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The Erotic Bubble

Chris Flynn October 08

Before you get too excited, this blog post is not about a new nightclub or some Nicholson Baker-esque sex resort where bored couples visit the Groanrooms or the Porndecahedron (his novel House of Holes is a bit of an eye-opener in that respect) to revitalize their relationship. It’s about Fifty Shades of Grey. Again. Although not that book specifically, but more its sexy shadow.

Given its ubiquity, it’s easy to forget that E.L. James has only been in our lives for a very short space of time. The print version of the book came out in April of this year and has now been translated into fifty languages and sold over forty million units. My local Coles has giant bins of it at the end of the small household isle.

The London Book Fair was back in April and the 50 Shades effect had yet to really bite into rights sales then, but with the Frankfurt Book Fair firing up in October, publishers are circling like dogs sniffing each other’s backsides to find the next big messy erotic load of nonsense to keep the perversions of eager Coles customers satisfied. There has been a sudden – ahem – spurt of interest in the romance/erotica genre as a means to rehabilitate the floundering bank accounts of mainstream publishers.

Hot titles at this year’s Book Fair, which, for the uninitiated, is where many overseas rights deals happen, include Breathless, a kinky romance trilogy (what else) by Maya Banks, a self-published romance series called The Sullivans by Bella Andre (wasn’t that an old Aussie TV show?) and The Juliette Society, by porn-star Sasha Grey, who has clearly been a busy beaver of late. Sorry, sorry.

Literary agents are lapping this up and are suddenly behind books they probably wouldn’t have touched with a barge pole only a few years ago. One agent, Marc Gerald, reportedly said such mainstream interest in erotica is long overdue. “It’s publishers’ mistake not to have a big erotic title on every list.” Claire Roberts from the Trident Media Group, who are responsible for Sylvia Day’s Crossfire trilogy, the first of which Bared to You has already sold in thirty-four territories, thinks, “erotica will be very big at the fair, as well as for the foreseeable future.”

Despite this enthusiasm for a bit of slap and tickle, some industry insiders are already showing early signs of erotic fatigue (though I hear you can get pills for that). The chick-lit bubble was quick to burst when bookshelves became overloaded with such titles, and many authors and agents at Frankfurt have specifically requested that references to 50 Shades be avoided when promoting titles. Instead, it seems that romance will prove to be the winner, with many of the buzzy titles in Frankfurt slotting into that category rather than catering to the whips, leather and gimp mask audience. Soon we will all be bathing in the warm afterglow of this erotic frenzy and turning our attention to some other fad, ready to curl up in our laps.

Incidentally, if after all this steamy talk you’re wondering what the future holds for us in terms of sex-related technology, look no further than this scene from 1993 comedy action sci-fi classic Demolition Man, in which Sylvester Stallone is hilariously propositioned by Sandra Bullock. I kid you not.


 

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