Are stories set in high school unpublishable?

EMaree

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At least in the niche market I write for, there are quite a few erotic books set in high school, put out by small presses. A lot of them involve gay HS kids coming out (and having sex). The anthology I just edited for my publisher had a story involving a HS teacher and a student (who was 18). So I think it depends on the publisher.


Seconding Veinglory -- I've seen similar works by erotica publishers but they're never sold as erotica. In all instances I've seen, it's under a separate LGBT imprint, YA imprint or New Adult imprint.

There's quite a few genres where high school kids can be shown having sex without the book being classified as erotica -- UNTEACHABLE is an example from a fellow AW member, and it's a New Adult novel that features explicit consensual sex between a high school student and a teacher. It was self-published via Amazon before being picked up by Simon & Schuster's Atria Publishing.

(It's also fantastically well-written.)
 
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Rechan

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I think you will find those book were placed outside the genre of erotica -- because the content of the obscenity statute does not vary by publisher
I checked two separate publisher sites, with two separate books set in high school. Both have big bold print saying "ADULTS ONLY due to sexual content." In fact, here's one such label, in big bold red letters:

[Title] is a romance novel intended for an adult audience only and contains some explicit sexual scenes of a primarily Male/Male nature. It is not for sale to persons under the age of 18.

This book is found on a site with an adult filter; if you hit the filter to hide all the adult books, this book disappears.

Neither publisher has any separate imprints for their books. Their erotica and non-erotica are printed under the same name, and they don't publish YA/NA/etc.
 
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Filigree

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AFAIK it's very much a publisher decision how to handle high-school-age sex. For self-publishers the trick seems to involve staying on the cautious side of Amazon's & other vendors' guidelines. Different genres and different publishers have completely different approaches to depicting underage sex. A writer's status can affect what they can get away with, too.

Rechan, I confess I don't know what you want from this thread. Validation? Support? Outcry and protests against the commercial publishers and vendor sites? Sometimes I'm against what I perceive as knee-jerk prohibitions on publication; other times, I understand why they are in place.

I'm not at a level where I can force change or skate by on sales figures. So I have to work - subversively or submissively - within the options I'm given.
 

Rechan

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Rechan, I confess I don't know what you want from this thread. Validation? Support? Outcry and protests against the commercial publishers and vendor sites? Sometimes I'm against what I perceive as knee-jerk prohibitions on publication; other times, I understand why they are in place.
I don't understand why you're asking me.

I replied to the OP, stating my opinion and my observation as to how publishers handle the issue, based on my experience. Others said I was wrong, and I responded with examples where I was right, to defend my earlier statement.

What makes you think I want something else?
 
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