>>111065721I write romance and erotica, 90% of which is read by women.
here's what women want: fucking powerful dudes who can't control themselves over how into the bland, nondescript, curvy (read: fat) female self-insert.
Both of these elements need to be signaled to the reader. That's why you have so many billionaires--50 shades was part of the general trend, it didn't start it--and why you also have a bunch of vampires and werewolves. Chicks dig power.
As for rape, that's the other half of the formula. The man can't control himself. It's not about dominating the woman, it's about the woman being so powerful that the man throws his morals and decency out the window just to ravish this woman who he wants to grow old together with.
Substitutes for rape include: murdering rival men, violent rampages, spending most of his fortune to buy her at an auction house, breaking up with his wife to pursue her after falling in love at first site, etc. The important thing is that you show how the man is completely obsessed with the woman, with every single thought in his mind focused on her.
The female fantasy is for the pussywhipped alpha male.
