Fifty Shades of Green

I love the Fifty Shades of Grey series for so many reasons.

As an agent who has toiled in the erotica fields for decades, it shows the world that there is a strong market for erotic fiction written, edited and purchased by women. This is smut for women.

Some of you know that I consider myself a “feminist pornographer,” which always raises a few eyebrows. But I believe this movement of women claiming their own smut is part of the evolution of feminism – proudly owning your sexuality is a big part of equality.

When I was a young feminist, I read The Story of O, and I was offended by it, because I knew that I was not a submissive woman. I’ve wrestled with this my entire life in my personal relationships, and since I was not a submissive, I assumed that the submissive woman fantasy was a male fantasy and part of the patriarchy.

Until I became the editor of erotic literature. And I quickly learned that the submissive woman’s fantasy of complete surrender to an Alpha man is the leading daydream of the majority of American women.

As a young feminist, I looked down on this “romance” troupe. I didn’t think it was possible to be submissive and a feminist, just as old school feminists were appalled that their well-educated daughters wanted to stay home and be mothers, or learn to knit and bake. We’ve been saying for the past two decades that feminism was about having choices, and one of those is to be free in our erotic fantasies.

In a recent review of The Hunger Games movie, a feminist reviewer complained about the need for “romance” in an otherwise action-based dystopian YA. I used to feel that way too, but I secretly went to romantic comedies alone so no one would see me cry. I was ashamed of my romantic side.

You can be a feminist and a romantic. It’s OK. And it’s really OK to want, and believe in, a happy ending, even if you know that in reality 50% of all marriages fail. These movies and books are an escape, and a hope.

Everyone wants to fall in love, and be swept away by its power, even men. But they don’t have the freedom women have. They don’t have the choices we have.

So, Fifty Shades of Grey brings all these issues to the surface and has proven, once and for all, that women love to read smut.

As an erotica agent, this means that there’s a whole new marketplace for these stories. The Story of O is 40 years old and the current edition is a dated translation (I’d love to see this in contemporary language). We need new fantasies, which EL James has given us. I am awed to see the birth of a new erotica classic, which is what Fifty Shades is (it’s the same feeling I had as I watched Harry Potter become a children’s literature classic in my time).

But we also need variety. So I am hoping that these books will usher in a publishing tidal wave of commercially successful erotica featuring M/M (that’s gay male romance often written by women) and erotica featuring dominant women and submissive men, as well as more lesbian fiction. And lots and lots of ménage featuring one woman and at least two men!

Some Trend Spotting

So, you all know I've been working two jobs for 3 1/2 years (July marks my 4 year anniversary), and since I really do work 16 hour days a few days a week. I barely have time to remember my middle name, let alone write in my blogs and journals. But Sunday morning is always a bit of "me" time and I thought I'd share some trends a few of us agents and editors see ahead.

As some of you may know from my twitter feed (and you should follow me, LoriPerkinsRR because I am constantly tweeting about publishing), I went to the midnight showing of Hunger Games on 3/19 with 9 other agents and editors. We got there two hours early and talked about books. This is what we see trending in the next year or on in terms of purchasing (which is different from what will be in print, because print takes so long). Remember, that my colleagues are skewed towards romance.

Geek love is coming. Hot nerds. Alphas in glasses. Shy billionaire entrepreneurs.

Even more dystopian fiction. One of these editors told me that she has bought through 2016. But they are being picky. I think YA is a little crowded, but not so much adult fiction. So, end of the world love stories. BTW, I am putting the finishing edits on APOCALYPSE TOMORROW: Love Among the Ruins, our end of the world and in love anthology at RR, so if you have something that might fit, send it in asap!

BDSM romance. Not a surprise after Fifty Shades of Grey. But it's BDSM light. So, if you have a naughty little trunk novel, or fan fiction that might be rewritten, dust it off and send it out.

And, here's my two cents on the fan fiction issue. It's fan fiction. It's entertainment. Surely we all have run an erotic scenario based on some TV show through our heads at some point in our lives. These authors have just decided to share. It's no big deal. When something is sent for publication, it has to be wiped clean of its obvious influence, but you can't copyright an idea (or a title). Inspiration is not plagiarism.

Now, off to the gym.

Cccchanges

Well, we have exciting news at the L. Perkins Agency.

Marisa Corvisiero has decided to start her own agency, in conjunction with her literary consulting business, PowerHouse (see her blog announcement at http://thoughtsfromaliteraryagent.blogspot.com/), and Emily Keyes, who had worked with this agency as an intern while getting her Masters in publishing from studying NYU's Center for Publishing, and then going on to work in contracts at Simon & Schuster, has come back to us.

So welcome home, Emily! Emily is now the Contracts & Foreign Rights Manager at the L. Perkins Agency. She’s very passionate about YA and teen novels and is looking to acquire in that area.

Previously, she was a Contracts Administrator at Simon & Schuster, Inc. and a writer for “The World Almanac for Kids.” She is a graduate of the NYU Publishing program and knowledgeable about many areas of publishing, and an expert on all things “Sweet Valley.”

Email her at emily@lperkinsagency.com. Follow her on twitter @esc_key

And good luck Marisa.

An Agent's New Year's Resolutions

You probably think that a literary agent's New Year resolutions should include things like keep up to date with query letters or take on new clients or sell more books. But when you've been doing this as long as I have (almost a quarter century), the last thing you want is more. What you want is better, and/or more efficient.

So, this year I want every single one of my clients, whether fiction or nonfiction, to be under both traditional and epub contract. This way, they should never have a week or a month when they have nothing to write.

And every author I represent should be in twitter and facebook and Goodreads, and comment and review books they love on Amazon. If you want someone to give you a good review, pay it forward. It's not rocket science.

I do not want to add another print book to my already buckling bookcases, unless I throw (or give away) another book. I recently redid some of the rooms of my home office and went through books from my adolescence, which I remembered loving, but when I pulled out the paperbacks, the pages flew out. Let's be real, I will never read those copies of those books again. So I am going to throw those books out and download what I want.

So, it's pretty simple. Better, more efficient, and leaner.

Brave New World of EPublishing

You're probably a little shocked that I'm posting, but I closed the Agency between Christmas and New Year's (as all good publishing businesses do - it's one of the very few remaining perks of the business), and I have some time to myself, which I give to you.

It's been a crazy year. Ebooks now outsell mass market titles, practically putting paperbacks out of commission. Borders went out of business completely. But more and more people are reading, and that includes a whole new generation of readers who now consider reading entertainment again.

When the dust settles, we will find that the author has come out ahead, although many who have toiled patiently in the low advance/reserve-against-returns fields for years, just don't see the corn for the seeds.

I've been an agent for almost a quarter of a century. I've had a lot of authors say they would do anything to make a good living as a writer, and then ask me what they should do. In the past, that answer had way too much to do with luck and timing, but today, a genre writer who puts in 40 hours a week can make a good living as a writer within two years of starting out through epub. The times they are a changing.

I believe we are entering a whole new world of publishing that resembles the pulp fiction heyday of the past. Readers want dependable books that they can devour, and authors who can deliver them consistently. This will be a renaissance of story telling. It's quite exciting.

Its also exciting that books have once again entered the water cooler conversation, as witnessed by the Steve Jobs bio. We all downloaded and read it almost immediately. How many of us are reading 11/22/63 right now?

I am really looking forward to 2012, and being part of this brave new world for writers and readers.