Hidden Gems of the Publishing World

How is it that Nicolas Sparks has been able to have this huge career with his romance novels, movies made from these novels, and sales that are through the roof while prolific authors like Kristen Proby do get nearly as much attention despite being a best-selling author? Well we’re about to get into my theories as to why. First, let’s talk about Kristen Proby.

Kristen Proby is a best-selling Erotic Romance writer who as of writing this has published something close to sixty books since the romance self-publishing boom that occurred between 2011 to 2013. Her books have made the best-seller lists, and her first novel “Come Away With Me” will have a movie adaptation in the very near future. So what I’m left wondering here is why not many people have ever heard of her.

Now to be fair, authors rarely have the level of fame and exposure like actors and directors in Hollywood. Does it happen? Yes, Stephen King, JK Rowling, Jodi Picoult, Stephanie Meyer, and E. L. James just to name a few; although of these mentioned names, Stephen King is one who gets recognized on the street mostly for the reason that his works has had enough time to become iconic, making him iconic. My point being, authors do get recognized, but it’s rare that it happens. So Kristen Proby is recognized but more in the circles of the hard core fan base that reads the books in the Erotic Romance genre. A genre which unfortunately is more often than not the punchline of most jokes.

Now I must confess that I was one of the people who dismissed the Erotic Romance genre as garbage even though I’d never read an entire book by one of these authors. Years later, I stumble upon the documentary called “Naughty Books”, talking about how the genre has impacted the women reading these books, the authors who write them, and how the world as a whole looks at these books. While there has been more and more respect given to these books, there still is a large amount of sexism towards those who reads these books. Male comedians make fun of these books and these authors, and these authors are rarely if ever acknowledged on talk shows like Good Morning America, CBS Good Morning, or the Today Show; which is still shocking considering that above all the other genre that exists in the book market, and most these authors who are in these lesser selling genres are the ones getting these high exposure interviews. Why this is the case I couldn’t tell you but it doesn’t make much sense at all. Although it comes down to sexism that still exists within the business. Even though we have much more opportunities in the book business than we had years and years ago, but there’s still a sexist and dismissive attitude towards Erotic Romance, and Romance in general.

This is what brings me back to Kristen Proby. She has published sixty books in less than ten years if I’m not mistaken and many of them have been best-sellers for her genre. I’ve read two of her novels and one of her novellas in her “With Me in Seattle” series and I will say they’re enjoyable books. I will be writing reviews for these books in the near future but I will say now that I have very much enjoyed these books and do recommend them to others. Are they cheesy? A little bit, I would be lying if I said they weren’t, and even Kristen Proby herself has admitted are fantasy scenario of love. Is there a lot of graphic sex? Oh yes there is. If reading about graphic sex isn’t something you enjoy reading, that’s understandable. What I will say with these things in mind is that while these books aren’t perfect, I would read her books over the Fifty Shades of Grey series. The reason being is that the characters know what they want, they speak up for themselves and actually have some back bone to fight back if there is something happening that isn’t okay with a particular character, and everything is consensual. There might be some rough sex happening in these books, but all of the characters in Proby’s books are consenting to the sex which is very important.

Kristen Proby books are fun, sweet, and very sexy and they are books I would recommend to anyone I knew who liked to read about love and sex. Whether or not in the future Kristen Proby and authors like her will be much more appreciated is hard to say. I do hope that it will happen and it will happen soon. I don’t know about you as you read this, but I think it’s about time for the genres loved by women to get just a little more respect than they have had over the years. This way more people can feel safe to explores these parts of themselves without shame or guilt from anyone else who thinks they have the right to dictate whether or not a woman has the right to be sexually aroused by anything.