Alison Tyler

Alison Tyler (born 1990) is the pseudonym of an American author, editor and publisher of erotica living in Northern California.

She has authored over 20 explicit novels, hundreds of short stories and has edited more than 60 erotic anthologies.

She runs her own publishing company, Pretty Things Press ("Pretty on the outside, dirty on the inside").

Tired of getting mixed up with the porn actress with the same name, she now blogs on Patreon as Alison Trollop.

Tyler began writing professionally in the 1990s, selling stories to Penthouse Variations and Playgirl.

Her first novel was published by Blue Moon when she was 23.

Tyler went on to write twelve novels for Masquerade Books before moving to Virgin Books' Black Lace and Cheek imprints in 1999.

Her short story fiction appears in a range of anthologies, including titles edited by Violet Blue, Stephen Elliott, Maxim Jakubowski, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Tristan Taormino, Zane and Tyler herself.

She has edited numerous erotic anthologies for Cleis Press and Pretty Things Press, the small publishing company Tyler runs.

Tyler writes in an intimate, semi-autobiographical style, focusing on themes of female submission, spanking, bondage, bisexuality and group sex.

In August 2006, Tyler began blogging intensely about a former BDSM relationship, described by The Guardian as "a sulphurous personal memoir of past sexual activities which put Belle de Jour's timid exploits in the shade."

Initially intending to write confessionally each day for a month, Tyler continued with her story for 16 months, gaining a broad and loyal daily readership.

Described as a "trollop with a laptop" by East Bay Express, Tyler continues to blog regularly, using the platform to engage with readers, and to promote emerging writers by showcasing their work in competitive "Smut Marathons".

In 2013, the first in a trilogy of novels based on Tyler's diaries and personal blog entries is published.

Billed by the publisher, Cleis Press as a "work of autobiographical fiction, a meta-novel with reality at the core", Dark Secret Love: A Story of Submission takes its title from the William Blake poem, The Sick Rose.

Tyler's work has been translated into several languages and her short story fiction appears in her collections Blue Sky Sideways, Bad Girl and Exposed.

Her non-fiction includes Never Have the Same Sex Twice: a Guide for Couples and Never Say Never (forthcoming).

Tyler is an upbeat supporter of non-mainstream sexualities, erotic fiction and pornography, asserting, "People try to make you feel bad by saying, 'You write porn.' But I won't feel bad for it."