The <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6694771/Philip-Roth-beaten-to-Bad-Sex-award-by-Jonathan-Littell.html" target="_blank">Bad Sex in Fiction awards</a> took place yesterday. Fun event, not to be taken seriously. I've never been nominated myself though God knows I'm sure I'm qualified. Sex in fiction is an odd thing. Many, perhaps most, wannabe authors of mainstream fiction have sex in the book they are trying to sell. Why? I could be disingenuous here. I could say because sex is an integral part of human life and it would be hypocritical to ignore it. I could argue it was essential for the story I want to tell. Or even the most important part of all.

All of these things may be true. But let's be honest. There's a grubbier, more common reason. It's plain desperation. People believe that without sex no one will publish the damned book. They reach for those buttons in the belief they need to be pushed in order to succeed. Is this true?

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This is a big subject and I'm well aware that some people will be thinking, 'But I never want sex in my books at all'. But exploring the topic does tell us something about the nature of writing too. Let's try and break this down to four basic questions. First...

<em>Does your story need sex or not?</em>

Human beings have sex. We all know that. Most of us have got a pretty good idea what goes on in the bedroom. I'm sure there authors out there desperate to introduce new and more physically improbable forms of sex for their readers. But for the most part sex in books is, well, sex. It's not a revelation. It's a physical thing. But so is going to the toilet. There are writers out there who describe that too, though for the life of me I can't imagine a good reason -- not that <em>that</em> should stop anyone trying.

So sex is rarely novel or, in terms of physical detail, particularly illuminating. Why write it then? One reason is to titillate. Quite a common reason it seems to me. I'm always slightly amazed by this use of sex since we live in an extraordinarily graphic age. When you can see people having actual sex in mainstream cinema you have to push the boat out pretty far to match what's out there twenty feet high on cinema screens up and down the country.

I'm not going to get prissy here. If you want to titillate, go for it. But go for it with gusto and be aware that it will change the tone of your overall book. Readers aren't stupid. They know and may appreciate smut when they see it. What they will spot a mile off is if you switch into poetic allegorical mode straight after and try to do the 'yes but it's all in context -- I wouldn't do it otherwise' thing.

The real reason for sex, though, is to explore character. To show love between people, whether it's established love, developing love or love that's falling apart. Desperate sex between two people whose genuine love is disintegrating can be heartbreaking. The moment a couple fall into bed the first time can be touching too and make the reader think, 'Finally...'.

Sex between steady couples... I'm not so sure. If the relationship is firm, unthreatened, friendly I don't know if you tell the reader anything by showing they have sex too. They would, wouldn't they? One reader put it to me this way: she wanted to know the good people had sex so that they were happy. But she didn't need to know the details, only that it was going on. As always the basic question is the same: can I take this out without materially damaging the book? If the answer's yes then it has to go.

<em>If you're going to write sex how graphic should it be?</em>

No one can tell you that. You have to work it out for yourself. There are delicate and sensitive lines here that can so easily be crossed. I squirm with embarrassment when I read a passage in which an authorial voice is clearly salivating over the physical characteristics of a woman. No one, well not many people, likes to listen to one human being perving over another, and that's what this can all too easily sound like. Graphic physical detail is dangerous. I've done that but not for a long time. You leave yourself open to getting a guffaw from the reader just when you'd like something else. It's also a very difficult call to make. With most work you can gauge whether it's good or not. Once you're in the bedroom it may not be just your characters who are faking it.

I don't use sex very much these days. There was one short scene in <em>Dante's Numbers</em> where the reader was in the room when it started. I felt in that case it was necessary because it established something about the relationship between the two people concerned. If they feature sex at all most my books of late have depicted the moment before or the moment after (and frankly that can tell you just as much as some blow by blow bedroom account). I tend to treat sex as I do violence -- keep these things short, to the point and, hopefully, powerful. I'm not enamoured of lingering sex any more than I am of lingering violence. But that's my choice. Others will feel differently and that's their prerogative. Maybe I'm just getting old too.

<em>Do readers want to read about sex?</em>

Some do. I have had people complain about the way sex has tapered off in the books over the years. But not many. That's for my books. Other authors may have a different mileage. If some hot scene is part of your unique selling point you'd be crazy to abandon it. But if it's part of your USP you and your editors will know that for sure. It won't be something you need to think about much.

<em>Do publishers expect sex in order to sell your book?</em>

Many years ago a former editor of mine in New York picked out a passage in an early book and said, 'I like hot writing as much as anyone. But what does this add to the book?'

Nothing if I was honest. I just felt I was keeping up the sex quotient demanded of new writers. So it came out.

The straight answer is publishers expect a good book. I'm sure there are occasions when some have said, 'This would be better with some more sex in it.' But I'd guess it's not often. Experienced editors will have seen it all over the years, every different description of every different act, every euphemism there is for every last bit of the human body. For them it's going to be the story that counts and in most popular fiction sex is not going to be a make or break issue however much wannabe writers feel they have to insert it at some point.

If I was starting out now I'd probably be very wary indeed about putting sex scenes prominently in any prospective manuscript. At least if you leave them out you know you're going to be offering something different to most of the other stuff on the slush pile.