How to Write a Dirty Story: Reading, Writing, and Publishing Erotica

For aspiring erotica writers – and authors in any genre who want to make the "good" parts great

Susie Bright is the first and reigning queen of contemporary erotica. In How to Write a Dirty Story she reveals her tricks of the trade and shows you how to heat up sex scenes in everything from traditional novels and romances to science fiction and humor. Easing the aspiring writer into the creative process, she tells you how to write the steamy plots and sensual characters that publishers and readers are looking for. Bright makes it easy to:

Produce unique ideas * Master erotic language
Climax the story * Sell your work to the right place

Each chapter features practical writing exercises and suggestions for nonwriting activities that will galvanize the imagination and raze any creative or psychological hurdle. When it's time to go public, Bright draws on her own writing and publishing experiences and explains the most effective ways to find an agent, work with an editor, and grow a loyal audience.

As irreverent as it is practical, How to Write a Dirty Story is the only book an erotica author – novice or seasoned – needs.


Amazon.com Review:

Authors of erotica have it rough, says Susie Bright in How to Write a Dirty Story. Their work is often judged before it is read. They are assumed to be sex gurus. And if memoirists find it tough to share their work with friends and relatives, imagine what it's like for sex writers. A third of Bright's book is devoted to general publishing issues. The rest deals specifically with erotica and should appeal to anyone whose writing includes sex scenes. Bright, who has been dubbed the goddess of American erotica, is refreshingly straightforward about her subject. She likens a great erotic story to a great striptease act. Ideally, an erotic story takes all the time it needs, arouses both the reader and the author, is judicious with clichés and dirty words, and doesn't involve a complicated description of body-part placement or an excess of sex noises. Most important, a sex scene propels the story forward. If the story would work just as well without it, the sex scene shouldn't be there. And the good news? Even "really bad lovers can write great erotica." –Jane Steinberg