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In This Issue:
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From the Editor
Short Story Contest Winner !- Spring, 2001
New! Kevin's Book Review Corner
Article: Rejection Slips by Johnny Scorpio
Market Listings
Goings On - Congrats Mercedes Gilette!
Q & A - Readers' Questions
Looking for Writers

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From The Editor
Katy Terrega
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Happy Tax Day y'all! Hope you've already received a great refund, or, failing that, have at least managed to get your taxes out on time. I used to work across the street from the main Post Office in Denver and it was fun to watch as they set up to accomodate the crowds. Traffic would be backed up for blocks as person after person drove by and deposited their return into the hands of the employees that lined the street. For your sake I hope that's not your fate tonight...

Yeehaw! My kids are going back to school after two weeks of spring break and I'm looking forward to getting back to my work schedule. I also look forward to answering your emails in a more timely manner.

We've got an extra long issue this time. Kevin Tipple's got a new book review column, he'll be reviewing erotica with an eye toward how writers can grow by following others' example. We've got a great article by Johnny Scorpio on Rejection Slips. (This one made me laugh out loud seeing as how I've had a lot of the same experiences he's had.) I've got several markets for you and I've answered a couple of good questions. Mercedes Gilette has some great news to share in Goings On.

Oh, and how could I forget...we've got a winner for the short story contest! See below for more details and thanks to those who entered!

Enjoy this newsletter and keep in touch!

Katy

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--- Short Story Contest ---
--- Spring, 2001 ---
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And the winner is.......

Dreaming

by Master's Pet!

She wins $25 and a place on the Winners' Page!

Check out her well-crafted story by clicking on the title above and stay tuned for the next contest, due out in July. Hmmm, maybe we ought to start theming them, July's contest could be about 'heat' or something, let me know what you think.

Also, one reader suggested that we have a forum for all the entrants, so that y'all could read the stories that didn't win. If you've entered before and wouldn't mind having your story out there for all to see, let me know, I'll get started on a page...

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Would you like to link to the Writers' Site?
You can find a banner and code at
http://www.KatyTerrega.com/linking.html
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--- Kevin's Book Review Corner ---
--- The Stalker By Claire Thompson ---
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The Stalker By Claire Thompson
ISBN # 1-929670-26-5 - http://www.renebooks.com

As a writer, I think it is possible to learn writing techniques not just from a "how-to" article but also from reading published works in almost any genre. Good writing with strong characters is what one looks for, whether your interests are in mainstream or erotica genres. Like everything else in life, the quality varies, but there are gems out there. The Stalker is one of those gems.

In this novel, there are only two characters and the point of view switches back and forth between the two strong willed characters. Emily is a very sexy movie star adored by the public. Mark, like almost any fan, wants to be with her in every way possible. The difference between Mark and the average fan is that he actively plots to make it happen. Mark is not an idiot and has all the angles figured out. The plot is successful and the detailed erotic captivity of Emily begins.

"When Mark watched her movie videos, his cock would rise painfully whenever she was on screen. When those lips, like bruised fruit waiting to be bitten, parted for a kiss, he could feel his own desire rage, wrenching an audible sigh from his own unkissed mouth."

So begins this very arousing novel by author Claire Thompson. Mark plots and stalks Emily, learning her every move and everything about her life.

"Emily wasn't especially tall, at 5'6", but her slender neck, her long tapered waist and long shapely legs made her look taller than she was. Her breasts were round and high, though not especially large." Neither character is the stunning beauty or an airhead as so often seen today in adult videos. These characters are real, believable people put together through their own actions.

Successful in his kidnapping, he spirits her away to an isolated farmhouse. Once there, he is safe from having his plans stopped by authorities and she has no way of escaping. Of course, Emily, once successfully kidnapped, is less than thrilled with the idea. But, she has no idea what Mark has in mind for her.

And Mark has a lot of exquisitely detailed sexual plans. Soon, she is naked and chained to his bed. Not happy with the situation, she begins to scream and he muffles her screams through the use of a ball gag. Mark is so aroused by her naked body and distress, that he isn't exactly sure what to do with her first. He explains the rules of the house and that there is no escape and then gives way to his desire to take her. While the first time is over quickly, it won't be the last.

He takes her physically and later introduces her to training to be a slave by spanking her the first time. Since she is less than thrilled with this idea, he takes her down the hall to his specially constructed Playroom. The dominant feature of the Playroom is the St. Andrew's Cross. Soon, she is affixed to the cross with her pretty little rear available for close inspection and play.

Over the course of the novel, Emily is constantly betrayed by a body that can not help but respond to his every touch, penetration, or beating by instrument. Her character evolves in a constant and logical way and she begins to consider the possibility that he is triggering repressed desires within her.

"Emily remembered vaguely having heard that if you liked a man's smell-really liked it-you might be in love with him. Supposedly, it was love that made him smell good to you, or you fell in love with the smell. She wasn't sure which she had heard, but it made sense in a way, a primeval attraction based on smell that said, yes, this is the right one for me. As he trailed down her abdomen, tickling her with butterfly kisses, Emily wondered, do I love this man?"

This 175-page e-novel is very good and has a little something for just about everyone. The characters are detailed and evolving and the dialogue and settings are complete. Even if this particular novel isn't in your area of personal interest, as a writer you can learn quite a lot from how the author sets the scene, characters and dialogue.

~

In addition to his fiction in a variety of genres, Kevin is a book reviewer of mainstream titles at The Blue Iris Journal. He also contributes fiction, essays and book reviews at the adult site Peacockblue.com.

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--- Rejection Slips ---
--- by Johnny Scorpio ---
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In about ten years of attempting to write freelance porn, I've had most of my articles and stories rejected by magazines, which I guess is par for the course when you're sending out unsolicited manuscripts. Katy Terrega couldn't be more right when she says, "You need a lot of editors on your side." I've managed to score well with Screw Magazine, Live Young Girls, Letters Magazine (when they were still accepting submissions), and Genesis (when I knew the editor). I do fairly okay with Hustler Fantasies. Oh, and I recently scored a couple of times with Oui, although the editor has rejected many more of my ideas then he has accepted, but I'm able to communicate with him freely and run ideas by him, via e-mail. As for other publications - fuggettaboutit.

I think it's a pretty tough game to send in unsolicited manuscripts. Unless your story is so above average that it's virtually un-rejectable, or it happens to be exactly what the editor was looking for, you're going to get rejected. So you can start a collection of rejection slips.

Hustler has a humorous rejection slip. It's a small card that reads:

Congratulations! You have been chosen to receive this beautiful hand-lettered rejection slip! We know you will be proud to add this attractive notice to your personal collection. For additional copies send your contributions to (address of Hustler.) Note: In the event that your next contribution is accepted for publication, we cannot send you another card, and you will just have to be satisfied with money. Sorry. - The Editor

That's the best rejection slip I ever got. Once I sent in a raunchy story to an 18-year-old-themed magazine, and it came back to me, a note written on the cover letter: "No thanks!" The exclamation point said it all. She (it was female handwriting) was repulsed by the raunchiness of my story which I called "The Goo Gourmet," about a girl who talks about the different flavors and consistencies of semen. The story didn't fare any better when I changed it around and re-titled it "Cock Caviar," and sent it some other places.

Recently I sent a story to Penthouse Variations and the editor sent back a nicely typed letter saying that my language was inappropriate, my use of teen characters was objectionable, and perhaps my work should be sent to other publications, with different standards. It was too raunchy and not sensuous enough for Variations. Hey, maybe I've got a problem. Dian Hanson, Editor of Tight, rejected a few of my stories, saying that my female characters are too slutty. So I wrote another story with an innocent girl being corrupted by an experienced guy, which is the way she wants it. Maybe that will turn into an acceptance. Well, Screw likes my raunchy style, anyway, but they're one-of-a-kind.

I have never sold any letter or story to the magazines or erotic digests edited by Diana Sheridan (see Young and Tight in Terrega's book) though I have sent a dozen or two. She always writes me a rejection note in purple ink, often on purple paper, too. "Sorry, but we can't use this material." She will sometimes offer more specific reasons for the rejection. Once I came close to scoring. The word count was a bit over and she wanted a few changes made. I made the changes and cut it to the proper length, but she still rejected it. Oh, well.

Once I sent two stories to a magazine called Future Sex. (It was in the early-90s-the magazine is out of biz now; it was alive for two or three years.) One of them was a short, flight-of-fancy, somewhat nonsensical story about a baby oil factory in Venezuela where the employees rub the baby oil on each other after work and during breaks, and jerk each other off and masturbate each other and fuck, and that keeps them happy and productive. What led me to write this story was that I noticed on my bottle of baby oil it said manufactured in Venezuela. So I pictured this slimy orgy going on under palm trees on the grounds of the plant. The other story was about a guy held chained naked as a sex slave in a cold basement by a cruel and sexy woman.

The manuscripts were sent back to me, one with a yellow post-it attached to it-a note from one editor to another, which wasn't meant for my eyes. It was left stuck to the story by accident. It said: "Here is another one by Scorpio. What the hell is this?! Scorpio can't write." There was a more formal and less condemning rejection notice included in the envelope as well. The post-it didn't bother me - I thought it was funny, and I was happy that it was inadvertently sent to me.

For one year I worked as Associate Editor at Cheri Magazine. Cheri really did not get many submissions from writers. The editorial content (then, in '95-'96) was readers' letters, a sex-in-the-news humor page, copy for the picture sets, video reviews, a non-sex photo essay, and a feature length non-fiction article, sometimes sex-themed and sometimes not. The editors wrote the humor page, girl-copy, and photo essay. For the other material, the managing editor pretty much relied on writers he knew. So he would have a regular writer he was acquainted with do the letters section, someone else do the video reviews, and another regular writer he already knew would do the feature article. We didn't have a copy of writer's guidelines.

One time I got a neatly typed submission from a woman, some short fictional pieces, along with discs, and a letter asking to consider them for publication. The letter said if we were going to reject the stories, just discard them. So that's what I did, because they didn't fit our editorial needs. I really should have written back a letter of rejection, but I didn't. I wonder if that was Katy Terrega's submission?

About those stamps from the SASE's - don't ask me how I know this, but editors who don't respond to you rip the stamps off of them and save them for personal use. All you have to do is soak them in water to separate them from the paper, dry them out, and then glue them on your own envelope.
(Editor's note: I knew it!!)

~

Johnny Scorpio lives in Alaska and has been writing porn for ten years, for Screw Magazine and others.

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--- Market Listings ---
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Paying:

COLLECTIVE PUBLISHING: PO Box 6685, Newark, NG24 4WS, England UK. E-mail: the.collective@virgin.net. Website: www.collectivepublishing.com. CONTACT: Greg Stanton, Editor. Erotic short stories published in paperback books. Titles: Erotica 1: Bettina's Tales, Erotica 2: Bettina and Candy, Erotica 3 due out in March 2001. Publishes 2 or 3 titles a year. 80% freelance written. Works with new writers. Responds in 4 - 6 weeks. Purchases all rights. Pays 30 days after publication. Time between acceptance and publication varies. Obtain guidelines via e-mail or by post with S.A.E. Obtain sample copies from Waterstones, Ottakars, Foyles and other bookstores in UK, Chapters in Canada (USA yet to confirm), and on the web www.amazon.co.uk. Submit hardcopy of stories and include an S.A.E.
CURRENT NEEDS: Short erotic stories between 3,000 and 10,000 words.
PAYMENT: $20.00 per 1000 accepted words.
WORD LENGTH: 3,000 - 10,000 words.
HINTS: Common mistakes are: not enough sex and descriptions that are not visually appealing. Also situations that aren't realistic, i.e. futuristic or supernatural settings. Stories must be contemporary, not set in the past or the future. Stories must be about young(ish) sexy people. No racism or sex including animals. Currently looking for stories about strippers, lap dancers, exotic dancers, prostitutes, web cam girls. Also send any other stories that are a good sexy read and visually exciting, for males and females to read. We are going for the popular market not so much the cult market. If possible please take a look in one of our titles to see the kind of thing we use.

YOUNG & TIGHT: PO Box 170, Irvington NY 10533 - E-mail: DianaEditr@aol.com. Website: http://www.youngandtight.com/title.htm CONTACT: Diana Sheridan, Associate Editor. Published eight times a year. Pictorial magazine about 18 and 19 year old girls. One story and one feature in each issue. The feature is "Ambisexters' Club" and purports to tell the story of a bi girl. 100% freelance; some unsolicited, some assigned. Works with new writers. Responds in three weeks, sooner on E-mail submissions. Pays on publication. Time between acceptance and publication "varies greatly." Buys all rights but will reassign book rights on request.
CURRENT NEEDS: Doesn't really *need* anything but is always willing to look
PAYMENT: Pays $100 for 2,000 word story, $50 for 1000 word "Ambixexters' Club" feature
REPRINTS: No
PHOTOS/ART: n/a
SUBSCRIPTIONS: U.S. - $19.97 for eight issues, Canada - $25.97 for eight issues
HINTS: Read the magazine before you submit, have at least a clue what it is we're looking for
GUIDELINES: available on-line or send SASE. For sample copy send $7.00 and a 9x12 SASE with first-class postage for eight ounces. Submit complete manuscript.

Non-Paying:

SUSPECT THOUGHTS: A JOURNAL OF SUBVERSIVE WRITING: E-mail: gregw@suspectthoughts.com. Website: www.suspectthoughts.com. CONTACT: Greg Wharton, editor. suspect thoughts is a free quarterly e-publication that interprets the erotic with sharp insight and skill, blurring the lines between genres and not afraid that it might enrage, frighten, cause laughter, or even confuse, while perhaps arousing sexual desire. The fiction is 80-100% freelance written. Works with new writers. Responds in 1-4 weeks, confirms in 1-5 days. Purchases one-time web rights. Publishes manuscripts 6-9 months after acceptance. Obtain guidelines at www.suspectthoughts.com/guidelines.htm. Submit by sending 1-2 pieces in the body of an email or attached as a Word document with a note including your name, mailing address, e-mail address, and a short writer's bio. PAYMENT: Banner space on the page that your piece appears that will remain for the life of the page, as well as a direct email link and room for a big, juicy BIO. There is no monetary compensation.
WORD COUNT: Any length
PHOTOS/ART: I am using one artist per issue so a larger body of work is preferred. Send me 1-2 pieces attached in .jpeg or .gif format (or a link to work online) and a note including your name, mailing address, email address, and a short artist's bio.
PAYMENT/PHOTOS: See above.
REPRINTS: Yes
HINTS: Read the journal. Read the guidelines. Send work that you think is appropriate.

~

(I know nothing about the following project and it doesn't have anything to do with porn or erotica but it was sent to me and I thought I'd pass it along...)

The Chesterfield Film Company - Writer's Film Project
1158 26th Street, PMB 544
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(213) 683-3977
www.chesterfield-co.com
Prize: Up to Five $20,000 Screenwriting Fellowships
Entry fee: $39.50
Deadline: May 15th 2001
Open to: All writers of fiction, film, and theater

Description: The Annual Writer's Film Project (WFP) offers fiction, theater and film writers the opportunity to begin a career in screenwriting. Up to five writers will be chosen to participate, and each will receive a $20,000 stipend to cover his or her living expenses. The WFP Writers are chosen by competition, and are evaluated on the basis of prose and dramatic writing samples. Selected writers form a year long screenwriting workshop, using their storytelling skills to begin a career in film. The Writer's Film Project originated through Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and is co-sponsored by Paramount Pictures

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--- Goings On ---
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Mercedes Gilette just sold her first porn story to Young and Tight! Plus, Diana Sheridan - the editor for Young and Tight and many other mags -has already accepted another two of Mercedes' letters for the same publication. Congrats Mercedes!!

~

I've got my revamped website up and running here - www.KatyTerrega.com.

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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!

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Check out my column at http://www.AbsoluteWrite.com on - what else?! - writing porn. This week I talk about writing from personal experience.

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--- Q & A ---
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One reader asked if it's necessary to put a copyright symbol, date and name on unsolicited manuscripts.

Copyrights are a funny thing; the moment you create a tangible work (that means, for writers, the moment you actually set pen to paper) the copyright it automatically yours. Technically you don't have to do anything else, although you can choose to "register" your copyright (for a fee) with the government if you'd like.

In my experience and that of others I've talked to, theft of an actual manuscript by an editor is exceedingly rare, and putting your copyright symbol on a manuscript wouldn't deter such an unscrupulous editor anyway, so there's really no need to use it on an unsolicited manuscript.

Check out http://www.whatiscopyright.org and http://www.loc.gov/copyright/
for more info...

More rights info...

Some markets buy all rights, and that means that by signing the contract you sign away your copyright forever. Your work becomes the sole property of the buyer. It's always worth a try to ask for an exception, for example you could ask the editor might be willing to let the rights revert back to you after a year, but such requests won't always be granted.

Should you write for publications that buy all rights? Many established authors won't, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you shouldn't. You'll have to weigh the benefits (exposure, sales, money, clips) against the loss of your material. For beginners the payoff is often worth it, it's a way to get published and build your reputation as a writer.

For years I refused to write for markets that bought all rights but now I do it occasionally. Sometimes it's a market that pays exceptionally well or a prestigious mag that I'd like to get my name into or sometimes it's just that I'm short on assignments and it's a way to make money.

~

Another question I'm working on and will get to next issue...

What are the legal ramifications of sending material to a country whose obscenity laws may be different from your own country's laws?

If you have any info on that one, feel free to share!

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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.

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---Looking for Writers---
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Send Me Your Stories And Ideas!

I'm looking for essays/articles that will inspire and/or instruct other porn writers. Success stories, how to break into certain markets, unique views on the genre, etc. Around 800 words is good, although I'm flexible.

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.