It’s my party …
… and I’ll cry if I want to.
Asking for Trouble is, amazingly, ten years old this month and still going strong. As I write this, it’s number 8 on Amazon UK’s adult fiction charts and is frequently the topselling novel there. I’d planned on having a blog party with some posts on my memories of writing AFT, the mood in which it was commissioned, what the book means to me, and so on. However, the news that Black Lace has gone belly up has dampened my spirits somewhat; plus I am so fricking behind after last week’s craziness that the party is, uh, ‘on hold’. Now, where have I heard that phrase before?
When Asking for Trouble was first published, it was reprinted three times within six months. I’m mainly wondering, as I’m sure are many other BL authors regarding their own work, when AFT will go out of print and what will happen then. Is it all over for the book? Would I be able to sell to another publisher? I can’t imagine BL rising from the ashes so the book’s unlikely to go to reprint when stocks run low. And it’s not the kind of novel which would sit easily with US erotic romance publishers.
I call it my marmite book, you either love it or you hate it. For proof of this, check out my lovely new Word of Mouth page where readers comments range from ‘a truly magical novel‘ to ‘I just wanted to get through the thing to finish it‘. Thank you to anyone who has ever left feedback on my work. Authors value this so much. It’s an isolated job at times and we love hearing readers’ thoughts, good or bad, though good is obviously best.
Somewhere in the crazy crumbling week that was, I received my contributor copies of Alison Tyler’s Pleasure Bound from Cleis Press and Sexy Little Numbers, the latter possibly marking the end (and beginning) of Black Lace’s annual ‘best’ anthologies, though there’s no official word on that. I’ll aim to post more about these later in the month.
If you missed it, Mathilde Madden and I had a piece in The Guardian bemoaning the suspension of Black Lace. Predictably perhaps, while there were several sympathetic voices and plenty of wit in comments, there was also lots of ridicule, misogyny and giggling. Giggling I can cope with; the rest not so much. However, I think we fought our corner admirably along with awesome porntroopers, Charlotte Stein, EllaRegina and Justine Elyot. Thanks, guys, and all others who joined in. You rock! (Hush, Ella.)
So, some happy news! We need it. I’m giving away two prizes: smut bundle one, signed copies of Asking for Trouble, Pleasure Bound and Sexy Little Numbers; two, a runner up prize of Asking for Trouble. If you want to be in with a chance of winning, comment or wish me Happy 10th Birthday on this post or under Word of Mouth, Sexy Excerpt or About the Book. I’ll draw a couple of names towards the end of the month. (If you already own any of the books, I’ll happily swap in something else.) New commenters and lurkers are very welcome, as are the people who just come here for the armpit porn.
So, altogether now, Happy Birthday to AFT … (Is it OK to sing this at funerals?)
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Kristina Lloyd
I write erotic fiction about sexually submissive women who like it on the dark, dirty and dangerous side. My novels are published by Black Lace (Ebury) and my short stories appear in a range of anthologies, including several “best of” collections, in both the UK and US. I’ve written non-fiction for publications such as The Guardian, The Sunday Times Travel, The International Business Times (God knows how I managed that one), and more.
I’m currently (2018) on a massive erotica-writing hiatus which may turn out to be permanent.
I live in Brighton, a coastal town in the south east of England, often referred to (but never by me) as ‘London-by-the-sea’. Brighton is the setting for my controversial and most popular novel, Asking for Trouble. Check out some reader reviews here.
Praise for Kristina Lloyd
“Kristina Lloyd is one of my favorite writers… Her atmospheric style sends me into orbit” – Alison Tyler
“Kristina makes no apology for writing transgressive fiction with some heavy female submission” – Elizabeth Coldwell
“a very gifted author” – Violet Blue
“Aside from being intensely erotic, Kristina’s fiction does not shy away from taking sex to extremes. And all of this accomplished with a literary finesse that makes her writing truly distinctive” – Ashley Lister
“disgustingly clever and graceful” – Graydancer
“superbly horny… will restore your faith in BDSM literature” – Skin Two
“No one does damaged characters better than Lloyd and has a clearer open line to the well of cravings and obsessions.” – Maxim Jakubowski
Interviews
Interviewed by For Books' Sake
"Our culture doesn’t offer many options for women to be sexual beings on their own terms."
Interviewed in Skin Two
"The combination of sex and danger carries a powerful erotic charge."
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Kristina Lloyd 
Have extra cake, sing and hell, Kristina, have some champagne too – Congratulations on the longevity! That’s awesome!!
Happy Book Birthday, Kristina! Knew AFT was popular, but had no idea *how* popular. I too wonder how they’ll deal with reprints and stuff. Is that what remaining active means? Reprinting stuff that’s massively popular? It would seem a bit silly not to.
And as for SLN being the last BL anthology- Christ, I hope not. There’s still The Affair and Misbehaviour to come after SLN, not to mention mine and Justine’s collections.
Yikes, sorry Charlotte! I meant anthologies by ‘various’ but had forgotten about the other two. Was there something in the order of CFSs or authors finding out who was in that was weird? Anyway, I’ll go and change it to ‘Best’ and no one will notice. Ssshh.
And I can’t imagine they’ll do reprints cos there’s going to be no one to manage the line. I’m assuming ‘active’ means books that are out there are still available for sale until they go OOP. Wish we had more news.
And thanks, Neve!
Congrats, Kristina, that is just awesome!
As for the book, if Black Lace doesn’t make the effort to do reprints, if they aren’t printing, making an effort to follow through on the contract, perhaps the rights will revert to you? Hard to say without seeing the contract(and of course, I’m speaking from a US law POV and not UK…)
Thanks, Scarlett. I’m assuming rights do revert to us (though I haven’t actually checked my contract). I’m just not sure what I would then do with those rights.
Maybe I should cross that bridge when I come to it and focus on my party. More fizz, anyone? Shot of gin in that?
Yikes, sorry Charlotte! I meant anthologies by ‘various’ but had forgotten about the other two. Was there something in the order of CFSs or authors finding out who was in that was weird?”
CFSs?
And if you mean about authors finding out if they were in Misbehaviour or The Affair- there was nothing weird about it as far as I had experienced things before. I’ve got signed and returned contracts for them, too, tho I know that doesn’t always mean security.
“And I can’t imagine they’ll do reprints cos there’s going to be no one to manage the line. I’m assuming ‘active’ means books that are out there are still available for sale until they go OOP. Wish we had more news.”
Me too. To be honest, I don’t really believe that they are going to remain active or that they’re just on hiatus for a year or whatever. Tho I do think if it is true, it’s because they want to hold onto rights for books like yours, and are planning on reprinting if the sales are still there.
Call for Subs. Maybe I got confused because SLN is outside of the set of four. And I didn’t sub to those so am not on the ball with release dates. Hope I did not give you a heart attack!
It’s hard to work out what ‘active’ means. Everything is to RH’s advantage, even the oblique press releases and emails which don’t commit them to anything and leave us in the dark. Hopefully, we’ll learn more this week.
I am creating cocktails for my party! First one up is champagne, gin and, ooh, a dash of bitters. It’s called Shafted in the Dark!
Ah! Yeah, originally, it was Seduction, Liaisons, Misbehaviour and The Affair in the call. Then SLN was added to it, I believe. As far as I know, Misbehaviour is due out in Sept, The Affair in Nov. My collection is Oct and Justine’s is Dec, I think.
So we should be okay. Sadler did say 2009 is safe- though I’m not counting any chickens until they’re released. Hence the very minor heart attack you’ve just given me- but don’t worry. It’s marvellous you, so I forgive.
And I hope we learn more next week, too. As long as it’s good news. Please let it be some sort of good news, like reprints will still go ahead.
I think your chickens will be fine! Am looking forward to both your and Justine’s collections. I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve read of you so far. A shame BL is quitting when it has exciting new voices on board. Fuckwits.
Thanks so much, Kristina! I tell you, it thrills the heck out of me to hear someone like you talking about my work like that.
And even though I don’t know how exciting and new I was, I was really happy to see writers like Justine, Rachel Kramer Bussel, RF Long, Sommer Marsden and others starting to get published in BL anthologies. I felt like there was a bit of a revitalisation going on and would have loved to see novels from these writers.
Happy birthday, AFT! If you like, I’ll lend you the services of my creepy cocktail waiter from ‘On Demand’. He only knows three cocktails though: Sex on the Beach, Sloe Comfortable Screw and Screaming Orgasm. He does have some redeeming features – in fact, he and Ilya would probably get on rather well.
I suppose we’ll have the Final Proclamation sometime this week, and find out what will happen with re: reprints, contracts, options etc. I keep hoping something unexpectedly wonderful will happen to save it all. But in reality, I might as well sign up as a full-time Porntrooper. Is there a uniform?
Ha, your cocktail waiter sounds great, Justine. I do like Ilya-esque redeeming features. And I loved Sir and Master in your SLN short. Really hot!
Happy tenth anniversary to AFT. I too am disappointed that there will be no new titles from Black Lace (I am a male over fifty, but I buy our books on-line — referring to the article in the Guardian).
However, unless I have missed something in the Bookseller piece, Black Lace have not gone “belly up”: they say that they will not publish any new items, but I am sure that it doesn’t require many employees to maintain the backlist and reprint the successful items (others may go out of print if they are less successful) — hopefully they also have the money to pay your royalties. I would imagine that the rights would revert back to you after a while when the book(s) are out of print. I have read a lot of bad things about self-publishing in general, but if worse came to worst, I am sure you could self-publish AFT and sell lots of copies (as the book is already known and selling so well).
Let’s hope that Excite will see a gap in the market and decide to publish some full-length stories.
In any case, you are too good and too successful to be unpublished.
Many hugs
Pierre xxx
Thank you, Pierre. Really appreciate it. And yeah, maintaining a backlist shouldn’t be too arduous for RH. Maybe I’m just being doomy. And Xcite are starting to publish full-length fiction so maybe they’ll expand in that area now. And maybe I’ll focus more on my non-smut fiction – a riskier venture for me but being kicked out of my comfort zone could turn into something positive.
And thanks for your supportive comment on The Guardian. I saw you in there somewhere. Very brave.
Kudos on the glorious triumph of Asking for Trouble! Nothing can take that away from you.
I know that you’re on your way to even bigger and more glorious triumphs, in whatever venue you choose.
Happy Birthday to Asking for Trouble. My friends nick me trouble frequently. I prefer to think of it more as extroverted and a little bit crazy. After all, life is all about REACTION.
I have strawberry shortcake with strawberries picked straight from the garden to help you celebrate.
AND my quote du jour:
A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the
bricks that others throw at him. **David Brinkley
xoxo
Gigi
Thanks hugely, Jeremy. Thanks too, Gigi. Mind if I pop a strawberry in my cocktail?
Happy Birthday AFT! Big congratulations. I had no idea it went into three reprints in 6 months. Incredible.
It kills me how much whining there is about BDSM in the mainstream press and yet books like AFT and of course, that long standing best seller The Story of O, sell sell sell.
Someone’s reading ’em.
I believe we do get our rights and rather quickly, too, if I recall. Haven’t read my contracts over either though.
Anyway, now is not the time or place to dwell on the destruction of BL (and Nexus) by Random House. Now is the time and place to toast Kristina Lloyd and Asking for Trouble.
Cheers! Oh, as a Canadian I suppose I should offer the official toast of Canada (no kidding). Chimo!
It’s quite hilarious that AFT is so popular when editors tell me that a man “calling a woman names is not sexy it’s degrading”. Our feminists side may not sit comfortably with it but the fact is that kind of nasty talk is obviously a turn on for a LOT of women.
I am really curious if you did any rewrite of Asking for Trouble for your reprints or not. If you don’t want to comment about that here could you pm me on Twitter.
I only recently discovered the book which I bought as an ebook and it came with the old cover.
(And don’t both those women have kind of the wrong colour hair for Beth?)
Happy Birthday to the toughest and coolest 10-year-old I know!
xoxo
Thanks, folks!
Madeline, I think the 3 reprints had a lot to do with timing. BL had been quite coy in its early years then the editor, Kerri Sharp, announced she wanted to take the line in a new, modern, edgier direction. And that was my green light! I wrote AFT in a blur of enthusiasm so it was the first book marking this shift of direction. I think it must have got good word of mouth publicity. There was no internet so I couldn’t do anything to promote it. It just seemed to sell.
No changes for the reprint, Lisa. There are probably things I’d like to change but if I was given the chance, I wouldn’t know where to stop. Dangerous! And yeah, wrong hair colour. God, I hated that first cover so much. I cried when I saw it! It wasn’t my book.
ten years..10?..thats more then just awsome..that baby is a keeper..:-)
happy book day kristina..:-)
I just liked it so much I’m a little sad I got the ebook and not the print so good to know I didn’t miss any extras.
I don’t think the first cover was THAT bad. lol At least she’s wearing a tarty top. haha
Hey Kristina happy 10th B-day to AFT!! That book was actually the very first piece of ‘erotica’ i ever bought and read and to this day remains my all-time fav! Nothing else has been able to touch it. The way u write is just crazy hot! Just downloaded ‘SLUT’ online and cant wait to get started on that baby. Here’s hoping that u get to share many more of those dirty sexy thoughts of yours with us in the near future 😉 Thanks!
Cool, thanks Ray! It’s nice to know I popped your erotica cherry. I hope you enjoy Slut. Thanks for buying it.
happy birthday! i notice you like shorn heads. me too! you should check out big brother’s newest arrival, noirin’s ex Isaac Stout. he has a shaved head and is sporting the unshaven look with dark brows.(not charlie with the newcastle accent who is also shaven headed!) It makes me tune in and i hate big bro!
OK, time’s up! I omitted myself, gave every commenter a number then went to Random.org which picked no.s 3 then 1.
So a bumper bundle of smut (AFT, Pleasure Bound and Sexy Litttle Numbers) to Scarlett Greyson and a copy of AFT to Neve Black!
Winners, send your mailing address to me at kristina at kristinalloyd dot co dot uk and please let me know if you want any of the titles swapped for another one.
Thanks everyone for joining in and saying many wonderful things. I had a lovely birthday!
And Caz, I must check out Isaac. Shorn heads are hot!