Weekly Writing Check-In: To Smut, Or Not to Smut

I dig me some lesbian koalas.

"Smut", is, of course, my affectionate term for "sex scenes" in my own writing. Usually, in my main series, I'm not shy about including graphic sex scenes (I'm writing for damn adults, after all) so long as it's related to the overall plot, whether by something that happens during the scene or how it affects the fornicatin' characters. It's pretty easy for me to go "lol that smut was fun to write, too bad it's gettin' cut even before the second draft happens lolol". But that's when I'm writing my science-fiction/fantasy.

I've been editing my romance novella this week, and I think I've mentioned here before that me and a few CPs/general friends have been discussing how I should market it. Should I market it just as a romance with a couple graphic scenes, or as an erotic romance? To me, marketing it as an erotic romance means there's smutsmutsmut all over the place, and if that's what you're looking for, you may be disappointed to see the first ~smut~ doesn't pop up until halfway through the novella. Here's the thing: there are two very good places I could insert some good ol' lady x lady smut earlier on in the novella, but I didn't because it wasn't really plot related. I'm thinking I may write them anyway after I finish this edit just to see how I feel about them in the overall story. But I wouldn't have thought of it at all if it weren't me thinking ahead towards marketing. I don't know. I'm talking in circles now.

But yes, smut has been on the brain all week. Ain't being (lonely, sad) 25 grand.