With print publishing on the decline in the last few years thanks to a stormy economic environment, the publishing industry is now booming with new readers—who want their books sexy.
Erotic literature sales have risen over the last three years, as much as 56% percent according to Karen Auerbach, Kensington’s director of publicity. Even the tried-and-true romance market has continued to get more explicit to match the demands of an ever-increasing audience looking for more depictions of same-sex pairings and sexual experimentation.
Erotica is even branching out to grope under-appreciated audiences, with the first Braille adult novel hitting the shelves. The book Tactile Mind, is designed with raised-relief images of softcore sex for those readers who are visually impaired. While even Playboy has a Braille edition, this is the first book for the blind that includes pictures.
But, don’t expect many of these books to be hitting the public library anytime soon. Libraries are already dealing with controversy over less explicit titles, like the Gossip Girl series. One Florida mom has refused to return the books her teenaged daughter checked out for fear of them returning to circulation and corrupting other youths with references to sex and foul language.