Erotic literature: Encyclopedia II - Erotic literature - Internet fiction

Erotic literature - Internet fiction

The internet has ushered in a new era in erotic literature, allowing readers to indulge private fantasies without having to face a store clerk or mail carrier. Online bookstores now legally carry a wide range of quality erotic literature.

Other websites serve as hubs for non-commercial story distribution, offering readers the opportunity to become authors, anonymously writing and posting their own stories. Most online authors adopt a colorful pseudonym (and can develop cult fan followings within their genre), though a small number use (or claim to use) their real name. Among transgendered authors, it's common practice to adopt a feminine alter-ego, though even there it's not unheard of for a writer to use his own first name.

The explosion of quantity in erotic literature has not translated into an equal rise in quality. Some stories do have serious literary merit and perhaps are even written by accomplished, published writers using pseudonyms to avoid having their commercial name associated with salacious material. However, the sheer numbers of erotic stories now being written and archived means the majority will be average or below-average in quality. The advantage of such quantity is that people with a very specialised sexual taste can find at least some fiction that caters to their taste. Simple rating systems can help a site's users rate stories for quality.

Over the years, many non-profit sites have limited themselves to a particular sub-genre (or fetish). Many websites have started, and then vanished (or have never been updated or properly maintained). Similarly, many part-work stories have been started but then never progressed beyond "part 1". Just a few of the more widely known free sites that have endured over the years include:

• The Alt.Sex.Stories Text Repository, or ASSTR, began as a small FTP site in 1996 for tabulating and hosting the output of A.S.S.'s members. It has since expanded into a free hosting site, similar to GeoCities or Angelfire but specializing in erotica. It now hosts the erotic literature of nearly two thousand authors, including some of the biggest and most well-loved in the field.
• The Authors of Literary Erotica webring, hosted by webzine "Mind Caviar," is a collection of websites posting erotica that "must have appeared in at least one legitimate publication, either paying or non-paying, on-line or printed in hard copy."
• The Nifty Erotic Stories Archive has archived homosexual/alternative-sexuality erotica since 1993 and permits non-published amateurs to submit, provided the story does not portray graphic violence, abusive situations, etc., but it does permit stories depicting sexual activities among minors and between minors and adults. As of 2005, "Nifty" archived more than 82,000 stories.
• Fictionmania, founded in late 1997, archives the works of any writers (amateur or professional), provided the story involves transgendered erotica. In 2002, Fictionmania averaged 161 new story submissions each month.
• Open-submissions sites such as Literotica and Storiesonline will accept and display almost anything submitted to them. Literotica, in particular, is almost certainly the most popular erotic text site in existence, with nearly 25,000 registered authors (as of late 2005) contributing close to 90,000 stories, poems, essays, illustrated stories and audio stories in a huge variety of categories.

With the advent of podcasting and MP3s, it is possible that erotic literature will find a new markets in the form of an internet-based market in downloadable audio books.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Internet fiction", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki