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Writing and Publishing Sex

by Thomas Kilduff

Writing about sex and intimacy can be a taboo yet tantalizing activity in 21st century America. Writers Life Moderator Charles Coe observed, "You no longer run the risk of being called pornographers, but you still have to deal with the sophomoric attitudes of the American public." Sex literature used to be quite a lucrative business but is now losing its luster in the free-for-all forum of the confessional Internet (eg. www.literotica.com). Although financial support for sex writing may be hard to get, there is a personal and creative liberation that comes with creating any erotic literature; be it in the vein of Anais Nin, marriage counseling lit or how-to manuals. Three writers − Gina Ogden (The Heart and Soul of Sex), Sue Katz (blog: www.suekatz.com) and Ron Suresha (Bi Guys: Firsthand Fiction for Bisexual Men and Their Admirers) share their experiences writing about sex, plus tips for writers.

Gina Ogden, Ph.D., is a sex therapist, researcher and author of the only nationwide survey on sexuality and spirituality. One of her books Women who Love Sex "looks at a curious paradox; it's okay for them to say 'no' − but not 'yes' to pleasure." Ogden believes and writes about how there is so much in sexuality beyond the physical − "it also involves how you think, how you feel and how you reach out spiritually." She has written two other books, The Heart and Soul of Sex and the forthcoming The Return of Desire (due in bookstores summer of 2008). Contrary to the popular belief that the young are more sexually liberated, Ogden found, in the course of her research, that sexual satisfaction increases with every life decade. More surprisingly, in review of over 750 sex surveys, Ogden was dismayed to find that they all asked the same questions, mainly pertaining to frequency of intercourse and the number of sexual partners. So she pioneered a sexual survey that asked about spirituality and self-esteem and attracted an unprecedented 3,810 respondents. Ogden has been invited to be a guest lecture at international prestigious universities to speak on this matter.

Sue Katz, editor of the National Writers Union's Boston eNews, is busy penning a sexual opus of sorts called Mature Heat, a book about people over 45 and their involvement in kinky and alternative sex scenes. Katz said she "came out of the queer struggles and the sex wars in the 70's and 80's" and that she had recently fallen in love with a man at age 55, which in and of itself, was "a kinky experience." Her Mature Heat manuscript has met a lot of praise but a lot of rejection which she bases on four unspoken reasons. First: conglomerization. In her mind, publishing consolidation has resulted in "no taste, no daring." The second: in the process of mergers, senior editors are let go and young people, fresh off their MFA experience, are hired: Katz believes that some of these young people cannot handle a book about baby-boomers having sex because it reminds them of their parents. Reason number three, says Katz: "The increasing restrictions of the Patriot Act − the regulations around porn are terrifying yet unclear" which has put a damper on honest writing. The fourth reason, Katz believes, is that editors no long edit, they commission, which results in less attention being paid to the craft and more attention paid to the business transaction. She maintains her sense of humor on her blog www.suekatz.com and jokes "I've made inroads with the Leninists" on sites such as the wildly popular www.alternet.org.

Ron Suresha is the national expert of bear culture. "Bears" are known in the GLBT world as big, hairy icons of masculinity who reject the effete, pretty-boy stereotype of gay men. The New London (CN) writer has written Bears on Bears and the Lambda Literary Award finalist, Bi Men: Coming Out, and edited fiction collections, Bearotica, Bear Lust and Bi Guys: Firsthand Fiction. His path to publication began in Boston when he worked for Shambala, a publishing company that deals primarily with Eastern Studies. He also got involved with the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Literary Review and started attending the LAMBDA gay writers' OutWrite conference. After a brief stint in San Francisco where bear culture was born, he returned to Boston and noticed that no one had done a good trade book on bears, so he wrote a book proposal. Thus Bears on Bears was born and Suresha was off on a 3 dozen city tour where he had "more sex than book sales." Suresha's latest project is involvement in the 60th anniversary of the Kinsey report and he is editing material with a bisexual perspective.