I’ve been reading a lot. I suppose that’s no surprise to anyone who knows me. In days gone by, I constantly had my nose stuck in a book. Now, it seems to outsiders as if my iPhone and I are joined at the hip. And to some extent, we are. I mean, I get work e-mail on my iPhone. I play Words With Friends on my iPhone.
I read porn on my iPhone. You see, I read porn on my iPhone, and it’s through a Kindle app. I have a ‘real’ first-generation Kindle as well, and a fairly large electronic collection of paid and free books to enjoy. But I prefer to read porn on my iPhone. It’s private, and small, and if it falls to the bed mid-paragraph, it turns itself off after 3 minutes and doesn’t experience dozens of crazy keystrokes if I unintentionally roll over on it…
By porn, I’m talking about that writing which, to me, takes the place of watching people spank or fuck each other on a television or computer screen. I mean, yes, I look at photos and sometimes watch short videos. My Tumblr page is clear about that. But I don’t sit down and watch spanking films, at least with no more intent than seeing a friend get her comeuppance or to amuse my dear husband by getting distracted and making out with him instead of paying attention.
Stories, though… stories can capture my attention and my heart and my imagination. I don’t have a single intent when I pick out something to read. Sometimes I want to be wildly aroused, or I am wildly aroused. Sometimes I want to be amused, or excited, or caught in the drama and suspense of a thrilling plot. Sometimes I want to treasure the innocence of a golden relationship, and sometimes I just want to appreciate the rich sensuality of the words on the page.
As such, I have no single type of story, or storyline, to favor. I’ve found, over the years, that there are any number of authors and styles which can capture me completely, from Jane Austen to the bawdy, originally “anonymous”, tales of Alexandre Dumas to Vampires in America series by D. B. Reynolds and the mainstream (nearly) erotic romance of Stephanie Laurens.
Naturally, spanking tales have a place among these lovely authors.
Sadly, spanking fiction is still a very specific sort of fiction, for a very specific sort of reader. Even more sadly, fetish fiction isn’t categorized well in my e-book-store of choice, Amazon. They throw fetish fiction all under the broad category of ‘erotica’, whether there is explicit content or not, or (worse) mis-categorize it as something misleading: historical romance, regency romance, etc.
As a case in point, The Taming of Miss Munroe by Loki Renard is a classic example. This well-written story is spanking fiction. Not erotica. Not precisely historical romance, either. Sex does not take center stage, or left or right stage. And yet Amazon has unfortunately relegated it to these broadly defined categories, so that careless buyers who were expecting something more, um, explicit are disappointed. Likewise, readers expecting something more innocent are shocked.
With Ms. Renard’s permission, here’s a short excerpt:
Walker looked over to Catherine and saw that my observation was correct. The ash from the cigarette had already smudged the delicate silk of the chaise and the ember at the tip of it threatened to burn a hole through it at any moment.
Decisively, Walker stood up, took Catherine firmly by the wrist, rescued the cigarette from her grasp and brought her up to a standing position in which he employed the hefty leather tome he had been reading as an impromptu paddle with which he dealt one sound swat to the unfortunate Miss Munroe’s backside.
“My charges do not smoke in my house,” he said firmly, letting go of her wrist and letting her plop back down on the chaise like a sullen child, her bow mouth set in a stubborn pout.
“I think you hate women,” she said, glaring at Walker and crossing her arms over her bosom as she spoke.
Walker merely shook his head and laughed a low laugh, “Oh my dear how very wrong you are.”
“You don’t think we can be trusted on our own, we can’t smoke like men do, we can’t drink like men do. What are we good for, hmm, Mr Walker?” Her tone was beyond pert, and I must say I was quite shocked at the way she spoke to the man who she knew quite well could and would thrash her soundly for her behavior.
Walker sat down in his chair once more, but far from reclining, he leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees as he fixed Catherine with a stern, but kind look. In spite of herself, she drew back from him a little, her eyes darting nervously, wondering if she had gone too far. He looked at her piercingly, as if cataloging all of the misdemeanors she held in her memory and planning the punishment for them all.
“I think it is time you pursued your studies again, Miss Munroe,” he said after a moment or two of this inspection, his voice so low it was almost a purr. I have seen him do this before, and it very rarely fails to work. When confronted with such a physically capable man as Walker, most ladies instinctively respond to his presence. If he chooses to invoke his sterner side at close quarters, it can be enough to set a timid young lady crying on the spot.
Catherine Munroe was certainly not a timid young lady, but I do believe I saw her gulp then bound off the chaise towards the door. “I suppose it is better than being patronized in here,” was her parting shot as she left the room with a dainty, though somewhat sarcastic curtsy.
Walker shook his head at the closing door and gave me something of a rueful smile. “This is an interesting line of work I have found myself in, Jones, an interesting line of work indeed.”
“I could not agree more, old man. Miss Munroe seems to be more difficult than most. Is she mad?” I asked, pouring myself a brandy as my throat seemed uncommonly dry.
Walker laughed. “No, she wants to show me she’s not afraid of me. She wants to show me that I cannot earn her respect by whipping her. She is quite the little piece of work,” he said, his eyes gleaming with fun.
Ms. Renard was straightforward in her overview; the story is told from the perspective of a friend of James Walker, known as Jones. It is not a menage, despite tags suggested by Amazon. The official Amazon review clearly states that it is intended for spanking fans. And yet the first (and only) buyer-generated review gave it one star because it did not meet her expectations of BDSM erotica. Nowhere does the author or publisher describe it as BDSM in any form.
I don’t know about you, but I rarely purchase items from Amazon that have low ratings. On the other hand, I can’t review the book on Amazon under my own name (which is associated with my Kindle) without my mom checking out my Amazon activity and seeing what I’ve been reviewing. So I’ll say here what I can’t say there. This book does not deserve the one star rating it has at Amazon, courtesy of one disgruntled buyer. It’s well-written, charming and classically romantic. For those of us who pay to read romance and love spanking, it’s well worth the $2.99.
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You can see more from Loki Renard at her blog & website or on her Twitter feed.
Have you read any of Sarah McCarty’s Hell’s 8 books? Yum.
No, but thanks! I’ll be sure to look them up.
Thank you very much for this review, Serenity! I very much appreciate it! You’re quite right too, Miss Munroe is a straight spanking story, nothing more and nothing less. It is rather lonely on Amazon, where spanking tends to be mixed into other genres fairly often. (A sensible thing to do if you’re an author with a love of spanking and good reviews.)
Amazon can be a harsh place for authors, people leave negative reviews without any real thought all the time – even when their problem isn’t with the book as much as the retailer. People have left negative reviews on hard copies of books because delivery was slow, late, etc. It happens.
The review on this particular book was particularly unfair as it was purchased by a person who didn’t bother to so much as read a sample to familiarize themselves with a new author, but simply took Amazon’s (incorrect) category suggestions as gospel and then lashed out pretty viciously when they didn’t get what they imagined they were going to get.
It’s a problem especially for books in the fetish category because people, quite understandably, don’t want their Amazon accounts linked to niche material in that way. So these books are far more vulnerable to being buried by petty negative reviews by people who have no problem putting their names to trashing things.
Interestingly enough, sales of Miss Munroe took off after that negative review so I don’t think it was quite as harmful as it could have been. After all, the reviewer basically said ‘ugh yuck, it’s all about spanking, how boring’ which is about as good a negative review as I could have hoped for
Amazon.com would do a great deal to improve their reviews if they allowed people to use pseudonyms when they left their reviews. They could still insist that you have an account, but not that your account name appeared on every review you left. That way they could still track abuse easily, but also allow people some measure of anonymity.
Thanks again!
Loki
Welcome! I’m glad that the negative reviewer didn’t ruin sales, but I still think it sucks to have that be the top and only comment!
It might be worth it to have a second account just for erotica, except that they only let you use one account on a Kindle.
In terms of searching, I’d suggest Google Books (you can buy there, too, and there’s the option of buying from independent bookstores, but you can’t read the books on a Kindle.) You can find things you’re interested in reading, and get at least a few more reviews from people who wouldn’t leave one on Amazon because they don’t want their real name associated with it.
Hi there, JA and thanks for the Christmas card
I do have a second account on Amazon under the name Serenity Everton but it does not have a credit card linked to it and I have never made a purchase from it (and, as you noted, it’s not linked to my Kindle). As a result, I can’t post comments/reviews from that name. Actually, I could probably get the books on my Kindle that way by e-mailing the relevant file to my Kindle address, but that disrupts the indexing and sorting functions on the Kindle, so I try to avoid it. Also, uploaded content is not always available on the apps, although I think this has changed in the latest version.
Hugs,
s
Hi, I wholeheartedly agree. The privacy issues are indeed why I don’t leave detailed reviews on Amazon. Also I find their tags to be misleading in this category as well as others. So I have sussed out other retailers for ebooks once I find a Author I enjoy. LuLu, Blushing books etc. Really, book sites where its obvious what I am purchasing.( spanky stories with sprinkles and without, LOL) However, that said, I am also not tied to a Kindle for my reading. I prefer my phone or laptop as well. First time I have delurked here, have been reading here a while though.
Welcome Newt! To be honest, I like Amazon because it’s easy and the library is huge – everything is in one place, and I don’t have to skip from site to site and remember which author’s books are at which publisher’s storefront. Also, my parents and in-laws can give me gift cards that I can use to read erotica in a rather underhanded and sneaky fashion. That’s not to say that I shouldn’t be patronizing smaller booksellers, but, well, I generally buy print books in old-fashioned storefronts
.
s
I have a Kindle and a Nook. Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble do the same sloppy job of categorizing books by genre. They both lump lesbian and gay romance and mystery together. If you do a search for the latest in lesbian romance novels, what you get is combined with lesbian erotica from the mild to the most extreme…you know, the stuff that some perv straight guy wrote. Essentially, they make no differentiation between lesbian, gay, erotica, spanking, BDSM or porn. Apparently its all the same to them.
B&N allows members to write reviews as themselves or under an alias or as anonymous. Amazon does not. I sent a detailed email to Amazon regarding these issues, and suggested they put some real effort into sorting out the genre, and allowing reviewers to choose alternate identities. I also specifically indicated that they needed to review the reviews to separate true critiques from disgruntled consumer rants, as this was misleading to the consumer and an extreme disservice to the authors.
They responded by email, thanking me for bringing this to their attention as they are always trying to improve yada yada yada. I replied with the question, “What, if anything do you intend to do about it”.
Maybe, if they get enough of these emails, they might actually make an effort to address the problems.
Welcome sparrow! I, too, have asked Amazon (under my ‘real’ name) for better categorization, as well as allowing authors/publishers to categorize their writing instead of automating the process. I also got the automated ‘do not reply to this’ e-mail.
s
I’m a huge fan of erotica/adult literature myself.
I don’t find visual porn as stimulating due to the fact that I can’t really ‘place’ myself within it much like I can with a book.
Just recently I picked up ‘Girls Who Bite’ which is a collection of lesbian vampire erotica. I was so blown away with how well it was written. I went into it expecting trashy rom-nov writing and came out of it begging for more! Not sure if that’s up your alley, but do read the sample if you’d like.
I’ve read that! It was lovely. Lesbian erotica is not usually my genre of choice but every once in awhile it is just right.
s
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