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Excerpts

Contents

What You Will Learn About Sex and Writing from This Book

Part I. Thinking About Erotica

How I Ascended: Becoming an Erotic Goddess

What Is Your Story?
What You Wouldn't Expect About Erotic Writing:

Is Writing Sex Better than Having Sex?

A (Brief) History of Sex Writing in America

The Similarities Between Erotica and Pornography

Femmechismo

Sexual Authenticity

Writing Erotica for an Audience of One

Part II. Reading It

What Do You Like...and Where Do You Find It?
"What Do You Like?" Exercises

The Good Parts

Reading Aloud
Erotic Reading Exercise

The Erotic Reader's Bill of Rights

Part III. Writing It

How to Get Ideas
Fantasies Exercise
The "Favorite Writer" Exercise

How to Use the Whole (Fucking) English Language
Dirty Words Exercise

Sexual Character
Character Splits Exercise

Steamy Plots
Steamy Plot Exercise
The Cliché-Ridden Plot-Buster Exercise

Climax
The "See Yourself" Orgasm Writing Exercise
The Orgasm Memory Exercise

Sex and Violence
Violence Exercise

Experimental Writing

How to Mix Sex with Other Genres: Sci-fi, Horror, Crime, Romance
The Expanding Genres Exercise --
A Special Exercise for Couch Potatoes

What Will People Say?

Part IV. Editing It

Editors: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Finding the Perfect Editor
The Five Cardinal Rules for Editing Yourself
The Editor Search: A Few Dos and Don'ts

Copyediting and Proofreading

Part V. Publishing It

A Devil's Argument Against Publishing

Money Money Money
If You Want to Make Some Money at Writing -- but Not a Full-time Livelihood
If You Want to Make a Living at Writing -- Year In and Year Out
How to Write a #1 Bestseller -- and Never Write Again If You Don't Want To

Big-time Book Publishers
How You Can Spot an Incompetent Copyeditor

Small Press Publishers

Self-Publishing and the Internet

The Literary Agents
Why Some Writers Can't Seem to Find an Agent

Part VI. Selling It

I'm an Artist, Not a Salesman

Your Fan Club

Performing Your Work

The Book Tour

The Reviews: Meet the Press

Part VII. Doing It

What's Going to Happen to Your Sex Life

You Are a Sex Guru

The Naysayers

Sex Writer Burnout

What Are You Waiting For?

Part VIII. Appendix

How to Nominate Stories for The Best American Erotica Series

Internet Resources for Erotic Authors

Credits

References