I read a tip about book marketing, which was to imagine the ideal reader for a particular book (in this case, people who read about people uniting with imaginary non-human creatures). Imagine what kind of bag that person carries. What are all the things in it? Or, imagine a room in the reader’s house. What does it look like? What objects are there?
In a similar vein, I went to Pinterest and searched “monster erotica books.” Then I went to the pages of people who pinned monster erotica-themed pins. Here are some recurring themes I saw:
Lots of books, naturally, including:
Body humor. Jokes about elimination. Jokes about sex.
Recreational drugs (Didn’t see any references to using drugs, just books about them.)
Pulp fiction
Horror, emphasis on the grotesque
BDSM
Anything by Anne Rice
Children’s books:
Satirical, inappropriate versions of real books or characters
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Hunger Games
J.R.R. Tolkien
Fantasy and Romance genres
Silent Hill
Walking Dead
Royalty, as a theme in books as well as boards about real royal people
Pets/animals
Travel
Jewelry
It’s tempting to draw conclusions from this list about monster erotica readers. But I think it’s early yet. I’m not ready to commit to anything more than monster erotica readers like to explore the limits of propriety. But we might have already assumed that, mightn’t we? I’ll continue to research this question.
Writers, who are your readers? Readers, what would you like writers to know about you?
Crea DelRand 