Erotica Gives Book Publishing a, err...rise.

MSNBC notes that the once-fringe genre is booming, with online book clubs, public readings, and more.

From the story...

At a time when overall book sales have been flat or declining for several years “we saw it as a growing opportunity; it has exploded,” Karen Auerbach, Kensington’s director of publicity told me. Cleis Press, a San Francisco Bay area publisher of erotica and other works has seen its sales rise by more than 56 percent over the past three years. (Neither Cleis nor other publishers would release exact sales figures.)

There are even a growing number of erotica book clubs, though, perhaps because of the explicit nature of the material, most don’t follow the same kind of meet-in-my-living-room format readers of the latest Mitch Albom tear jerker employ. For example, writers of erotica read their works at the In The Flesh reading series organized by writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel once a month at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge in Manhattan. The Erotic Literary Salon convenes every third Tuesday at a bar in Philadelphia. Online clubs and blogs like http://www.erotica-readers.com/ allow consumers to meet virtually. This month, Cleis started its own online book club.