Susie's Last Waltz at Best American Erotica

Next year’s edition of The Best American Erotica series, BAE 2008, is its fifteenth anniversary.

It’s also the last edition of the series.

Since 1993, I’ve edited and published 281 authors in BAE, 450-odd stories, as well as six erotic novellas. I feel like I owe all my writers and readers a personal letter!

I’ll start with this post and my appreciation for my authors' beautiful writing.

I get letters every week from readers who’ve discovered a story that may have been published years ago. They are memorable.

The earlier editions have not gone out of print, and I still enjoy recommending them and rereading them myself.

Recently, Audible has released audiobooks of most of the BAE editions, and they’re reaching a whole new audience who are appropriately “blown away—” as one listener wrote me just yesterday.

I know for some of the writers, BAE was just a fleeting pleasant moment to get a licensing check— and for others, it’s been a major creative forum to express their views about sexuality, race, class, politics, family, or one's quixotic state of mind. For many of us, it’s been a great excuse to begin a lasting friendship.

My interest in editing and working with erotic fiction hasn’t waned— far from it. As I write this letter, I’m negotiating a new project, and as soon as the ink is dry, I'll be eager to tell you the details. But I didn’t want to delay this post, because news travels so fast.

I don’t know what Simon & Schuster’s plans are for BAE. (The title belongs to them). However, if you ever have a question about BAE from 1993-2008, you can always count on me to act as editor and advocate.

In any case, I have a continuing relationship with S&S and their network of distributors and booksellers for the fifteen volumes we’ve published already.

BAE 08 will be out February 14. It includes the names of every author who’s published in the BAE series, a directory of the most influential editors and publishers of English language erotica in the past fifteen years, and interviews and stories from many of our favorite veterans. Not to mention the new innocent talent...

More Big News:

I’ll be launching a web site for BAE authors, fans, and family next February, so we can celebrate the 15th anniversary and continue the series’ legacy. I’d like to create an outstanding resource and community for the erotic word.

I’m at the beginning of designing the site right now. If you have any advice or wishes about what it could be like, or how it could benefit BAE authors or readers, I’m all ears.

So far, I’m planning on including excerpts from BAE,  audio samples, interviews with the authors, reader letters and surveys, an author directory, profiles of authors’ works and links, classes and editorial consultation services offered by authors, and... who knows what else we’ll come up with!

As you can see, this is not a retirement, so much as a launch into a new galaxy. But it is the end of an era. As much as I’m champing at the bit to start the new projects, there’s some sadness at saying goodbye to a series I’ve loved so much.

Thanks to the authors, once again, for their imagination, skill, and tenacity over all these years— not to mention that certain je ne sais quoi— I couldn’t have done it without you.

To infinity, and beyond,

Susie

Many of my BAE authors have changed their address since we were last in touch. If you're a BAE author who hasn't heard from me personally, as of today, please email me, so I can answer any questions you may have, and stay in touch for future projects. Plus, you never know when a check's going to show up in the mail...

Comments

[Anonymouse]

Speechless... Best of luck on your future endeavors, whatever they may be.

[Steve]

Wow, that's big! I'm sure your future plans must be great as well to give this up.

[Rachel Kramer Bussel]

Susie, I was shocked to get your email, but I hope it means good things for our future and for the future of erotica. This series was what introduced me to erotica as a college student at Berkeley in the mid-90's, along with those early anthologies by Shar Rednour and Herotica, and I am so honored to have been published in BAE twice. There really is nothing quite like that feeling and I look forward to seeing what you unveil to us next.

Also, this cover is hot hot hot! And I'm so glad Jessica Cutler has found her way into BAE and your podcast. As you know, I'm a huge fan (and friend) of hers and see a link between her and Monica Lewinsky that perhaps you do as well. Thank you again, not just for publishing my work, but for breaking so much ground in conceiving of what can be "erotic." I've discovered so many authors like Tsaurah Litzky and Donna George Storey through you, and am sure many, many readers will be rereading all your BAEs for years to come (I have my own personal favorites that I somewhat furtively burrow under the covers with every few months).

[Robert Devereaux]

I'm so proud to be part of the BAE family and to have virtually met you, Susie. Rock on!

[bibliofile]

So glad to hear that it's good news behind the change.

I'll never forget my first (and favorite) erotica anthologist. . .

[ChardGirl]

Hi Ms. Susie:

Eloquent as usual. I will be waiting until Feb. 14th 2008 for the launch of the New Project. An existing community with a new platform: I love it, even if I'm just a lurker. Thank you! -cg

[Jennifer Lehr]

i love the idea of a site devoted to the series. perfect!

can't wait to hear more news!

you continue to be an inspiration.

xo
jennifer

[Gina de Vries]

Oh, wow. Sitting here speechless, and cursing the fact that I never got around to contributing to BAE while you were the editor, because damn, that would have been great.

Susie, you've inspired so much of my work and life, in more ways than I can even begin to count. I'm waiting for news of your next project with baited breath.

xox,
Gina

[Anonymouse]

An idea from the peanut gallery -- an odd one perhaps, but if you're "all ears" here goes:

How about the editorial equivalent of the cutting room floor? You know, pieces that were cut from past editions of BAE which you really wanted to use but couldn't for one reason or another -- like how DVDs sometimes include "deleted scenes" from movies -- "alternative endings," so to speak.

I'd bet I'm not the only one who would be interested in reading excerpts from those "little stories that could but didn't." :) Of course, with 281 authors and 450+ stories to devote time and space to you'll likely have your hands full already but the internet makes this suggestion -- far out though it may be -- quite possible, and one that has fewer technical issues, perhaps, than immutable "brick and mortar" publishing.

Just my $0.02.

[Tomo]

Well, it's sad to see you go, but I'm sure BAE will go on and stay amazing year after year. Though I'm a tad bit sad I could never publish under your editorship, shame on me for not writing more I guess. I hope the future years will be as good.

Good luck on the web site and so forth. I'll be looking forward for more news.

[LustyLioness]

I have a request for the new site: please put a moritorium on moving ads. Those things really slow down the load time for lots of us. Just include links for audio and video, not embedded players, please?

[C.S. Lewiston]

What Lioness said. And I hope the webmasters will choose advertisements carefully, i.e. avoid those abominable moving ads which say "YOU'RE THIS HOUR'S WINNER OF A DELL LAPTOP AND A FREE TRIP TO DISNEY WORLD!!!!!"

Apart from that, good luck in future enterprises. In a world of porn industry cliches, many of which have leaked into mainstream media, BAE provided a public service by reminding us that sex was indeed sacred. Not "sacred" in the Focus-On-The-Family sense (FOTF and other such religio-fascist tax havens are the biggest desecrators of sex, bar none) but sacred as in something which provides joy and restoration in the midst of a life primarily devoted to unthinking production and consumption.

[Vixen]

I just discovered ABE this year. This ABE site you're doing sounds like a great resource to read up on past authors.

Can't wait to hear about the new project.

[ondi]

"to infinity, and beyond..."
Susie, dear, did you happen to see Sex Toy Story? I only saw it once, but it made a deep impression!

[t'Sade]

Aww. Silly question, does that mean the 2008 is already closed for submission? (Is confused a lot).

But, it sounds like you had a wonderful time doing it and that is what really matters.

[Lawrence Krubner]

"I’ll be launching a web site for BAE authors, fans, and family next February, so we can celebrate the 15th anniversary ....If you have any advice or wishes about what it could be like, or how it could benefit BAE authors or readers, I’m all ears."

Advice: websites take much longer than you think (despite the knowledge and experience you've acquired). I realize that you probably know this, I'm repeating it because it's important to repeat it at the beginning of any web project. I remind myself of this fact, almost on a daily basis. "It will take longer than I think" is my mantra.

This goes for all websites. The simple ones which should take 5 days actually take 10. The modestly complex ones which should take a month actually take 3. The really complex ones never actually finish - they just evolve and grow as their owners evolve and grow.

Take RawStory, for instance. That site will never be truly complete, because it is owned by someone who is creative and ambitious. He will always be adding new features to the site. RawStory is in the middle of a gigantic revamp, to be "done" by January. But the revamp will never really be done, because they will always have new ideas for new ways to make the site more interactive.

I've no idea how much time you are planning for the new BAE site, but don't underestimate it. Every large, ambitious site that I have ever worked on has been underestimated. And most of the small, simple sites I've worked have also been underestimated. If you want to have some fun with the site, then especially assume that it will take more time than you think. I've seen professional web design firms like Category4 and Diversion Media bring in sites on-time, but to do so they have to be brutal regarding feature requests. They cut down on what the site can be, they pare back the vision to the bare essentials. From such discipline they are able to make a profit, and the sites get done on time, but the rigid process takes most of the fun out of the project.

I do realize that by now you've quite a bit of experience on the web. You've had your site up for years and you have this blog, and you've been involved in various projects. And you've tons of friends who themselves have cool websites. All the same, respectfully, I've worked with people who have more experience than you or I, and I still see them underestimate web projects. For reasons that I don't fully understand, the time needed to build a web site is easier to underestimate than the time needed for books, posters, t-shirts, political flyers or photographic projects (I say this despite the fact that I've seen massive delays with all such projects).

Don't estimate the time that will be required.

That's my advice.

[Lawrence Krubner]

"So far, I’m planning on including excerpts from BAE, audio samples, interviews with the authors, reader letters and surveys, an author directory, profiles of authors’ works and links, classes and editorial consultation services offered by authors, and... who knows what else we’ll come up with!"

I assume that Simon and Shulster is footing the bill for this website. I certainly hope so, because if you wanted to go all-out with this, I could easily imagine a price tag between $50,000 and $100,000. In my experience, with any site that aims to be a community resource, you need to add a zero to the end of the price for whatever the non-community version would be. I know that RawStory got an estimate of $50,000 for one version of the revamp that they considered.

And, again, depending on how ambitious you wanted to be with the site, I could easily imagine someone working on it full time from now till February 14th.