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...
