What Turns You OFF When Reading an Interracial Romance? Showing 951-1,000 of 1,097

[Arch , Mod]

TheFountainPenDiva wrote: "Arch:

The Astrea Press website:

http://www.astraeapress.com/about.html

Unfortunately, they are strictly e-books. You should write them and ask if they're considering books in print. I'm sure you..."

Thank you

[Savannah- Quad Motherin' Book Readin' Diva]

Arch- I didnt say that anyone could claim only this genre has errors. Im saying this is a genre where those errors are/will be held against it to a higher degree. Not to mention, in my experience the errors are more obvious and ridiculous lol.
Again, its going to be under a microscope. IR is in the position of needing to impress to get the development it deserves. Thats my only point here. That we cant afford an "its no big deal" attitude if we want better choices and more acceptance.

[Arch , Mod]

Savannah, I have read IR stories written by non black authors, as well as read some written by black authors. Are you saying IR stories written by all race authors are being under a microscope or only the stories written by authors of a certain race? Suzanne Brockmann written stories about a BWWM. Anne Stuart written stories about AMWW. I have never read reviews where someone talked about grammar issues in those authors books.

WWML.

[Paganalexandria]

Arch wrote: "Savannah, I have read IR stories written by non black authors, as well as read some written by black authors. Are you saying IR stories written by all race authors are being under a microscope or o..."

Most likely because they aren't self or small press published. Since you have said yourself, that you don't have access to ebooks, or read erotica, then you don't exactly know what we are a getting at when we speak about the lack of quality control. Until getting my Kindle, I couldn't imagine the depth of the problems I've run across. The true crux of the problem is that most IR is self or small press published, not the color of the authors skin. Unfortunately the general public isn't going to take that into account since the stereotype already exists that black people can't speak or write proper English. That was the subtext in the comments section on Dear Author when they reviewed the little IR Russian Mafia novel, we love and hate.

[Savannah- Quad Motherin' Book Readin' Diva]

Yes. By all authors.
But since the majority are written by women of color and its us AS women of color that so desperately want this genre to thrive.....
I feel like as readers who are aware of the potential pitfalls we have a responsibility to expect and demand better.

As far as Brockman goes, I think the reason hers was so well received is a.) she's an established writer cranking out quality product and b.) Sam and Alyssa's story is part of an ongoing series. That's a built in legion of fans that are waiting with baited breath for every installment. They don't buy questioning the color of the leads-they just buy. That's going to be a tougher sell with an independent book that doesn't have that kind of following. And though some might argue, I'll take it one step further and say that Alyssa being biracial made the jump even more palatable. I'm not saying its right- I'm saying people are dumb LOL.

As far as AMWW, if I'm being honest? THAT will be more easily accepted in the mainstream. Black women are still a minority in readership being the reason. WE are the ones who want to see BWWM most. Absolutey you have readers who don't care about race with their leads. But that's not standard as has been proven by the backlash when certain authors are called into question for not being more diverse.

[Savannah- Quad Motherin' Book Readin' Diva]

I have never read a print distribution, house published IR that was nearly as bad as 90% of the IR I read. Though I do know some of them are available in print (the mere thought of spending even more + shipping on some of the nonsense I've read makes me want to cry) So ya, Pagan is right....if you arent ebooking that explains why you may think we are being unecessarily harsh. I cannot overstate how bad some of this mess is.

[Arch , Mod]

Paganalexandria, are all the IR ebooks self published and does all of them have errors in them? What percentage of the books would you say is erotic?

[Savannah- Quad Motherin' Book Readin' Diva]

I'll chime in again to answer that one. Not all are self pub'd and even of those that are, not all are full of errors. Hence so many of us continuing to try to weed through the mess and find the gems. Thats whats so frustrating. The bad ruining it for the good. The percentage is just too high to ignore.

[Arch , Mod]

Savannah- Quad Motherin' Book Readin' Diva wrote: "I'll chime in again to answer that one. Not all are self pub'd and even of those that are, not all are full of errors. Hence so many of us continuing to try to weed through the mess and find the ge..."

How is the bad ruining it for the good?

[Savannah- Quad Motherin' Book Readin' Diva]

When you have mainstream taking notice, and more than half of whats out there to sample is complete rubbish- thats setting the entire movement back. Its easy to dismiss somethingbwhen you can say you've checked it out and there is no substance to it. What about readers of other races that dont have the same desire to see IR pairings but are giving these stories a chance just because they sound intersting? I've had a string of 3-4 complete duds back to back on more than one occasion. If I wasnt specifically wanting to find good books about bwwm, I'd have given up the first time that happened so what can we expect from non black readers who are simply giving something new a chance? Its a turn off. Again, the point is to bring this sub genre into the light so we have IR writers whose books arent being dismissed as being too niche for mainstream by the bigger publishers. That won't happen if they are constantly getting samples from a poisoned well. A bad rep in anything is never a good thing.

Not to mention, how often do we see someone in the threads here on this very forum declaring they are taking a break from IR? LOL There's ar eason for that! Frustration! Feeling like you've wasted time or money or both. Its tiresome being disappointed on a regular basis. We stick with it and come back time and again because we LOVE this genre. But whats the motivation for others who don't?

[Paganalexandria]

Arch wrote: "Paganalexandria, are all the IR ebooks self published and does all of them have errors in them? What percentage of the books would you say is erotic?"

Okay, I actually did a quick little check on the the current top 10 Romance bestsellers on Amazon under Interracial & Multicultural. Five of those aren't even Interracial Romance (a reoccuring theme that we've discussed further up thread). Three are tagged erotica on Goodreads . The remaining two aren't tagged anything, so not sure of the heat level of , but Koko Brown lists this as a erotica on her site .

Publishing Info:
#2 - RiverHouse Publishing
Their video on the website says for $650, you can publish today. So I’m safe to assume they’re not overly exclusive. http://www.riverhousepublishingllc.com/
#3 - SFBuzz Press
They also offer self publishing services according to: http://www.houstonnewsglobe.com/item/...
#5 - CrushStar Romance
Smashwords only lists M. Malone as the only author under that name, so once again I’m guessing self published https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
#6 - Koko Brown, LLC
Since it’s published under her name, I’m going with self published.

Does that answer your questions about percentages of IR being erotica, and self published?

[Paganalexandria]

Paganalexandria **wicked juices bubbling over** wrote: "Arch wrote: "Paganalexandria, are all the IR ebooks self published and does all of them have errors in them? What percentage of the books would you say is erotic?"

Okay, I actually did a quick li..."

Oh I forgot to include #10 . Since this is a Fifty Shades Parody, I know it's erotica. I think it's self published also http://lvlewis.com/jungle-fever-press/

[Tea]

I don't remember who said that their turn-off was races in titles, but I agreed that such a thing would be distasteful even though I hadn't noticed it happening with mainstream-ish books targeted towards women. That beautiful oblivion ended today.

WHAAAT is with these horrible titles? (The first one was the first item on my BookBub list for Saturday.)

( If the title doesn't make you want to hurl, it's "cheap" on Amazon at the moment: http://www.amazon.com/Jungle-Fever-Du...#)

and

, My White Ex Soldier's past (which is apparently not on goodreads, and (also "[r]educed to $2.99 for a VERY limited time" at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/White-Soldier-S...)

So, yeah, this is now officially also a turn-off for me.

[Indigo.plume]

These titles are something else!

[[deleted user]]

Even though I recently loved a book, something I notice in ir themed books is the man is often described in detail to the point I stop caring. Obviously describing someone is unavoidable but to say someone has beautiful blue eyes 50-100 times is obnoxious.

And did brown eyes go out of style? I don't think blue eyes are unattractive, but I feel like the brownies make up some of the most attractive eyes in the world.

Not crazy about words like "angelic" or "innocent" to describe white features. Maybe it's why I'm way more open to non white men(Asian , Latino of any race, Polynesian, western Asian ,etc.) almost suggests anything not white can not some how be angelic or innocent.

Hmmm...anything else while I'm on a rant? Gotta brainstorm

[[deleted user]]

Not a complaint but would actually like to see more diversity amongst the heritage of the women. Nothing against just being plain ole American but wouldn't mind seeing more Caribbean, or women of African(I suppose by this I mean parents or heritage directly come from a specific country like Ghanaian) Afro latina, just something different from what I read all the time. Either from NYC or the south, not variety

[Arch , Mod]

Guinevere wrote: "Not a complaint but would actually like to see more diversity amongst the heritage of the women. Nothing against just being plain ole American but wouldn't mind seeing more Caribbean, or women of A..."

My heroines are black american women. They aren't mixed and yes they are from the south, real state, but made up city. I no longer watch True Blood - I only watched a few episode when it first came out. Well, if they can make up a city and place it in a real state, then why can't I do the same thing? In future stories, I will make up a city and put it in a state that I do not know anything about. I do not. believe that I have to know about a state to have my characters live there. The places they will go will be my creation, so the famous foods don't have to be the same. The parks, etc. does not have to be the same.

Now as for writing about African women, I don't know. I am not African or even African American. I am black and I don't know much about African women or even Caribbean women, but I don't believe that a writer has to know about certain people to write about them. Imagination is the key. You can find a woman in every race that is a carbon copy of a woman from another race or should I say have things in common? If I did not know the race of Alyssa Locke, should could be any race. A heroine is a woman and that's how a woman will be even if I write a story about a white woman.

A future story of mine will be about best friends - Asian guy, Black woman. I do not know about Asian people. That's where my imagination will kick in. I will write him as an invisible man. Oh, and he will be a nerd. I love my nerds.

The heroes don't have to be from America either.

[TinaNoir]

Paganalexandria **wicked juices bubbling over** wrote: "Okay, I actually did a quick little check on the the current top 10 Romance bestsellers on Amazon under Interracial & Multicultural. Five of those aren't even Interracial Romance "

You know what is even more interesting, if you search under just 'Books' but not under 'Kindle ebooks' the results are even more telling.

First - there is no 'Interracial/Multicultural' category. It is just called 'Multicultural.'

Second - if you search only for books that come in paper format, there are only three romance authors who show up in the top 30 books who are published by a trad publisher: Beverly Jenkins, Brenda Jackson, and A.C. Arthur. Eric Jerome Dickey and Wendy Williams round out the top five. The rest of the IR authors who show up there are those who publish themselves via CreateSpace, under their own Self pub name or under Indie Presses that only seem to carry one or two authors (including the author on the list).

Interestingly, a vast number of the IR authors whose names we see over and over again on the Kindle bestseller lists or even discuss here don't even show up in the top 30.

This says that IR is almost solely ebook format and overwhelmingly self pubbed.

No wonder we see the quality issues we do.

Meanwhile, type in "black woman" as a search term in the 'books' category on Amazon and then further refine it to 'Romance' genre. Amazon will tell you how many hits you get for that term in each subgenre under 'ROmance'.

Any guesses, what is the first category they display? Anyone? Bueller? Yup, "erotica.' Erotica yields more hits for the term 'Black woman' than any other sub genre in romance except 'Contemporary.'

So yeah, when we look back through this thread and see our members bemoaning the 'Insta-sex' and 100 page novelletes, it isn't just anecdotal. There is data to back that up.

[Tea]

Tina wrote: Meanwhile, type in "black woman" as a search term in the 'books' category on Amazon and then further refine it to 'Romance' genre. Amazon will tell you how many hits you get for that term in each subgenre under 'ROmance'.

Any guesses, what is the first category they display? Anyone? Bueller? Yup, "erotica.' Erotica yields more hits for the term 'Black woman' than any other sub genre in romance except 'Contemporary.'

So yeah, when we look back through this thread and see our members bemoaning the 'Insta-sex' and 100 page novelletes, it isn't just anecdotal. There is data to back that up.

Did I hear something about goodreads being about to install something akin to a "Like" button for comments? When they do, I'm going to like the heck out of the comment above.

Because this is the sort of thing that needs to discussed among consumers and producers if we want to bring change.

I'm not advocating telling writers what to write, but if it were clearer that there's a market for something different, that many current readers are dissatisfied with what's currently out there – but read things they'd rather not because they simply want to read* – some will want to tap that under-served market.

*In order to try to convince me to stop considering that end of the business, a friend invited me to work in his bookshop a few days a week. I spent three years volunteering there, and during that time, I often met WoC who apparently needed someone to talk to about the lack of diversity in books featuring WoC. That is, the lack of diversity wrt genre. I kept hearing that they didn't want to read "urban" novels all the time, but that was what was mostly available, so they did. Others didn't want erotica, but that was the other thing that was largely available at the time.

There were three young women who came in about four times a month, sometimes separately, but usually together. One wanted Fantasy featuring CoC. Another wanted to see LBGTQ Latinas, like her, playing prominent roles in books. The last one just wanted to read anything that "doesn't stereotype us". In the end, I mined my own book collection to help them, but it really wasn't enough.

[Paganalexandria]

Tea wrote: "I don't remember who said that their turn-off was races in titles, but I agreed that such a thing would be distasteful even though I hadn't noticed it happening with mainstream-ish books targeted t..."

Tea can't believe I'm going here, but have to defend L.V. Lewis' a bit. Yes the name is pretty horrible but it's a box set of her two IR Fifty Shades parodies Fifty Shades of Jungle Fever, and Exit Strategy. I actually read the first one, and actually liked it surprisingly.

[Tea]

@Pagan,

Oh, okay! So, they aren't meant to be taken seriously! (I wish BookBub had specified that when recommending it to me.)

[Paganalexandria]

Tea wrote: "@Pagan,

Oh, okay! So, they aren't meant to be taken seriously! (I wish BookBub had specified that when recommending it to me.)"

Yeah normally, trust and believe, I'm right with you when it comes to "The White _____" or "Hot Black _____" in the title. LOL

[CaliGirlRae, Mod Squad]

Oh I forgot to include #10 Jungle Fever Duology by L.V. Lewis. Since this is a Fifty Shades Parody, I know it's erotica. I think it's self published also http://lvlewis.com/jungle-fever-press/

An interesting thing about L.V. Lewis. I just saw her note recently about quitting this series and subgenre because it isn't what she wants to write nor what she set out to write. It just happened to take off. So she's abdicating the name and writing under a different name what she always wanted to write. That takes some moxie in this industry where the pressure is there to write explicit for sales. I have much respect for her for going out on a limb because it's tough to write what you love, to work hard at it and not get as far as you like unless it is to go with the in crowd.

I'm hearing a lot of IR erotica authors feeling this way. They write it because it sells a lot. So it's a vicious cycle. Readers support it and it continues being pumped out even if the author's heart isn't in it. But it makes a lot of money. So Arch, I feel your pain and even though erotica is also around in mainstream fiction, I agree with the poster who says IR can't diversify like mainstream because IR was a way smaller genre with a large microscope. I'm being super picky with my IR reads because I tend to read cleaner/sweet reads nowadays as a preference to read more character and story focused works and my options keep growing smaller and smaller whenever I return to the genre to see what to buy. I wish more IRs would be in print as well but digitally it's easier to publish. I just did a binge buy of all the Genesis Press books I used to read when the genre first started and it's amazing to see how much has changed over the years. I'm anticipating diving back into those books that made me fall in love with the genre in the first place. Hopefully some of the digital pubs put out more but beside from Kimani and maybe Entangled, I'm not sure how many we will see in the near future. Yeah, IR has a big problem going on right now and spelling/grammar is just one small part of it.

[CaliGirlRae, Mod Squad]

Tea wrote: "*In order to try to convince me to stop considering that end of the business, a friend invited me to work in his bookshop a few days a week. I spent three years volunteering there, and during that time, I often met WoC who apparently needed someone to talk to about the lack of diversity in books featuring WoC. That is, the lack of diversity wrt genre. I kept hearing that they didn't want to read "urban" novels all the time, but that was what was mostly available, so they did. Others didn't want erotica, but that was the other thing that was largely available at the time.

There were three young women who came in about four times a month, sometimes separately, but usually together. One wanted Fantasy featuring CoC. Another wanted to see LBGTQ Latinas, like her, playing prominent roles in books. The last one just wanted to read anything that "doesn't stereotype us". In the end, I mined my own book collection to help them, but it really wasn't enough. "

Tea, is it okay if I PM you?

[Arch , Mod]

I still have the kindle ap on my computer, but I still do not have the internet. Rae, I can't wait until your dangerous bad boy story comes out.

[Paganalexandria]

CaliGirlRae wrote: "An interesting thing about L.V. Lewis. I just saw her note recently about quitting this series and subgenre because it isn't what she wants to write nor what she set out to write. It just happened to take off. So she's abdicating the name and writing under a different name what she always wanted to write. That takes some moxie in this industry where the pressure is there to write explicit for sales. I have much respect for her for going out on a limb because it's tough to write what you love, to work hard at it and not get as far as you like unless it is to go with the in crowd.
"

CaliGirlRae that's interesting, and good to know because I was going to finally get around to reading the next book. If she's abandoning the series, no point in that at all. I'm all for following your passion, but it's kind of annoying as a reader when someone gets you invested in a series that ends in a cliff hanger, but is never finished. This makes me long for the days of the stand alone, and why cliff hangers are the devil.

That being said it does make releasing a duo box set, when the series was supposed to have four books, make more sense to me.

[CaliGirlRae, Mod Squad]

I'll keep you posted on it, Arch. :-) It's next on my to-write list. July got souped by my Camp Nano novel which is nearing it's end (yay!) I'm facing my fear of writing YA for the first time. Seeing the lack of diversity in that genre and how many young WOC want to see themselves in the books is making me want to help make that change and give them some (hopefully) good reads to inspire them.

[Arch , Mod]

I think you will do good job with YA books Rae. I like reading YA books too.

[CaliGirlRae, Mod Squad]

Awesome! Me too. :-) (Like YA books, that is. I hope I can do well in it. I will certainly try my very best)

[The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears]

Wow. The discussions have been incredible as always.

I will venture a far more cynical reason why most IR (especially BW/WM and BM/WW pairings) are often mis-labeled "erotica" though they shouldn't be. I think most of you can pretty much guess. It may be 2014, but there are still troglodytes (even in the book industry) who still view interracial relationships as some sort of taboo or fetish. It certainly doesn't help matters when authors play into that, either by giving their books salaciously silly titles like "Bred by the White Billionaire Biker Stud Muffin" (no, that's not a real book *gulp*...I hope) or by filling the pages with every racial and sexual stereotype they can think of.

[Arch , Mod]

CaliGirlRae wrote: "Awesome! Me too. :-) (Like YA books, that is. I hope I can do well in it. I will certainly try my very best)"

I can not wait to read the first one.

[CaliGirlRae, Mod Squad]

@Arch - Yay! :-)


TheFountainPenDiva wrote: "Wow. The discussions have been incredible as always.

I will venture a far more cynical reason why most IR (especially BW/WM and BM/WW pairings) are often mis-labeled "erotica" though they shouldn'..."

I would probably buy this if the authors didn't label it themselves when putting it up for sale. The vendors give authors a chance to categorize their books in two (if Amazon) and up to five (if Barnes and Noble) categories and I think since many IR writers are newish, they either put it in the erotica category outright or they put in romance not knowing the difference between the two. Thus, the IR/MC romance listings get bogged down in erotica books while most should be placed into its category. I've seen AllRomanceEbooks fall into this trap as well even though they have a separate category for two. There is no auto labeling via the site vendor's computers so it's all up to the author to place it. So it's a mixture of that as well as the authors and readers feeding into the production of the same kind of books.

[Arch , Mod]

If an author's book isn't erotic, then they should not label it as erotic and the book shouldn't have an erotic cover.

[The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears]

There have been instances though, when a non-erotic IR was indeed mis-labeled erotic and the author had nothing to do with it. Hence my cynicism.

[Arch , Mod]

TheFountainPenDiva wrote: "There have been instances though, when a non-erotic IR was indeed mis-labeled erotic and the author had nothing to do with it. Hence my cynicism."

Well, no one should label a non-erotic book as erotic. The author should protest.

[The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears]

I'm sure they have. Amazon has had major issues in the past with tags and labeling books. It's not always a perfect science.

Take some comfort that the romance genre as a whole tends to be cyclical. Popular subgenres become less popular as time goes on. Paranormal used to be the "it" theme, but even bestselling authors have a harder time selling a new series. Erotic romance will reach its zenith as well, though it won't completely die off. It will be interesting to see what comes next.

[Arch , Mod]

I am glad for the writing challenge interracial stories on here. I am sure that I will be able to find more IR stories online.

[CaliGirlRae, Mod Squad]

Me too Arch. There have been some great stories posted here. I wish I could read more from you guys.

[CaliGirlRae, Mod Squad]

Arch wrote: "If an author's book isn't erotic, then they should not label it as erotic and the book shouldn't have an erotic cover."

True and if it is, I wish it wouldn't be labeled as romance. It turns away a ton of readers who aren't finding their books of choice. Even though erotic romance is being sold as romance, many romance enthusiasts are still being turned off by the insta-sex stories.

[Arch , Mod]

CaliGirlRae wrote: "Me too Arch. There have been some great stories posted here. I wish I could read more from you guys."

On my group, you can read what I have written so far to His Bodyguard. You might like it.

[Arch , Mod]

Rae, I will have to continue writing stories, until what I am looking for in IR books are written. I am about to go read some of Trespassing.

[CaliGirlRae, Mod Squad]

That sounds like a good idea to me, Arch. Most good stories begin and continue that way because they serve an untapped or ignored group of readers.

I'll dash over to your group tonight. I've been reading on my phone lately so that works out. :-)

[Paganalexandria]

Tina wrote: "Paganalexandria **wicked juices bubbling over** wrote: "Okay, I actually did a quick little check on the the current top 10 Romance bestsellers on Amazon under Interracial & Multicultural. Five of ..."

Tina, thanks for going further. I went to check it out my self and was amazed to see under Multicultural. I read this for review, and it's all white people set in Canada. WTH?

[[deleted user]]

Sometimes I believe writers(particularly white) think multicultural is just sprinkles of a little color here and there as background music.

[Arch , Mod]

Guinevere wrote: "Sometimes I believe writers(particularly white) think multicultural is just sprinkles of a little color here and there as background music."

Does the multicultural books written by black authors have a lot of white people in them?

[Paganalexandria]

Guinevere wrote: "Sometimes I believe writers(particularly white) think multicultural is just sprinkles of a little color here and there as background music."

Guinevere there is absolutely no non-white characters in that book. Everyone one is Canadian, so it's not even MULTI-cultural, in the sense of people from different countries mixing together.

[The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears]

Guinevere wrote: "Sometimes I believe writers(particularly white) think multicultural is just sprinkles of a little color here and there as background music."

Absolutely, lol. Worse, I've seen some paranormals claim the "multicultural" and "IR" labels/tags even though all the characters clearly default as Caucasian. I'm like really? So a default caucasian werewolf and a default caucasian vampire somehow constitute an "interracial" pairing? Not!

Writing challenges and sites like Wattpad are wonderful for finding the kinds of reads that are being underserved by publishing; however those outlets do nothing for getting those stories into more hands.

For the moment, it's only the Inspirational subgenre publishes non-erotic books en masse, but most readers aren't interested in being preached at or such stories coming from a particular religion's point of view.

[Emotonal]

Rae and Arch, I totally agree with what you both just wrote. I know I get very pissed off when a book is labeled romance but it turns out to be a sex book. the authors should let it be known it is a erotic sex book so I won't waste my money and time.
As you said Rae, they should not even be labeled romance they should be separated, because when I buy a romance book that's what I expect romance, not page after page of sex or an author trying to tell me the hero and heroine sharing each other with others is a way to show that person how much you love them. how is that? I share my clothes, my car maybe my home. the person i love is not a thing to be shared. that kind of thing is a lifestyle, a fetish, it's not a way to show love.Sex is part of relationship but a personal part and no ones business. It makes me feel like a voyeur having that in my head. I don't even see how it could even me romance or romantic with the language being used. A man steps to me with language like that will have to step off real quick and may come back when he can show me some respect.

anyway, I do agree sex books should be labeled erotic sex, not erotic romance cause there aint nothing romantic about it, that way there is no confusion. We need a warning of what's in the book, because if I buy a book thinking it's romance and it's filled with sex and everyone sleeping with everyone I will put that author on a permanent do not buy list.

Also what's up with these YA IR books, sometimes these are worst than the grown people erotic books, nothing turns me off more than reading about teenagers sex life.

I love the get to know you process, the tension, the attraction they feel. I love the emotional and mental connection between the hero and heroine. there can be some sex in the books I read, but not detailed and not with the smut and vulgarity. I like when it's explained in more of an emotional terms

Well, yeah, thanks for allowing me to rant:)

[Arch , Mod]

Hey Emotonal, I read some of Trespassing last night and seen comments you had made and thought about you. When I got on Goodreads today and saw that this topic had a new reply, I was happy to see it was you.

Your rant was good.

I do not buy books in stores or online. Goodreads only have some of the books I bought listed. I have given a lot away prior to Goodreads. I do not have the internet - I have books that I bought that I have to list, some I didn't keep and will not post. I buy my books from the library (that started back in 1998), Salvation Army, Goodreads,but their prices changed, so I do not buy books there anymore, maybe if they have a book sale, I will. I buy books from two other thrifts store as well and garage sales. My books price range: 10 - 50 cents. I also rent books from the library.

I could pay a store price for a book if I want to, but I don't want to take a chance on a book, when I can probably rent it from the library or find it at a book sale. I believe in trying a book before buying or paying hardly nothing for a book. If I do not like a book, I could always bring it back to the library or give it away or even throw it away.

I hate that a huge percentage of IR books are ebooks and erotic. My computer has the kindle app and in the future I am thinking about getting a device that I can download free ebooks and maybe buy IR books, if they are not erotic books. I love writing and reading bwwm books, but I want to see and other IR pairing as well.

[The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears]

I totally agree that a lot of erotic romance has been very bad about striking that balance between the romantic elements and the erotic ones. A lot of publishers and editors are demanding more "hot" from their authors, even from those who aren't comfortable with explicitness. My personal benchmark for a good erotic romance is if the all the sex was removed would there still be a compelling story. Would I still care about the relationship. Sad to say there are far too many that don't pass that test.

Years ago I read Scandalous Lovers by Robin Schone. I consider Schone's works the gold standard when it comes to the healthy balance between romance and erotica. Not to mention that most of her heroines and heroes tend to be older and not stereotypically beautiful. So I'm not inclined to throw all erotic romances in the crapper, lol. Besides, I find the term somewhat subjective at times. I've read both IR and M/M romance with little to no sex in them, yet were still tagged as "erotic romance".