No Girlie Bits, Please

Thanks for taking the time to visit me today here on NNP. This blog is a follow-up to an article I wrote about switching genres on Sweet and Sexy Divas. You can readthe blog here.

If you missed it, I basically talked about how difficult it was for me to switch from m/m to m/f when reading and writing. This happened when I decided to work on a new m/f book for a friend. I’d been putting it off and when I finally got the idea together on what to write, it was a little more difficult than I thought. To get ready, I read nothing but m/f shorts for three weeks and I swear, it nearly killed me. I missed my men in love, the emotions, the turmoil of my men getting over the hump to get a happy ending. Not the fault of any of the authors I read, it was just too hard for me to stay focused.

That prompted me to ask the question in a popular m/m Facebook group I’m a part of. I asked for a show of hands how many people preferred m/m all the time versus reading m/m and m/f. An overwhelming number of the people who answered said they can’t and or won’t read any m/f. Out of 153 who answered, 106 said they read m/m all the time while 34 said they read m/m and m/f. 16 said they read m/f sometimes.

Wow!

That’s quite a ratio when you think about it and most of the people polled were female.

Here are some of the quotes from this poll. I won’t use names to protect the identities of those who answered.

“I started reading m/m in 2009 and haven’t went back to m/f since.”

“Thinking of m/f makes me shudder.”

“I don’t like the way women are portrayed in m/f.”

“I can’t go back to m/f. It holds no appeal at all.”

“I don’t read m/f, never have and never will.”

“No lady bits in the books I read.”

Then there were others who said it had to be certain authors who wrote the m/f for them to read it; specifically if it’s part of a series. This is true for me as well and I tend to gravitate towards m/f books if they have a subgenre I love. For example, the book I finished was a rock and roll book. My femme fell in love with a musician. I love books about musicians whether they be m/m or m/f so this is usually an easy thing for me. However, when I was reading just that, my mind didn’t stay on course with the m/f and I found myself skipping over the sex scenes just to get to the next part. Again, no fault of the author but I wanted to move along and get to the end. Despite this, I did enjoy the few m/f’s I read and I figured, if I'm going to continue to write both I have to read both on the regular.

What about you as a reader or author? Is it hard for you to switch back and forth between m/m and m/f? Are you like many who say no girlie bits in our books? I’d love to hear your comments.

Thanks for listening!