Raisa Greywood Wants to See Naughty Books Flourish

(Originally published February 11, 2022)

There are plenty of very chaste romances, and if sex happens at all, it fades to black, and then the story picks up after. Others dive into the sex scenes and tell you what the heroine feels as she’s bent over the couch and fucked hard. Raisa Greywood writes the latter, focusing on crafting a compelling story. “I’m going to make you ugly cry. You’re going to laugh right after that. And I’m going to give you a one-hand read before I make you cry again.”

Greywood was drawn to the romance genre because she was an avid romance reader. She started writing her own stories around 2015 when she felt dissatisfied with the number of romance characters her own age. “At the time, there were relatively few romance books featuring characters over thirty. This has thankfully changed, but I vividly remember thinking, ‘I guess I’m gonna do it myself.’”

Since then, she has written several books and taken part in a few anthologies with other authors. But her catalog isn’t entirely romance. “I also dabble in erotic horror and speculative fiction. However, there is always, always a gorgeous happy ever after between my characters in my romance stories.”

In Greywood’s books, what happens between meet-cute and happily ever after isn’t for a general audience. “I usually include some kink in my books, and they’re often a bit dark with aspects of sadomasochism.”

But Greywood does more than just write “spicy” romance novels. She supports other writers, and one of the ways she does that is through her work with Passionate Ink.

Passionate Ink is a 501(c)(6) non-profit business league “chartered to serve the needs of authors who want their work to be recognized as legitimate, regardless of explicitness of intimate scenes,” explains Greywood. “It has grown to include erotic fiction of all genres — not just romance.”

Greywood joined Passionate Ink in 2017 and was elected to serve as Secretary of the Board in 2021.

She wasn’t part of the organization when it was initially formed as a chapter of the somewhat troubled Romance Writers of America (RWA), but,

I did participate in its rebirth as a writing organization independent of the RWA. In order to better serve the needs of our members, and as per our charter and bylaws, the members of Passionate Ink voted to disaffiliate from the RWA in 2021.

“This was not a process we took lightly,” Greywood says. Passionate Ink rebuilt itself, redrafting its bylaws and procedures. “We wanted a future which was more inclusive of writers who face similar challenges getting their erotic fiction in front of an audience.”

Passionate Ink looks out for its members, monitoring situations that may affect those writing erotic fiction and acting as an industry advocate. A recent example is their push for changes at the Book Industry Study Group (BISG).

The BISG plays a huge role in how books are categorized. They’re in charge of the Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC) codes. BISAC codes classify books into categories, genres, and sub-genres. Something like Game of Thrones would fit into the code FIC009020, FICTION / Fantasy / Epic. Miss Marple books, FIC022040, FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths. And so on.

These codes determine where your book appears in stores, either brick and mortar or digital. Genres and sub-genres come with expectations. If your book is miscategorized and you don’t meet certain expectations, you have dissatisfied readers who won’t be leaving good reviews or recommending you to friends. There are differences between erotica and erotic romance, but until recently, those differences weren’t represented in BISAC codes. Then Passionate Ink successfully changed that and seeks to add in many other sub-genres to help writers find their audience.

Greywood says, “We promote erotic fiction through education, promotion, and overall goodwill towards all writers, regardless of the genre in which they write, the level of eroticism in their work, or where they are in their career.”

When Greywood says, “regardless of genre,” she refers to subgenres of erotic fiction, which is different from erotica. Erotica can be written just as a hot sex scene with little in the way of setup. Erotic fiction has a story. It’s comparable to the way visual porn can just be two people having sex or can be given a story around it. “[Written] Porn is created for the express purpose of sexual titillation,” says Greywood, “while the purpose of erotic fiction is to deliver a well-crafted story. Both are equally valid.”

But what separates a romance or steamy romance from an erotic romance? The lines can be a little blurry at the borders, but these exist on a spectrum. To paraphrase their website, it’s not how numerous or explicit the sex scenes are that push a book from steamy romance to erotic romance. It’s more than possible for a steamy romance to have more descriptive and more frequent sex scenes than a piece of erotic fiction of equal length. It’s not the size that counts, but how you use it.

The determining factor is how important the sex scenes are to the story. You can take all the sex scenes out of a steamy romance, tone them down, or fade to black, and it still works. Its status as a romance remains intact, and the story still functions. But for an erotic romance, the sex is an essential part of the story. It drives the plot forward or develops the character in ways that cause the story to break down if you cut out the sex scenes.

But there’s more to erotic fiction than just erotic romance. “Only romance requires a happy ending. For example, erotic horror often doesn’t end happily,” explains Greywood.

Passionate Ink seeks to support all erotic fiction writers. The members include authors with New York Times and USA Today bestsellers under their belts and those just starting their journey as writers. All that’s required for membership is a desire to produce well-crafted erotic fiction and payment of membership dues.

And it is the desire that is key. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be ‘well-written’ to start,” Greywood says. “Even experienced authors’ first drafts are often awkward. We have ample critique opportunities and some gifted authors to help with the technical aspects.”

And the community support goes beyond just the writing help. As far as the membership dues are concerned, there’s a chance for current or prospective members facing financial hardship to have their dues waived for a year. (For details and exceptions, please see their website.)

Membership comes with other benefits.

One is the protection of anonymity. Their website states, “Due to the delicate nature of writing erotic fiction, we take the privacy of our members very seriously.” While the site does list members, those are pen names. They don’t have a publicly accessible roster of people’s government names.

As part of her duties as Secretary, Greywood is currently the only person with access to any personally identifying information, and even that is limited. “We collect no personal information from authors aside from their real names if associated with a PayPal account used to pay annual dues,” she explains. “Members may choose a different email for official Passionate Ink communication.” And all bulk emails are sent blind carbon copy, bcc, meaning that no recipient sees any of the other people the email was sent to.

While there’s a public section of Passionate Ink’s forums, that is very limited. The members-only section allows members to discuss issues with their writing in an open and safe environment. Considering the occasionally delicate nature of questions one might need answered when writing erotic fiction, that can be a useful resource.

It’s helpful to have people to go to when you’re trying to write something like a pegging scene when you’ve had little to no experience with it. “Any member can pose questions in a safe environment, or even personally email a board member or another member for assistance,” Greywood says. “We’re a salty bunch, and it’s quite likely someone has already explored or written about it.”

Both the forums and the private Facebook group are monitored and moderated to keep them safe environments in line with the organization’s Code of Ethics and Anti-Discrimination Policy.

Membership also includes opportunities to network with other authors, four free workshops per year — with discounted fees for others, and the soon to be relaunched Pitch Program. The Pitch Program gives authors, published or otherwise, a chance to skip to the front of the line when pitching their stories to an agent or editor within the erotic romance genre.

Members receive discounts on entry fees to the 2022 Passionate Plume Contest, an annual contest for erotic fiction authors within several categories, including one specifically for up-and-coming pre-published authors. Entries open on Valentine’s Day, February 14th.

If you’re considering becoming a member of Passionate Ink or signing up for the Passionate Plume Contest, please visit their website for details.

To find out more about Raisa Greywood and her books, you can visit her website and sign up for her newsletter.