Smut In Romance

Subscribe now As promised last week, I'll be covering the relatively current event of some authors taking the spice out of their romance books. Although I will be addressing the Elizabeth Wheatley debacle, this is mostly about my views on sex in literature and why I include sex in my own books, aside from good ol' fun. If you are new here, welcome! I hope you find this an enjoyable little corner of the internet :) For all of you not knee-deep in author drama, here is a rundown: You may better know Elizabeth Wheatley as 'Book Goblin' or from her incredibly viral romance tropes skits where she acts out the different romance genres like historical, contemporary, fantasy and paranormal. Over the years, she has gained a loyal readership and dedicated fanbase, quite specifically due to her nuanced and well-researched views on sexuality. She was a big proponent of having tactful, respectful, and healing sex scenes between her characters that were enticing but very character-driven. Many readers and authors have gotten to know her and were extremely fond of the original version of the series. Elizabeth, being a cult survivor who claimed to be battling with the pervasive purity culture that is still present in today's world, gave her works a perspective many appreciated. However, a couple of weeks ago she changed all of her books in the Deindrith's Assassin and Tears of the Wolf series to remove the spicy scenes and make them fade to black. Keep in mind these are PUBLISHED books, whose content has earned the reader base many small indies like myself would kill for. After the change, she sent out a notice to her newsletter subscribers notifying them, but that was already too late as many people who had purchased ebook copies already had the original product they paid for removed from there. Below are screenshots of the newsletter: She and her husband did race to fix the issue, and I believe the original copies are now being made available to redownload for a limited time. However, to make matters look worse, she put out a YouTube explanation video that… was in poor taste, to say the least. Here it is as well, I tried to find the YouTube link but couldn't: As a result, the community has become rather up in arms. With dozens of YouTube videos, Reddit threads, Instagram reels and more coming out discussing the issue. To me, the biggest issue here is the making of previous material unavailable for readers, resulting in a denial of the readership itself. Sure, they may have fixed the fact that those who paid for the original versions get to keep them, but it is still changing the books that originally grew the author's readership. It felt like a slap in the face to all those who have followed her rise and recommended her books to others. I personally would feel quite icky doing the same. All I can think of is like… how shitty would it be if one of my books took off and gained me a larger read base and then I just… changed it? It would be like me going back and drastically changing 'Soulbound' or 'Imperfect.' It just wouldn't be right, I think. Even when I do the 'Imperfect' rewrite into an OG, I intend to keep the original fanfic up because I don't think it would be fair to those who have followed me all the way here to have that pulled out from under them. The secondary concern I have is the trend of religious purity culture coming back, and whether intentionally or not, this author has contributed to it. The explanation video especially left a sour taste in my mouth as the whole 'cockmarks' section felt rather judgmental — like if you think it's funny or enjoy the sex in her books, or other books, then that is something to be actively prevented from happening… by the removal of said sex. The argument that 'it wasn't religious' followed by 'I prayed about it a lot' was also unconvincing, especially combined with the fact that those who come out of cults are more likely to get wrapped up in them again. Ultimately, I'm concerned for Elizabeth. I sincerely hope that she has a strong support system that is not religiously affiliated and is willing to stand by her side even if her readership and income diminish. I'm not asking anyone to support her if they disagree with her actions on this. Not at all. I, for one, will not be purchasing any more of her books. However, I AM asking everyone to be kind. It's far too easy to hate and throw rocks, especially when it's something that hurt you. However, doing so in this case will only be putting fuel on the fire. Being critical is fine — being derogatory is not. I also do want to make it clear that it is perfectly valid for authors to NOT want to write spice. I think if Elizabeth simply chose to continue writing her future books fade to black, we wouldn't have the problem. Authors should write what they are comfortable with and enjoy writing! My issue is with the retroactive editing and effective denial of the previous, sex-positive stance that betrays the reader base in this case. But tell me, what are your thoughts on this issue? Do you think everyone is just making too big a deal out of it, or is there more we should be discussing? Leave a comment In general, I do prefer my romance books with spice, bite me. That isn't to say that I won't read a book unless it has spice, or that I need it to be borderline erotica. But, considering both as a reader and a writer, I prefer long stretches in stories where the couples are actively together; it often feels 'incomplete' without it. I do understand this is a very non-ace perspective, as obviously there are people to whom sex may not be an important part of a romantic relationship, and that's perfectly valid. Perhaps we should get more representation of that in media as well. Currently, we are talking about my personal experience though. So, as a reader, I tend to prefer it but not demand it. As a writer, I typically always have at least a few sex scenes sprinkled throughout. My first fanfics were very self-indulgent on the fact I admit, with some scenes being there literally just because I was having fun writing smut. And what's wrong with that? But as I've grown as a writer, I find each sex scene less and less skippable and more and more integral to the characters. For example, Zoey and Ronan's sex scenes all function as sex-as-comfort to some degree, but also mark milestones in their relationship. The first scene is Ronan's commitment despite Zoey's reluctance. The second is their commitment to each other and the big soul bond, even as the world around them is more uncertain. The third marks when Zoey's reluctance is pushed away as they become more equal partners after she helps him in a dark time. And the last scene is the full circle where they both need each other in a low moment and comfort each other in their own ways. I don't feel like their story would have the same depth without those scenes, as I placed each of them in the book for a reason. I also very much wish to be the exact opposite force to purity and sex-repressive culture in today's world. I want my books to empower both women and men in their sexuality and identities. It's why I often write duo-POVs where we get to see both perspectives to some degree, and I hope to include more male-centric romances in my OG repertoire, such as the likes of 'Soulsearch' eventually. Lastly, I do think it's a bit ironic that we discuss how much sex there is in books in a genre aimed primarily at women. But I don't see many people giving G.R.R. Martin the same flak. It's natural and 'historically accurate' (in a medieval fantasy, really?) when it's just fantasy or speculative fiction of any sort. It gives a 'sex is only fine if it's not there to be enjoyed' vibe and I'm not about it. I said this in the last post, but I think this is a fair one to put here too. I will never retroactively edit previous works. It's a rule I have put on myself starting from my very first fic. If I put out 'updated' versions, older ones will ALWAYS remain available in their original format ***That includes the potential 'Imperfect' rewrite to OG, the fic will remain on Wattpad and AO3, and I will not be stubbing it. I include spice in my books for various reasons ranging from good ol' fun to very important character discovery, development, and symbolism. I do not foresee ever going away from that as it's a big part of what makes writing interesting to me. Unless I write something in a different genre like mystery in which romantic relationships aren't the focus. I will always aim to keep this an inclusive and loving community that is supportive of all gender, sex, and sexuality identities, does not judge or put anyone down for their sexual preferences, or shame for kinks, preferences, and history, as well as work on improving representation and diversity in my own works with each instalment I'm almost done with the cursory line edit, and the book will be going out to beta readers within the week. So, next week, will be the cover reveal! I've been working with a lovely artist who reached out to me concerning this project specifically. We are currently finalising the last details on the cover, so it should be ready! Thank you, everyone, for being here! Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.