I have no complaints about the company. They treat their authors well, offering a higher-than-usual royalty percentage and providing a very proactive, hands-on approach to marketing. The reason I decided to leave was that they're phasing out their erotic imprint, previously known as "Spice We Love". From now on, they will be focusing their attention on more mainstream markets, including print.
It's tough to sell erotic fiction even with support of your publisher. The way things were going, though, it was clear that the eight books I'd published with BWL were about to become orphans. I thought that maybe I could find new homes for them, where they'd be more welcome. So I reclaimed my rights.
What this means is that a number of my titles are temporarily unavailable. These include:
- Body Electric
- Just a Spanking
- Spank Me Again, Stranger
- Bangkok Noir
- Nasty Business
- Exposure
- The Eyes of Bast
I've already resubmitted two of the titles (Nasty Business and The Eyes of Bast). They'll be easier to place because they're romance. As for the more hard-core titles - well, I haven't really decided what to do with them. (If any of you has suggestions about erotica publishers, do leave me a comment, or contact me privately.)
I've definitely got to get moving on them, though. My back list has shrunk dramatically because of this choice of mine!
But I still believe it was the right thing to do, for me. Whatever else you can say about me, I don't really write mainstream fiction. And despite my family's wistful questions ("You're such a good writer - why don't you write a real book?"), I don't see myself abandoning erotic literature any time soon.
