Why We Need A Self-Imposed Book Ratings System

[Daniel]

This is my blog post, it's long, almost 2K words, but I aimed to make it clear as to what I am trying to say.

I hope that my friends won't want to burn me at the stake. Here on Robust, I know not everyone has a Wordpress login, so we can discuss this here too.

http://magicvsscience.wordpress.com/2...

So, am I way off base, or does this affect your discovery as well as it does mine?

[Andre Jute]

The writers of nasties will fight you tooth and nail. If they had any sense, in selfprotection they would stand behind you on this one, because it would protect them too in the long term.

Not that the fate of a bunch of pornograhers who have ruined a agreeable profession concern me overly much -- though it will be a nuisance to have to stand up for them on grounds of freedom of speech -- but we're all in danger of the baby being thrown out with the bathwater in the backlash these people are provoking.

Your classication is too finicky, too specific, too detailed. You need two or three classes, broadly specified. The way it is laid out, it looks like an attack on the pornographers. That's not the way to get them to support this classification.

[Daniel]

Andre, I would pretty much subscribe to any system, detailed or broad based, that would unblock non-erotica titles.

We need that digital black curtain for adults who subscribe to such a thing. As it stands, if I want to search and find the majority of my titles, I need to select Adult Content. Boom. Porn covers left and right. As soon as most adults see that happening, they switch it off again, and of course, never find any of the fiction I've written, which isn't porn in the least aspect.

I could suck it up and make sure I don't check that 18+ box upon publication... but then, it would make me a fibber of sorts. It's like a mental thorn in my gray matter. Doing so would bother me in the end.

If I want this to work out, I guess I would have to enlist the Erotica crowd. Goodness. What kind of can of whatever did I unleash upon myself? lol.

[Andre Jute]

Those who wish to save fallen women must fall among them. -- Disraeli (of Gladstone).

[K.A.]

There was a push for a ratings system for Romance novels, where erotica first flooded the market.

At that point, all we asked for was a simple "heat" rating. Mostly so those of us who wrote the tame stuff could market to people who wanted the tamer stuff.

We were told to grow up, or go write Bonnet books.

I started to put 'not erotica' as one of my keywords. Though it didn't seem to help any. To my amazement and amusement, Let'd Do Lunch hit in the UK as Adult Fiction.

It's frustrating. Erotica flooded all markets, not just Romance.

However, Ellora's Cave is making 'going out of business' noises. They are the oldest erotica/Romantica E-publisher. According to them, and a number of porn-writers, sales of their ebooks have fallen through the floor.

Perhaps the market is finally falling out?

[Andre Jute]

It's possible. All pent-up markets on release have tremendously steep rising side to the bulb of the Bell Curve, and then an equally sharp fall to not very much above, and sometimes lower than, the initial condition.

If Ellora's report is true and generally applicable, what is even more interesting is the speed with which this porn bubble burst, about five or six years from beginning to end.

[K.A.]

That's true, it was a short...gasp. LOL

But I think it hit about year 3 After Kindle, which might make it 3 years, not 5.

An even shorter and sharper gasp. LOL

[Andre Jute]

I'm a nice guy. My heart bleeds for them.

[K.A.]

Peanut butter?

Kench

[K.A.]

And here's more news about Ellora's Cave - they've stopped paying some of their authors.

http://www.thepassivevoice.com/09/201...

Gee, the first name in Romantica has truly started the long slide into insolvency.

[Andre Jute]

Unless Ellora's Cave has a staff beyond the owners, or large-scale advertising, the likelihood is that the outgoings of a successful business in their line of business is over 70% to their authors with the rest split between profit/owner's income, rent, and comms. If they're not paying over 70% of their creditors by value and more by numerical count, they're not going bankrupt, future tense, they are bankrupt, present tense, and have been bankrupt, past continuing tense, since they first failed to pay an author's royalties. They should not continue trading.

[Daniel]

Ouch ouch ouch. Not paying their bills... yeah. They're going down the drain.

It's not the first time an industry self imploded. Usually, it's related to management more often than not. But then, I don't know for sure. I don't work for em. Thank God.

[K.A.]

Same here, I never wrote anything smutty enough for them. I never even tried.

I think this might be the end of the Age of Erotica.

[Andre Jute]

I never even heard of them until they went bust.

[Daniel]

Considering the current market, Ellora's Cave ins't the only one on the chopping block.

The current economy is tanking out even more so than before here in America. Whatever we slide, the world economy slides with us at a consistent 25% of GDP. Meaning if Americans lose 1 dollar, others will slide down at least 25 cents.

Because we went from mutual destruction with nuclear bombs to mutual economic destruction with our economies, you know, to help end the cold war, people at the time didn't think what might happen if one of the big world economies went bust.

There is a real chance that America will become a Weimar Republic by this December, all by itself. If China wants to force us into one sooner, all they have to do is demand their balance owed in gold... gold that we no longer have in reserve.

If February 15th rolls around and there is no American dollar collapse, I'll be surprised. Why? It's been six months since the Federal Reserve has been buying 100% of their own bonds to keep the currency solvent. That won't last. It never has. It's how the Zimbabwe currency went pop.

[K.A.]

Well, there is some gold left in Fort Knox...just not as much as there used to be. Not that we could afford to pay China in anything, including gold.

And now we are going to see the Iraqi War Part 3.

It's all very depressing.