{"id":1354,"date":"2009-07-09T16:49:54","date_gmt":"2009-07-09T06:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.msnaughty.com\/blog\/?p=1354"},"modified":"2009-07-09T16:49:54","modified_gmt":"2009-07-09T06:49:54","slug":"erotica-label-black-lace-shuts-up-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/msnaughty.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/09\/erotica-label-black-lace-shuts-up-shop\/","title":{"rendered":"Erotica Label Black Lace Shuts Up Shop"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Black<\/a>The Guardian reports<\/a> that major erotica publisher Black Lace will not be publishing any new titles in the coming year.<\/p>\n

The 16-year-old Black Lace imprint specialises in erotica for women, by women, and has sold more than 4m books worldwide, but its publisher, Virgin Books \u2013 part of the publishing giant Random House \u2013 has decided to stop commissioning new titles for both itself and its sister imprint, Nexus, which pitches itself as “the last word in fetish fiction”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Erotica Cover Watch has a more in-depth look at the decision here<\/a>. Interestingly, the Girl’s<\/a> comment was rehashed in the Guardian article without attribution, which is rather rude.<\/p>\n

Black Lace is blaming stalled sales and the availability of free erotica on the internet.<\/p>\n

Writers Kristina Lloyd and Mathilde Madden (who run Erotica Cover Watch) have written a great opinion piece decrying the decision<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In erotic fiction, you’ll probably find truer expressions of female desire than in the popular memoirs from strippers and sex workers, whose job it is to please men. But we’re also unsurprised. Women’s erotic fiction authors are often regarded as randy Barbara Cartlands writing purple porn for the sex-starved, their prose replete with throbbing manhoods, dungeon dynamics and swoon-inducing bastards: “Mills and Bonk”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Personally I think it’s a shame that Black Lace should make this decision because it cuts off one of the few major outlets for female erotic expression. I do understand the need to maintain profits – publishing seems to operate on very small margins now – but I’m wondering if the imprint was really losing money or if they just lost interest in maintaining it.<\/p>\n

And it once again comes back to the issue of the internet. Since I run an adult site I could be considered responsible for the loss of hard-copy readers.<\/p>\n

And yet… it’s not the full story. Yes, you can probably find free erotic fiction online but have you actually read some of that shit? The stuff you see on Literotica is often illiterate, nonsensical, cliched and downright unreadable and a lot of it isn’t written for a female audience (I know this because they seem to want to also submit it to FTG). On top of that, the world of online erotic fiction is primarily focused on short stories and smaller pieces. Curling up in bed and getting involved in a novel isn’t quite so appealing via the internet.<\/p>\n

If Black Lace withdraws, it creates a gap. I do think there is a opportunity here. Perhaps it’s time For The Girls became a publishing label?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Guardian reports that major erotica publisher Black Lace will not be publishing any new titles in the coming year. The 16-year-old Black Lace imprint specialises in erotica for women, by women, and has sold more than 4m books worldwide, but its publisher, Virgin Books \u2013 part of the publishing giant Random House \u2013 has decided to stop commissioning new titles for both itself and its sister imprint, Nexus, which Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[124,911,279,657],"class_list":["post-1354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-erotic-fiction","tag-black-lace","tag-erotic-fiction","tag-erotica","tag-publishing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t