Adult fiction has never lacked stories. What it has sometimes lacked is a publishing space that knows how to take those stories seriously.
Erotica, sensual fiction, and books about desire have long existed alongside mainstream publishing, yet the genre still carries plenty of clichés. Covers can feel predictable, the presentation can be overly obvious, and the subject matter itself is sometimes treated as something that needs to be hidden or explained.
Ink & Velvet, a new adult publishing imprint from independent Portsmouth publisher Tricorn Books, wants to do things differently.
Rather than treating adult fiction as something separate from good publishing, Ink & Velvet was created around a straightforward idea: the subject matter should not determine the quality of the publishing.
The writing still comes first. The rest should follow with the same care, creativity, and professionalism given to any other book.
Leaving the clichés behind
Adult fiction is a much broader world than its traditional stereotypes suggest.
A story about desire can be romantic, funny, dark, explicit, literary, experimental, or deeply personal. It can explore relationships, fantasy, identity, intimacy, or power. It can be queer, heterosexual, or sit somewhere between familiar categories.
For Ink & Velvet, that variety is part of the appeal.
The imprint is not trying to create a single look or formula for adult books. Instead, it wants each book to retain its own personality and the author behind it to have an individual voice.
That starts with the manuscript itself.
From there, the publishing process can include editing and proofreading where needed, typography, cover design, ebook production, print, and the practical work involved in bringing a finished book into the world.
It is a familiar publishing process, simply being applied to a category that has often been treated differently.
When design becomes part of the conversation
There is also a deliberate visual idea behind Ink & Velvet.
The imprint wants to move away from the traditional imagery associated with erotica and towards something more considered. Its visual world sits closer to independent publishing, fashion, and contemporary editorial design, with an emphasis on strong typography, photography, illustration, and thoughtful cover design.
The result should be a book that feels like a book first.
Something that can sit on a shelf without announcing itself through predictable visual cues. Something beautifully produced enough that the design becomes part of the reading experience rather than a warning label for its subject matter.
That distinction matters because adult fiction does not have to look a certain way.
A sensual novel can be elegant. An erotic story can be literary. A book about fantasy can be intelligent and beautifully designed.
There is no reason those things should contradict each other.
Publishing without judgement
Perhaps the most important part of Ink & Velvet’s identity is the space it hopes to create for its authors.
Writing about sex, desire, and fantasy can be deeply personal. Some writers are completely comfortable putting their own name on an adult book. Others prefer to work under a pen name, keeping their adult writing separate from other parts of their professional or personal life.
Ink & Velvet is comfortable with both.
That discretion is not about hiding the work. It is about recognising that authors have different boundaries and that publishing adult fiction should not require anyone to defend their choice of subject matter.
There should be no awkwardness attached to submitting a manuscript simply because the story happens to be about sex.
Instead, the focus can return to the things that matter in any book: the writing, the voice, the story, and whether it gives the reader something worth staying for.
For the stories that have been sitting quietly
There may be more unpublished adult fiction than we realise.
Somewhere, writers are sitting on manuscripts they have never shown anyone. Perhaps the story is intensely personal. Perhaps it is a full-length erotic novel. Perhaps it is simply an idea that has been growing for years without a clear publishing home.
For some authors, the difficult part may not be writing the book. It may be finding somewhere to take it without feeling judged before anyone has read it.
That is the space Ink & Velvet hopes to fill.
The imprint is deliberately open to the breadth of adult writing, provided there is a strong story and an individual voice behind it. It is less interested in fitting books into a predetermined image of what erotica should be and more interested in finding work that is intelligent, interesting, provocative, beautifully written, or simply impossible to put down.
A new identity with an established publisher behind it
Although Ink & Velvet is new, the publishing experience behind it is not.
Tricorn Books is an independent publisher based in Portsmouth, already working with authors through the different stages of creating a book, from manuscript development and editing through to design, typesetting, and finished print or digital editions.
Ink & Velvet takes that existing publishing experience and brings it into a more specific area.
Giving the imprint its own identity also makes sense creatively. Adult fiction deserves room to develop its own personality without being reduced to a single definition of what an adult book should look or feel like.
It gives the books their own space. It gives authors another place to be themselves. And it allows the imprint to approach adult publishing on its own terms.
Adult books do not need to apologise
The launch of Ink & Velvet comes at an interesting moment for adult publishing.
Readers are increasingly comfortable exploring stories about intimacy, desire, relationships, and fantasy, while writers continue to push the boundaries of what those stories can be.
What remains outdated is the idea that books exploring those subjects need to be embarrassing, disposable, or visually predictable.
Ink & Velvet is taking a quieter approach.
It is not trying to make adult publishing more shocking. It is trying to make it better.
Better edited. Better designed. Better produced. And, perhaps most importantly, treated without the judgement that has surrounded the genre for far too long.
Because a book about sex is still a book.
And if the writing is good, the story is compelling, and the voice is worth hearing, perhaps the subject matter should never have been the thing that made it difficult to take seriously in the first place.
Editor’s Note
Adult publishing is changing, and Ink & Velvet is part of that conversation. We loved the idea behind an imprint that puts the writing first while leaving the clichés and judgement behind.
Want to explore Ink & Velvet for yourself? You can discover the imprint, browse its books, and find your next read here. https://www.tricornbooks.co.uk/ink-velvet/
