If you’d like to write erotica but struggle with knowing where to start, this book is for you. Do you have a talent for writing and a steamy imagination that you’re ready to explore? Romance and erotica writers are carving out a whole new career based on self-publishing, taking their slice of an industry worth billions of dollars. Have you ever thought you might join them? Whether you want to write for pocket-money or more, How to Write Erotica is a great guide to getting started. Calista Foxton is a new erotic fiction writer. This book is a record of all the things she wishes she’d known at the beginning. From how to select your market to promoting your story, Calista walks you through every step of the way with her personal insight and plenty of practical tips that any budding author can learn from. How to Write Erotica includes choosing your kinks, avoiding procrastination, structuring your story, creating a cover, publishing your first e-book and a whole lot more. There are readers waiting for the story you’re about to write. If you need a little gentle encouragement and lots of hints on starting out on the road to being the next E L James, this book is for you. Why not read and get started right away? Read more

The 2004 winner of the Yale Younger Poets competition: a powerful, confessional, erotic collection   Finalist for the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry   “Siken writes about love, desire, violence, and eroticism with a cinematic brilliance and urgency that makes this one of the best books of contemporary poetry.”—Victoria Chang, Huffington Post   Richard Siken’s Crush, selected as the 2004 winner of the Yale Younger Poets prize, is a powerful collection of poems driven by obsession and love. Siken writes with ferocity, and his reader hurtles unstoppably with him. His poetry is confessional, gay, savage, and charged with violent eroticism. In the world of American poetry, Siken’s voice is striking.   In her introduction to the book, competition judge Louise Glück hails the “cumulative, driving, apocalyptic power, [and] purgatorial recklessness” of Siken’s poems. She notes, “Books of this kind dream big. . . . They restore to poetry that sense of crucial moment and crucial utterance which may indeed be the great genius of the form.” Read more

Quarter 2: Erotic Magic (April - June)Welcome to Illuminate, a quarterly planner series designed to guide you through the year with clarity, intention, and radiant self-discovery. Each quarter focuses on a unique area of magic—magic every woman already possesses. These cycles aren’t just themes; they are portals, intentionally woven into the rhythms of seasons and lunations, inviting you to explore and embody your power at its most potent moments.The second planner in the series, Erotic Magic, guides you through the spring quarter (April through June). This is the season of aliveness and desire, where pleasure becomes the force that fuels vitality, magnetism, and deep connection. Through 13 weeks of archetypal personas—vibrant energies intended to spark curiosity and connect you to your inner wisdom—you’ll explore the profound power of pleasure as a source of creativity and transformation.New this year: Unlock exclusive insights through QR codes that lead to a private podcast feed, where Kasia guides you through the planner’s new features and sections with her signature wisdom. Plus, access a live online community where breakthroughs are shared, personas are explored, and victories are celebrated. Together, we awaken into the fullness of life. Read more

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“America’s favorite poet.”—The Wall Street JournalFrom the two-term Poet Laureate of the United States Billy Collins comes his first volume of new and selected poems in twelve years. Aimless Love combines fifty new poems with generous selections from his four most recent books—Nine Horses, The Trouble with Poetry, Ballistics, and Horoscopes for the Dead. Collins’s unmistakable voice, which brings together plain speech with imaginative surprise, is clearly heard on every page, reminding us how he has managed to enrich the tapestry of contemporary poetry and greatly expand its audience. His work is featured in top literary magazines such as The New Yorker, Poetry, and The Atlantic, and he sells out reading venues all across the country. Appearing regularly in The Best American Poetry series, his poems appeal to readers and live audiences far and wide and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. By turns playful, ironic, and serious, Collins’s poetry captures the nuances of everyday life while leading the reader into zones of inspired wonder. In the poet’s own words, he hopes that his poems “begin in Kansas and end in Oz.” Touching on the themes of love, loss, joy, and poetry itself, these poems showcase the best work of this “poet of plenitude, irony, and Augustan grace” (The New Yorker).Envoy   Go, little book, out of this house and into the world,   carriage made of paper rolling toward town bearing a single passenger beyond the reach of this jittery pen and far from the desk and the nosy gooseneck lamp.   It is time to decamp, put on a jacket and venture outside, time to be regarded by other eyes, bound to be held in foreign hands.   So off you go, infants of the brain, with a wave and some bits of fatherly advice:   stay out as late as you like, don’t bother to call or write, and talk to as many strangers as you can.Praise for Aimless Love   “[Billy Collins] is able, with precious few words, to make me cry. Or laugh out loud. He is a remarkable artist. To have such power in such an abbreviated form is deeply inspiring.”—J. J. Abrams, The New York Times Book Review   “His work is poignant, straightforward, usually funny and imaginative, also nuanced and surprising. It bears repeated reading and reading aloud.”—The Plain Dealer   “Collins has earned almost rock-star status. . . . He knows how to write layered, subtly witty poems that anyone can understand and appreciate—even those who don’t normally like poetry. . . . The Collins in these pages is distinctive, evocative, and knows how to make the genre fresh and relevant.”—The Christian Science Monitor   “Collins’s new poems contain everything you've come to expect from a Billy Collins poem. They stand solidly on even ground, chiseled and unbreakable. Their phrasing is elegant, the humor is alive, and the speaker continues to stroll at his own pace through the plainness of American life.”—The Daily Beast   “[Collins’s] poetry presents simple observations, which create a shared experience between Collins and his readers, while further revealing how he takes life’s everyday humdrum experiences and makes them vibrant.”—The Times Leader Read more

“The Walt Whitman of Los Angeles.”—Joyce Carol Oates, bestselling author“He brought everybody down to earth, even the angels.”—Leonard Cohen, songwriterThe Days Run Away Like Wild Horses is a book of poems written by Charles Bukowski for Jane, his first love. These poems explore a more emotional side to Charles Bukowski. Read more

A marine biologist’s “funny and entertaining” look at the mating rituals of undersea creatures (Miami Herald).Forget the Kama Sutra. When it comes to inventive sex acts, just look to the sea. There we find the elaborate mating rituals of armored lobsters; giant right whales engaging in a lively threesome while holding their breath; full moon sex parties of groupers and daily mating blitzes by blue-headed wrasse. Deep-sea squid perform inverted 69s, while hermaphrodite sea slugs link up in giant sex loops. From doubly endowed sharks to the maze-like vaginas of some whales, Sex in the Sea is a journey unlike any other to explore the staggering ways life begets life beneath the waves.Beyond a deliciously voyeuristic excursion, the book also connects the timeless topic of sex with the timely issue of sustainable oceans—revealing how overfishing, climate change, and pollution are disrupting the creative procreation that drives the wild abundance of life in the sea, and how we can promote successful sex in the sea.“Hardt’s writing is often spectacular at describing the rituals and courtships of underwater reproduction.” —The New Republic“Weird [and] excellent.” —GQ“An oceanographic Kinsey Report.” —O, The Oprah Magazine“[Readers] will find much to learn in this well-written and delightful study.” —Library Journal (starred review) Read more

The Love Codes Trilogy: Book I is a poetic journey into the heart of existence-a collection of soul-stirring reflections written for those who seek a deeper connection to themselves, to others, and to the natural world.This book is for you if you've ever felt: - A quiet ache for something more soulful, more real. - The weight of the world's suffering without knowing how to carry it. - A longing to reconnect-with stillness, with beauty, with love itself.Through this book, readers will: - Discover a new way to see love-not as a fleeting emotion, but as a steady force that holds all things. - Explore the spiritual practice of embracing both light and darkness as essential parts of wholeness. - Experience a deeper connection to nature as a living, breathing teacher of love and unity. - Learn to listen inwardly, gently dissolving inherited thoughts and cultural conditioning. - Find comfort and affirmation in their own sensitivity, intuition, and humanity. - Receive poetry that can be returned to again and again as meditations, mantras, or invitations to stillness. - Embrace the concept of radical love as a path of healing, alchemy, and becoming.This poetry collection is a call to awaken to the love that already lives inside you. To remember your innate worth. To hold space for joy, grief, mystery, and meaning-and to let the sacred rhythm of life move through you, one breath, one word, one moment at a time. Read more

The Beauty Of The Husband is an essay on Keats’s idea that beauty is truth, and is also the story of a marriage. It is told in 29 tangos. A tango (like a marriage) is something you have to dance to the end.This clear-eyed, brutal, moving, darkly funny book tells a single story in an immediate, accessible voice–29 “tangos” of narrative verse that take us vividly through erotic, painful, and heartbreaking scenes from a long-time marriage that falls apart. Only award-winning poet Anne Carson could create a work that takes on the oldest of lyrical subjects–love–and make it this powerful, this fresh, this devastating. Read more

We take the edible trappings of flirtation for granted: chocolate covered strawberries and romance, oysters on the half shell and desire, the eggplant emoji and a suggestive wink. But why does it feel so natural for us to link food and sexual pleasure? Rachel Hope Cleves explores the long association between indulging in good food and an appetite for naughty sex, from the development of the Parisian restaurant as a place for men to meet with prostitutes and mistresses, to the role of sexual outlaws like bohemians, new women, lesbians and gay men in creating epicurean culture in Britain and the United States. Taking readers on a gastronomic journey from Paris and London to New York, Chicago and San Francisco, Lustful Appetites reveals how this preoccupation changed the ways we eat and the ways we are intimate―while also creating stigmas that persist well into our own twenty-first century. Read more

Here is the good stuff: poetry written by women that actually excites the thinking reader. This anthology, spanning work of the last 75 years, will broaden its readers’ notions of what defines erotic poetry. For what is more intriguing, more satisfying than strong, self-assured writing? This groundbreaking anthology includes some of our most powerful women writers―among them Sharon Olds, Elizabeth Alexander, Anne Sexton, Dorianne Laux, Denise Levertov, Adrienne Rich, Lucille Clifton, and Louise Glück. These poets fully demonstrate that, far from being prurient, the erotic can permeate even the most mundane aspects of life, from reading a book to buying clothes. At the same time, the collection affirms the enormous meaningfulness of poetry―its ability to express the inexpressible and to illuminate the most private and intimate of human experiences. The poets included here represent different ethnicities, geographies, social classes, and sexual preferences. The only characteristic they share is that they are women writing about sex. Read more

An astonishing debut poetry collection wrestling with desire, vulnerability, sex work and money from writer and poet Erin Taylor.Erin Taylor’s Bimboland is an astute and confident debut, balancing, in their blistering and tender style, their life as a sex worker and socialist politics. The poems are full of desire and vulnerability, insight and calls to action, both personal and societal. You can get lost in the insatiable pace of their words and the way in which you feel, as they feel, “powerful yet somehow / nothing.” Read more

The complete book of Chinese characters that covers every aspect of, and therefore answers all the questions one might have for, these fascinating ancient language symbols from script evolution to colour-illustrated biographies including proper Stroke sequences and from the complete Compound anatomy to the trinity of Sounds, Semantics, and Synopses. This series of books is the ultimate guide and reference for first-time learners as well as masters of the language. It is for both the teachers and self-motivated students. This is the 1st volume of the series, covering the 1st 100 most frequently used Chinese characters as presented with their full colour illustrations and arranged in columns from right to left on the front cover. For its extensive colour illustrations throughout, this book is best read with a colour screen reader. Access of the book's Table of Contents should be done via the Kindle Reader's ToC, not from the book's ToC pages. Read more

There has never been a better time to get into the erotica business. These are notoriously ravenous readers, and the popularity of the genre has surged immensely during the recent lockdown. If you can give the customers what they want, it soon becomes just like printing money.This is a no-nonsense guide to making $100 an hour writing erotica short stories and selling them on-line. A step-by-step strategy to researching, writing and packaging. No padding or fluff, just the essential tactics and best practices for writing successful bonkbusters. A master-class in perverted prose.Order this book today, read it tomorrow and then pop your e-publishing cherry the day after. Read more

For aspiring erotica writers -- and authors in any genre who want to make the "good" parts great Susie Bright is the first and reigning queen of contemporary erotica. In How to Write a Dirty Story she reveals her tricks of the trade and shows you how to heat up sex scenes in everything from traditional novels and romances to science fiction and humor. Easing the aspiring writer into the creative process, she tells you how to write the steamy plots and sensual characters that publishers and readers are looking for. Bright makes it easy to: Produce unique ideas * Master erotic language Climax the story * Sell your work to the right place Each chapter features practical writing exercises and suggestions for nonwriting activities that will galvanize the imagination and raze any creative or psychological hurdle. When it's time to go public, Bright draws on her own writing and publishing experiences and explains the most effective ways to find an agent, work with an editor, and grow a loyal audience. As irreverent as it is practical, How to Write a Dirty Story is the only book an erotica author -- novice or seasoned -- needs. Read more

From the famous horror writer, H.P. Lovecraft, comes this brand new collection of poetry. From the macabre work he’s best known for to his gentle odes to nature, this volume includes many of Lovecraft’s most effective poems.The Poetry of H.P. Lovecraft collates the horror writer’s wide variety of poetry into one compact collection. Including Lovecraft’s fantasy work, satirical pieces, nature poetry and occasion verse written for specific events, this volume introduces the reader to a whole new side of the writer’s personality and work. Many of the poems nod to Lovecraft’s roots in horror, and even in his poetry we see the classic disturbing sentiments that make his work unique.This collection includes poems such as:- ‘An Ode to Selene or Diana’ - ‘On Receiving a Picture of Swans’ - ‘A Garden’ - ‘Nemesis’ - ‘The Nightmare Lake’ - ‘The Ancient Track’ These poems have been published in a new collection by Read & Co. Books’ vintage poetry imprint, Ragged Hand, for a new generation of readers to enjoy. Complete with two introductory essays by Lovecraft, 'The Allowable Rhyme' and 'Metrical Regularity', this volume is not to be missed by fans of Lovecraft’s work or lovers of poetry. Read more

Twelve years after it was first published, The Joy of Writing Sex remains the classic writer's resource on creating compelling sex scenes. Elizabeth Benedict covers all the issues, from the first time, to married sex and adultery, to sex in the age of AIDS.Her instruction, supported with examples from the works of today's most respected writers―among them, Dorothy Allison, Russell Banks, Alan Hollinghurst, Joyce Carol Oates, Carol Shields, and John Updike―focuses on crafting believable sex scenes that hinge on freshness of character, dialogue, mood, and plot.In this revised edition, Benedict addresses the latest sexual revolution, intimacy on the Internet; adds new interviews with Edmund White, Darren Strauss, Stephen McCauley, and other writers; and updates her selections to include examples from the best fiction of the past few years. Read more

Learn the ropes of erotic writing from the renowned erotica maven herself, Rachel Kramer Bussel!Have you had intimate fantasies or simmering plotlines you’ve wanted to write but weren’t sure how or where to start? Let renowned erotica author and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel show you how to turn those fragments into fully fleshed out erotic stories, novellas and novels. In this indispensable nonfiction craft guide, Bussel takes her 20+ years of experience in the genre and walks writers through the ins and outs of erotic writing. Whether you want to see your work on the shelves of bookstores, pen sexy stories or letters for a partner or simply explore your creativity, How to Write Erotica will put you on the path to becoming the next Anaïs Nin! Having taught erotic writing workshops at universities, conferences and sex toy stores across the world and online, Bussel knows how to make even those who blush at the word “sex” feel comfortable putting pen to paper. Her easy-to-follow method to penning erotica is broken down utilizing helpful tactics that include: Practical examples from her own writing processErotica excerptsInterviews with over a dozen successful erotica authorsNumerous writing tips and prompts Aspiring erotic authors of all genders will learn everything they need to know about gaining inspiration from their everyday surroundings, breaking into publishing, promoting their work and making a name for themselves. From pseudonyms to BDSM, overcoming writer’s block and crafting sultry, believable characters, Bussel’s advice will have you seeing erotic possibilities everywhere. You don’t need an advanced degree, previous writing experience or sexual experience to write good erotica. All you need is a keen imagination and a willingness to follow your lusty mind wherever it takes you. Read more

Make their cheeks flush crimson. Leave them trembling with longing. Send their insides racing out of control. In the world of erotica, desire knows no limits – and readers are clamoring for authors daring enough to push the boundaries of sensual exploration. Isn't it time you embraced your erotic muse and gave them exactly what they crave?"How to Write Bestselling Erotica & Erotic Romance" – the ultimate masterclass to transform your erotic storytelling into a seductive tour-de-force. This isn't just a writing guide, it's an all-powerful initiation into the forbidden arts of erotic ecstasy. Find out how bestselling erotica authors master writing salacious tales that seduce and entice beyond the manuscript. In this writer's guide, you learn how to:Master sultry dialogue that simmers with double entendres.Construct steamy scenarios, one finger-licking morsel at a time.Discover the ability to wind tension to unbearable heights, leave them dangling by a thread, and then unleash the delicious torment.Write plots of uninhibited passion so deliciously forbidden, your readers will be left breathless and eternally enslaved.The time to claim the number spot on Amazon Bestseller's Erotica list is scorchingly nigh, but this opportunity is blazing brighter than a thousand dying suns. Don't let it extinguish before you indulge your ravenous appetite by getting your copy of "How to Write Bestselling Erotica & Erotic Romance." Because once you do, you'll hold the power to leave readers forever changed – endlessly spellbound by the pleasures you so masterfully unleash. Read more

Whether you're writing a steamy erotic novel or a love story, writing a convincing sex scene can be one of the most difficult challenges for any fiction writer. This book is a practical guide to help every writer rise to the challenge. Read more

Track Your Spicy Reads in Style 📚🌶️This reading journal is perfect for romance readers who want to rate their latest book boyfriends, track tropes, and never forget a 5-star spicy read again. Whether you love dark romance, romcoms, or enemies-to-lovers, this journal was made for you!Inside You'll Find:✔️ 100 book review pages✔️ Spice rating system 🌶️🌶️🌶️✔️ Track TBR, borrowed and loaned books✔️ Book boyfriend tracker (yes, really)✔️ Coloring pages and room for notesDesigned by a fellow romance reader for BookTok babes, Bookstagrammers, and anyone who loves tracking their spicy reads.Grab yours now and get organized for your 2025 reading goals! Read more