My Life as a Pornographer and Other Indecent Acts

FYI, this book is not pornographic. It's a collection of autobiographical essays that deal with Preston's life. He mixes stories about writing porn with his sexual experiences with stories about interacting with people who read his smut. This is an interesting and enjoyable book that would be of interest to people who haven't read his smut.

Completing the reading of this book makes me feel as though I've missed out by not being familiar with the works of a great writer. Though the collection doesn't include any of Preston's actual erotic/porn fiction, the essays point out that Preston is clearly a GOOD writer, an intelligent writer, and one of the few who are courageous enough to reveal themselves and the non-PC interests of others in their work. Preston's collection has introduced me to many worlds which I had only heard hints of existing and familiarized me with many alternatives in the world of the pursuit of sexual pleasure. He approaches his subject with integrity, honesty, and showing no fear. He helps recondition the reader to no longer think of "pornography" as such a harsh or even violent term or genre. I have to agree with his theory that if the material printed in the likes of Penthouse or Hustler were packaged in expensive wrapping and sat on a shelf of a mainstream bookseller, it would be considered erotica instead of porn solely because of its cover and the new set that would think nothing of picking it up proudly. The collection gives excellent insight into the realm of the sex industry and the people involved. It shares the lives of sex workers from their humble beginnings (just like the rest of us) to their own thoughts on the effect of their work and why its a worthy cause. Preston also reveals how the business of pornography has helped shape his own life and vice versa. We see the writer inside and out and become fully aware of all that is involved in choosing to write as honestly...the good, the bad, and the ugly. Inspiring and informative, Preston's words make me feel proud to be a writer of erotica or porn or whatever you call it. Classified either way (because to me, it's all just writing and simply an author attempting to include more honesty in their material than most do), I now feel more comfortable as a sex writer, almost comfortable enough to hang a banner over my head and walk down the main street...

This book contains, in one of the 4 interviews Preston conducts with people in the extended porn industry, and the many astute and honest remarks about a life spent in the not inconsiderable task of making permanent art out of fleeting desire - it contains the single most perceptive remark I've come across about the dilemma of art versus commerce. The interviewee observed of a series of his activities that in each case, "In the beginning you think, This is going to make me..hard! And that's the greatest rush I've ever had, ..finding something new and different to make me..hard beats them all." Then follows, inevitably, the stage when he asks, "Can I eat doing this? Can I make a living at it? Because, if I can, then I'll be in heaven. I'll have made it to the place I want to be."But, he observes, "It doesn't work that way..It doesn't work that way because, eventually, the second part of the equation takes over and, no matter what you're doing, you're doing it for the business of it and the concerns about making a living are the same, no matter what the job is."This is a well written, thoughtful collection of essays about the concerns of any artist. It is also refreshingly free of the usual pretension that accompanies such musings when engaged in by poet, painters etc. Pornographers are more fun between the sheets, as well as between the sheets.

Who knows if this collection will ever see the light of day again but I do know that from time to time some of the 15 essays, an interview with Preston and an set of 4 interviews by Preston, will be printed in more current works about BDSM, pornography, and writing. For Preston pornography seems to be anything that includes sexuality where one of the goals is sexual arousal; a definition you may not personally agree with but it took guts in the late 1980s and very early 1990s to say that. Preston didn't just write pornography but just like today that would not have kept him alive because it pays either so poorly for quality or you create a lot of junk just to pay the bills. In a way, some of these essays could almost be classified as a manifesto for writers, especiallythose of us who use sexuality to communicate, entertain, and investigate humanity. If you aren't interested in the political, the social, and the controversial in gay porn from one of the "masters" of that field, don't buy this book. If you are interested in all of those things or love Preston's work, you have to have this book.