Cleis Press 40% off new year erotica sale

To kick off 2021, my publisher, Cleis Press, is having a big 40% off sale through January 8, 2021 on select print books (shipping to the U.S. only) if you use the code NEWYEARNEWBOOK. Below are the five books of mine that are on sale, though Erotic Teasers I think still needs an add to cart button. If you haven't read these or are looking to give them as a gift, check it out. See Cleis's Twitter feed for more sale books. Also, a reminder that the best way to keep up with what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis is to follow me on Twitter @raquelita, Instagram @rachelkramerbussel (and/or my new all jigsaw puzzle account @rachelpuzzles and Facebook @rachelkramerbusselauthor which I update in that order of frequency. If you want to follow the Best Women's Erotica of the Year series, where I post news, photos, giveaways and more, those handles are: Twitter @BWEoftheyear, Instagram @bestwomenserotica and Facebook @bweoftheyear.



Here are individual links to my Cleis Press 40% off erotica print books for U.S. shipping with the code NEWYEARNEWBOOK. They're all also available in ebook and audiobook. I've listed some of my favorite of my anthologies with all buy links on my website, and will be adding more soon and here's all my Cleis Press books, most available in print, ebook and audio, some are out of print. Also, whether a book says "Best Women's Erotica" or "for women" in the title, readers of any gender who like sexy stories are welcome to read them! I welcome all readers and feedback and reviews to help me guide future anthology selections.

Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2

Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2

Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 4

Begging for It: Erotic Fantasies for Women

Erotic Teasers (add to cart button should be up soon if it's not currently)

If you haven't subscribed to my monthly newsletter yet, hop on it, because I do roundups and newsletter subscriber exclusive giveaways. Last year I was a bad newsletter sender and skipped a few months, including my big book release month of December, but as part of my 2021 goals I'll be sending them out monthly no matter what, starting today with January's.

New erotica anthology call for submissions on threesomes and group sex

Good news! I'm editing another 2022 anthology for Cleis Press, this one on threesomes and group sex. I've posted the call for submissions on my website. It's pretty detailed, designed to cover all potential author questions, but if you have a question after reading the writing guidelines in full, feel free to email me at the address listed on the call. I'm paying $100/story and one copy of the book for exclusive rights for one year from the July 2022 publication date. The exact contract terms are listed at the bottom of the call.

As stated in the call, the final deadline is May 1, 2021, but I would strongly advise submitting your best, proofread work as soon as possible. My manuscript draft for this anthology is already starting to fill up (I have a few stories I couldn't use in other anthologies that fit the topic that the authors let me hold for potential publication in this one, pending my publisher's approval), and I have a feeling certain pairings and scenarios will be quite prominent in my inbox. If you know anyone who might have a perfect erotica story for this anthology, please pass along the writing guidelines. Thank you!

My birthday wish is for you to read my new book, Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 3

I've been on a break from blogging and much of social media due to life and work and trying to figure a lot of things out but now that I have two books coming out in back to back months, I'm easing back into things. I turned 42 on Friday and while it was the opposite of a celebratory day, it was a day that made me realize life is short and I need to sure I'm living it as fully as I can. I had even taken a break from my newsletter but now that's back and I encourage you to subscribe because I do monthly giveaways just for subscribers - I'll be sending November's this week with a Tasting Her: Oral Sex Stories giveaway.

The book that I'm gearing up to release next week is Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 3; the ebook edition pubs on Tuesday, with the print and audiobook to follow in December. There's still a part of me that can't believe I get to edit this series that I've been reading since the very first volume edited by Marcy Sheiner, because I'm still the woman who cried tears of joy when I finally broke into the series after several tries with my "Doing the Dishes" story.

I feel like in many ways this series reminded me why I got into erotica editing in the first place: because I'm a social creature, because I believe that more is more, because I love the short story form, because I want to give other writers the chance I was given when I published my first story. There have been many moments in the last few years when I've wondered if what I do is pointless; that feeling has certainly been amplified since the last election.

What I always come back to is the realization that an anthology isn't just about me; without authors writing vibrant, sexy, deeply creative and timely stories, I'd have no books. So I owe it to them, and of course to myself and my publisher, to make sure their words are read as wide and far as possible. Real talk: it's scary to care too much, whether we're talking about people or books. I am so proud of this book and my deepest fear is that it will be released into the world with a resounding flop. Because with a series, the pressure is amplified: it's not just about this one book doing well, it's about me wanting to have a future as the editor of the series for as many years as possible.

I'm probably not "supposed" to say that on my blog or anywhere else; I often get the impression that we are supposed to be only cheerful and positive about every aspect of publishing. But I see putting out books more as a gamble, except that there's far more passion and energy devoted to each title than there is to most gambling. Ultimately, though, the outcome is a gamble. I don't know if one person or one thousand or many thousands will read this book. For my career's sake and my authors' sake, I hope it's the latter. What I do know is that while I can't control that outcome, I can make sure that even if it's just one person, that I provide them with a knockout book that makes their eyes widen on every page, that features a diverse group of women who are bold and provocative and surprising, who are mix of straight and bisexual and lesbian, many of whom I'd call feminist, who are tender and loving and also wild and daring.

I hope you'll enter this giveaway (which is U.S. only due to the prohibitive costs of overseas shipping) and, if you want to support the book with just two clicks, add it to your Amazon wishlist and Goodreads want to read list. And, of course, if you want to read all 21 crazy hot stories, I'd love if you'd purchase it or request it at your local library (yes, many libraries carry erotica and many will order books if their patrons want them). I'll be sharing more about all the hotness in the book soon, but for now, good luck and please let people know about the giveaway!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 3

by Rachel Kramer Bussel

Giveaway ends November 18, 2017.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

My two paying calls for submissions and why perfect grammar is so important

If you want to head directly to my two Cleis Press calls for submissions, visit Erotic Teasers (October 1, 2017 deadline, pays $100/story) and Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 4 (November 1, 2017 deadline, pays $200/story).

I'm looking forward to October and November, when I'll be selecting the stories I want to include in those manuscripts (then my publisher has final approval, which can take several months; see my post about the timing of the publishing process here), doing so earlier than I have in the past so I can put every ounce of my creative energy into promoting my back-to-back releases, Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 3 and The Big Book of Submission, Volume 2. Having two books come out in two months is not for the faint of heart, and to be honest, I'm not sure if I can handle it, and most of my time and money will have to go into BWE because that's the more popular type of book, but I will do my best to make both big sellers because I owe that to myself, my business, my publisher and my authors.

Right now I'm doing my second least favorite task that comes with the job of anthology editing: copyedits. Even though a large part of my 7.5 year full time magazine editing job involved copyediting, and I do a lot of it in my current copywriting job, being in charge of the words of other authors' is not a responsibility I take lightly. I live in fear that one of their edits won't make it into the final book, and I will look like the worst editor who ever lived. Okay, that's hyperbole, but I have an all or nothing brain and if that were to happen, no matter how proud I am of the rest of my book, I would feel awful, because once a book's in print, it's in stores and that's it.

So I've actually been dragging my feet on putting together the edits of the copyeditor I hired (something I wish I'd done for all my books and well worth every penny) and the ones my authors sent me. Then my publisher incorporates those edits into the manuscript before galleys and final books get printed.

The part about me being beyond nervous is my own issue to deal with, though trust me, if I ever quit anthology editing, I will not miss waking up in a panic with worry about this, or holding my breath when I send books out to authors, hoping their story has come out perfect.

That brings me to my calls listed above and why they're so detailed. Some of that is because I often receive an influx of stories that are similar either in setup or subject, which means I can't use them all in my books, because the two biggest things I provide to my readers is variety and sexiness. That's not something I can predict when writing a call, so I try to emphasize creativity and uniqueness.

But what I do emphasize in my calls, or at least, what I hope I impress upon those who might submit, is the importance of perfect grammar and proofreading. You might think, But Rachel, aren't you going to edit the story, and then two copyeditors as well? Yes, I am and they are, but here's the thing: If a story comes in that is riddled with grammatical errors, that vastly increases the likelihood that out of the four people proofing it (author, anthology editor and two copyeditors), someone will miss some of them. Who loses out? Well, everyone. The reader, first and foremost, because they will be distracted when reading your story. I know this as a reader who got distracted several times recently reading a novel I otherwise enjoyed. My publisher will lose out because their reputation will go down in the eyes of that reader. I will lose out for the same reason, and that directly impacts my income and potential opportunities to edit more books. And it impacts the author, because I don't think anyone out there wants their name next to words that are less than the very best they can be.

So while I accept complete and total responsibility for any errors that wind up in my final books, I do tend to gravitate toward submissions whose writing I enjoy that are grammatically correct and typo free, because I know that they will improve the quality of my anthology. Also, the above is the process with my anthologies, but if you are submitting your work other places, or self-publishing, there may be fewer people going over your words, so the onus is on you to make them readable. Ultimately, that's, to my mind, the whole point of grammar: to make words more readable, to make them flow better, to make the reader's job easier so they can enjoy the story more. Now I must return to doing that very thing, and then crossing my fingers and hoping with all my might that I've done my job well.

On Fire: Erotic Romance Stories is out today!

Happy release day to me and my authors! I'll keep this short and sweet: today, the ebook of On Fire: Erotic Romance Stories is out! You can 1-click and download it right now for Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Google Play and Kobo.



Want to read the introduction? Visit the On Fire Tumblr. I'm so thrilled that these super sexy stories about couples having erotic adventures, from BDSM and fetishes to swinging and orgies and anniversary celebrations and so much more, are available to the world. This book was three years in the making, due to my own delays, so I'm extra excited. It's also On Fire Week over at group blog Lady Smut so check us out for daily posts related to the themes of the book. Thank you again to Cleis Press for being amazing to work with! And if you want the audiobook or print edition, just wait a little while...audio is coming soon, narrated by Rose Caraway, and the print book publishes officially on August 8th but Amazon told me my copy will arrive by July 31st. And if you've read the book or plan to read it, a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads is MUCH appreciated and helps readers find out about the book and helps me fulfill my commitment to my authors to get their stories before as many people as possible. Good, bad, or indifferent, reviews help; right now there are three on Amazon, two praiseworthy, one who hated it, and to be honest, the one that didn't like it is the most compelling because it has details about what they liked and what they didn't. So all opinions are welcome and valuable and help guide me for future anthologies.

Listen to anal sex free erotica story "Hard Astern" on The Kiss Me Quick's Podcast

To celebrate the recent release of the Baby Got Back: Anal Erotica audiobook narrated by the amazing Rose Caraway, she's posted free erotic story "Hard Astern" by Thomas Roche on her The Kiss Me Quick's Podcast! Enjoy this sexy tale and subscribe to her podcast on iTunes or Stitcher so you can hear every story, and visit thekissmequicks.com for more hotness.

Free erotica story: "Her Best" by Corrine A. Silver on The Kiss Me Quick's Podcast

You can now listen to another hot story from Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2, appropriately titled "Her Best" by Corrine A. Silver, on The Kiss Me Quick's Podcast narrated by Rose Caraway. You can listen to two other free erotica stories on the podcast: "Brick Dust" by Kay Jaybee and "Taste" by Jocelyn Bringas and get the full audiobook experience on Audible. I love working with Rose so much and am honored that I got to do so again.

15 erotica authors share their fiction inspiration

Over on the Best Women's Erotica of the Year Tumblr, I've had the pleasure of interviewing 15 (so far) of the contributors to BWE of the Year, Volume 2, about their erotica history, writing process, inspiration for their stories, favorite lines and future plans. I wanted to share those interviews and some fabulous quotes with you as I listen to the rain while waiting to take Amtrak to Baltimore for the next stop on the book tour. And more interviews are scheduled through March so keep reading our Tumblr and following us @BWEoftheyear on Twitter.

I'll conclude by giving you easy ways to read or listen to the book, and I encourage you to also ask for it at your local library (yes, it may be nerve-wracking to ask for a sexy book, but they're librarians, they've heard all sorts of requests and if they are at all good at their job, they won't judge you, but will be happy to help their users) or bookstore.

I'm starting with the authors you'll hear at our book events and including the cities where you can hear them (Abigail Ekue can't make our Baltimore reading due to weather, but you can catch her in New York and Jersey City).

Jordan Monroe, "Performance" (Baltimore)



Abigail Ekue, "Cigarro Tarde" (New York, Jersey City)



Stella Watts Kelley, "Teacher Appreciation" (New York, Jersey City)



Vierra Lai, "A Hint of Lime" (New York, Jersey City)



Annabeth Leong, "On Some Maps, But Not on Others" (New York, Jersey City)



Melina Greenport, "The House on Orchard"



Jocelyn Bringas, "Taste"



Kristy Harding, "Another Way to Start a Fire"



Kate Sebastian, "On the Calendar"



Corrine A. Silver, "Her Best"



Dorianne, "Like Lights in the Northern Sky"



Garnell Wallace, "Beautiful Broken Things"



Winter Blair, "At the End of the World"



Kay Jaybee, "Brick Dust"



Josie Jordan, "Volcano Nights"



And of course, please read or listen to Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2 for these authors' stories in all their full glory:

Amazon (print)

Kindle (ebook)

Bn.com (print)

Nook (ebook)

Powells

Books-a-Million

IndieBound (find your local independent bookstore)

Audible audiobook

Google Play

iBooks

Amazon UK (print)

Amazon UK (Kindle)

Amazon Canada (print)

Amazon Canada (Kindle)

Sale alert: 69 orgasm erotica stories for $1.99 in The Big Book of Orgasms this week only!

One of my favorite anthologies I've edited over the last 12 years is The Big Book of Orgasms: 69 Sexy Stories. It holds a very special place in my heart because the authors truly brought their A game and gave me everything I could have wanted and more. The orgasm erotica in this book is sexy, varied, surprising and extremely creative. I like to think it has a little something for everyone and this week it's only sale in ebook form for only $1.99 for Kindle, Nook, Google Play, iBooks and Kobo, so if you missed it the first time around, check it out now! And if you are an audiobook lover, check out the audio edition narrated by Rose Caraway. (Tip: if you buy the Kindle edition for $1.99, you can buy the audio edition for just $3.99.) Also, y books go on sale usually once or two a month (different titles), and you can get emailed every time they do by following me on BookBub.



Here's the book's official blurb and table of contents to give you more of an idea of what's in it:

What happens when you bring together 69 authors sharing their hottest orgasm stories? If you have top notch erotica editor Rachel Kramer Bussel, you get The Big Book of Orgasms! This climactic collection captures top erotica writers serving up steamy scenarios all focused on The Big O. Whether getting off from exhibitionism, voyeurism, or a very special pair of blue jeans, the characters in The Big Book of Orgasms explore all sorts of ways they can come. Go "Under the Table" with Elizabeth Coldwell and cheer for "The Pink Team" by Kelly Rand. Discover the thrill of hot wax and even hotter sex; these short stories bring the heat on every page! With a foreword by Ecstasy is Necessary author Barbara Carrellas, these are climaxes you'll want to relive again and again.

Dr. Ruth once said about Rachel Kramer Bussel, "she is only satisfied if you come and come again." With this rousing read, The Big Book of Orgasms counts all the wonderful ways women get off.

Introduction and Table of Contents to The Big Book of Orgasms

Foreword: Foreplay: Figments of Erotic Imagination by Barbara Carrellas
Introduction: Orgasm Is Just the Beginning

The Beginning B. D. Swain
How You Christen a Bed Thomas S. Roche
All You Do Is Play Annabeth Leong
Hard Knocks Malin James
The Gallery Exhibit Chris Komodo
White Preston Avery
Matinee Suleikha Snyder
All Talk Jenna Bright
Scarecrow Giselle Renarde
In Her Hands Tenille Brown
Remote Control Logan Zachary
Weathering the Storm Salome Wilde
Hellfire Valerie Alexander
Her Lover Is a Flame Cecilia Tan
Me Vengo! Mistress Kay
Count Out the Strokes Virgie Tovar
Steamy Tess Danesi
Payback Emerald
Come On Raziel Moore
The Pink Team Kelly Rand
Headache Sherry Reid
Pushing Boundaries on Public Transport Victoria Blisse
Runner’s High Sam Angioli
His Three Conditions Medea Mor
The Morning After David Salcido
Look at Yourself Maxine Marsh
Do It Again Sinclair Sexsmith
Under the Table Elizabeth Coldwell
Light Sleeper Mina Murray
The Big Cat Cecilia Duvalle
Opening Doors Thea Landen
Baxter’s Boy Xan West
Suds and a Two-Piece Bathing Suit Brantwijn Serrah
The Jeffrey Factor Stella Harris
Chains of Love Lily K. Cho
By the Beat T. Fox Dunham
Icing on the Cake Lula Lisbon
The Massage Lady Cheeky
Feast for the Senses Riley Shane
Squirt Evoë Thorne
Piano Man A. M. Hartnett
Out of Control Crystal Jordan
Tantric Home Dominic Santi
Queer for Mike Shane Allison
Meeting Cute Vanessa Madison
Cheryl Andreas Amsterdam
Beer and Orgasms Jeremy Edwards
Sullied Innocence Neve Black
The Rub Jon Fulton
The Park Elise Hepner
Coming Together: The Elusive Simultaneous Orgasm Jade Melisande
Meeting Myself Anya Levin
I Am Not Cruel J. Sinclaire
Cooling Agents Marina Saint
Seeing Is Believing Heidi Champa
The Velocity of Roaches Michael A. Gonzales
After the Funeral Jeanette Grey
There Sommer Marsden
Forced Orgasms Shoshanna Evers
Blue Jean Baby Eleanor Proctor
Learning Experience Kathleen Tudor
A Teachable Moment Walter Pratt
The Flogger Jade A. Waters
Book Lover Donna George Storey
Tied by Red Kay Jaybee
After Party Drew Griffiths
I’m on Fire Rachel Kramer Bussel
Should You Ever Be Allowed to Feel This Good? Lillian Ann Slugocki
The Final Challenge Heather Day

Orgasm Is Just the Beginning

As Barbara Carrellas writes, there are so many types of orgasms, more than any single book could cover, but within these pages, you will not only find numerous types of orgasms, as well as the varied characters who experience them, you will also discover different motivations for getting off. Some have a tried and true method, some are willing to take a chance on a new sexual practice—or partner. Some of these characters orgasm frequently; some are aching for the chance to share their body with another person. Some let their orgasms be controlled by a lover; some actively take control of their climaxes. “You amaze me,” the nameless protagonist of B.D. Swain’s opening story “The Beginning” proclaims. You—readers, authors, orgasmers—amaze me with your boundless sexual hunger and creativity. I’ve been writing and editing erotica for over a decade, but part of why it never gets old is because of the richness, diversity and nuance I find in the stories that come (no pun intended) my way. They fuel my own imagination and show me that I can always learn more about orgasm, about desire, about sex.

The format of 1,200 words or less means these are extremely short stories, but I hope you’ll find, like I did, that what they lack in length they make up for in hotness. As with my previous short-short anthology Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex, all the pieces you hold in your hand, even the shortest ones (“The Park,” by Elise Hepner, clocks in at 249 words; “Her Lover Is a Flame,” by Cecilia Tan, at 308) offer a snapshot of eroticism that draws you completely into its folds. You might consider each one a teaser, an appetizer, the beginning of a fantasy world you can place yourself into and choose your own orgasmic adventure as you consider where the story might go after the last word printed on the page. Sometimes less is more, and if these stories leave you wanting to see them continued, that’s a good thing. They are, like the narrative in Swain’s opener states, “just the beginning.” Very likely you’ll find a type of orgasm, a sex toy, a scenario, a position, or a fantasy you’d like to see represented here that may not be. If so, please write yours and continue the conversation. If your orgasm doesn’t look or feel the way these characters’ climaxes do, that’s perfectly okay. I want to see us expand the possibilities for pleasure, orgasmic and otherwise, not add to the umpteen ways we’re told we “should” orgasm or have sex. Just as a physical orgasm, however you define or experience that sensation, doesn’t define the end of a sexual encounter, a literary orgasm should not mean you are done interacting with the story. I’ve re-read these pieces, and the numerous submissions I received for this book, multiple times, and each read offers me something new to consider. I envision The Big Book of Orgasm as one you’ll want to revisit, to pick up and read aloud from your favorites to a lover, to keep next to your bed, to tuck into your travel bag.

I’m especially pleased to be publishing so many authors in this collection for the first time in one of my anthologies. There is a power and depth to these voices that I hope resonates with you.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City

I hope that at the very least made you curious about all those orgasms! Go ahead, check it out while it's on sale:

Kindle

Nook

Google Play

iBooks

Kobo

Act fast: Best Bondage Erotica 2014 is only $1.99! Or, I love BookBub

Short version: for the next three days, get Best Bondage Erotica 2014 for $1.99 for Kindle, Nook, Google Play, iBooks and Kobo. Sale ends Sunday, December 4, 2016.



Long version: Sadly, sometimes books I love just as much as my other ones don't quite reach their intended audience. But the cool thing is that other times, they get put on sale and through the magic that is BookBub, a site that shares books sale news with its followers, which I truly consider magical, they get catapulted back into the world at a huge discount, $1.99, and instantly, tons of new people discover them. I don't know how the behind the scenes works over at BookBub, but I am beyond grateful when my books go on sale there, because it means that new readers get to discover them, and I never have to feel like my Cleis Press books are dead. I've worked with numerous publishers in my career, some before the ubiquity of ebooks, and those are truly pretty much dead, out of print and probably never to return, so when books get a second chance, I am truly glad.

I've been thinking a lot lately about my labor and worth and value about where I want to go next with my life and career, and knowing that my books will continue on in five, ten, fifteen, etc., years, gives me more reason to keep on brainstorming new anthologies. If you want to now the minute my books go on sale, follow me on BookBub. The other great thing about them is that you can subscribe to your other favorite authors if they participate and also by category so if you're into erotic romance, you can get new ones for free and cheap every single day.

I don't know about you, but I often have a short attention span, which is probably why I love editing anthologies so much. So sometimes I get a book and realize a few pages in it's not my cup of tea. BookBub sales let you sample new authors cheaply and sometimes for no cost, which I think is pretty awesome. And as someone who still makes a large portion of my living from book sales, I am thrilled to have these older books, which bookstores probably won't stock because they want the hottest, newest, shiniest titles on their shelves, get to have a second life and help me pay my rent. One reason why I enjoy and am honored to be working with Cleis Press is that with the exception of one book, Crossdressing and the two that were e-book only, all the rest are still in print. That matters to me, even if the wave of the future is not with print erotica. The reality is, about 80-90% of readers read my books in ebook or listen in audiobook. I personally tend to buy print because it's easier on my eyes but I want my books to be accessible whatever form people want to read them in. I also want them to be available to people who may not have $15.95 to spend on a book, but might have the equivalent of a cup of coffee. As a consumer, I try to balance what I can afford with my print preference, but seeing ebooks I want to read for such bargain prices often sways me. So long story short, if you missed this book when it first came out or want to give it to someone as a gift, get it on sale now. The next one up for sale will be Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica on December 13th, which I'm also thrilled about because that's one of my favorite books I've edited with, I believe, the most variety (I made sure each sex toy was different).

I've got a brand new story in anthology For the Men edited by Rose Caraway

I have been focusing more on essay and article writing than my own erotic fiction lately due to time constraints so I'm thrilled to have a brand new story out in the world, the male point of view tale "Picturing You Naked" in For The Men And The Women Who Love Them edited by Rose Caraway. It's told in the second person and is about a very sexy speech given in a room full of people but with some erotic double entendres intended for one special person. I love experimenting like that and I was inspired by an article, which I no longer have handy, about how to give a speech. This is one way that might not fly in real life but was perfect, in my opinion, for fiction. Here's the first paragraph: "I'm picturing you naked, every lush curve, those lips that seem glossy and bee-stung even when you have nothing on them, the strip of red hair that matches the locks that drape against your shoulders. I'm picturing the way your ass juts out perfectly, especially when you stand in that way you often do so it reaches toward me, begging me to lay a hand on it. I'm picturing the gold ring emerging from your right nipple, the one that always tempts me to tug or flick or suck on it." It's out now as an ebook (and soon as an audiobook) and you can get it for Kindle, Smashwords and iBooks.



Follow @ForTheMenAntho on Twitter for updates. Hope you enjoy the book! Rose is wonderful to work with so writers, if you see a call for submissions from her out, I highly recommend submitting. She's @RoseCaraway on Twitter and her podcast is The Kiss Me Quick's.

Official blurb:

The Sexy Librarian, Rose Caraway presents an anthology intended for the fellas and the women who have an appetite for bold, adventurous erotic storytelling. Escape into the fantastic, the outlandish, and the literary. Get ready for; a space pirate, a cowgirl, an anxious odd man out, an undercover agent, lonely ghosts, a taxi driver with an unexpected topsy-turvy fare, a burly biker who just wants to be cuddled, a bride-to-be with one last oat to sow, The Devil offers a golden deal, a mysterious hitchhiker, strangers and a spontaneous three-way, and a reluctant hitman. You will find these and many more audacious characters playing out intense encounters.

Featured stories by: Allen Dusk, Jade A. Waters, Terrance Aldon Shaw, Tamsin Flowers, Landon Dixon, Sonnie de Soto, Adrea Kore, D. Lovejoy, Erin Pim, J.T. Seate, Spencer Dryden, Winter Blair, Simon Drax, Lynn Lake, Chase Morgan, Charlie Powell, Josie Jordan, Daily Hollow, Marc Angel, Rachel de Vine, D.L. King, Dorothy Freed, Rachel Kramer Bussel, T.J. Christian, and Emmanuelle de Maupassant.

My best writing advice for publishing in anthologies

It's been a whirlwind month, with my recent amazing vacation to Pittsburgh and then back to juggling my two part-time jobs, finalizing Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2 and booking tour dates (more to come, but we'll be at Skylight Books in Los Angeles January 31st at 7:30 pm!) and working on some new articles. So I'll just share my recent Lady Smut post on how to get published in anthologies, offering my top five pieces of writing advice if you're looking for a byline. And a reminder: I have two current Cleis Press calls for submissions and need many more stories to consider: Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 3 and The Big Book of Submission, Volume 2.

Listen to my bisexual open marriage travel erotica story "Flying Solo" on new podcast episode

I love working with Rose Caraway, author, editor, audiobook narrator and host of The Kiss Me Quick's podcast because she is super talented, has an incredibly sexy voice and best of all, from my perspective as an anthology editor, makes the stories in my books available to anyone who wants to listen to them for free! That's what she's done with my story "Flying Solo" (click on the story title and scroll to the bottom to listen; press the arrow to the left of "libsyn" to start)) from Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, which stars a woman who usually picks up partners with her husband when they travel, but in this case is about to board a plane alone (hence the title) and has been instructed to bed someone she meets by her hubby. You'll have to listen to find out what happens next. And you can hear all 22 stories from the book ready by Rose on the Audible audiobook. Also, I couldn't be more thrilled with the hot graphic they came up with (catch the fun wordplay on the airplane; "Stupidfish" is their production company) that so perfectly captures the spirit of my story.



For more free erotica from the book, listen to these stories read by Rose:

"The Carnalarium" by Rose Caraway

"Two Doms for Dinner" by Dorothy Freed

"Ophelia the Second" by Jade A. Waters

How about some free erotica for your listening pleasure?

For the next few days, while my publisher switches distributors, my ebooks will be offline. They'll be back soon and I will be promoting them as I usually do, because even though I prefer print, I love that I can get the immediate gratification of an ebook purchase and save money so I can buy even more. So in the meantime, I wanted to share some free audio erotica read by my favorite narrator, Rose Caraway, from the book I'm most proud of, Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1. Right now I'm brainstorming about possible readings for Volume 2 as I finalize the table of contents and getting ready to make that launch a spectacular one (want to help in just two seconds? Add the book to your Goodreads want to read list!).

Not only do I love Rose Caraway's voice, but because she hosts The Kiss Me Quick's podcast, I get to share the stories from my book with the world for free. Of course, I hope listeners will then go on to buy the Best Women's Erotica of the Year 1 audiobook and listen to all 22 stories, but even if they don't, I'm so thrilled to work with Rose and by the high quality she brings to her recordings. (Fun news: more Rose and Rachel audiobooks are on the way! More on that soon.)



So I'm thrilled to share with you these three free stories: "The Carnalarium" by Rose Caraway, which you'll just have to listen to for yourself, because it's wild and creative and I don't know how to describe it "Two Doms for Dinner" by Dorothy Freed, based on her real-life BDSM kinky play as a submissive woman with two dominant men, and "Ophelia the Second" by Jade A. Waters, a Shakespeare themed erotica story. Click through to listen to them on Rose's site (yes, I know there's a way to embed them, but my time is short this morning so I'm posting these the fastest way possible).

Last day for $1.99 erotic romance sale plus watch the sexy kissing book trailer and read hot stories

Today is the final day of the Passion erotic romance $1.99 sale so if you want 20 sexy stories, get them now for Kindle, Nook, Google Play or Kobo (it's already back to regular price on iTunes though, sorry!).



Since the sale is ending shortly, make sure to check the price before buying and I will post when there's another sale up on my books! (In other sale news, sometimes my print book prices drop drastically and then change quickly. It's hard to tell when or why this happens so I do try to spread the word and right now, as of this posting, you can get Best Bondage Erotica 2011 in print for under $6, if either of those are your cup of tea or you want to get someone a kinky gift.)

Whether you take advantage of the sale or not, I wanted to share the book trailer and five sexy passages from the book. It is National Masturbation Month, after all!

The kissing-filled book trailer. So many memories!



Here's a few sexy passages I particularly enjoyed:

From "My Dark Knight" by Jacqueline Applebee

“You must think I’m weird, but I’m really into the whole reenactment scene.”

“I don’t think you’re weird, it’s just a bit unexpected,” I explained, but Omar looked at me warily. “I just never believed I’d meet a knight in shining armor.” It was true, I’d heard of reenactment fans, but I’d always pictured them as geeky white boys running around a field, hitting each other with wooden swords. “Hey, are you a black knight?” I asked jokingly.

Omar rolled his eyes, although he still smiled. “Sure I am. Why do you think they called it the Dark Ages?” I hit his arm playfully as he continued. “The armor is European, but there were plenty of knights in Africa; the ancient kingdom of Bornu and Sokoto had armored soldiers on horseback who were feared throughout the land.” He closed the distance between us as his voice dropped. “But I like the whole age of chivalry, the romance and the adventure that English knights embodied,” he murmured against me. “My fair princess,” he whispered, and then no more words were said as we kissed. Everything I had ever dreamt about Omar was eclipsed as his adventurous mouth pressed against mine. His tongue touched me, swept over my teeth and sucked on my lips. I found myself making contented noises as he held me tight. This was better than any fantasy I could have.

I felt the heat of the evening as Omar’s hands stroked my back. I felt sweaty, a little disheveled but completely wonderful. I pulled off my top and stepped out of my shoes. Omar looked lovingly at my breasts before he kissed first one and then the other through the lace of my bra. He then dragged his T-shirt off, messing up his short hair as he did. I wondered briefly what he must look like wearing the armor.

“Bed,” he whispered urgently. I nodded my head.

Omar held me about the waist, and then he shocked the life out of me as he lifted me up and put me over his shoulder. The whole room seemed to tip upside down as I was carried bodily to the bedroom.

Omar carefully let me down, and I lay giggling and panting on top of the bed. I shuffled out of my skirt and watched as Omar pulled down his trousers. I’ve seen a naked man before, but as Omar disrobed, I suddenly felt incredibly shy. He was so visibly turned on that I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his cock.

“I’ve got some protection,” he said shyly. “I didn’t want to assume, but I thought it best.” Omar opened his hand and produced a little foil packet. He may have enjoyed being a knight of old, but he was a thoroughly modern man.

Omar clutched at my backside. “I’ve been longing to feel this,” he said, giving my bum a squeeze. “I’ve wanted to stroke it, lick it and spank it,” he said with a hoarse voice. I was completely surprised at his admission; I’d never thought my backside was anything special. I’d certainly never had anyone want to spank it before.

“You can, if you like,” I whispered, nervously looking up at him. “You can spank me.”

From "The Silver Belt" by Lana Fox

Now here she was in the silver belt that both kept her and frustrated her. The cord around her wrists dug blissfully deep and as she rolled onto her back, the silver belt groaned, its weight like a metal collar, its links gripping her through the open dress. She raised a leg, which burst more buttons, and flexed her foot inside the stiletto. Candlelight danced across her body as Art returned to her side, half-undressed, his chest now dark and bare. Kneeling, he circled her ankle with the whole of his hand and drew it away, opening her thighs. He knelt between her knees, his eyes flicking across her body, and, in a soft growl, explained that he would fuck her until she could take no more: “…until you’ve had your fill.”

Then, in sudden frenzy and without touching the belt, he began to tear the dress from her, his swelling biceps tightening as he worked, his skin gleaming as the candlelight swept across him. Soon she was half-bare in black silk lingerie edged with lace, and stockings teamed with garter belt and stilettos. He raised her bound wrists high above her head and, rubbing her nipple beneath the black silk so it pressed against the pad of his thumb, he fell on her, biting her shoulder, her neck and the cleavage that swelled from the delicate lace. He unzipped himself and fell on her wildly, entering her so swiftly that she cried out, pleading for his frenzy. Suddenly he was rutting with the power of a lion, telling her through shuddery breath that he’d often seen her in the store and had dreamed of possessing her many times but he’d held back because of the ring on her finger, glinting there, like a trap. “What changed your mind?” she asked.

“I couldn’t bear how sad you looked.”

The silver belt leapt on her waist as his body lunged against it, again and again, and with her bound wrists raised above her head, he pulled out of her, groaning and fell on her breasts, peeling back the lacy cups of her bra. “You’re exquisite,” he whispered, licking her nipple with the flat of his tongue. She glanced down at his dark, muscular back, where the skin was glossed with perspiration, then at her saliva-streaked breast, and she felt a wonderful burn in her pussy.

“Take me,” she pleaded. She strained at her ropes, longing to touch her clit, but this only caused them to dig more deeply.

From "Lingua Franca" by Justine Elyot

Instantly I am caught up in his embrace once more, my legs held up by his in case they give way, which is not unlikely. He walks me backward, painstakingly, until I fall onto one of the red plush sofas, and then he is looming over me, one hand next to my head, preventing my escape, and the other takes hold of my white uniform blouse and rips it open. A pearl button pings onto a nearby table and I gasp, part thrilled and part outraged. “Karel!”

“I sew it,” he grins, then his head is down there, his hair brushing my throat while he explores my cleavage with the full force of his lips and tongue. His hand works busily at my other buttons, undoing them in a less destructive way, until my lace bra is exposed to him, and his stubble prickles downward, seeking out the overspill of my breasts.

He lures my nipples out of the cups using the tip of his tongue, licking and sucking, taking his time, savoring the flavor. I plant my fingers in his hair, which is reddish-brown and falls over his brow, plentiful and sometimes a little lank. I stroke and knead automatically, my wits absent, all of me concentrated at my nerve endings, especially those between my legs.

He seems to understand instinctively that attention is needed there. He lays me down along the length of the sofa, pulling off my skirt and burying his face in my belly while his fingers stray down beyond the elastic waistband of my knickers. They almost dance, they are so light and nimble. I arch my back and squirm, inviting him to increase the pressure and move on downward, but he loves to tease me and watch my expression as it grows more frantic with need, laughing softly, looking up at me through the valley of my breasts. “Touch me,” I gasp.

Read these stories in full plus 17 more sexy tales in Passion: Erotic Romance for Women (of course male readers are more than welcome!). Right now it's only $1.99 for Kindle, Nook, Google Play or Kobo but you can also get Passion in print and audiobook form.

Ebook sale alert: My BDSM erotica anthology Yes, Sir: Erotic Stories of Female Submission is $1.99 this week!

New week, new kinky book of mine on sale! Get Yes, Sir: Erotic Stories of Female Submission for just $1.99 on Amazon, Nook, Google Play, iBooks and Kobo. I love this book and how creative the BDSM is in it and if you are interested in BDSM or curious about it, I think you'll like it too. And if you do, I will shamelessly ask that you leave a review wherever you bought it; even a sentence helps new readers find my books, which in turn helps me get more book deals to keep editing them. This is an oldie but goodie that I treasure and I love that these stories read as novel to me as when I first edited them back in 2007 (the book came out in 2008). Thank you!



Table of Contents
Introduction: Ready to Say Yes, (Sir)
The Art of Darkness • Alison Tyler
Dear Professor Pervert • Donna George Storey
A Necessary Connection • Debra Hyde
The Editor • Amanda Earl
Ribbons • Kathryn O’Halloran
The Day I Came in Public • D. L. King
Lunch • Elizabeth Coldwell
When Penny Met Harry • Stan Kent
The Power of No • Teresa Noelle Roberts
In the Corner • Sommer Marsden
Stuck at Work and Late for a Date • Chelsea Summers
Running Wild • Shanna Germain
Pink Is the Enemy • Jocelyn Bringas
Sitting on Ice Cream • Lisette Ashton
Under His Hand, I Blossom • Nikki Magennis
Make Me • Rachel Kramer Bussel
Body Electric • Lisabet Sarai
Reclaiming the Sofa • Maddy Stuart
How Bad Do You Want It? • Gwen Masters

When I started working on Yes, Sir, I didn’t expect the title phrase to be taken as a literal motto, but more as a call to arms (or rather, to surrender one’s arms) for submissive women who seek out dominant men. I intended Yes, Sir and its companion volume Yes, Ma’am to be the bottoms’ answer to my previous collections He’s on Top and She’s on Top, to showcase our fantasies, desires, and deepest wishes. I wanted those of us who love to be tied up, spanked, blindfolded, bound, or “used” for another’s pleasure, to tell it like it is, to explore why and how we get off in these ways, and the authors presented here gave me what I was looking for—and more.

Here you’ll find all sorts of women for whom their own personal Sirs (or Masters or Daddies) hold the reins to their erotic pleasure. For them, saying yes (or a bratty, defiant no for which they’ll be duly punished) is as powerful as a good, hard smack on the ass. They give up control in all kinds of ways, from letting their doms decide who they’ll fuck to when they’ll come to which color panties are acceptable—and which aren’t. In one of these stories (you’ll have to keep reading to figure out which one), playing at Sir, having your lover become the Sir of your dreams when real life may dictate otherwise, lets the two players take their kink to a whole new level.

Some are old pros at BDSM, and have had many masters, while for others, the language of domination and submission is a novelty. They may not know exactly why they thrill to being told what to do, but they know for sure that they like it, as in the case of the newbie in “Sitting on Ice Cream.” D. L. King’s Libby overcomes her natural shyness in “The Day I Came in Public,” proving that the very acts she first scoffs at are ones that give her no end of delight. It’s almost as if the doms who enter their lives see the potential for submission in these women, and want to bring it forth for their own naughty motives, along with making the women come harder than they ever have before.

The inherent power dynamics of the classroom are brought to light in Donna George Storey’s “Dear Professor Pervert,” a story in which, once official class time ends, the real learning (about everything from masturbation to butt plugs) begins, as well as in Lisabet Sarai’s “Body Electric,” wherein a prominent professor shows a colleague his very intriguing “apparatus.” In Sommer Marsden’s “In the Corner,” the man who first introduced Amelia to kink lures her away from her current “nice guy” date.

These women aren’t pushovers by any means. They make rules and negotiate with their masters, though sometimes they also get off on being pushed just a little too far by men they know they can trust. In “The Art of Darkness,” Alison Tyler writes, “Once Killian understood my fear, his mission became not to save me from my phobia, but to exploit it, every chance he could.” She objects, but when she finally surrenders, she experiences a whole new world, where a blindfold is the path to ecstasy. And the woman who lets her man dictate her meals in Elizabeth Coldwell’s delicious “Lunch”? Well, she knows exactly what she’s doing. “I could go home and just tell Michael I’d done as he instructed. But he would know. He always knows when I try to disobey him, however careful or sneaky I try to be.” In other words, she’s not doing what he says simply because he says it, but because something inside her gets off on obeying. So too in Shanna Germain’s story, the protagonist makes an active choice to go where her inner ache to submit compels her: “‘Follow,’ he said. Something in me resisted, but the power of his voice, the way he walked away from me as though he knew I would trail after him, made it so I couldn’t say no.” And the woman getting fucked on the sofa in Maddy Stuart’s short, sexy tale flinches at the words slut and whore, even as her body responds to them. This duality, with the brain protesting but the blood rushing to the surface, is also part of the thrill of submission, especially for strong, powerful women.

These writers make clear just how much their characters get off when they say “Yes, Sir,” whether literally or figuratively. Sure, they may be doing their masters’ bidding, but the masters are often doing the subs, in their own way, as well, making them ache, moan, quiver, and, yes, come. They know just how to draw out their subs’ pleasure (and pain), how to make the most of a woman whether she’s on her knees, or bent over, or at her computer waiting for the next command. They know that denial, temptation, and frustration can be the most arousing acts of all. They know that, as Teresa Noelle Roberts puts it, “The Power of No” can often be just as hot as the power of yes. Gwen Masters asks in her title, “How Bad Do You Want It?”

I turn that question over to you, dear reader. How bad do you want to be bound, gagged, spanked, or slapped? How bad do you want to have your hair pulled, your nipples clamped, your body strung up? How bad do you want to pant, gasp, scream, and squirm? How bad do you want to turn over some part of yourself to a man just dying to strip you bare and take you somewhere you’ve never been? I don’t know about you, but I want all of those things, very much, and, I’m thankful to say, I (and you) have them all right here. Just turn the page, and be prepared not to get up for a good long while.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City

Why "A New Canvas" by Tara Betts opens Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1 plus free excerpt

I'm devoting this year to promoting the book I'm most proud of, Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, and the next few weeks to getting as many women erotica writers from around the world to submit their stories to Volume 2 (the call for submissions is here; deadline is April 1). As part of that, and to give a sense of why I've chosen the stories I have for this first volume, I'm going to be blogging about each of them this month. I also want to give these authors the praise they deserve.



I'm starting with the first story, "A New Canvas" by Tara Betts, and I want to encourage you to come hear her read from it live on March 31st at from 6 to 7:30 pm at The Pleasure Chest in Chicago. Can't make it? Please help spread the word! In my ideal world, one that would require being independently wealthy, I would travel all over and do readings with every author in the book. Since I live in the real world, I can only do a limited number of readings, so I want to make those as spectacular as I possibly can. So if you live in Chicago, will be there for CatalystCon, or know anyone there who'd appreciate a free, sexy erotica reading, please let them know.

There were a few things I liked about this story. One was that it was about friends forging forward with a sexual relationship they've danced around. That part felt very realistic to me; Angela and Troy aren't star-crossed lovers or over-the-top romantics, but friends who are attracted to each other. I also liked how art played a role in their seduction dance; it's both creative and intimate and gives the reader time to get drawn into what's happening. There's also an element of awe that this is actually happening which I appreciated, such as when Betts writes, "Angela's mouth fell open. She was still stunned that her tea kettle might not be the only vessel making a high-pitched sound."

One of the things I balance in my anthologies is who's telling the stories. This opening story is in the third person, and Betts does something that's not easy to do, which is seamlessly give us insight into two characters at once. While Troy is drawing on Angela, there's this sentence: "He loved how every word fell from her tongue, and he wondered what her babies might be like inside her." There is a tenderness and passion in this story that certainly goes beyond sex, which I especially appreciated because it closes on an open-ended note. Betts captures how powerful a sexual encounter can be even when two people are not in an official relationship, but are engaging in much more than a hookup.

I chose this story to open the book for two reasons: One was the title, "A New Canvas," which signified a beginning to me. This is the beginning of a new aspect of their relationship, although it's one that's been simmering. The other reason is that for those who either use the "look inside" feature on Amazon or otherwise read the first few pages or pick up the book in a bookstore and start reading, they will see from the very beginning that even though the cover model is white, this is not just a book of white women's erotica, nor will Volume 2 be.

I wanted readers who, whether they read the whole book or not, to pick it up and know that there are diverse characters and scenarios. And that those who found the book lacking in certain aspects of women's lives or sexualities will submit stories precisely about what they found missing in the first volume. I'm honored that I have the opportunity to edit another book in this series, and it's not something I take lightly. I received over 200 submissions to Volume 1, and I hope to receive as many, if not more, this time around, and will do my best to create a book that is a complement to this first volume, and one that will appeal to as wide a range of readers as I can manage in my limited word count.

Here's a short excerpt from "A New Canvas" by Tara Betts, which you can read in full in print, ebook and, very soon, listen to in audiobook form, in Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1 from Cleis Press.

Excerpt of "A New Canvas" by Tara Betts:

At first, the cool, firm tip of each pen chilled her skin. She felt the goosebumps rise as he wrote Uhuru, the Swahili word for freedom, on her left forearm. He colored in the purple letters with pink and blue chevron-like stripes. He moved on to the right forearm and wrote if, the Yoruba word for love, in black. He colored in that shorter word with red and green. On the left side, he started drawing a purple arrow along the length of her body toward the pubic bone. "Directions for later," Troy explained. When he was done drawing that arrow, he capped the pen and traced the tip around the lips of her opening, which had been wet when he began. He stroked her clitoris a few times with the pen and Angela shuddered. When he touched her with his fingers, he smiled, reached for the black pen and drew the second arrow between her breasts, right next to the purple one.

Just above the collarbone, he etched in a purple and navy skyline, but included an array of tiny gold stars across her hips. A few outlined the constellation Cassiopeia between her shoulder and breast. When he got to her thighs, he started to sketch out anatomical images of the brain and the heart on one side and the uterus and tongue not he other. He leaned over and kissed her, and told her that her eyes and lips always drew him in, but the brain and the heart made it better

Get Best Women's Erotica of the Year now in print or ebook at the following online stores, or click here to see a full list of independent bookstores and sex toy stores where you can buy it:

Amazon (print)

Kindle

Barnes & Noble (print)

Nook

Powells

Books-a-Million

IndieBound (find your nearest local bookstore)

Cleis Press

Amazon UK (print)

Amazon UK Kindle

Amazon Canada (print)

Amazon Canada Kindle

My new short story "Triple Threat" in Kristina Wright's The One Who Got Away

I'm thrilled to share that just in time for Valentine's Day, I have a brand new short story titled "Triple Threat" out in Kristina Wright's anthology The One Who Got Away. It's out today in paperback and ebook (I link to Amazon via their affiliate program, meaning I get a small fee if yo purchase through my links, but I also encourage you to ask for the book at your local bookstore). Here's more about the book:

We all have... that One, the one who got away. The one we fell for or simply were attracted to, but we never got. That One, but not necessarily The One, at least not the first time around. That One who slips into our fantasies late at night when we’re feeling melancholy or nostalgic. Maybe we took a chance once and it simply didn’t work out. Maybe we never took the chance... and we wish we had. We all have the name of the One Who Got Away tattooed on our heart, always with us, never forgotten.

There is something hopelessly romantic about the idea of connecting with a long lost love. This luscious Cleis Press collection of second chance stories celebrates longing and loves that, whether by fate or by design, are at last requited and fulfilled.

And isn't the cover hot?



Here's a very brief teaser from my story, which is about jealousy, polyamory, love lost and happy endings.

I used to think I knew everything in my twenties. Now, in my early forties, I can laugh at my younger self, who’d race from bar to bar, bed to bed, living utterly in the moment. I rarely stopped to think what would happen after last call, after the sun came up, or whether all those late nights and flings would catch up with me.

Then I fell for Luke, with his big brain, big body, big dick and the most self-confidence I’ve ever seen in anyone. He would walk into a room—any room—and be sure that everyone would want to talk to him, if only he gave them the chance, which he did, most nights. He’d close out bars, with men and women alike buying him drinks, eager to soak up a few moments of his brainpower, of those pale blue eyes and soft as silk hair—well, maybe that was me. I couldn’t get enough of that rumbly voice, of the way everything he said made me look at the world around me in new ways. He made me swoon before he even kissed me, so you can only imagine what he was like in bed. The only problem?

Read the whole story in The One Who Got Away!

Here's the table of contents:

The One Who Got Away
Introduction: Always on my Mind
Homecoming by Alex Tobin
Again by Renee Luke
Polygot by Skylar Kade
Sunshine by Emerald
Overexposed by Brandy Fox
How to Get Your Wife Back in Only About a Million Steps by Claire de Winter
Proof by Mia Hopkins
The One Who Came Instead by Tamsin Flowers
In the Dark, so Bright by Laila Blake
Triple Threat by Rachel Kramer Bussel
A Few Grey Hairs by H. Keyes
Photographs by Jillian Boyd
Danish Affair by J. Crichton
Beginnings and Endings by Kristina Wright

My call for submissions for Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2 is up

While my primary focus in 2016, especially for the next few months, is on making Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1 a success, which means reaching out to bookstores and sex toy stores, organizing events, using Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram and basically living and breathing book marketing like I've never done before, I am also thinking ahead. I'm thrilled that Cleis Press had enough faith in me as an editor to sign me up for a second volume before this one's even hit stores, and my goal is to live up to that faith and maybe even exceed it.



I've posted the call for submissions for Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2. Please feel free to post this call anywhere you like (it's public) and let me know if there are any websites, magazines, organizations, etc. that might be good places to send it, especially anywhere outside the United States I might not know about. I hate when people come to me and say "I just heard about your call" and there's three days left, so I am aiming to get the call to as many writers as I can.

It's long, but already I've had questions. One was whether "women" includes all people who claim that identity? Yes. Anyone who self-indentifies as a woman and whose story conforms to the guidelines is eligible. The second was whether lesbian stories would be accepted. My reply: "As long as the story is from the perspective of a woman, any type of sexuality/sexual orientation will be considered." I'm sure as I get more questions, if it seems elements of what I want aren't clear, I will clarify them in the call, which will live at the Best Women's Erotica of the Year website because I want it to have its own home, which will be expanding and evolving.

I still remember my early forays into submitting to this series, and how thrilled I was when my dishwashing fetish story "Doing the Dishes" made it in. I am humbled and honored that someone might feel that way based on my selecting their work for this series, and I don't take it lightly. Ultimately, my job is to please readers. If they don't like my books, then I find a new profession. I've heard a few early comments about Volume 1 and can't wait to hear what others think. I love all the stories in the book, but I know different ones will appeal to different readers. I may be too close to the work, still, having recently copyedited it and dreading when someone tells me that I didn't catch a typo. Speaking of typos, I just changed "ninetines" to "nineties" in my call for submissions and a bunch of other typos, because I retyped the entire thing rather than figure out how to get it unitalicized, because I'm stubborn and human and mistakes happen, but I will be even more diligent with Volume 2, either giving myself time to do a second round of copyediting or perhaps having another person look at it (yes, my publisher of course copyedits the book, but if you've ever had work published, you know that copyediting is a multifaceted process and that errors easily slip by even the most skilled and trained eyes; I see them in published books all the time).

Issuing a call for submissions is like a puzzle, except that at the start, you don't know wha the questions are, let alone the answers. With the first volume, I received over 200 submissions. I had planned to include 25 plus one of mine, but found I did not have the room given my word count, so the final book has 22 stores by 23 authors (one is co-authored). This year, my aim is to include as much variety as the first volume, perhaps similarly with stories in the first, second and third person, with historical and futuristic stories, but also include aspects of life and sexuality that aren't in abundance in the first volume. That's why I included "stories featuring women in their forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties or nineties." I had an abundance of women in their forties in the first volume, and want to broaden that age range. I made somewhat of a wish list in my call, but what I wish for most of all is the stories I never could have anticipated, the stories that awe me and will stay on readers' minds for a long time to come, the stories that readers will take into their beds and read out loud, or savor to themselves, the stories they will dogear (yes, that is my paperback bias, but I'd also be fine with them "dog-earing" an e-reader or listening on repeat to the audiobook version). My point is, I want these stories to stand the test of time, to be like the books I have owned for a decade or more and still return to when I want to relive a particularly hot, moving tale.

My dream is that I will get the chance to edit many more volumes. Right now, I have no idea if that will happen, and that's okay, because I am working on living in the moment and with reality, not in my own fantasy headspace. So all I can do is spread this call for submissions as far and wide as I can, hopefully reaching around the globe, reaching writers who've never thought of themselves as "erotica writers" but who see something in this call that inspires them, reaching writers in other genres, reaching writers whose work I've previously rejected but whose story fits this particular book. When I do go to put an anthology together, for me that's when the outline of the puzzle really takes shape. I fall for a wonderful paragraph or plotline or character or way of approaching sex (for the latter, see "Waiting to Pee" by Amy Butcher in BWE of the Year, Volume 1).

4 things this editor gives my anthology contributors in addition to paying them money

I am gearing up for the release of Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, which hits bookstores and e-readers January 12th, and also to post the my new call for submissions for Cleis Press for Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2, which you can find on January 1 at bweoftheyear.com. The payment for authors for that volume, will be, as this one was, $100 per story. It's a fee I hope to be able to increase if I am given the opportunity to edit future volumes; I have no idea if that will happen, and right now my focus is on making the first volume as big a seller as I possibly can.



Already, I can tell you that I've gotten the woman I consider the very best erotica narrator around, who also happens to be a contributor to the book, Rose Caraway, as the narrator of the upcoming audiobook. That's one way I'm expanding the reach of this volume and ensuring that it reaches a wide readership/listenership.

Because I know that for most of us, that is a small sum in the grand scheme of bills to pay, I want to talk a little bit about what else I try to provide my authors. As a full-time freelance writer/editor/teacher/consultant, I know very well the value of money. I don't get paid sick days or holidays. I only get paid for work I produce, and that means that I'm highly aware of the value of every penny I spend and every penny I make. It's why I plan to tell those authors whose work is accepted this year to not waste their precious dollars sending their contracts via priority mail, when cheaper, regular old mail will do perfectly and won't cut into their $100 fee.

So because I'm aware that $100 isn't that much money, here's some of the other ways I try to support my authors:

1. Social media - I've made a Twitter list of the contributors to Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1 and am doing my best to promote them, retweet them, and share their additional news, such as free erotica stories.

2. Interviews - I try to give authors a way to promote their own work and to highlight the efforts they've put into crafting their stories in my books. In the case of this book, I'm doing a series of Q&As on Tumblr with my authors. So far, I've interviewed: Elizabeth Coldwell, Rose P. Lethe, Valerie Alexander and Theda Hudson.

3. Reviews - The moment I see one of my authors praised in a review of the book they're published in, I let them know. I also post those wonderful words highlighting their stories on social media, as I did with the recent Library Journal review. I want them to hear what people have to say about their work; of course, if a review pans my author, I won't go out of my way to point that out to them, but an up-and-coming author can use some of those reviews in their own promotional materials, to bolster a book proposal or simply to quote on their website.

4. Live events - Plug: come hear me read from Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1 at these free events: January 19th, 6:30-8:30 pm at Good Vibrations, 1620 Polk Street, San Francisco, with Amy Butcher, Rose Caraway, Dorothy Freed and Jade A. Waters, and March 31st at The Pleasure Chest, 3436 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, from 6-7:30 pm with Tara Betts and Rose P. Lethe.

This is probably the most costly and time-consuming aspect of anthology editing. On one level, you could see it as me asking authors to provide free labor, because essentially, I am. I'm asking them to take time out of their day or night and read their story to a live audience. But why I think this is helpful to them is: a) they get to bond with audience members and grow their own fan base, b) they get to hear their work read aloud and find out how people respond to it in the flesh, c) they get to meet fellow contributors in person and b) returning to social media, I promote their name and, if they are amenable, their photo on social media. Their name may get mentioned in major media outlets that are listing the event. I firmly believe that live readings go a lot further than the limited number of people who will actually attend such an event. Simply getting your event "out there" means you're raising awareness of the existence of the book and those authors' work in the book.

Is there more I can do for my authors? Most likely, yes! I am in ongoing communication with them and open to suggestions, and hope to add new readings to the lineup in 2016. I want my contributors to feel proud of not just their bylines, but being part of this book as a whole. I want to give them as much support as I'm capable of given my time and resources. And as I said, my goal is to make this book and the next one sell far beyond my wildest dreams, which will enable me to do more promotions, more readers, and pay future authors even more money. For now, this is what I can offer, and I look forward to launching this book and reading submissions for the next one in the new year.