Amazon.com (ISBN 0743226232, Paperback)

Authors of erotica have it rough, says Susie Bright in How to Write a Dirty Story. Their work is often judged before it is read. They are assumed to be sex gurus. And if memoirists find it tough to share their work with friends and relatives, imagine what it's like for sex writers. A third of Bright's book is devoted to general publishing issues. The rest deals specifically with erotica and should appeal to anyone whose writing includes sex scenes. Bright, who has been dubbed the goddess of American erotica, is refreshingly straightforward about her subject. She likens a great erotic story to a great striptease act. Ideally, an erotic story takes all the time it needs, arouses both the reader and the author, is judicious with clichés and dirty words, and doesn't involve a complicated description of body-part placement or an excess of sex noises. Most important, a sex scene propels the story forward. If the story would work just as well without it, the sex scene shouldn't be there. And the good news? Even "really bad lovers can write great erotica." --Jane Steinberg