Book Covers and the Beaded Doorway

There was a musty old book store where I lived while growing up. My mom used to go in there to buy and sell her romance novels. In the back corner of the store was a beaded-doorway with an Adults Only sign over it. I can't see door-beads without thinking of that sign and all the naughty possibilities that lie beyond.

The few covers I saw, as a sneaky kid, were plain with text across the front. All except one that depicted a couple, clearly from the seventies, with long hair and full bushes. These people were not the pretty artistic cover models of today.

picture these two, but full frontal

Now those racy covers that get our blood pumping may be a thing of the past. As rare as beaded-doorways. Perhaps Amazon could put a beaded doorway on their adult section steering us all in that direction, instead of putting tags on covers they deem too pornagraphic or showing too much skin with a provingly failing system.

I hate to say they're at it again, because that would indicate they stopped. Their ever changing rules and regulations on book submissions is an ever present entity. Amazon is a pain in the behind, but as the biggest seller of e-books, authors need to grab the lube and hope against hope that Amazon will be gentle.

I was going through naughty book covers and I found a stack from the beaded-doorway days. I just had to share. These would have definitely gotten tagged by Amazon   or so I thought. Four of these came up on Amazon with their original covers, in a regular search.

sounds hot

wowzer

I bet someone's going to get spanked

retro NA Rock Band erotica!!!

Ooh My

I'm intrigued 

they're about as high school aged as Luke Perry on 90210

The 1970's were a special time. Going through many titles I realized incest was super hot in the 70's. It really shed some light on works by many authors. Had incest not been as big in the 70's would we have gotten The House of Yes? Would George R.R. Martin not been mad for matching up siblings? Would John Warren Wells have skipped out on the incest interviews for his book Taboo Breakers? 

I'd like to think we still would have. We already had works like Lolita, and Juliette. Readers love to be titillated. No matter the cover.

*Without looking them up; can you guess which beaded-doorway covers made it on Amazon?

Glorious New Erotic Fiction

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Warning Labels

There is something about a book with a warning label that makes me giddy with anticipation. For those of you that aren't sure what I'm talking about please flip to the beginning of your nearest erotic book or look up some erotic fiction on Amazon. Somewhere on the page will be a context warning. Something like...

Warning: This book contains (mm/f/m, m/m, m/m/f, f/f, f/f/m), anal play, use of sexual toys, bdsm, forced seduction, rape in memory sequence (not by the hero) and other scenarios and language that may be disturbing to a reader.

Ok, so rape in the memory sequence isn't exactly titillating, but I appreciate the heads up! Some books are straight up vanilla erotica and have added the playful warning in favor of the boring, contains graphic sexual explicit scenes. I honestly find these just as delightful.

Warning: This book depicts HOT sexy naked cowboys and girls getting corralled, down and dirty and may cause heat flashes!

The warning let's you the reader know what to expect from your book. If you aren't into female on female action and f/f is in the content warning you know the book may not be for you. On the flip side if you are really into menage romance and you see m/f/m, you're going to get excited about the book!

I just read a book that after the warning there was a disclaimer.

Please do not try any new sexual practice, especially those that might be found in our BDSM/fetish titles without the guidance of an experienced practitioner. Neither Loose Id LLC nor its authors will be responsible for any loss, harm, injury or death resulting from use of the information contained in any of it's titles.

Oh holy mother of wet panties! Thank you Loose Id LLC! I could hardly contain my excitement! A warning and a disclaimer? Jackpot!!You as the reader are now intrigued and know that this book is going to push boundaries and will not be pc!

So my fellow readers, respect the warning labels and know that your comfort levels may be pushed and you may not find some material as arousing as others. What always makes me scratch my head is when a reader knows what their personal comfort level is, they read the warning, they know the book they are about to order is NOT in their comfort zone and they read it anyways.

They see all the great reviews (from ppl who have much different taste) and they try that proverbial dish on the menu they never wanted to try and then they are surprised when they don't like it. That would be fine but not only are they surprised ,they give it one star and a horrible review.

If you have ever ordered an erotic fiction on Kindle or Amazon I'm sure you've seen that review. I call this the, “I should have respected the warning label” review. This differs greatly from the, “crap editing” and “plot that went no where” reviews.

The, “I should have respected the warning label” review is when a greatly reviewed,  mostly five star book has a warning label saying something like, BDSM, forced seduction and a reviewer then gives the book one star and complains that the BDSM was too BDSM and the forced seduction made him/her uncomfortable. This review always starts with, “I don't like forced seduction and I read the warning BUT I decided to try it anyways...”

I get it. There is boudoir and playful BDSM that the majority of main stream erotic authors use in some shape or form and then there is the hard edged full tilt BDSM that the more daring and often times sci-fi/fantasy writers use. The people who are comfortable with the former aren't always nearly as comfortable with the latter.

The other thing I often see in erotic reviews is, “great story, too much sex”. O_o Umm, seriously? You just bought a EROTIC book and now you're complaining about there being too much sex? I would like to explain what erotic fiction means. For anyone not sure, erotic fiction means it is a story strongly based on sex with the intention of being sexually arousing and sometimes when done well an actual story breaks out around all the sex. <---That's not exactly strait out of Wikipedia, but you get the point.

You won't see me complaining when hot sex breaks out in the middle of an awesome story. I look forward to and expect it. I guarantee you, if the characters in a erotic fiction are on a rescue mission and time is of the essence, chances are they are going to stop and have sex. Also, if one of the main characters in a sci-fi/fantasy erotic fiction gets a strange affliction, sex and or some hot fresh sperm will probably be the antidote. I call this, Dire Situation Sex, and it's one of my favorite things.

With that being said, kudos to those readers that stepped outside of their comfort level and tried something new. Everyone is entitled to there own opinion!! That's why they have reviews. Quite honestly those types of reviews help others also thinking about trying that dish on the menu they know they wont like.

On that note.......

Warning: This blog contains frank discussion matter about sex, love and steamy literature that breaks boundaries, makes new boundaries and pushes those boundaries! Graphic language and poor editing may make some readers uncomfortable.