Attention m/m novelists

[veronica_rich]

Yes, those of you with publishing contracts to sell m/m books starring OMCs - if you would care to render your opinion on something related.

A friend wants to know if you think repurposed slash fanfic could ever go as mainstream as 50 Shades has for het erotica (I don't know if she means any m/m or m/m erotica; you'd have to ask her, really). I'm not an author, so the opinion I gave isn't informed - do you all have any?

Comments

[johnnypenn.livejournal.com]

50 Shades got popular really fast but it's written like Twilight. So people who like to read stuff like that probably helped make 50 shades popular.
I have problems with the ethic's of the BDSM relationship in the book. I don't think the author knew what he/she was doing when they wrote that.

Anyway - I too am trying to turn some fan fic into original fiction.
The hardest thing to do is to take out all the fan fic details and change the characters' enough so that they no longer resemble the characters of fandom.
I think it's okay to do this. I won't promise that anything will become main stream though. I think 50 shades is a fluke. But, you never know and I hope your Author friend does get popular.

[janamelie.livejournal.com]

Yes, BDSM aspect aside, "50 Shades" is basically Mills and Boon. (In fairness, I haven't read it, but I have read a very detailed blog about it which made me decide not to.) ;)

Possibly a m/m romance (not necessarily particularly well written but with a classic romance storyline) could be a breakthrough success if the m/m aspect was perceived in the same way as the BDSM one - as the exotic, forbidden ingredient that makes it different from all the other romances on the shelves. Not ideal, but if it gets readers to expand their horizons and possibly read other, better stories, it could work out well. :)

[johnnypenn.livejournal.com]

I would hope that the m/m relationship would be treated like the tradition m/f relationship in most main stream novel's.

[janamelie.livejournal.com]

I would hope so too. But if a reader picks up a m/m novel out of curiosity and likes it, that can only help to destigmatise it in the eyes of the straight public.

[johnnypenn.livejournal.com]

Indeed. unless it's a badly written m/m book and then they think that's actually what happens in RL.