Nearly six years ago, I started writing erotica...
It was just for fun. The books were light on the story, heavy on the sex -- quite on purpose.
And I was shocked when the stories began to sell like crazy. People apparently liked the wicked little fantasies circling inside my mind.
Then, somewhere along the way, I made the mistake of looking at review sites.
"Not enough story"
"Pathetic"
"Just an excuse for writing sex" (Duh, that's EXACTLY what it was intended to be...)
Sadly, I listened to those voices. I started adding more story. Limiting the amount of sex. Trying to find a path in between what I enjoyed writing and what I thought people wanted.
Sales of my books slowly reduced over time. And sales, to me, are the best indicator that people like what I'm doing.
It seems I've lost a lot of my original readers, the ones who had been buying and reading my hot little fun fantasies. Lost among the bears and the mpreg and all the newfound storylines...
I want to go back to doing those fun, hot little stories.
Now, to be fair, I've really, really enjoyed the stories I've woven since then. Some of them have been really, really good. It's allowed me to stretch my writing skills and hopefully become a better writer for it. So I don't want to lose that outlet, either. I've built a slightly different following through my Bear Mountain books and the spin-offs.
The only way I can conceive of doing BOTH is to create a new pen name for the hotter stuff.
So, in the near future, there will be books that are listed as "Kelex Writing As XANDER KANE."