Hmm, it looks like the issue of erotic romance being synonymous with electronic publishing is the recent topic of the week. Is that a bad thing?

The way I see it, electronic book readers like their ebooks to be hot. So what is the problem here? Too much sex embarrasses the genteel folks again? The readers want, the readers get... so what is the problem here?

I'm puzzled by this topic because to me, if I want mainstream romances, I know where to get them - at the bookstore. If I want raunchy reads, I know where to get them - it's time to fire up the browser and go shopping.

So, what are we discussing here? Do we want more mainstream stories in electronic format? But that will make the electronic publishing landscape similar to the mainstream landscape, won't it? Which brings me to a point I brought ages ago but was shut down at that time by dozens of future Triskelion authors - if we want to offer mainstream offerings in electronic format, the audience for those offerings will prefer to read them in dead tree book formats. They want Avon, Berkley, whatever romances. They don't want the trouble of downloading a suitable reader program to read those ebooks.

Currently, the people who are reading electronic books - and by this, I mean those published exclusively in electronic format first and not the electronic version of mainstream books published by Avon and company - don't necessarily overlap with those who read mainstream romances.

There are non-erotic electronic publishers out there. How is Hard Shell Word Factory doing? Awe-Struck seems to be doing fine. But these folks are quite under the radar because clearly the readers who go for ebooks like raunchier stories the way mainstream romance readers like their virgin schoolteachers, secret babies and Italian sheikhs.

Personally, I'd like to see the electronic publishing landscape to be less mainstream and cater more to niche stories. As I've always said, if I want to read a more straightforward mainstream romance, I may as well get a $6.99 Avon romance instead of paying $6.49 for a shorter book of similar theme from Cerridwen Press.