This from The Bookseller
Erotica is continuing to steam-up acquisition meetings, with 19th July a potential sweet spot as both Simon & Schuster and Orion ready new releases.
Simon & Schuster is publishing Rebecca Chance's Naughty Bits, a collection of the romance author's scenes from earlier novels which were "too hot to print", with scene-setting introductions, an exclusive short story, and the first chapter of her next title, as a 99p e-book.
Fiction editorial director Maxine Hitchcock said: "With this rise in interest in erotica, we thought this was a fantastic opportunity. Sometimes in the context of a traditional book, less is more, but we never wanted to bin any of the scenes." She said the idea of publishing deleted scenes could have potential outside the genre, perhaps in publishing richer description of SFF worlds.
Meanwhile, Orion deputy publisher Jon Wood and editor Jemima Forrester paid a six-figure sum for UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, in the Eighty Days erotica trilogy from agent Sarah Such. The titles are written by Vina Jackson, a pseudonym of two writers, one well-known, working together for the first time, with the story focusing on the "sexually charged relationship between two strangers".
The first title, Eighty Days Yellow, will be published on 19th July in mass market paperback and e-book, followed by Eighty Days Blue and Eighty Days Red later this year.
