Hello!

[ivyfic]

So, I got more response to my post on Sunday than on anything I've posted in...I think a decade. And as I've seen some friend requests come through, here are some facts about me:

1. The thing I said in the SPN post about my job is true. I'm a financial statement auditor, and our busy seasons are for real. Wake up, go to work, get home past midnight, fall into bed, rinse repeat. It's seasonal, but unfortunately I'm in a busy period right now, so good timing on me for writing something popular! I've been trying to respond to everything, but if I don't reply til the weekend, that's why.

1a. Yes, I am an accountant. No, I can't help you with your taxes.
1b. No, I can't help you with Quickbooks either.
1c. Think of it as a combination of a statistician (random samples to determine validity of uncountably large thing!) and lawyer (minute technical detail of application of overly vague rule system to the complexity of business!). If that sounds cool to you--have you considered being an auditor?
1d. I do not post about my job much at all. I deal with confidential information, so, mums the best policy.

2. Due to *points* I am not fannish about that much lately. When I have time in an evening, I tend to watch a movie rather than a TV series, as if I get involved with something overly long, I might not be able to finish it for a while. My biggest current things are:
- Taskmaster. I'll write a rec post (someday). The first seven series are on youtube. It is a British comedy show where comedians are given absurd tasks and then judged by a VERY toppy judge and his very sub assistant. Daddy vibes all over. If there's a fandom for this, I haven't found it (though there is fic). Downside of being a fan of a show from another country.
- Prodigal Son. Haven't really sought out fic, but digging the hell out of the show.
- Haven. I'm still stuck on Haven. Sorry, not sorry.

3. I read DW EVERY DAY. I comment sometimes and post rarely. But I swear to god, I do actually read every single post on my feed.

4. I am reading fic 100% of the time. I find it through a combo of rec communities and AO3 searches, and read across a variety of fandoms. I mean. It's been the same fandoms for the last ten years, but. A lot of fandoms.

5. I still think about writing fic but had to admit to myself that I don't have the time now to write enough to keep the muse going. I still have some bunnies that I would like to write. Some day.

6. Before I was an auditor, I worked in book publishing for ten years. Not coincidentally, my most prolific fannish period overlapped pretty heavily with the period where reading erotica was my actual job. (Not as fun as it sounds, at least not for me--you're not only reading the good stuff, let's just say.) I have a lot of stories I couldn't tell in polite conversation.
6a. If you would like someone to talk you out of a career in publishing, I'm your gal.

7. Before I was an editor, my undergraduate degree was in chemistry and materials science engineering. All these things were a logical progression at the time.

8. There is no 8.

If you have other questions, drop a comment! I won't say AMA, because I still believe in not crossing the streams. And I may take a while to reply. But I do read everything I promise!

Comments

[katherine]

Hello!

Thanks for the rec of Taskmaster, I am laughing as I watch the first episode of series 3. Flamboyant clocks!

[ivyfic]

I love it so much. I will warn tho--I was not a fan of season 7. There's still some funny stuff, but one of the contestants is a total asshole and it ruins a lot of it. (I get the feeling that's his schtick as a comedian.) But then season 8 (not on youtube, but available for sale) was good, so I think that was an aberration.

[princessofgeeks]

Thanks for the info! Good luck with your busy season!

[ivyfic]

Thanks! It's weirdly harder to do from home. Even with the commute, pulling long hours in a room with people also pulling long hours is a bonding experience, and it makes the time go. Doing it at home alone, less so.

[pauraque]

Congratulations on your sudden burst of fame. :)

[ivyfic]

Thanks for the boost! I'll enjoy it while it lasts!

[titti]

Inquiring minds want to know: did you find erotica written by men different from that written by women? I can't say I've read much written by men, but found it... lacking. So I was wondering if it was a general trend or I picked bad authors.

[ivyfic]

I worked at a mass market house that published an erotica imprint as well as a lot of other stuff. The erotica imprint pulled its authors mostly from Ellora's Cave and other online platforms, so the authors were entirely women. That still does not mean they were necessarily good. Also also, something can be well done, but if it's erotica and it's not your kink, boy howdy is it hard to get through. I was also there when Fifty Shades was published by not us, but it suddenly exploded the erotica market in general, and this sleepy part of my job became the majority of my job. We recovered everything to look like Fifty Shades. There was the sexy fruit covers. There was the infringing a designer jeweler's copyright on some cufflinks incident.

Anyway.

At the same time, we published a couple series of "adult Westerns," which were monthly titles under a shared pen name and were originally published by Playboy. Gunsmith is one of the series. There are others.

They are. SO BAD. So, so, so bad. I had to fact check the cover copy every month, which meant skimming them, and this is like, acid in the face bad. Racist as shit. Totally unerotic. I gave a copy to a friend and she read it and hated me for it. The editor didn't even read them. We pretty much only sold them into prisons.

So on the basis of that...yes, male authors suck way more at erotica. But that's not a particularly fair description. I think it's more that women writing erotica and men writing erotica are just writing fundamentally different genres (want you want to pin that on is up to you), and when people cross out of their own genre into the other--especially if they don't realize that's what they're doing--it can go poorly.

[titti]

Well no, I wouldn't think that they are all good when written by women, but I've never found a male author I enjoyed, but I think you hit it right on the nail when you said that they are two different genres even though they are both identified as 'erotica'.

Thank you for your very informative answer. It's interesting to see how publishing companies work.