Welcome to the new DSW site/blog/general manifesto! It seemed like a good idea to have everything erotica/fiction/sexuality under one roof, so to speak, so if you’ve found this page via either of the old blogs Dose of Decadence or Sallyanne Rogers hello. Nice to see you again. Things will actually happen a bit more often on here. Promise…
Some people are saying erotica, at least in terms of well-written, interesting stories about sex and sexuality, is pretty much over. That the potential readership is bored to death with identikit romances, sociopaths presented as Mr Perfect, horny werewolves, sparkly vampires and dimwit victimized heroines, yet publishers don’t seem to want to look at anything else. One or two very good, original and popular writers within the genre are, temporarily at least, hanging up their writing knickers and devoting their time to other things, not least because they can’t make a living out of writing erotic fiction at the moment.
Honestly? We have been here before. And we are not alone. The mid-to late 90s featured an explosion of erotic material, predominantly aimed at women – though Nexus had been happily bunging out cod-Victoriana and competent join-the-dots adults-only fiction for several years, the launch of Black Lace brought them a lot of press attention and then, naturally, everyone else wanted to get in on the act. X Libris, Liaisons, Chimera and several other imprints commanded a chunk of shelf space in nearly every big bookshop and there was even a Guild of Erotic Writers. Then, naturally enough, oversaturation smothered the genre for several years, but it never wholly went away and there is no reason for it to do so now.
Other genres – horror, fantasy, crime, sci-fi – have also suffered, generally in cycles, from mainstream derision, oversaturation, bandwagon-jumping and falling in and out of fashion, but they don’t wholly go away, either. What they had, and what erotica didn’t really have, for a long time, was an actual community. They had conventions, festivals, their own award ceremonies and more recently, their own online hangouts. Now those of us who geek out on lingerie, bondage accessories, multiple positions and unexpected orgasms are seeking each other out, having each other’s backs, bigging each other up and doing our best to have a good time in a harder, colder world. Let’s hold those thoughts and keep on keeping on in 2016.