My book How to Write Erotica is out now!
If you've ever been curious about how to get your sexy stories published, read this
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My book How to Write Erotica came out last Tuesday, on Valentine’s Day! The more time that passes between sending this newsletter and the release, the guiltier I feel because, for me, when I have a new book coming out, there’s a constant drumbeat of promote-your-book-24/7-or-you-suck-at-your-job. It’s a very hard voice to get out of my head.
But I also know that I haven’t just been sitting around. I’ve been doing podcast interviews about the book, finishing articles, brainstorming ideas, and teaching my first essay writing class.
I’ve also been making time for me, for fun, for enjoying pop culture that’s not directly related to my work. See more about that below.
So here’s my elevator pitch for How to Write Erotica: If you’ve ever been curious about writing erotica/porn/smut/sex scenes/dirty words, but don’t know where to start, this book has dozens of prompts, interviews with all kinds of authors (traditionally published, self-published, queer, kinky, male, female, trans, contemporary, historical, specialists, generalists, etc.), plus details on beta readers, sensitivity readers, how to get published, how to build an author brand and how to promote your work. You’ll find everything from Rob Gronkowski erotica to erotica about food, music, politics, and so much more. I hope you’ll check it out, and it also makes a great gift for anyone who might be curious about the form, whether they want to write erotica, erotic romance, memoir, fiction, or anything else.
And I’ll do thing you’ll see most authors do: If you liked the book, please leave a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads or anywhere else. Even a sentence is very helpful, especially as someone published by a small press who didn’t get reviewed in Publishers Weekly or any other major publications. It’s hard to stand out amidst so many books being published every week, and your reviews help me do that. My personal goal is to sell out the initial print run of 1,500 by end of June. I have no idea if that’s likely or not but I hope it is!
I wanted to send this today because I’m teaching my second Essay Writing 101 class tonight from 7-9 pm ET (there’s still room left if you want to sign up!), with two more scheduled for March 25 and March 27. I learned so much from the first class on Sunday night. There were only 5 students, which meant everyone got to spend time talking out their essay ideas and sharing a little peek into their lives with me and their fellow students. I knew I’d accomplished what I set out to do when one of the students said that hearing the other students talking about their essay ideas inspired multiple essay ideas for her!
Below are some relevant links. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be introducing some other types of content here, some of it for paid subscribers (stay tuned for more on that), including old The Village Voice Lusty Lady columns you may have missed, my insider tips on impressing erotica and essay editors, how to do research into writing markets, and more. I’ll still be posting at least once a month with a roundup of my latest work and news, with these additional posts offering a behind-the-scenes look at how I approach my work as a writer and editor and some of the tricks I’ve learned for successfully selling my words.
Podcast Interviews and Press (some recent, some older but may still be of interest)
#amwriting - I’m already a huge fan of this podcast, so it was an honor to chat with host KJ Dell’Antonia about not just erotica, but writing more broadly, and to geek out about one of the most fun novels I’ve read recently, City of Likes by Jenny Mollen, which is not an erotic novel (it’s about momfluencers and Instagram popularity and online life vs. real life), but there’s an undercurrent of bisexuality and a girl crush gone wry.
Write-Minded - This is another favorite of mine about all aspects of writing. I spoke with Grant Faulkner, founder of National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo), and Brooke Warner, my former Seal Press editor for Dirty Girls and Curvy Girls and now in charge of hybrid publisher She Writes Press) about my path to erotica and advice for authors.
How to Write Erotica Even if You Have No Experience at Residence 11
Coming soon:
Erotica and Essay Writing Classes on Zoom
Essay Writing 101 ($25/class)
Wednesday, February 22, 7-9 pm ET
Saturday, March 25, 1-3 pm ET
Monday, March 27, 6-8 pm ET
In this essay writing workshop, Rachel Kramer Bussel will lead you through writing exercises to help you craft marketable essays to submit to newspapers, magazines, websites, and journals. Through analyzing Rachel’s successful essay submissions on some of life’s most intimate subjects, including love, sexuality, body image, and hoarding, to publications including Salon, SELF, and the Washington Post, and popular published essays in prominent publications, we will explore what makes an essay powerful, how to move beyond narrating your memories to dig deeper and make your essay memorable, and how to hook readers from the first to last sentence. Rachel will provide an overview of the current personal essay market, and everyone who registers will receive access to Rachel’s curated list of over 50 essay markets (you will have lifetime access to the list, which will be updated periodically). As time permits, attendees will have the opportunity to share their essay ideas with Rachel and the class and get feedback, including suggestions of where to submit their work. Within 24 hours of signing up, you will receive suggested pre-reading and access to the essay market list.
Rachel has written dozens of personal essays, columns, and opinion pieces (op-eds) inspired by personal experience for outlets including Business Insider, BuzzFeed, DAME, The Goods, HuffPost Personal, The Independent (UK), Oldster, Redbook, Refinery29, Salon, SELF, Shondaland, The Village Voice, Washington Post, and more. She is also the author of Sex & Cupcakes: A Juicy Collection of Essays.
NO REFUNDS.*
Registration is limited to 50 people.
*In the unlikely event of an emergency on my part requiring me to cancel or reschedule, I will refund all payments.
Erotica Writing 101 ($25/class)
Sunday, February 26, 1-3 pm ET
Tuesday, March 7, 6-8 pm ET
Sunday, March 12, 3-5 pm ET
In this workshop Rachel Kramer Bussel, professional erotica writer, author of the nonfiction guide How to Write Erotica, and editor of over 70 erotica anthologies, such as The Big Book of Orgasms, Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica and the Best Women’s Erotica of the Year series, will take you through the ins and outs of modern erotic writing. Learn how to get started, find your voice, and write against type. You’ll discover how to incorporate everyday scenarios as well as outlandish fantasies into your writing, and make them fit for particular publications. She’ll also talk about submitting your work and keeping up with the thriving erotica market, including anthologies, ebooks and print books, apps, magazines and websites, as well as getting started with self-publishing, creating a pseudonym and building your author brand. Please have paper and writing implements or a computer to use for writing exercises. A bibliography with erotica resources will be provided.
Zoom link will be emailed by three days prior to class.
NO REFUNDS.*
Registration is limited to 50 people.
*In the unlikely event of an emergency on my part requiring me to cancel or reschedule, I will refund all payments.
Calls for Submissions
Flash Fiction (1,000-1,200 words), pays $30/story, no theme, Deadline: May 1, 2023
Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 10 (2,000-5,000 words), Theme: Anything Goes, pays $100/story, Deadline: July 1, 2023
Pop Culture Recommendations
TV: Ginny & Georgia on Netflix. Wow, has this show had me riveted.
Movies: 80 for Brady. I went to see this Sunday in the theater near me with lie-back seats and loved it. I’m a sucker for biopics or based on a true story movies, and while I know nothing about football, to me it was about friendship and fandom and desire and vitality. There’s even Rob Gronkowski fan fiction (I believe the book Jane Fonda’s character writes is called Between a Gronk and a Hard Place).
Books: On the sexy romance front, I recommend Full Exposure by Thien-Kim Lam. It’s set in New Orleans with a Mardi Gras bead meet cute inspired by real life! In nonfiction, I have a giant stack of books awaiting my eyeballs, including The Creative Act by Rick Rubin and The Inspired Life by Bozoma Saint John, but first I’m finishing I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. It’s about the iCarly star’s childhood at the hands of a monstrous, cruel and narcissistic mother and you find out early on why it has that title.
Podcasts: Twitter Verse: I’ve been calling this show Twitterverse and it’s actually Twitter Verse. Very clever. I binged the whole current season in a week. It’s a short, snappy podcast in which writer Gabe Hudson asks writers about a few of their notorious Tweets and they give backstory on what was happening and what prompted them. It’s so good, and deals with everything from Aretha Franklin to depression to being a maid to white feminism and much, much more. Gabe talks like he’s frantically tweeting, and I mean that as a compliment.
Missing Pages: This one is for book and publishing nerds. I found out about it on the Bethanne Patrick episode of Twitter Verse. Bethanne covers literary scandals from Kaavya Viswanathan, whose young adult book was canceled over plagiarism allegations, to J.T. LeRoy to how Publishers Lunch decides what details to include in its book deal announcements. If you geek out over these things, give it a listen. The extended Kaavya Viswanathan paid episode is very much worth a listen, as it delves into the role book packaging played in her journey and both episodes on her offer an overview of what book packaging is.
Theater: Between Two Knees by sketch comedy group The 1491s. I saw this at McCarter Theater in Princeton recently and laughed so hard even though it’s about Wounded Knee and the genocide of American Indians (to use the language of the show). Hard to truly describe but Seattle Rep is putting it on in March. A friend in the cast, Rachel Crowl, told me they’ve performed together 160 times, so the performances were very tight and they did a lot with their props and visuals and costumes and gave a little history lesson too! Full disclosure: I got tickets because I knew Rachel was in it and I wanted to support her and see a play, since I hadn’t seen one in a while. I had assumed the title was referring to some suggestive sexual theme, but I was very wrong!
I’m seeing 4 plays during in New York in March in between visiting friends and family (Wolf Play, The Wanderers, White Girl in Danger, and The Trees) so I’ll let you know any that stand out after I see them.
What are you watching/reading/listening to? Feel free to drop recommendations in the comments!
Just discovered your Substack and excited to hear about your How to book! I was actually searching for erotic short stories on Substack and found you. Is there a market for this here? Do you believe I could build a paid fanbase with shorts? And Is Substack/subscription models covered in your book? Will definitely check it out ✅ thanks! MJ