The erotic saga continues...

Several years passed until I decided to have another go at doing something with Erotiquette in 2023. This time, I thought, I would do it properly. Find an agent. Find a publisher. Swallow my fears.

First step: find an agent. Do you know how hard it is to find an agent for erotic fiction in Australia? I looked at all the lists of professional agents, of whom there are not that many, and none of whom listed erotica as an area of interest. Now I know there have been some Australian authors published in that genre, so how did they do it?

I decided to look abroad. Did some research. Even some agents who listed erotica as a welcome area did not include examples of this kind of successful publication on their sites. Were they really interested? I tried one that looked promising, sophisticated and professional. No, they didn't want it, and sent back suggestions for writing lessons. Well there were my worst fears confirmed.

Maybe an agent was the wrong way to go for this kind of novel and I should go straight to the publisher. I was finding it embarrassing, wondering what these agents thought of this author who wrote about sex. I imagined shock, allegations of deviance.

Again I found Australia wanting, and decided to look for a publisher overseas. Many weren't taking new manuscripts. Many looked inactive. Others did not seem to be publishing the kind of novel I had written, wanting either more hard core erotica or a more romantic story. I tried several, mainly in the United States. No, not quite their thing, though some were encouraging. Or I didn't have a strong social media profile.

After a discouraging almost-year of this journey, I decided to go back to where I had started and stick to self-publishing. I did another few rounds of editing, created a revised version. All that was left to do now was to submit it.