Monologuing about the Romance Industry

You know that Katy Perry song that became so popular? I kissed a girl and I liked it, my boyfriend was not about it. I kissed a girl, just to try it.

Well, Starship Cobra did their own version: I kissed a boy, and they liked it. Got all the honeys in the club excited. I kissed a boy, just to start shit. That homeboy was not about it.

Not that these songs are subtle at all, but they are very obvious messages about our culture and the slowly growing acceptability of homosexuality or bisexuality. 

You may be asking yourself, ‘This is interesting, but what’s the point? How does this relate to this blog?’

Fear not, I do have a point.

The romance industry, which includes romantica fiction, obviously has little qualms about sexuality in the books, depending on the author and the publisher. Ellora’s Cave was one of the first Romantica/Erotic Romance e-publishers. As the first, they’ve stayed on top of their game with interest to what readers want in their market. The sub-genres on this website list include futuristic/sci-fi, marital heat, romantic suspense, western, older woman & younger men, BDSM, comedy, Christmas, Rubenesque, and Interracial to name a few. There are even books in Spanish!

What I’ve found increasingly interesting over the past few years has been the homosexual coupling novels. Not even simply the ménage a tois (or more), but strictly same-sex pairings. However, one sex has been receiving much more interest than others. That would be the male/male pairings. On the Ellora’s Cave website, there 12 ebooks about lesbian romantic relationships. However there are 284 books that include guys being romantically involved (and some of those include a women in the book as a third romantic partner involved).

So, there are two possible reasons why there is a demand for gay-relationship romance/erotic romance novels.

1.) There are a lot more gay or bisexual men (in or out of the closet) that read romance or romantica than previously thought. I mean, it makes sense. Both men and women crave meaningful, romantic relationships (+ copious hot sex doesn’t hurt either). So, maybe there’s been a rise in gay/bi guys reading romantic.

OR

2.) Women (because over 90% of romance book readers are female) must really like reading about 2 guys getting it on. Two men are better than one? It sounds strange and some women may object to that entirely, but think about it as the double standard. Most men like seeing two women reacting to each other in a sexual manner. Does it not make some sort of warped sense that women are just as susceptible to viewing two men reacting to each other in a sexual manner a turn on as well?

I thought it the amount was intriguing. ‘Just wanted to share it. I don’t really get it, but the demand speaks for itself.