My male friend wants to write 'adultery erotica' as he called it

Talking to a good friend at the pub about the ups and downs of being a romance writer he told me he wants to write 'adultery erotica' and asked me if there's a market. Is there such a thing as 'adultery erotica'? I have no idea since it's not something I'm interested in (not making judgements, here, just saying it's not my cuppa). Basically, he wants to write these stories from male POV, with -ahem- none of the "romance crap" we women write, and loads of nookie. Simply put, hetero stories about married/in relationship guys doing it with the nanny, secretary, sis-in-law...whoever (with or without wife/partner consent).

Any advice I can pass on? I told him I think women wouldn't be interested, but he's s positive men would buy his stories. Is he best to write and then self-pub? I think he wants to earn extra income.
Thanks.

veinglory said:

IMHO 'adultery' alone doesn't tell me what the source of emotional satisfaction is in the scenario. There are various relevant niches including cheating wives, revenge adultery, reconciliation. They are a smallish niche on kindle.

I would suggest helping him work out the emotional core of the stories (yes, even porn stories tend to satisfy some emotional impulse to break rules, punish wrong doers etc), Literotica helps show what themes have some popularity. if he is writing 'cheating husband' that seems to be one of the smaller niches probably because it is not seen as terribly transgressive and is male focused/hetero.

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Sounds like good advice to me. I'm seeing him next week and will let him know. I looked up Literotica website (wow, they have all sorts of stuff on there). I did tell him that readers--and I think men are included but hey, maybe I'm wrong--want an *emotionally* satisfying read even if it's mainly sex based. And I mentioned adultery is frowned on. I know 'cause I asked this question here on AW, and then asked several e-publishers about one-off incidence of adultery in a historical I wrote a while back. Thanks for the info, I'll pass it on.

sohalt said:

You also find a lot of that in high-brow literature. Who knows, if he ups his game he could be the next Roth or Franzen.

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I'll admit to ignorance. I haven't a clue who those writers are but I've made a note to pass on the names, thanks!

veinglory said:

Basically there is a lot of what they call domestic life literary fiction with infidelity themes. It may or may not be explicit in parts.

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Hmmm, I don't *think* this is what he wants to write. And come to think of it I saw somewhere that Paolo Coelho's new book is about adultery. Or something. But my friend, as far as I could make out, wants to write raunchy stuff with guys playing away from home. Not literary, but I'll put it to him. He used to be a freelance journalist as a first career before he worked for 25 years in marketing, but approaching retirement he's looking to earn some extra income. Thanks all.

Thanks for the input! We had another pint or three last weekend, and my friend is determined to write his adultery kink stories and see what happens. I passed on the info about looking for male-only markets, and that most erotica readers are women and won't like the 'man commits adultery aspect' (maybe?). He's on board with that, though he thinks he might be better with self-pubbing. Thanks again, AWers!

LOOOOOL! Flying semen? What, with wings? Oh, God, the imagery! *must stop laughing*. I'll mention it. Actually, I'll go and check out this book because I find it odd, from your description, that it would be labelled 'literary'. But hey, what do I know?