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--- Writing Porn For Fun and Profit! --- ========================================= Happy February, y'all! About the only thing good I have to say about this month ('course I'm a bit predjudiced, living in cold Colorado) is that spring is not far away. Another month and I can start the tomato plants growing in the basement! Hope you all are well, warm and working. In this issue we've got an article by Geoff Boxall on Formula Stories, plus (again!) lots of goings on. I've got (yet another) paying market for women (I swear I'll put out something for the men next time!) plus a good non-paying market. I've got some info on message boards (thanks, everybody!) and in Q & A I tackle Point of View, as in...How to Write Like a Man If You're a Woman and vice versa. Keep in touch, let me know what kinds of info you'd like to see and enjoy this issue! Katy =========================================== Thinking about writing for the porn market led me to consider the 'formula' stories, which some of the editors seem to want. Same story, different characters, similar scenes. Usually we tend to sneer at 'formula' story lines, such as Mills and Boon Romances and Bodice Ripper stories, claiming they do not take any thought to write. But, if we step back a little and think things through we come up with a few interesting points. Q. Why do editors/publishers want us to write to a formula? A. Because formula stories are proven sellers. The customer (reader) knows roughly what they will get. It works with your favorite drink, or meal or cake. Change any constituent in the formula and the taste is different. Warm beer against ice cold beer? Cherry and walnut cake made with carrots and walnut? Would you want it? So, if a reader buys a magazine or story from a particular publisher, expecting to get one type of story, and suddenly finds the story line is totally different, he is going to feel cheated and will not buy from that publisher again. No publisher wants that to happen. So, having done their market research, they produce a magazine containing the type of story the customer wants. A publisher may have half a dozen magazines under his control but each will only offer the type of (formula) story the readers are proven to desire. Q. Why do the customers (readers) want us to write to a formula? A. Because they are at ease with the familiar plot and are ready to buy more of the same. The Soap Operas work on the same principle and they have thousands of devoted followers. Give your customers something they are familiar with and they will stay with you. Interest them in the characters. Make them feel they are the character, make them feel they are taking part in the action, and they will stay to the end. Change things slightly and they will notice. Some may go along with a small change, others will not. You will lose customers, and that is the one thing no writer or publisher wants to do. As a writer, you stand more chance of getting your name known than do any of the script writers on the soaps. Also you will find that readers will buy your books, by author's name, because they know approximately what they are going to get. They know the virgin is not going to be a virgin at the end of the story. They know she is going to be timid and reluctant when the story begins and that she is going to be insatiable for more of whatever it was the story line was about when the story ends. It is like having your favorite story read to you when you were young and curled up in bed. Except the characters and actions in your story tend to change slightly with each new telling. Not too much change but just enough to make a familiar story sound new each time it is produced. Q. How easy is it to write a formula story? A Not that easy. You can sit down and write something you think is exactly in accord with the formula and send it off and get it back fast because it is wrong. Analyse the story line. Take it apart and see how the formula actually works. See at which point in the story the setting up part of the story ends and the action begins. See how it builds through the rest of the story. Is it slow or fast movement from here on? Is it paced so that everything comes together in a climax in the last few pages? How does the story end? Now try your story again, using your same characters and plot but written to the layout you have discovered. It will come out differently this time. A lot closer to the formula that the editor wants. Once you get that use to writing to a formula, selling your work is easier. Editors know you can produce what they want the way they want it so they accept your stories with just a quick read through. Others get a quick glance through and a rejection slip, or binned, or, if they are lucky, a second or third reading and an acceptance with a few corrections before being published. Knowing you can write to the formula the editor can pass your story for publishing without the need to edit it. You've made life easier for the editor, which is always a smart move. They think kindly of you when your next story comes in, or if they need a story to fill a space that has> suddenly become vacant for some reason. So, don't dismiss the formula story too quickly. Learn to write according to the one your editor/publisher favors and you could be earning regularly from your writing. And that is the whole point of writing, isn't it? Earning a living doing something you like and writing about something that gives you pleasure and satisfaction. ~ Geoff's bio: I enjoy writing/reading Fantasy, especially the Krynn sagas from the USA and DiscWorld by Terry Prachett. I am also researching the Knights Templars for a novel as well as delving into the Victorian era for another series of novels. Other reading interests are the paranormal, the environment and health, archaeology and light science/space articles and documentaries. I am toying with an idea for a story based on an archaeological dig. It will probably be a paranormal/erotic story. As I still go out to work I spend my traveling time reading magazines or articles I've download from the 'net and printed out. For relaxing we take our dogs for a walk ( we used to have 7 but now we are down to 2) and I take photos. Mainly of animals and birds in captivity because that is the only way I can get to see that variety of wildlife. Other than that I am building a CD collection of 50's and 60's Rock and Roll and learning programming and I shall be starting a correspondence course on Copy Editing and Proof Reading. =========================================== Paying: GIRL PLAY: Stacy Reed (Evelyn Scott), P.O. Box 22963, Houston, TX 77227. E-mail: evelyn_lb_scott@yahoo.com. Website: http://www.angelfire.com/celeb/girlplay. CONTACT: Stacy Reed. Girl Play will be an anthology of personal essays, recollections, and some fictional stories by women about girls masturbating together. How have your early experiences informed your adult sexuality? Girl Play will shed light on this common but often denied aspect of female sexual development. Submission deadline is June 1, 2001. 100% freelance written. Works with new writers. See the complete guidelines below or at http://www.angelfire.com/celeb/girlplay or feel free to write me if you would like me to e-mail or mail you the guidelines. Submit complete manuscript with a cover letter, bio, and SASE. CURRENT NEEDS: I need talented and insightful women who want to reveal an aspect of female sexual development that is typically hidden. PAYMENT: Payment will be determined upon publication. WORD COUNT: There is no minimum or maximum length requirement. HINTS: Girl Play will provide an arena for women to speak for themselves about a subject that has been silenced. GIRL PLAY CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS I am editing a literary collection on women's sexuality. I'm looking for personal essays, recollections, and some fictional stories that examine girls masturbating together as part of sexual development. This seems to be common, but often denied. When I was a child, I found my parents' vibrator and immediately introduced my neighborhood friends to my "discovery." Now that I'm an adult, I've met new friends who say they too engaged in some sort of sexual play with their childhood friends, and I have come to see that it is far from unusual. I'd like to know how you felt at the time. How old were you? Did you play with other girls often? How did the girls you were playing with react? How did the play begin and end? In what ways have your experiences informed your adult sexuality? I am concentrating on developmental sexual play as it occurs among girls in the absence of adults or boys. I do not plan to include any manuscript with a pen name that is ambiguous or misleading regarding gender. The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2001. There is no maximum or minimum length requirement, and I will consider including previously published work. No simultaneous submissions, please. At www.customeroticasource.com, I am on staff as a celebrity writer. I also wrote a short story for the Fall 2000 issue of Dare. I've contributed stories to The Oy Of Sex (Marcy Sheiner, Cleis), Herotica 5 and Herotica 4 (Sheiner, Plume), and Herotica 3 (Susie Bright, Plume). In terms of sexuality books that focus on recollections and essays, as my collection will, I wrote a recollection for First Person Sexual (Joani Blank, Down There Press) and a personal essay for Whores And Other Feminists (Jill Nagle, Routledge). I also contributed a personal essay to www.diverseworks.org. While an erotic story presents a sexual fantasy, a recollection focuses on the author's experiences. A personal essay reflects on a recollection. For five years I worked in editorial and reporting positions at several newspapers, including The Austin American-Statesman. I look forward to working closely with contributors. If you have any questions, please write me at evelyn_lb_scott@yahoo.com. Send submissions to: Evelyn Scott (Stacy Reed) Non-Paying: EIDOS - PO Box 96 - Boston, MA 02137-0096 - E-mail: eidos@eidos.org Website: http://www.eidos.org P(617) 262-0096. F(617) 364-0096. CONTACT: Brenda Loew, Editor. EIDOS is an acronym for Everyone Is Doing Outrageous Sex. We are an upscale, quarterly independent pansexual erotic lifestyle and entertainment magazine for freethinking consenting adults who value sexual freedom and their first amendment and personal privacy rights. Circulation 18,000. 100% freelance written. Works with new writers. Responds in 6 - 8 weeks. Buys First North American Serial Rights. Pays on publication. Publishes manuscripts 4 - 12 months after acceptance. For guidelines send #10 SASE. For sample copy send $5. Submit complete manuscript (good, clean copy) and floppy disk (preferred), cover letter, bio and SASE by mail. CURRENT NEEDS: Fiction and nonfiction, 500 to 2,500 words. We don't need poetry right now. PAYMENT: Contributor Copies. REPRINTS: No. SUBSCRIPTIONS: 4 issues: North America - US $25, Europe - US $31, All Others - US $33 HINTS: We are not interested in seeing handwritten submissions, material that has been submitted elsewhere, manuscripts with typos or material that is clearly inappropriate for EIDOS. We are a very unique niche magazine. It is wise to be familiar with our publication before submitting material. We prefer considering material that is sent to us on a floppy disk accompanied by a hard copy print out. =========================================== Do you have a story to share? Are you happy with your writing career? Struggling, frustrated, inspired? Please send your thoughts, other writers are interested in knowing how you feel! =========================================== Thanks so much for sharing your 'goings on' with me/us, again, there was plenty of news to share! Congrats to all of you! If I missed anyone, I'm sorry, just send me your info again and I'll be sure to get it out in the next issue.... --- Mary McKenzie had two stories accepted at Amoret: "Don's Gift" will appear in February and "Heads or Tails" will appear in March. ~ Kata also has a story at Amoret, you can find it in the Carte Blanche section. ~ Renaissance E-Books has just released Sascha Illyvich's first erotic poetry anthology, "Erotic Flowers." She also mentioned that http://www.tidalwave-thebook.com is looking for literary agents for promotion of Tidal Wave, an erotic novel. Interested parties can contact Sascha here - SSSCB@hotmail.com - and she'll put you in touch with Mike, the head writer. ~ I've got my revamped website up and running here - www.KatyTerrega.com. Take a look and let me know what you think! In case you're thinking of starting your own story site, I'll warn you right now that mine doesn't make any money! Unfortunately I've got no advice to offer. But one of my goals for this year is to make the site not only profitable for my stories, but also to use it as a forum for other authors as well. I'd love to be buying and selling stories for all of us by the end of the year! Help me visualize, okay? --- Tell me what's going on! Have you made a sale? Do you have a piece being published? Let me know and I'll print it here for all to see! --- Check out my column at http://www.AbsoluteWrite.com on - what else?! - writing porn. This week I stopped cheating and actually wrote a real column! "Lifestyles of the Dull and Boring" talks about living the porn lifestyle (which I was recently - albeit erroneously - accused of) as opposed to just writing about it. =========================================
Thanks so much for all your feedback regarding message boards! Looks like I've got several options to choose from. Unfortunately I haven't had any time these last two weeks but I'm hoping to get something up soon. I'll keep you posted. Some of you would like to share stories and get feedback while some of you would prefer just exchanging information and email addresses and such. I'll try to accommodate everyone! =============================================== =========================================== And when we're talking about sex, well, we really don't have much to go on. I personally have no idea how it feels to be a guy and I imagine the opposite is true, too. But if you want to make money writing about sex, it's in your best interests to figure it out, as there are a limited number of markets out there for sex writers. The more markets you have and the more varied your style the better. Truth is, it's really not that hard. One way to get a handle on how the opposite gender feels is to ask your spouse/lover/friend. Try to get them to describe - in detail! - what the physical sensations are during the act of lovemaking. My favorite way to ferret out info is to read, read, read. Read published stories and concentrate on the words the author uses to describe everything, from foreplay to climax. It's not necessarily about personally knowing how any given act feels, it's more about being able to accurately describe it. --- Send me your questions! I'll answer the most common ones here, and if I don't know the answer, I'll do my best to find a pro who does. =========================================== I'd love articles on specific markets. There are so many sub-genres of porn and it's hard to know the subtleties of each. If you've got a specialty, from BDSM to Watersports to Leg Sex to Amputeeism, feel free to share your knowledge. You can either suggest a topic (query) or send something whole. I'll get back to you within a week as to whether or not I'll be able to use it. Right now I'm paying with a copy of the updated It's A Dirty Job...(plus credits) but as SOON as this site is self-supporting I'll be able to offer some cash. ============CLASSIFIEDS==================== ========================================== Writing Porn For Fun and Profit! Katy Terrega |