Love, Lust and Longing

Call it steamy fiction. Call it a racy yarn. Call it porn. Just don’t call mom and pop for dinner because it’s time to break out the newest genre in book publishing, erotic romance.

Think Sex and the City meets Debbie Does Dallas. With titles like, Exposed, Secret Pleasures and Notorious, this isn’t your grandma’s brand of romance. In grandma’s old romance novels, there is usually a fade to black as a couple gets busy. But fear not, explicit intercourse and all the trimmings are the norm in these lurid tales. Private parts certainly aren’t private and there are sexual situations that would make Dr. Ruth blush.

Most of the settings have remained the same. Pre-Revolutionary France, Victorian England and antebellum America are favorite historical periods. And the heroines are still feisty and courageous. Only they are now able to explore a more sexually liberated lifestyle.

Kensington Publishing, http://www.kensingtonbooks.com, introduced Brava, the erotic imprint, with Bertrice Small’s Intrigued. This historical novel of passion and desire is one of the first in this new breed of romance narratives.

Harlequin Books has also been developing an erotic romance imprint. Entitled Blaze, this imprint is set to launch in August. It’s website, http://eharlequin.com, claims the new series will capture what it’s like to be single in the new millennium. The books will consist of “…sensuous, highly romantic, innovative plots that are sexy in premise and execution. The tone of the books can run from fun and flirtatious to dark and sensual.”

This outpouring of erotica is due to the already popular, gentler romance genre. Romance novels are extremely important to the publishing industry with more than 2,000 novels printed every year. And with popular shows like Ally McBeal and Sex and the City demonstrating a frankness towards sexuality, it’s only natural that this openness would seep into the literary world. Harlequin romance novels alone have gone from three million sold in 1970 to a whopping 160 million sold in 2000. An ever soaring interest in the genre and effective marketing techniques—Harlequin has focused on selling their books in drug stores, grocery stores and department stores hoping for impulse purchases—has led to a love of lust.

Here are some intriguing facts from Harlequin:

*Harlequin sold more than 160 million books last year, which translates into more than 5.5 books a second.

*Approximately one in every six mass-market paperbacks sold in North America is a Harlequin or a Silhouette novel.

*If all of the Harlequin romance novels that were sold on a single day were stacked one on top of another, the pile would be five times as high as New York City’s World Trade Center.

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