I sent out my email newsletter in the wee hours this morning, and in this post I’m going to expand on some things I said in it. (Because even 12 hours later, some things already need updating!)

“Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned.”

These are the literal words in Project 2025, the ultra-conservative blueprint for America that the Trump administration admitted yesterday they have been planning to use all along.

There are so many things I’d rather be writing about right now. There are dozens of fights for our rights we’ll need to have in the coming year, but since I am an erotica writer, I’ll stay in my lane for the moment and concentrate on the Project 2025 Porn Ban. Yes, it’s real. As Newsweek reports, it’s “a key agenda item in Project 2025.”

You might think in the wake of 50 Shades that BDSM is just accepted everywhere, and with the success of Sarah J. Maas’s ACOTAR and fantasy/romantasy books with a lot of “spice” in them, that whether something has sex in it is no big deal now. But this is not the case. It’s already more difficult to sell and publish erotic writing than any other genre, because it’s already against the ToS to promote erotic writing on Facebook or Google Ads. B&N just did a purge of erotic ebooks. Amazon regularly figures out what the hot erotic trend is and then suppresses it in search (as they did with bigfoot erotica, dinosaur porn, stepbrothers, and so on).

With Project 2025, they won’t just shut down sites like PornHub. They want to scrub sex-related content from all American life, which means increased pressure on Amazon and Patreon and Barnes & Noble to sanitize themselves—which they’ve already been doing! These efforts will only intensify.

But if you think wellllll maybe we can live without some smut, remember, for Project 2025 folks, “banning porn” doesn’t just mean going after the explicit “X-rated” material. It also means anything with queer or trans content, because to them, any representation of queerness is obscene.

But those of us who do write explicitly erotic material (as usual) will be the first to go. They’ve said in plain words that people like me belong in jail for what we write. If you don’t agree, and you believe we have the right to write about sex, and the right to read about it as well, now is the time to support your erotica writing friends as best you can, whether that is by buying their books or supporting their crowdfunds, or in reviewing, posting, and talking about their books, or even just posting an encouraging word to them!

Before the election, I was originally planning to ask for support of my patreon this month, anyway. My goal is launching the Vanished Chronicles series, finally. But suddenly that $2 or $5 a month someone could pledge means a whole lot more. It might soon become my only writing income, if my other books get blocked from sale online.

My plan now is that as soon as I reach $300/month on patreon, I’ll launch the serial for book 1 of the Vanished Chronicles, my very very very long-awaited kinky paranormal romance/urban fantasy thriller. (And if Patreon eventually decides we’re too hot for them, I’ll move to set up my own subscription site a la Daron’s Guitar Chronicles…. but I really hope I don’t have to.)

If you are not already a Patreon supporter, please consider chipping in over there. The quicker we get to $300/month, the sooner the story will start flowing! In fact, I have an update, since the newsletter went out this morning, we’ve already crossed the $200/month threshold! (Here’s the link to my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ceciliatan)

My next step is set up an online store for myself. In fact… I already have it up and running here: https://www.ceciliatan.com/shop

This past weekend when I was supposed to be writing, I was too keyed up from pre-election anxiety to be able to write. So I worked on the website instead. Right now only digital products are available. I plan to add autographed print editions soon.

You can even buy an online gift card to my shop ! Snazzy! If you don’t want a subscription but you want to support me now, a $25 gift card is a great way. I’ve also put a $50 card on sale for only $45 right now.

Help me test out the store by making a purchase and letting me know if anything goes haywire. I’m a one-writer operation over here right now, no assistant, but email shop @ ceciliatan.com with any issues.

Of course, if you’re unable to support with money right now, it always always always helps and is appreciated when you tell people about the books, review them on sites like Amazon and StoryGraph, post about them in your social media. Truly.

AND. If you’re already a supporter of mine, here are a few other smutty, kinky queer creators on Patreon who could use your support:

• Lauren P. Burka – Lauren was Circlet Press’s second author (after me) and has just started serializing a very kinky gay fantasy that is a sequel to her book Wishbone. Lauren mostly stays off social media for mental health reasons, so doesn’t have a lot of ways to spread the word about it. Names of My Beloved is steamy hot with lots of corporal punishment and dominance and submission dynamics, beautifully written. https://www.patreon.com/LaurenPBurka
• Sinclair Sexsmith – Sinclair not only publishes crazy-hot D/s, there are classes on both writing and on BDSM and D/s relationship topics. Yes Sir. https://www.patreon.com/c/mrsexsmith/
• TammyJo Eckhart – Another longtime Circlet author and one who writes a fair amount from the dominant female perspective. https://www.patreon.com/tammyjoeckhart
• Midori – if you didn’t know Midori has a patreon, now you do. She is VERY active, with everything from online “office hours” chats, to BDSM-related classes by herself and guests, and much more. https://www.patreon.com/planetmidori
• Laura Antoniou – Laura has not been active recently while revamping all her self-publishing efforts, but I’m expecting to see more soon! Look for her new website and webstore, and some new editions of the Marketplace books will be coming as well. https://www.patreon.com/kvetch

If you are, or know of, other 18+ erotica writers on patreon please let me know because I would love to keep amplifying. Spreading the word for each other is erotic creators’ only real means of discovery, since we’re blocked from ads and search, and suppressed by social media algorithms.

If the crackdown really comes hard, of course, patreon will cave, and even my webhost could change their ToS. If they really make good on the imprisonment threat… well, I guess I would be looking at moving not just my web server but my self to another country. (Any leads on offshore web hosting would be welcome!)

Part of me says I’m overreacting, but people underreacting to just how bad Trump and P2025 will be is how we got to this place. Honestly, I’m feeling extremely demoralized and finding it hard to get through writing anything (this newsletter included…) without crying right now. The grief is real.

Please contribute if you can, or just send me some words of encouragement that erotic writing is important to you and that you don’t want to lose access to it! We have a fight ahead of us and I need all the encouragement I can get.