Self-Pub author signs seven figure deal with Penguin...

[Barcey]

Originally Posted by taming

I think this is the true new publishing model: midlist authors are dropped and publishing house wait for crap to bubble up into potential best sellers.

I think it's what the publishers would like to see happen but I'm not convinced yet. I think they are overpaying for successful indies right now because they want to stop the noise they're getting in the press and demonstrate that they'll jump on the BPH bandwagon at the first opportunity. It's yet to be seen how successful these authors will be under BPH pricing or if these contracts are profitable for the publishers.

[MaggieScratch]

It should be pointed out that the boy was over 18 when they first have sex (though of course being a teenaged boy he is attracted to her immediately). There are plenty of books out there with 30something heroes and barely-adult heroines that no one hears or complains about.

When publishers acquire these virally popular self-pubbed titles, I wonder who they think the audience will be? Haven't a lot of people already bought the book? I, for one, don't plan to rebuy, though I found the book quite cracktastic and enjoyed my read. I can see acquiring her future books. But I suppose it worked for the 50 Shades books.

As far as editing--the writing is no worse than a lot of commercially published books, though the Magic Suitcase washing up from the plane crash with a huge supply of shampoo, soap, etc. was kind of hilarious.

[kennyc]

So not like the Sandusky affair.

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

True, no legal issues there. However, the emotional double standard exists here as well:

30 year old man & 16 year old girl -> Eeuw, castrate the nasty pedo!
30 year old woman & 16 year old boy -> Damn, lucky b*st*rd!

OK, a bit over the top, but you get the idea.

I don't think that's the case. Consider the cases where a teacher has sex with a student. When it's a male teacher and a female student, people shrug it off. Whatever disciplinary or legal consequences there are take place without it much interest paid beyond the local area. When it's a female teacher and a male student, that's different. Then it's a national media feeding frenzy. Older man with a younger woman is taken from granted, but an older woman with a younger man is still considered very strange.

[Suzanna]

Okay, I found the review. It's here, on the Dear Author site:

The romance between TJ and Anna is rather uneventful despite their age differences. TJ of course finds Anna extremely attractive, but he holds this in check and doesn’t touch her or even watch her bathe in the ocean. They’re never nude around each other. They’re very careful until TJ is over the age of eighteen, and then he slowly begins to make moves on Anna, who is reluctant because he’s her student and he’s barely legal. Eventually, however, Anna gives in and they have a relationship.

That erased my reservations about the book, though I don't plan to read it (too many other books in the queue.) Many men have relationships with 18 year old women and people just shrug their shoulders because hey, it's a man thing to want to date nubile, barely legal women. But when the roles are reversed, everyone's up in arms.

Edited to add - What Maggie said! Everyone's legal & men do this all the time.

[MovieBird]

Originally Posted by Suzanna

Okay, I found the review. It's here, on the Dear Author site:


That erased my reservations about the book, though I don't plan to read it (too many other books in the queue.) Many men have relationships with 18 year old women and people just shrug their shoulders because hey, it's a man thing to want to date nubile, barely legal women. But when the roles are reversed, everyone's up in arms.

Edited to add - What Maggie said! Everyone's legal & men do this all the time.

It's certainly portrayed that way. However, at least in my social circle, men who go after significantly younger women are considered weird, as in there's something wrong with them. Particularly because these younger women almost always are of the stripper stereotype.

They're certainly not ostracized, but no one wants to be friends with them.

[whitearrow]

Am I crazy, or is the premise of Twilight not a romantic relationship between a barely-legal teenage girl with a vampire who may look the same age, but is many years/decades older than she is? I've heard alot about these books, but nothing about castrating the male lead for desiring a younger woman...

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by whitearrow

Am I crazy, or is the premise of Twilight not a romantic relationship between a barely-legal teenage girl with a vampire who may look the same age, but is many years/decades older than she is? I've heard alot about these books, but nothing about castrating the male lead for desiring a younger woman...

Agreed, stories of older men and younger women are much more common than stories of older women and younger men. I think it was in Little Women where the ideal age for a husband was twice the woman's age minus seven years.

[fjtorres]

Okay, try this:

Older man - younger woman: culturally accepted for centuries in both life and literature.
Older woman - younger man: not as common in life or literature.

Why?
Childbirth is frakking dangerous!
Even in modern societies with state-of-the-art medical care doctors take the sure bet surgical solution in a third to half of all deliveries. (The 50% rate comes in one-child-per couple China, unsurprisingly.)

Factor that in and you'll see why older male-younger woman pairings are more common than the converse: many young women never made it to "older woman" while many a male found themselves a widower with a squealing baby. With replacement brides being cheaper than nannies...

Times and living standards change but the mores stay with us long beyond the point where they make sense.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

lets reverse the roles: in this day and age would an erotic novel about a 30 year old man trapped on an island with a nubile 16 year old girl even be considered for publication? or would the author be put on a sex offenders watch list?

I had the same thought. The first thing that popped in my head when reading that the author spent $1,500 on editing and formatting after initially being rejected... was that "editing" included changing some of the ages.

[QuantumIguana]

I don't think the dangers of childbirth are the reason. If men prefer younger women for the purposes of childbirth, it is more likely because the younger woman has more child-bearing years remaining, and thus is likely to produce more children. And the younger woman might prefer someone somewhat older, because he's more likely to have resouorces to support a family.

On the other hand, I am reminded of the movie Kingpin, where the Amish character is laughing at someone because his wife has such narrow hips that she won't be able to have a lot of children. Of course it's a joke, we laugh because it is "obvious" that a person would prefer slender woman with narrow hips, rather than one who has wider hips. That's an area where reproductive capacities really aren't driving us. In past decades, sex symbols had much wider hips than today, and it is quite possible that they might in decades to come.

But the reaction to older women and younger men seems to go beyond mere preference, some people seem to get rather disturbed by the idea, even if the age difference is actually slight. I remember being being shocked at a difference of a single year.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by whitearrow

Am I crazy, or is the premise of Twilight not a romantic relationship between a barely-legal teenage girl with a vampire who may look the same age, but is many years/decades older than she is? I've heard alot about these books, but nothing about castrating the male lead for desiring a younger woman...

I don't think the undead can be charged with statutory rape... but I could be wrong.

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

I had the same thought. The first thing that popped in my head when reading that the author spent $1,500 on editing and formatting after initially being rejected... was that "editing" included changing some of the ages.

The author wouldn't go on a watchlist, these days if the girl was 16, the publisher would say "Great book, but we just can't sell this." Change 16 to 18, and there's a book which can sell in this market.

[Penforhire]

Shaggy, wouldn't necrophilia be charged first? But along those lines, I could not suspend my disbelief that an intelligent vampire who's been around the block a few times would be deeply attracted to an awkward naive teen.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

But along those lines, I could not suspend my disbelief that an intelligent vampire who's been around the block a few times would be deeply attracted to an awkward naive teen.

You're probably not in the target audience.
Awkward naive teens have no trouble buying that scenario...