Day: 'Twilight' fans migrating to erotic romance

[October 03, 2012]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Bestselling novelist Sylvia Day says sales of her "Crossfire" series and other erotic romance novels are on the rise in part because of maturing fans of the "Twilight Saga" young adult romance books.

In a Monday interview to promote the release of "Reflected in You," the second of her "Crossfire" trilogy, Day said, "I think a lot of those readers are growing up and are looking for the next step in a romance story, a little bit more sex, a little bit more conflict, and they're migrating from that into contemporary erotic romance."

Day said the move makes sense to her.

"It's emotional resonance that they're looking for in a story," she said. "So when you read something like 'Twilight' with life-and-death stakes, they want to move forward into an adult read that has that same sort of conflict level, and they're finding that mostly in erotic romance."

The author, who is about to assume the presidency of The Romance Writers of America, said she and fellow romance novelists are happy that interest in E.L. James' "Fifty Shades" trilogy also is creating new fans of the genre. But she said they're a little amused at the sudden media attention.

"I actually get the impression from it that most of the press is surprised that women read erotic fiction when it's been around for a very long time," she said. "... Once they caught on to it and started promoting it and publicizing it; you can't avoid it now. It's everywhere."

James last year self-published "Fifty Shades of Grey," about billionaire Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele. Day, already an established romance writer, launched her erotic trilogy about billionaire Gideon Cross and Eva Tramell. Day says similarities in the stories should not surprise people already familiar with the genre because "the tortured millionaire hero" is a romance staple that has been around for decades.

"Reflected in You," which debuted at No. 1 on Amazon's Kindle Book bestseller list with its e-book release Tuesday, continues to follow the daily lives of Gideon and Eva, who share similar traumatic histories. Day describes the series as "an everyday struggle for two people who found the person they want to spend their life with -- how to change long-established survival mechanisms so that they can live together happily."

"Reflected in You" comes out in trade paperback on Oct. 23.

[Associated Press; By LAURI NEFF]

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