William F. Buckley, Jr. was asked, given his Conservative beliefs, why he included sex scenes in his Blackford Oakes series of spy novels. He said he felt required to in order to sell copies.
That may well have been true. But also, call me small-minded, but I’ve never wanted to encounter a WFB-penned sex scene, and have stuck to his breezier non-fiction.
There’s a classic Doonsbury where an agent is coaching the Watergate guys on their thriller novels and says “now boys a word about the obligatory sex scene…”
I’ve published three literary novels following the sure fire formula No Sex Scenes No Murders No Sales
William F. Buckley, Jr. was asked, given his Conservative beliefs, why he included sex scenes in his Blackford Oakes series of spy novels. He said he felt required to in order to sell copies.
That may well have been true. But also, call me small-minded, but I’ve never wanted to encounter a WFB-penned sex scene, and have stuck to his breezier non-fiction.
There’s a classic Doonsbury where an agent is coaching the Watergate guys on their thriller novels and says “now boys a word about the obligatory sex scene…”
No Sales. Haha. Sorry.
My agent cannot hide this fact!