Bringing Sexy Back... But NOT the way you think!

Already, only a month into our venture, we've caught some flack for offering only "wholesome" reads.  In one blog, it was stated that "wholesome" implies other publishing houses don't offer this.  Actually, no.  I work for five of them, and I know for a fact other epubs publish sweet or wholesome books.  But at Astraea, we'd like to take things back to the way they were, years ago when people read romance for...romance (and any other genre for the actual genre instead of the graphics)!

In a nutshell?  We're bringing sexy back...in a clean way! :o)

Look, I know "sex sells", I'm well aware that our venture won't be raking in huge amounts until we make a name for ourselves, maybe not even then. But I want to be a place people go that they can trust the content and not worry if their teenager is downloading stuff they shouldn't know about until they're adults. And doesn't everyone have to start somewhere?  In the epublishing business, I realized that very few epubs are only on the clean side.  With the take off of dedicated e-readers and the upcoming tech generation, I saw a gap in the market.  Where can clean authors go where they don't compete with erotica? Well, my first instinct is to say the inspirational market.

But what about those who fall somewhere in between?  My two books aren't inspirational, but they're certainly not erotica.  I wouldn't even consider them mainstream, but somewhere in between inspirational and mainstream.  Close door sex but some serious sensuality.  And I'll be honest, what romance book isn't made better when you know your characters want to go at  it...but choose not to because of conflict or personal reasons?  Look at Twilight.  You can't tell me Stephenie Meyer didn't do SOMETHING right.  All the naysayers can hang it up.  If she hadn't done something right, she wouldn't be a rich woman today.  And how refreshing was it to see something so clean make it so big! A hot, loving, caring, PERFECT vampire wanting to wait until marriage? *GASP*  Yet teenagers and even women well into their adulthood can't get enough.

That proves to me that there's a market for it, whether we want to admit it or not. I'm not trying to say that everyone who publishes erotica should repent and close their doors.  I'm saying that there are people who just aren't into that kind of thing.  Some people would like to download a book without worrying if they're getting something they don't want to read.

Then there are those who want the heated stuff.  I'm not sorry to say, you won't find that with us.

Astraea is going back to the basics, where romance (or any other genre!)is real romance (or mystery, or...you get the point) and focuses on the relationships and emotions involved, not Sex Ed 101.  Anything is possible, and it's possible that we might fail.  But we won't go down without a fight!

~Stephanie