Australian Penthouse

What inspired you to start U Star Novels?
I was trying to find a gift for my sister-in-law in 2004. I knew she liked romance novels, but I didn’t know which ones she’d read or what she was into, and I thought it would be great if I could just put her into a book.

I found a company in the US that did a similar type of thing, so I contacted them to see if I could distribute their books. I wanted to be able to change them because they were very American, but they weren’t happy about that and asked for a ridiculous amount of  money up front, so the idea kind of died at that point.

Someone later suggested I find writers and do it myself, so that’s what I did. I had a bit of  luck when I won a start-up business award in 2006, and I launched on the back of that.

What sort of response have you had?
It’s been really positive. When I started, I wasn’t sure how saucy people wanted the novels to be, so I took a lead from the authors and let them write what they were comfortable with.

I was very aware that I didn’t want to publish adult content at that stage because once you step into that realm, you can’t put your website on certain directories and that kind of thing.

I did a lot of market research and it quickly became apparent that people wanted more sex in their books, and a lot of them wanted sex scenes written by a woman. So those were the next steps we took, based on customer feedback. We found a female erotic author and she did Amsterdam Lessons for us, which is one of our racier novels.

What’s your most popular title?
Probably Fever In France because it’s risqué enough to do the job, so to speak, but it doesn’t involve the main characters having sex with other people, which turns some couples off.

I think it’s also popular because it’s a very action-packed, James Bond-type book—the hero flies helicopters and chases diamond smugglers. I thought it would be mainly women buying these novels, but the split is very much 50/50.

Where do you usually find the writers you use?
I’ve found them in all sorts of places. Originally, I started advertising online, and I found my latest authors through a competition we ran on the website. An exciting thing about the business is I can publish up-and-coming writers and help them get a profile.

Our books are developing loads now because the technology behind integrating the customers’ personal details is getting more sophisticated. We’re going to start doing something similar to the old ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ novels, so we can start putting into the story the sort of sexual adventures you want to go on with your partner.

Give us a rundown of the books you currently have available…
We have two explicit erotic novels in Amsterdam Lessons and English Encounters, and then we’ve got Fever in France, Spanish Sizzle, Safari Nights, and Indecent Italy, which is just a romantic story that’s at the other end of the spectrum. I gave Indecent Italy to my nan, for example. And then we have two same-sex novels: Secrets of Sydney, which was written by a lesbian from Sydney; and Back for More, which is our gay male book.

You also publish personalised versions of classic novels. Was it difficult to get permission to do that, considering the nature of your other books?
All the copyright on the classic novels has expired, so we’re free to use them. They’re lots of fun; everyone loves Alice in Wonderland. A lot of people buy one romance novel and one classic!

How much are the books, and where can our readers get them?
All the novels are available on our website at www.ustarnovels.com.au. The price for the romance novels is $44.95, and the classics are a bit cheaper at $29.95.