[quote=@Vilageidiotx]
And furthermore, they are usually badly written. 

Any of the rest of you guys, pick up a cheap romance novel next time you are at a grocery store or wal-mart. One of those ones with an attractive couple, the guy wearing no shirt, and both of them dressed up in some stereotypical costume. Flip through it. If you doubt your own writing ability, that is all it will take to make you feel better.

Though seriously, I had took a writing class years ago where the teacher explained to us how those chain-produced romance novels work. They send you a packet that tells you what to write and how to write it. It's color-by-numbers literature. She said that a lot of semi-famous authors write those under assumed names as a way to collect some extra cash. 
[/quote]

I was listening to an NPR interview with a guy whose dad (and mom as editor or something) wrote pornographic novels to the same effect. His dad would legit have a card catalog of descriptions, plot types, and other things that he would basically stitch together to form a novel which he'd sell.

He didn't find out until after the fact and I think he said when his dad was either very old or dying he'd claim he invented the modern erotica genre; although he takes that with a bit of salt since something like fifty other people claimed the same and no one could tell anyone else otherwise.

It was fucking magical.