There’s not exactly a New York Times’ best-seller list for gay erotic fiction books, but we can get a sense of what’s selling well by looking at Amazon’s rankings in the gay erotic fiction category.

Here’s what’s currently in the Top 10 of best-sellers for gay erotic fiction:

1. Not So Thanks In Advance by Clio Evans

Billy expected many things to happen— but getting into an elevator with the omega he’s been stalking and seeing an invisible tentacle monster for the first time wasn’t one of them.

2. Whit by Cora Rose

Straight guys don’t have crushes on other dudes, right? Except my roommate, Whit, is intriguing, and I find myself watching him constantly. He’s a mystery I can’t figure out. And these feelings I’m having about him are confusing.

3. Soul Eater by Lily Mayne

One where humans live in military-controlled, cramped and dirty cities along the coasts, and the majority of the United States is known as the Wastes. A lawless, desolate and dangerous place, teeming with monsters that have claimed the land for their own.

4. Not So Kind Regards by Clio Evans

Inferna expected many things to happen— but sparks flying between her, the office rival, and his lover was not one of them.

5. Death’s Bloom by Lily Mayne

He’s the most perfect man I’ve ever met, but something is… wrong.

6. Not So Best Wishes by Clio Evans

Lora expected many things to happen— but sparks flying between her, the new HR agent, and her manticore coworker wasn’t one of them.

7. Sins of the Orc by Finley Fenn

In a world of warring orcs and men, Kesst of Clan Ash-Kai is a pawn. A pretty, pliant plaything, bound to the cruelest orcs in the realm.

8. Little Slice of Hell by Clio Evans

Creatures of all kinds go to the Barista to find love, including the devilishly sexy incubus known as Dante.

9. Just A Bit Gay by Alessandra Hazard

Tyler Meyer is totally straight. But then the hot woman he’s hooking up with sticks her finger where she shouldn’t, and suddenly he’s not so sure… Straight guys can like that sort of thing too, right?

10. Perfect 10 by K.M. Neuhold

A cheeky virgin, a surprisingly romantic bartender, one house, and six months of nothing but fun…

Top 10 updated as at 27 October 2022

Gay erotica or M/M?

Most erotic fiction that’s published about man-on-man action is actually written by women for women – this genre is described as M/M or MM fiction.

If you’re looking for proper hard-core guy-on-guy action written by guys for guys, then you need to do the research to make sure that the erotic fiction you’re reading will properly fuel your fap fantasies.

What’s the history of gay erotic fiction?

While there have been examples of queer erotic fiction throughout literary history, it was in the early 1960s that things really began to take off.

The US had been producing ‘pulp fiction’ since the 1930s. Pulp fiction was the term used to refer to cheap-to-produce paperback novels that were sold in train stations and grocery stores. These were designed to catch the eye, with vivid cover art and sensationalist plots and subject matters. While a small number of these early pulp fiction novels had queer themes, the strict censorship laws in the US at that time kept any explicit man-on-man sex out of pulp fiction until the mid-1960s.

While some of the queer fiction paperbacks that were published in the US following the relaxation of censorship rules did tackle serious stories and character development, most of them were explicitly pornographic – designed to create a sexual response from their readers. These were stories that were written to get you hard and get you off.

Erotic gay fiction today

The rise of the internet has obviously changed the distribution landscape for queer erotic fiction. Online portals such as Nifty provide access to a wealth of stories in all sorts of genres. Plus, the emergence of self-publishing platforms such as Kindle Direct has given authors of queer erotic fiction an accessible way to create, distribute, and monetise their work.

It’s easy to dismiss queer pulp fiction as low-brow writing – lacking in any real creative or intellectual merit. While this style of writing is probably unlikely to win any literary awards or to change the world, writing a story that is coherent, has some sense of narrative, and is also erotic and arousing is not as easy as you might imagine.

What’s interesting is that despite the huge proliferation of gay porn images, GIFs, and videos that can be easily accessed online, there is still a market for queer erotic fiction. There is an audience – there are people out there who like to read about guy-on-guy encounters, to have their imaginations fired up as well as their libidos.

Queer pulp fiction stories may not be the kind of work that will one day win the Pulitzer Prize, but they’re a great demonstration of the power of words and the power of imagination.

What’s the history of gay cartoons?

There’s obviously been examples of the celebration of gay men throughout the world’s known history – with plenty of examples from the Ancient Greeks and the Ancient Romans onward. However, it wasn’t really until around the mid-20th century that graphic artists began to find an outlet and an audience for work that focused on gay men.

Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen) is obviously one of the best known names, with his work distributed by Bob Mizer’s Physique Pictorial. From the 1970s onwards, it was really the work of manga artists in Japan that began to realise the potential and build the audience for graphic art, comics, and novels that focused on gay men.

The manga sub-genre of Yaoi tends to be fairly romantic boy-on-boy stuff – aimed more at a female audience – whereas the sub-genre of Bara focuses on big, burly, masculine guys.

Today, you can see a real mix of styles emerging – with everything from romance, relationships, science fiction, fantasy, and hard-core porn.

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