For women only... what eBooks?

[tselling]

Personally I like sci-fi, fantasy, suspense stuff. I also like the paranormal/supernatural stuff but find there is too much erotica in those.

[SmartyPants]

well i definitely stay away from Romance section in the bookstores... you know, the ones with Fabio on the cover - eeeeew.

Like others said, how do you classify erotica? Lots of other genres will have some romance and erotica thrown in for good measure, and if done tastefully, it can be great. I mean, take Thorn Birds for a example - a great classic, plenty of romance and some erotica, but no one would say its a cheesy book.

If you are asking what specifically "chick" books can be offered, well thats another story. Jodi Picoult is quite good as one example.

But a specific romance/erotica book... i can't think of any. Not to say there wont be a market for it!

[jusmee]

Just a comment from my better half, Red Sage publishers are apparently good, and she recomends Angela Knight as an author.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Robertb

The idea here is to get the content that women want. Sure, women read a lot of eBooks that are anyything but romance... but just how erotic do female interests go?

I read both romance and erotica. I like erotica more, but there's less of it that's well-written, well-edited, and well-formatted as ebooks. (Except for fanfiction, of which there's an incredible amount of well-written erotica. But that doesn't help you build an ebook store.)

I've bought from Samhain, Freya's Bower, Torquere & MLR press. Haven't yet bought from Dreamspinner (they're fairly new) or Ellora's Cave; I think I remember their store interface annoying me and I gave up on buying direct from them. If I've gotten anything of theirs from Fictionwise, it's slipped my mind.

My tastes run towards the extreme/explicit. At allromanceebooks, I rarely click on the descriptions of anything with less than five flames. When I want plot, I'll read a mystery; when I want intriguing idea-play, I'll read sci-fi. I read erotica for hot sex scenes. I want characters who are plausible (but I don't need to know much about them), enough plot to provide a background (but again, don't need much in the way of details--just enough that I'm not thrown out of the book), and well-written erotic action. (And I probably shouldn't be more specific than that in a public post.)

There's room for the possibility of an author offering both erotica and non-erotica in the same world, with some crossover characters, and I'd be more likely to buy both books if that were the case.

I don't like racist, sexist or other oppressive tropes in erotica (or other fiction, but they show up in erotica a lot--abused slave girl, big violent black man, etc.). Don't like "it's rape, and then she falls in love with him!" stories. Don't like monogamy either, but that's much harder to avoid--but I won't buy a second book by an author who focuses a lot on jealousy and "ownership" between the two characters.

[Laura81]

Originally Posted by tselling

Personally I like sci-fi, fantasy, suspense stuff. I also like the paranormal/supernatural stuff but find there is too much erotica in those.

Ditto! I would love to read the Laurell K Hamilton series but every other page it seems is sex. Blah.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Laura81

Ditto! I would love to read the Laurell K Hamilton series but every other page it seems is sex. Blah.

I wouldn't say that Laurell K. Hamilton is romance. Not Merry and not, of course, Anita Blake. UF with a lot of erotica scenes, yes, romance, no. But it's my opinion

[Laura81]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I wouldn't say that Laurell K. Hamilton is romance. Not Merry and not, of course, Anita Blake. UF with a lot of erotica scenes, yes, romance, no. But it's my opinion

I'd agree it's not romance or merry, that's why I said it's sex. But I know some ladies like it so live and let live is my motto.

[JSWolf]

Woem do read books other then romance/erotica/porn. To me this says that you think women have really poor taste in books. It's a slight on women (IMHO).

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Woem do read books other then romance/erotica/porn. To me this says that you think women have really poor taste in books. It's a slight on women (IMHO).

Come on Jon, he just knows that women are the people reading these books. You're more insulting by saying we have poor taste. When are you going to stop degrading romance?

I don't ever curse on this board, but I will now. You're a jackass, and you need to stop opening your mouth.

Robertb, if you're looking for specific publishers, Harlequin is a good romance publisher, since they have a wide variety of romances and also have a strong ebook presence. Samhain, like others have mentioned, are a little "hotter" and also have a strong ebook market.

Personally I'm a Harlequin kind of gal, I never reallly got into the erotica. BUT I know it has a huge following.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Woem do read books other then romance/erotica/porn. To me this says that you think women have really poor taste in books. It's a slight on women (IMHO).

I don't feel slighted when a company wants to know what I like to read so they can sell it to me. I read plenty other than romance/erotica/porn. (Whether there's a difference between "erotica" and "porn" is a whole different topic, I think.) But I also read erotica, and I want publishers to know what my tastes are so they'll publish more of the stuff I want to read, and I want booksellers to know which books I'm likely to buy.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

I don't feel slighted when a company wants to know what I like to read so they can sell it to me. I read plenty other than romance/erotica/porn. (Whether there's a difference between "erotica" and "porn" is a whole different topic, I think.) But I also read erotica, and I want publishers to know what my tastes are so they'll publish more of the stuff I want to read, and I want booksellers to know which books I'm likely to buy.

Well said. Sometimes though I don't think it's a good idea to categorize what's for men and what's for women as a lot of things work for both.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Well said. Sometimes though I don't think it's a good idea to categorize what's for men and what's for women as a lot of things work for both.

I think there are plenty of tastes that tend to split along gender lines, and there's nothing wrong with acknowledging those.

Men can read Harlequin romances... but very few do, and Harlequin wouldn't stay in business by trying to market to them. They aim their advertising at their expected customers. And given how often women's interests have been shoved to the sidelines in most marketing campaigns, I rather like it when businesses go out of their way to find out what women are willing to buy.

[tselling]

Originally Posted by Laura81

Ditto! I would love to read the Laurell K Hamilton series but every other page it seems is sex. Blah.

I have read quite a few of Hamilton's Anita Blake books, and I wind up skimming over the sex parts. Likewise for Lora Leigh's Breeds series.

[KarenH]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Woem do read books other then romance/erotica/porn. To me this says that you think women have really poor taste in books. It's a slight on women (IMHO).

Do you post things like this intending to insult people, or is that just a happy side-effect? Just because you don't like romance doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it, and by saying (or at least inferring) that anyone who reads romance automatically has poor taste you are the one slighting a huge number of women, not Robert.

I don't think anything Robert said was in any way a "slight on women", in fact just the opposite - it seems to me he's respecting women's tastes by asking what we like rather than just making uninformed choices, and I appreciate that.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

I think there are plenty of tastes that tend to split along gender lines, and there's nothing wrong with acknowledging those.

Men can read Harlequin romances... but very few do, and Harlequin wouldn't stay in business by trying to market to them. They aim their advertising at their expected customers. And given how often women's interests have been shoved to the sidelines in most marketing campaigns, I rather like it when businesses go out of their way to find out what women are willing to buy.

That is true that it is many more women then men who read the type of romance as sold by Harlequin. An aunt of my wife is well into Mills & Boon which is like the UK version of Harlequin.

But getting off of romance, what else do women enjoy reading that men might not read nearly as much?