Eada Friesian

One of the hardest questions to answer as a newer writer is just how much sex, what kind of sex, and what steam level do we put into our books?

I’ve done a lot of market research over the years, a lot of looking into what kind of novels I want to write and publish, and the answer is, the steamier the better. Now, I still love me an amazing and awesome plot, but those steamy, sexy scenes very much need to be present in the book.

Now, I’m not going to just add them in for the sake of having a sex scene. Every scene where the main characters get naked in the sheets has to have a purpose, and something has to happen in them to move the plot forward.

I just finished outlining my next book, Betting on the Boss, which I’ll be writing in September, and as I finished with a flourish after two weeks of outlining, I realized there simply wasn’t enough sex in the book.

Now, this might be because one character is demisexual, so there has to be a certain emotional element to the relationship for sex to occur, but that doesn’t mean sex can’t or won’t happen between the love interests.

As I was skimming through the outline I’d written, I realized that I definitely needed to up the steam levels. So I went back to the outline to add them in and modify. (And yes, as you can tell, I’m not a pantser.)

Made You Look only has one sex scene in the entire story, but it is a novella, and it’s meant to be short. I’ll release this book for anyone to get for free in September. But when I was writing Taming of a Rebel, my first novel to release under this name, I definitely wanted the steam levels to be hot, hot, hot.

I actually just finished first round edits on it, and that last sex scene between Tori and Miranda. Whoa dayum! I was pissed Beloved was already asleep and Thing 2 had climbed into bed with us! It was so tempting to take him back to his own bed and wake Beloved up, but I played nice.

Maybe not next time.

What do you think? Are steamier romances better? Or do you prefer fade-to-black?

I’m not shaming anyone for enjoying what they read. Every kind of book has an audience!

Til the sun shines again,

Eada