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Aphrodisia Double-Speak
Sybil commented on my blog from over the weekend about Kate Douglas' Wolf Tales, and I went to the source...in this case, HelenKay Dimon, who wrote about the whole "is it Erotic Romance or Simply Erotica?" some time ago:
In the never-ending Aphrodisia v. Brava debate, the editors say: Aphrodisia is about sex and Brava is about romance. Hillary Sares (the main Aphrodisia editor) says the term “erotic romance” with the imprint is a misnomer. The books are not really romance and don’t have to be. Use of the title is for marketing - Kensington wants the books in the romance section and wants to reach romance readers. That’s it. And, the only legal on the sex is that it be legal.
But later Sares backtracked from her earlier statements in a letter to Nice Mommy...Evil Editor:
In fact, Aphrodisias are romances more than often than not, although they are intensely erotic as well. But–and this is the big difference–they don’t have to follow the rules (such as they are) of traditional romances: a HEA ending, for one, is not required. However, when we were first developing the line, booksellers were as new to the genre as we were, and no one was certain where such books would or should be shelved. (Books generally are positioned in the store according to the category on the spine: mystery, sci-fi, horror, etc). Therefore, we and other publishers had to tag them in a way that didn’t make major booksellers too skittish and erotic romance was the tag of choice. We didn’t want the books stuck in a back room, so to speak–and we had no way of anticipating the avalanche of positive media attention nationwide–TV, print and online–for erotica and erotic romance that coincided with our launch in January 2006. To put it mildly, the unexpected coverage changed the way erotic romance was marketed, from publishers to bookstore shelves.
True enough: some Aphrodisias are more frankly erotic and sexually diverse than others. But most are romantic as well, and some are very romantic. And I can supply review quotes for a number of titles to prove it.
Information posted online is seen by a lot of writers, published and unpublished, and it should be as accurate as possible. Thanks.
Hilary Sares
Editor
I think Kensington is trying to have it both ways; an HEA is a generally accepted genre convetion for Romance. So to say that an Aphrodisia title is a Romance but that it doesn't require an HEA doesn't make logical sense. My conclusion is that Aphrodisia releases are mislabeled, and readers looking for Erotic Romance should be careful at the bookstore...I know I will.
TTFN, Laurie Likes Books
I have copies of the RWA workshops on cd. I keep meaning to listen to the
Kensington workshop and finding out if Ms. Sares was misquoted and if it
was as inaccurate as she rather stingingly implies.
Angela -