Hey People!
In the past few weeks I've had several requests from people just starting out on their erotic romance writing journey asking me the difference between erotic romance, erotica, and porn, and feeling nervous that they won't know which they're writing until they are done with the manuscript. I hastened to assure them this was absolutely not true. There are very clear differences between each of those genres. One is not the other or really easily confused with the others.
So, here they are, for the future Smut Writers of America--and I say smut with the deepest fondness. I love reading and writing good, sexy, romantic smut--my humble attempt at definitions. (These are pulled from all the much smarter people I've heard speak about the genre in the past several years as erotic romance has really come into its own.)
erotic romance--any super sexy story that focuses primarily on the monogamous relationship between the hero and heroine and has a happy ever after ending (even if that HEA is between several partners as in menage)
erotica--a super sexy story that focuses on the erotic journey of sexual self-discovery of the heroine. She does not have to be monogamous with one man in these types of stories and they do not necessarily have to have a happy ending, though many do.
porn--a story that lacks romance or much of a story, period, in which many people are eff-ing for eff-ing's sake.
Now, of course, we could go much deeper in defining each category, but I feel these defs cover the basics. As for the genre of my books--in case you are not a reader of Anna J. Evans' books, which, you should of course remedy right away ;)--I'd say my stories are all erotic romance, even the one Exotica I have available over at Ellora's Cave. I love my happy ever after and seeing my heroine settle down with a good man or two.
Any questions? Corrections? Thoughts?
Have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you all Monday!
Anna J. Evans