NAUGHTY BOOKS
“The biggest critics of my books are people who never read them.”
-Jackie Collins
It brings in over a billion dollars in sales every year.
It’s devoured by dedicated customers who can never get enough.
It’s a global phenomenon with fans across every demographic.
Yet, erotic literature gets very little respect.
Henry Miller. Anaïs Nin. D.H. Lawrence. Vladimir Nabokov. John Updike. Erica Jong. All literary giants who are also experts at writing about some really hot sex. Erotic fiction certainly has highbrow roots, but a very lowbrow reputation.
However, when Fifty Shades of Grey sold over 125 million copies worldwide and self publishing gave anyone with a computer the opportunity to upload their work for sale on Amazon’s Kindle store, the entire game changed. Suddenly women who loved reading erotic fiction saw an opportunity. Readers became writers. For some, success came practically overnight. For others, the pressures of taking each story to another extreme became unsustainable.
In this episode, I interview filmmaker and author Austen Rachlis, the producer/director of the documentary Naughty Books.
“Naughty Books follows three writers: Kelli Maine, Kristen Proby, and CJ Roberts, as they navigate what unexpected success means for their lives, both professionally and personally.
On the surface, this movie is about self-published romance novels, but at its core, it’s about women challenging the status quo and stepping forward to tell the world they aren’t ashamed of their sexuality. In a world where #MeToo dominates the headlines and predatory behavior is pervasive, Naughty Books celebrates women reclaiming their sexuality on their own terms.”