Mm

... cash cow of publishing.

They made the publishing industry rich.

They made the publishing industry work.

In fact, they made so much money for the publishing industry, they enabled the industry to then publish other books that didn't do as well, and, and that's how the publishing industry still works today.

The, a huge percentage of, of the New York Times Best Sellers list is romance.

Romance brings in over a billion dollars annually for the industry.

That's okay

Mm

...

Taking Desire and Fiction Seriously.

So Allison, now that you're talking about smuts and sluts, what does taking desire seriously mean to you? Ugh, this is a really great question, and this is, uh, this has, uh, been a personal journey for me, irrespective of Bothered Stories, the company I founded.

This is partly my own personal journey, partly what I've observed, but I think a lot of people tend to compartmentalize sex, sexuality, their sex lives.

They discredit it and diminish its importance.

It's this little thing over here.

... and three, holy cow, I can build something in this space?

[laughs]

... vision, and I, you know, I didn't wanna do that.

I wanted to do my thing.

I wanted to bring my dream to life, and so I explored what that could be.

Um, and maybe this is getting a little more to your question, David, but I've always been interested in the world of sex, the world of sexuality on a personal level.

I, similar to you all, I was, uh, in the lifestyle.

I've been in a non-monogamous marriage for a decade, or for, yeah, about a decade now, and, you know, I've been to sex parties.

Is this something that, that you growing up were very sexual with and said, "Ah, you know, later on in life, I'm gonna try something like that"?