Rachel Kramer Bussel
Editor
Rachel Kramer Bussel is the editor of more than sixty erotica anthologies, including: The Big Book of Orgasms; Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica; Yes, Sir, Yes, Maa’am; and The Best Women’s Erotica of the Year series, all for Cleis Press. Her writing has been published in more than 100 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006, and Zene’s bestselling Succulent: Chocolate Flava II and Purple Panties. She’s taught erotica writing workshops at colleges including University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern and SUNY Purchase, as well as at conferences such as Sex Expo and CatalystCon across the country and online at LitReactor.com.
AREAS OF SPECIALTY
Romance and erotica
AVAILABLE FOR
Manuscript critiques, developmental editing, content editing
"Rachel Kramer Bussel brings a wealth of experience from an acclaimed career writing and editing erotica, in addition to her overall experience as a working freelance writer. I have received guidance and instruction from Rachel in two capacities: as an attendee in her group workshop on writing erotica, and receiving individual critiques on draft short stories. In the group workshop, Rachel was excellent in facilitating the creative process, providing participants simple ways to develop premises and stories. The group became an "idea-generating factory," capped off with participants sharing their story openings and Rachel providing a variety of resources on marketing and publishers.
In her individual critiques, Rachel was very supportive and helpful in reviewing my stories for their ideas, plots, themes, and quality/effectiveness of writing--marking the manuscripts, inserting comments, and providing language for suggested rewrites. Her suggestions were just that--
suggestions--but geared toward improving the stories (which they did) and making them salable. In both the group setting and one-on-one, Rachel's expertise, patience, and professional generosity shone through. I am glad to know her as an erotica resource and literary friend."
-Marcus Wyche
"Rachel's critiques provided me a better understanding of how to write erotica and where my own work was falling short. Her critiques on my first several stories enabled me to move within a matter of just weeks from a complete novice to a writer whose stories were accepted by two publishers. Her suggestions were just what I needed to make the transition. I found her extremely easy to work with and her observations to be right on target. If you are looking to move from unpublished to published, you can't do yourself a better favor than submitting your work to Rachel before approaching a publisher. Her skills as an editor are the best--I couldn't have made a better investment in myself and my writing than to hire her as my personal editor."
-CeCe Marsh
"Rachel edited my first book, and I’m delighted to recommend her to anyone considering having their manuscript assessed by a professional. At the end of the process and with some apprehension, I began reading the comprehensive report she supplied and try as I may (and try I did), I couldn’t fault a single one of the insightful points she made. Not only was the work she did so valuable, even more useful was how she explained the errors I was making in my writing and suggested ways to rectify them. In fact, every time I sit in front of the keyboard, I’m haunted by the spectre of her admonishing me for forgetting her excellent advice! Not only would I recommend Rachel as an editor, I’d say employing someone of her calibre is essential. I’ll be contacting her again when my next book is ready for her forensic talents to be applied."