Laura Wilkinson's Blog - Posts Tagged "aoife-brennan"
My First Erotica
Yesterday I was in Tobacco Dock, London for my very first Erotica Show, and while I didn’t sell a shed load of books (none, in fact) I did have a brilliant time. I met lots of wonderful fellow erotica and erotic romance authors; there were plenty of stalls and performances and demonstrations to keep me amused and excited, and most importantly I learnt a valuable lesson.
The book stall was set up and principally run (with help from lots of authors) by the ever-entrepreneurial Lucy Felthouse and Victoria Blisse, and hats off to them both for getting this together. I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting to thank them for this, because without it we won’t have had the opportunity to meet our audience, read to them and chat with them. Big, fat thanks, ladies.
What was the lesson I learnt? That I should trust my hunches and that I understand more about this market than I thought. My first erotic romance, All of Me, is precisely that: erotic romance, the soft end of the market, if you’ll pardon the awful pun (my mum laughed like a drain when I said this to her) and as such not the sort of book the bulk of the Erotica audience were looking for. There’s plenty of sex in it, but it doesn’t touch on kinky territory – there’s a bit of that in the sequel that I’m writing at the moment! I say to potential readers that if they’ve enjoyed Grace Marshall’s Executive Decisions or Samantha Young’s On Dublin Street then they might enjoy mine. The most popular books were those involving a strong element of BDSM, like those by the fabulous Kay Jaybee and Kristina Lloyd, and series seemed to do well too, like the Executive Decisions trilogy by the equally fab Grace Marshall, aka KD Grace. All in all there were plenty of books sold, just not mine.
Any regrets? None at all. For the price of a train ticket to London (less than £20) I had a fantastic day out, gave out lots of postcards (so I guess there’s a chance some may buy later…) and had some inspirational chats with some gorgeous women. A bargain!
Here are links to some of the other authors’ present sites:
Ashe Barker
Aoife Brennan
Toni Sands
All Of Me
The book stall was set up and principally run (with help from lots of authors) by the ever-entrepreneurial Lucy Felthouse and Victoria Blisse, and hats off to them both for getting this together. I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting to thank them for this, because without it we won’t have had the opportunity to meet our audience, read to them and chat with them. Big, fat thanks, ladies.
What was the lesson I learnt? That I should trust my hunches and that I understand more about this market than I thought. My first erotic romance, All of Me, is precisely that: erotic romance, the soft end of the market, if you’ll pardon the awful pun (my mum laughed like a drain when I said this to her) and as such not the sort of book the bulk of the Erotica audience were looking for. There’s plenty of sex in it, but it doesn’t touch on kinky territory – there’s a bit of that in the sequel that I’m writing at the moment! I say to potential readers that if they’ve enjoyed Grace Marshall’s Executive Decisions or Samantha Young’s On Dublin Street then they might enjoy mine. The most popular books were those involving a strong element of BDSM, like those by the fabulous Kay Jaybee and Kristina Lloyd, and series seemed to do well too, like the Executive Decisions trilogy by the equally fab Grace Marshall, aka KD Grace. All in all there were plenty of books sold, just not mine.
Any regrets? None at all. For the price of a train ticket to London (less than £20) I had a fantastic day out, gave out lots of postcards (so I guess there’s a chance some may buy later…) and had some inspirational chats with some gorgeous women. A bargain!
Here are links to some of the other authors’ present sites:
Ashe Barker
Aoife Brennan
Toni Sands
All Of Me
