The problem with selling Vampires in Erotic Horror

[MillieDynamite]

For general publication, Erotic Horror at Amazon or Smashwords can become difficult. First, vampires feed on their family first, then move away from family (as there are fewer and fewer of them) to the general population.

Posting at Smashwords and Amazon forbids incest in erotica. However, they have no problem with it in non-erotic literature, apparently, if the sex scenes aren’t too graphic. How you determine too graphic, I’m not sure.

Smashwords rejected my story, Baptism in Blood, for wide distribution, which has been in Select at Amazon for years, because it has what SW deemed pseudo-incest. I put it back into Select immediately.

Mary (theWollstonecraftwoman) had somewhat the same issue with her tale, A Small Sacrifice, because destroying a vampire by pushing him into the sunlight after sex was snuff. They pulled her story down within a few hours of its publication.

I’d love to write about a vampire from the first kiss through her consuming her family for food. But, as the act of the vampire feeding is erotic, drinking the blood of the sister is incest and might violate the underage rule as well.

What is the sexiest thing you love, that you can’t explore elsewhere, or at times, here?

 

[Emotional]

I love a good vampire story myself, but not a big incest reader.

 

[MillieDynamite]

My story wasn't incest. The vampire was only the mother in the sense she brought them over. They were only brothers and sisters because it was a coven because she was their mistress. It's clear when you read it, but maybe not so clear with a glance-through.

 

[Euphony]

What is the sexiest thing you love, that you can’t explore elsewhere, or at times, here?

"Hoboken squat cobbler."

It’s when my man sits in pie….and he wiggles around.

 

[onehitwanda]

"Hoboken squat cobbler."

It’s when my man sits in pie….and he wiggles around.

Sir, this is not the thread you are looking for.

 

[Zenith77]

Smashwords and Amazon forbids incest in erotica. However, they have no problem with it in non-erotic literature, apparently, if the sex scenes aren’t too graphic. How you determine too graphic, I’m not sure.

Smashwords rejected my story, Baptism in Blood, for wide distribution, which has been in Select at Amazon for years, because it has what SW deemed pseudo-incest.

...destroying a vampire by pushing him into the sunlight after sex was snuff.

Rules that are inconsistent, poorly-defined and subjective.

Maddening.

Is it snuff when the vampire was technically dead before the sex began? Get it unbanned as snuff and re-banned as necrophilia.

 

[KeithD]

First, vampires feed on their family first,

First time i've heard that asserted. I write vampires (and get them published in the marketplace). None of the ones I write interact sexually with relatives.

 

[lovecraft68]

Rules that are inconsistent, poorly-defined and subjective.

Maddening.

Is it snuff when the vampire was technically dead before the sex began? Get it unbanned as snuff and re-banned as necrophilia.

To be clear Smashwords has two ways to publish. On their platform they will publish just about anything as long as you properly identify the content, but the premium catalog which sends books to Apple, B&N, Kobo and others has stricter guidelines

On another note the first line in your post perfectly describes literotica, so if nothing else its preparing you for the publishing world

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Sir, this is not the thread you are looking for.

Sneaky Star Wars hijack, I sense in you

 

[Euphony]

Sneaky Star Wars hijack, I sense in you

"S'all Good, Man."

 

[MillieDynamite]

First time i've heard that asserted. I write vampires (and get them published in the marketplace). None of the ones I write interact sexually with relatives.

It is in the vampire mythos. I don't know about the games and such. But it is clearly established in vampire lore they feed on their relatives. Even so, there was no incest in the story.

 

[MillieDynamite]

If you can plow through it, you can learn a great deal about vampires from the book, The Vampire, His Kith, and Kin, by Montague Summers, first published in 1928. He was a supposedly defrocked Catholic priest. He examined the legends in great detail and seemed to believe them.

 

[djrip]

It is in the vampire mythos. I don't know about the games and such. But it is clearly established in vampire lore they feed on their relatives. Even so, there was no incest in the story.

Wasn't there a connection with hereditary disease, like one of the recently dead relatives is the reason we have all these people getting sick the same way. I do think I've heard of that lore, but interesting that it doesn't seem to carry into any of the vampire literature I can think of.

 

[lovecraft68]

If you can plow through it, you can learn a great deal about vampires from the book, The Vampire, His Kith, and Kin, by Montague Summers, first published in 1928. He was a supposedly defrocked Catholic priest. He examined the legends in great detail and seemed to believe them.

I have one of his books; The history of Witchcraft and Demonology.
As for the 'family' problem in the story maybe call her mistress instead of mother and use 'clan' instead of family.

 

[KeithD]

It is in the vampire mythos. I don't know about the games and such. But it is clearly established in vampire lore they feed on their relatives. Even so, there was no incest in the story.

Lots of things are in someone's version of the vampire mythos, which is just that--made up myth. Beyond sucking blood, you can have your vampire do whatever you want. I do. As I posted I don't recall ever encountering that "requirement."

If you want to believe it you can just have all of your stories happen when they've gone beyond family.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I want to share something with you vampire nerds.

This is an old movie that used to give me nightmares when I was a kid. It is based on a true story about a person who became a legendary vampire in 18th century Serbia. As in the movie, there is a watermill where he actually attacked his victims, the legend says.

 

[lovecraft68]

Wasn't there a connection with hereditary disease, like one of the recently dead relatives is the reason we have all these people getting sick the same way. I do think I've heard of that lore, but interesting that it doesn't seem to carry into any of the vampire literature I can think of.

HP Lovecraft explored something like that in The Shunned House which played a bit fast and loose with the Mercy Brown legend

 

[MillieDynamite]

In the 1979 version of Dracula, Van Helsing's daughter tried to seduce him and feed on him. In 1958's Horror of Dracula, Lucy went after her brother. She also tried to feed on the maid's daughter. It's suggested, if not spelled out, in the book Dracula, and other works in the 19th century.

From the Britannica on line, "Europe in times of disease, and people lacking a modern understanding of infectious disease came to believe that those who became vampires preyed first upon their own families."

Britannica on line

There are many more sources which state this.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I'm not saying I have to write it that way. I'm saying if it is a mainstream book and not in erotica, you can write it that way, just as you may write about child abuse, rape, serial rapist, and pedophiles. You can even have those parts erotic, as long as you don't brand the story as such. It also can't be the thrust of the story. Pardon the thrust pun! But Lolita on Literotica, which has no graphic sex, can't be published here.

 

[lovecraft68]

In the 1979 version of Dracula, Van Helsing's daughter tried to seduce him and feed on him. In 1958's Horror of Dracula, Lucy went after her brother. She also tried to feed on the maid's daughter. It's suggested, if not spelled out, in the book Dracula, and other works in the 19th century.

From the Britannica on line, "Europe in times of disease, and people lacking a modern understanding of infectious disease came to believe that those who became vampires preyed first upon their own families."

Britannica on line

There are many more sources which state this.

In a lot of horror novels their first kill tends to be family because they're close.
The issue you have here is the minute the word erotic appears they look at everything differently

Just do what that slob Martin did and call it fantasy and you can have incest, rape, under age sex and whatever else you want.

 

[KeithD]

I don't share the need for my vampires to suck on their family (other than financially).

 

[AlinaX]

Drinking blood can be erotic, but it's not necessarily erotic. A newly turned vampire attacking those physically nearest, whether a lover or a friend or a family member, is certainly a recurring and emotional theme, but to make it erotic is an odd choice.

One problem I have with many modern vampire tales is that they try to wash the horror away and have only eroticism.

 

[Blind_Justice]

@AlinaX And that's a damn pity. Taking away the animalistic, need-driven hunter means taking away so much potential for storytelling. But many modern vamp tales are poorly done romances too lazy to do the legwork. Vampire charm gaze is no substitute for character motivation and relationship building.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I don't share the need for my vampires to suck on their family (other than financially).

Which really isn't what I was asking. I wanted to know if there is something you want to include in erotica that you can't because of the rules governing it here or elsewhere.