Is Writing Erotica Worth It?

Does the thirst for smut mean reads don't care about anything else?

I am writing this article in two parts. The first looks at what the reader wants balanced against what the writer wants to say. The second will cover the battles erotica authors are having with the self-appointed and AI powered censors.

I provide friend links to any of my Medium stories I mention so paid subscribers can read them even if they are not a member of the site.

I write because I want to tell a good story but there are often other themes in my work. Nothing world changing but I often have characters in my stories who are older women exploring new sexual experiences, I explore not only the experience of submission but why many of my characters submit and some of my supernatural characters shift gender.

This means that there is sometimes a subtext to my story. But is the reader going to spot this? Is the erotic content of my writing going to drown out anything else I have to say?

On the plus side, a bit of titillation does garner more readers. Look at the proliferation of #hotwife and #cuckold stories on Medium and Substack. Sex sells, as the rather overused saying tells us, but does it sell ideas?