also noticed that Amazon has a very weird way of sorting Young Adult paranormal/urban fantasy etc. Hopefully, they fix that up too.
I think this will make it easier (hopefully) to find books to read. I personally need the romance in the books to really enjoy it.
I wouldn't really know how to differentiate between a steamy romance and erotica? Is it the language and amount of sex, or perhaps the type of sex. All the erotica I've been asked to review has been BDSM (not my thang at all :P).
If I saw steamy historical romance I'd make my own assumptions, that it would be .... well steamy :). But I see what you mean regarding appropriately tagging the book for the correct audience and selecting a 'home' for it in the best category. Amazon should listen, it usually does in the end if enough peeps poke them enough.
I suppose the new category would be a great place for those who enjoyed it steamy, but not on every page, nor grotesquely so. Could be quite a busy hang-out, I imagine :) X
Thanks for stopping by, ladies! Mainly, the difference between erotica and erotic romance is the HEA--it's required in any romance, but not in erotica. That's why erotica stories are driven by the sex, not the relationship. There's nothing wrong with that, if that's all you want out of a story, but if you want more, you want erotic romance.
Hi Gabrielle! I think the last comment you made is the best by far, Erotica is driven by the sex, not the relationship. All Romance is the a great site to show that. Amazon is cool and all but often times books are tagged into the wrong categories. I was once asked by an author if I would promo her work on my personal FB page. When I looked it up on Amazon it was tagged as erotica when it wasn't When I replied that I don't promote erotica on my personal wall she was totally perplexed. It turns out the her book was a sweet mainstream romance but categorized incorrectly.
Back to that simple statement that you made. I think that more people need to understand that. Unfortunately, sometimes the differences between the genres aren't clearly understood. Simple and clearly stated definitions are hard to find.
I think it's a great change too. When I look for erotic romance, I want to read about a love relationship involving the main characters that's both emotional and physical. I'm looking for hot sex scenes, but with characters who are in love, not just in lust. I don't need or expect a happily ever after in erotic romance (though I usually prefer it), as long as the story focuses on characters who are in love. When I choose an erotica title, I don't expect the love relationship, just the sexual adventures. :-) I'm glad the books will now be in separate categories.
I'm thrilled to hear about the change! When I look at the "what others bought" section on my book page, sometimes I cringe. Great post!
As the authors of "Daddy's Little Cum Bucket" (among other things), I too support a seperation of the two genres. We often felt that we needed to have graphic and explicit names for our titles, just so people knew what they were getting. That said, the way ARe handled it was pretty poor. Nowadays on ARe, erotica is all lumped into one category with no sub-categories. Shopping for erotica, which was once a superior experience on ARe, is now a sub-par and confusing experience. I fully support ARe for attempting to provide a venue that is comfortable for everybody, but it really needs to be done with a little more respect for erotica.
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