Often in the business of working with small, independent book publishers (as I do), the publisher will impress upon the author to garner quotes from various sources with which to grace the book’s cover. These quotes are intended to help book sales, give browsers an idea of what someone else thought about it, and the sources of the quotes round out the book’s suggested audience. Big publishers do this too, but with small ones, the onus is on the author to select quoters, and solicit the quotes personally.
So for The Ultimate Guide to Adult Videos, available in about one month, I gathered together a not-short list of interested parties who I felt would give a good varied perspective on the weighty tome. I gave each of the quoters a caveat: only if they liked the book were they encouraged to give a quote. So the minute galleys (photocopies of the book in final layout, with all the art) were sent, to my happy surprise, the man I sent one to at Playboy loved it and immediately sent me more praise than I imagined. My head was so big from the compliments, I could barely squeeze out of my office cubicle at Good Vibrations.
But when I got back from my ill-fated weekend in the desert, I had a non-lovely, cold, curt and short email form someone I’d sent the galley to. This woman works for a big, well-known porn industry magazine, created by and for the world of mainstream adult, and is sold only at adult stores. She was very upset, and said she wouldn’t be giving me any endorsement, and provided her personal phone number. So I called he to find out what her issues were, and to garner some feedback.
As it turns out, she was quite cagey on specifics. She said there were problems, but wouldn’t tell me what they were, and the ones she did specify seemed odd — she said I should have included titles that (when I checked) still aren’t available for consumers, and complained that I mentioned her magazine’s website’s pop-up. But what really bothered her about the whole book, the big main problem, and why she only read the first hundred pages, was that the book "is too focused on the reader being a woman."
I realized that I probably shouldn’t tell her that the book was written primarily for couples that include women. Can you imagine my amazement to hear this coming from a woman, nonetheless a prominent female editor in the adult industry? Well, I’m not totally surprised — the book is a highly critical examination of porn from the perspective of a consumer — a female consumer. I don’t expect anyone who thinks that only men watch porn to like my book. I just can’t believe that someone who promotes porn for a living (as she does) would virulently overlook a huge and growing consumer market, as seen in this recent article by the Sydney Morning Herald about the growing number of female porn consumers, not to mention the explosive growth of sites like mine, and women-owned sex shops (like my employer) that are thriving on a female porn viewership.
I scratch my head, and await more comments. Meanwhile, here’s what Mike Osterowski, Correspondent at Playboy Magazine said:
*Violet Blue’s chapters on "Safer Sex in Porn" and "Porn Terminology and Sex Act Glossary" are alone worth the cost of the book. This is highly intelligent, incredibly up-to-date information, some of which actually could save your life. Worth reading, worth buying, worth keeping. This book contains more contemporary resources and current information on adult videos and sex than any I’ve seen in a long time. Violet Blue is fast becoming the goddess of "Ultimate Guides," and this one (her third) is her best to date.*
