Customer Reviews

Passionate Ink: A Guide to Writing Erotic Romance

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There's nothing coy about this book. If you want to write erotic romance, this book's style is frank and direct, edgy and funny, as if it were just you and author chatting over coffee, and she was confiding her best advice to you. She covers everything from brainstorming ideas to finding motivation and goals to creating structure to joining writing groups to querying publishers. There's a lot of candor about sexuality and sensuality, and it's clear the author is writing for those who are serious about this genre. At the end of the book is a solid appendix of recommended reads.

What I like best about this book is its positive outlook in general. Far too many writing books are about "don't get your hopes up, but here's some suggestions if you insist." Her approach is "Let's take a good look at what it's going to take." If you want to write erotic romance for publication, this is a definite must-read.

If you're interested in writing erotic romance, then you should definitely pick up a copy of Angela Knight's Passionate Ink. Ms Knight is a best-selling paranormal erotic romance author who discusses writing in this genre in a straightforward, frank, and humorous manner. Equally as important, she provides excellent examples from her own work - both of things that worked and those that didn't. Her appendix is also very helpful for anyone seeking more information on the various things that are discussed. Although I'm an editor and not a writer, I found this book to be extremely useful in not only evaluating erotic romances, but other fiction genres as well.

All I can say is that this is the best book I've found so far on writing of any kind, not just romance. The techniques here would work for many different types of stories. As a published author who is always trying to publish more, as well as a college-level writing teacher for 15 years, I have purchased a lot of "how to write" books. Most of them are useless--either too obvious or geared toward pretentious literary fiction, something that, let's face it, most people won't succeed at and even fewer will make any money with. This one is geared toward actually scoring sales in a field some might call formulaic, but is undoubtedly economically viable (e-books are the hot new thing and are discussed at length here). The proof is in the pudding: I've been struggling with the first draft of a paranormal novel, not necessarily X-rated, and some plot elements just weren't working. Within hours of reading this book (most of it in one fascinated sitting), I had the answers I needed to shape up my story and move on. What I was missing, it turns out, were the layers of conflict, external and internal, that she explains so very well. In case it isn't obvious, I loved this book and HIGHLY recommend it (you have to be a bit open-minded to read it, but again, these techniques would work for any romance of any rating). Recently I'd been using FIRST DRAFT IN 30 DAYS as a sort of experiment, but this book has just two or three simplified charts that work much better. Who wants to sit there deciphering hours of spreadsheets when you could be writing the story? I think this book will get you writing. It might even get you published.

UPDATE: Fall '09
The book I mentioned writing after being inspired by this one has now been accepted for publication. There's the proof--the book works! Thank you, Angela.

This is an educational and entertaining guide to writing erotic romance by one of the most successful authors in the field. In fact, it's so good that it prompted my first ever Amazon review! Here's why: There are a lot of great books out there on writing, writing romance, even writing erotic romance (Alison Kent's book, which is excellent, comes to mind.) However, for me, this book was worth the purchase price for Ms. Knight's explanation of manuscript formatting and word count alone. Extremely helpful!

I've tried a lot of how to write romance books. Most are so dry and boring I can't maintain interest after the introduction and begin skimming.

Angela Knight's Passionate Ink: A Guide to Writing Erotic Romance definitely held my interest. Each section includes examples of how she utilized the techniques she discussed and explains how they worked within the scene. It also includes reader comments about what they want and what they don't want in Erotic Romance.

If you want to write Erotic Romance this is definitely a Must Buy!

This book is excellent! It's a fast, interesting read, and filled with useful information.
This author writes science fiction erotic romance. It's not anything that I am interested in so I didn't relate well to the examples she gave from her previous books. I prefer classic well written romance infused with graphic sex scenes. But I found this book very informative, and think a romance writer of any genre would find this book useful.
The areas in this book I found the most useful were the sections on formatting and submitting your manuscript(spacing, text, word count, how to figure out the word count, what information needs to be on you query letter, etc.).
Which publishers she started with, information on e-books vs. print.
What romance writing groups to become a member of, how to find an agent.
Mistakes she had made along the way to becoming a popular and successful erotic romance writer.
A ton of comments and examples from her readers.
There was a great bibliography of reference books that are a must read for any aspiring author. All in all, this book is definitely worth purchasing. It makes the writing process and getting published seem attainable. I highly recommend it.

I have never published any kind of romance, but am a major fan of the erotic romance genre and have considered writing my own book. Angela Knight's "Passionate Ink" is an insightful and thorough look at exactly how to write and market an erotic romance. The plotting guide is especially helpful to aspiring authors, as well as the clear examples and explanations of different aspects of erotic romance writing. Another really helpful aspect of "Passionate Ink" is detailed discussions about both electronic and print publishers. This book is highly recommended for anyone who might want to write their own erotic romance novel for publication.

I only purchase this book because of all the positive reviews. I realize now, they must all have been written by Knight's friends and relatives. It was supposed to be a book about writing sex scenes and erotica, (A guide to writing erotic romance!) and there was very little of that in the book! Instead Knight wrote a general book on all aspects of writing and writing a romance in particular! There are tons of general books out there - I have several and didn't need another one! I feel cheated.

Additionally, Ms. Knight uses ONLY examples from her "EroRom" books. Talk about inflated ego! After trying to read a few snipits I gave up. HELLO! She writes SciFi! And bad Sci-Fi from her examples.

This book was NOT what it was proported to be - I'm very disappointed and am returning it for a refund.

WOW! It's so rare to find a book where every page is relevant and helpful. This is one of the top resource books ever, in my opinion. The reader interviews are especially interesting and helpful. I have grown as a writer for having read this book, and my novel is much more marketable for it. I know I'll go back to it frequently.

....juuuust a little thing: I would have liked to have seen a wider variety of erotic romance themes used when the author was utilizing sample writings, not just fantasy/science fiction (no offense).

I'd like to see such a book for once written by someone besides a Silhouette author.