A recent discussion over on The Galaxay Express about how to promote science fiction romances to new-to-them readers has renewed my passion as an advocate for people using tags to help describe books to readers and also reminded me of a little experiment I did back in the spring on a book from my top favorites list. In fact, I chose Zandia by Tilly Greene specifically because it’s probably the most risque one on my top favorites list at present. I originally posted this in a thread on the AAR forum but since I’ve just now ran a check to see if the links and comments still hold, here it is again, with any updates/changes noted with ***
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I wanted to show ya’ll something because this is what got me started down this line of thinking. I was goofing around one day on the RomanceWiki site and just on a whim decided to do a search for one of my odd-ball favorite erotic romances to see if they had it listed, Zandia by Tilly Greene. They did. The description was the generic “back blurb” from the publisher, though:
Centuries from now, and millions of miles away, how are the sexes getting along?
Zandia, the farthest planet in the known universe, is usually peaceful, but they’re about to have their views on women blown apart.
Sui Erom has taken drastic measures to live as suits her, not society. Hiding on a transporter, she leaves her home planet for another world. Working as a translator, she feels intelligent and productive, if not entirely fulfilled. She has been unable to find a mate who satisfies any of her physical needs or one to trust with her heart.
The Zandian national speedball team comes to town for a Universal competition and sets in motion events that force Sui to make a decision on what exactly she wants from life.
Listening to the official translator’s voice, Xer Rieh realizes she is Zandian and asserts his right to mark her as his. He does not believe her claim that she is not Zandian—despite evidence supporting it. Xer will not be denied.
Now, here’s the thing, Zandia has a unique element that definitely should be taken notice of, i.e. exhibitionism. I mean if this isn’t mentioned when people are discussing this book, it’s a definite error on someone’s part because it happens not once, but three distinct times in the book on the part of the hero and heroine. It’s a biggie, shall we say. To overlook this is to overlook a huge part of the story and I did say story. You can agree or disagree all you want as to how much story is actually there or not but in this particular case the “exhibitionism” plays a hugh part in the development of the story. So ignoring its role is major. Except all RomanceWiki did was give the basic blurb and list it as “Categories: 2007 Releases | Futuristic | Erotic Romance”.
Well, maybe that wasn’t the best place to start. So I decided to backtrack and double-check to see exactly how the publisher and author described it. Oh, boy. Not helpful either. Samhain Publishing Ltd listed it as “Genre: Romantic SciFi-Futuristic, Red Hots!” & had a product warning of “spicy language and wild sex…okay, some kinky “take me” sex.” and it will be listed the same way on the My Book And More site so I won’t add them. Huh, so, no help there when they are usually so good. Onward and upward to the author site.
*** Tilly Greene, herself, now mentions bondage but not the voyerism on the page for the book on her site. Okay, weird, but undaunted I continued.
AuthorsDen.com lists it as romance. Period.
Barnes & Noble doesn’t even list it in a category at all.
Books-A-Million lists as “Related Categories: Books > Fiction > Erotica – General”.
So, in desperation, I resorted to the tried and true and here’s where we see the value of tags for the first time. Amazon.com doesn’t show categories either nowadays but the customer tags are:
- futuristic (4)
- erotic fiction (3)
- erotica (3)
- romance (3)
- bdsm (2)
- bondage (2)
- ebook (2)
- love (2)
- samhain publishing (2)
- sex (2)
- tilly greene (2)
- erotic futuristic romance (1)
- happy ever after (1)
- sexual equality (1)
Still no “exhibitionism” in, uh, evidence. Weird.
Finally, I found Videos from RWA (Romance Writers of America) which listed Zandia as having bondage and exhibitionism and oddly enough that info was added by the author, I think.
Head desk, head desk, head desk.
Now, does anybody begin to see what I’m getting at here about labels vs. tags? General vs. specifics?
My pleasure darlin’ and thank you for absolving me, although after visiting various places to add the “exhibition” tag is definitely letting me know I messed up. Besides, we can’t have you doing the head-desk dance too often, could mess your hair 🙂
Definitely review sites should be good at tags, but I have a feeling, they won’t be either. As for online libraries, I imagine they resemble online bookstores – basic labels. They don’t know futuristic erotic romance, it’s fiction, romance, erotica, SF/Fantasy…not really Zandia.
Anyway, have fun further your research, and I shall look forward to your findings 🙂
Heather, we meet again. 😉
Wendy, got it and thanks.
Tilly, thanks for stopping by to comment. And I totally don’t hold you responsible for most of those “lapses” I linked to anyway because what I was attempting to point out was that in most cases there isn’t even a way to tag the books on bookstore sites. Heck, some of them don’t even categorize. It’s a real reader/consumer awareness problem all around.
Your book just happened to be the one I chose to experiment with. It could’ve been any of several in my keeper pile this happened with. 😉
Oh, and while I’m at it, let me say that I’ve lost count of the number of time I’ve reread that story since I first got it. I love their relationship. So much fun. 😀
I am thinking of expanding my research to include some online library and review sites, too, though, and maybe add in a couple of other books with different elements just for comparison and out of pure curiosity.
Hiya Bev!
First let me say I’m glad you enjoyed “Zandia” – I truly loved writing it and you’re right, exhibitionism does play a major role throughout the story. On the surface, it was used to show a culture who found no shame in the human body. As the story progresses, the reader discovers the joy in her body remains a part of Sui, even though she hated how the men treat the women on her home planet. Yup, it’s big.
Now, let me put your mind at rest, I’m the one at fault for missing out on the voyeurism and exhibition tags. Yes, me – oh the shame.
As you know I write erotic romance and when “Zandia” was first released, I had exhibitionism mentioned all over the place [including my website] – or so I thought. It wasn’t until you pointed it out here that I realized, while it is on my notes to use it as a tag, I didn’t actually do it. So, mea culpa, and I shall be making the addition :-).
Thank you for the nudge, darlin’!
Hey Bev:
Totally unrelated to this post. Just leaving a comment with my e-mail cuz, uh, you told me to over at Jessica’s blog.
Thanks for posting this (and for the linkage!).