M/M Erotic Romances (Male on Male)

[Carol Stacy]

Is this really a turn on for women and a "growing" market? I have been resistant to review them in Romantic Times BOOKreviews because I do not feel we have many readers who want this type of book. I would love your input on this in a poll I have created.

The more people vote, the more objective the result will be, so please make sure to vote. The poll will run for 30 days.


Thanks for your help,
Carol Stacy
Publisher

Clarification: you have to be logged in in order to vote, otherwise, you'll just be seeing voting results.

[Jane Davitt]

I am possibly a little partial as I actually write m/m romances, but, yes, I'd say there is a growing interest - as the huge success of the recent movie Brokeback Mountain amongst women showed.

I'm married, straight, middle-aged with children; I'm about as mundane as they come - and I find this kind of story to be entertaining, hot and interesting to explore. I've read thousands of romances in my life and am a huge fan of the genre; the addition of a new twist on the age-old theme of two people meeting, overcoming obstacles, and falling in love is very welcome as far as I'm concerned.

[Lynnk]

I am sad to see the romance market get intertwined with sex to tell you the truth and this even goes with the heterosexual erotica etc. I think these things should just be kept totally separate from the romance genre because it was bad enough to hear that we were reading sex before when we read romances, but now it seems like there is truth to the charge as time goes on.

[batgary]

I don't think I would read one. Just not my cup of tea.

[Guest]

A total TURN OFF..will never spend my money on that kind of 'ROMANCE" ...As for a Market? I'm not surprised and to each his own

[juliat]

I love it. I read it and write it, and believe it or not there's a lot of gay romance out there that's not erotica.

[erastes]

I already commented under anon, and I can't really remember what I said there.

However. M/M is not a niche market, ok, it's not as huge as heterosexual erotica (and I'd like to point out that m/m CAN include gen) but that's because there are a lot more heterosexual readers than there are gay readers.

You might be surprised to learn that most m/m erotica is written by women. Not all. But most. And when you think about it, that's not as surprising as you might at first think.

What's every man's fantasy? Yeah, right. Two women making love. So why would women find two men making love any less attractive? If one naked beautiful, stylised man is good. Surely two is even better.

M/M is found everywhere. manga yaoi, fanfiction in every fandom you can name, historical fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, horror.

And who do you know who writes it?

At Swim, Two Boys - Jamie O'Neill (2001)
Charioteer - Mary Renault (1973)
Cities of the Red Night - William S Burroughs (1981)
City and the Pillar - Gore Vidal (1948)
Earthly Joys - Philippa Gregory (1998)
Frontiers - Michael Jensen (1999)
Gay Lord Robert - Jean Plaidy (1955)
Live from Golgotha - Gore Vidal (1992)
Mask of Apollo - Mary Renault (1966)
Mr Dalloway - Robin Lippincott (1999)
Notorious Dr August: His Real Life and Crimes - Christopher Bram (2000)
Persian Boy - Mary Renault (1972)
Praise Singer - Mary Renault (1978)
Stuck Rubber Baby - Howard Cruse (1995)
Tales Out of School - Benjamin Taylor (1995)
Waters of Babylon: A Novel of Lawrence after Arabia - David Stevens (2000)

So it's not exactly new? is it?
_________________
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[Lynnk]

Just for clarity the title of the post was about erotica and she also used the phrase turn on so I am assuming these particular books have to do mostly with sex.

[Vivi_Anna]

I voted...no objection to them, just don't interest me...

I think it is a growing market, not sure it will ever get really big.

I know of a ton of hetreosexual married women that LOVE them. LOL

Just not my thing...not unless I'm in the middle.... or what I like to call a Vivi sandwich. M/Vivi/M


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[erastes]

That's possibly what the thread owner meant, but you might find it surprising that just as heterosexual romance stories can stretch from longing to porn, so can gay romance.

The important thing is that gay **romance** exists and is viable as Het romance and deserves a place, both on this community and at the convention.
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Erastes
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[Linda7849]

Well this just shows how stupid I am -- I didn't know they were out there. I would probably read one because I'm curious -- I read Brokeback Mountain for the same reason. However, for my steady diet, I like the M/F type love story.
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[ladypeyton]

I have no problem with slash but I'm not interested in reading it. However, if the quality of sex scenes in romantic literature keeps declining (care of ebook publishers such as Ellora's Cave where IMO the sex is usually boring) and it gets to the point where m/m sex scenes are better written that m/f I could see myself trying them out of desperation.

[BLee]

Nope. For me, romance is one male, one female.

[LauraB]

[mlacroix]

I'm a single heterosexual woman and I like to read good romance. Be it between a man and a woman or two men. I feel between two men is hotter. Some men like to watch two women together well two men together can be just as hot for a woman to read.
_________________
Shell
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"Get down from the cross. Someone needs the wood." Savitor to Ash in One Silent Night.

[The Moste Potente]

As a writer, I enjoy both aspects of male on male romance. This isn't a 'new market' or a 'trend', and frankly, that attitude is quite offensive to me. Homosexuality is just as prevalent in our society as heterosexuality.

Why should homosexual erotica be excluded from readership?

--TMP

[Jessy]

It is for me, so long as it's not overly graphic. and so long as it's about more than just sex.

[Jenster]

I've read books with relationships between two men, but the intimacy was only implied, not explicit. That's okay.

But I personally am not the least bit interested in reading about sex between two men. I don't find it "hot" at all. Neither am I interested in reading about sex between two women.

Jen
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Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?
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[DLWarner]

I don't know why it's such a big surprise that women read m/m fiction. The primary audience for 'Brokeback Mountain' was straight women who viewed the film as a romance and made that studio a fat pile of money. I both write and publish m/m romance. We find hundreds of new readers each month who have been reading this kind of fiction on line and really want to read it in print. Many of these readers have introduced female friends to the fiction who are surprised that they enjoy them.
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D.L. Warner
Writer*Film Maker*Publisher
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[EllaScopilo]

I just like a good book. I don't care if the relationship is m/f, m/m, m/f/m, etc. I am more likely to pick up a book with very sensual scenes than not, but I'll read both if the story is good.
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