LOS ANGELES — XBIZ Award-winning performer Steven St. Croix has self-published a new e-book titled “Porn Star: Everything You Want to Know and Are Embarrassed to Ask” on Amazon.com.
St. Croix, a 20-year veteran performer who last year made a high-profile comeback to the adult industry, said the book was several years in the making.
“I had actually written something several years ago,” St. Croix told XBIZ. “It was in a different vein, before just anyone could get into the porn business. It was like The Porn Star Manual. I had all this material and I was talking with a friend — we were just kind of spitballing — and the book came up. He said, ‘Why don’t you write a book about what it’s like being in the business from a guy’s perspective?’”
St. Croix said some of the most common questions he fields from fans that find out he’s a porn star include, “Who are your favorite [girls to work with]? Aren’t you afraid of getting diseases and how much money do you make?”
“Most people really have no idea how porn is made, other than there is a camera recording people having sex,” he said. “So I include all the top questions I’ve been asked and other people have been asked and put them in question-and-answer form as if you and I sat down and had a couple beers and shot the shit.”
The seasoned star has performed in more than 1400 X-rated films and has logged nearly 2000 sex scenes during his industry career.
On Jan. 11, St. Croix won the XBIZ Awards for Best Actor (for New Sensations’ “Torn”) and Comeback Performer of the Year at the 11th annual XBIZ Awards Show at the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, Calif. Those accolades came on the heels of the Free Speech Coalition honoring him with its annual Positive Image Award in November. St. Croix earned the recognition due to his ongoing efforts to defeat the Measure B ballot initiative requiring mandatory condom enforcement in porn productions shot in L.A. County.
St. Croix said he also considered moving forward with "Porn Star" during his three-year hiatus from the industry when he was living in Cannes, France, and running a small art gallery.
“But I was just busy doing my art and I never really got any momentum,” said St. Croix, an avid painter who specializes in acrylic, large-format contemporary abstracts.
But about six months ago, he said he was inspired to finish. “I was in an atmosphere where I could really be into it. It’s a little hard to write about something when you’re not doing it,” St. Croix reasoned.
He said he maintained a casual tone in the book and did not set out to dish industry dirt or to claim he’s been victimized.
“It’s not a woe is me or I’m a victim type of book. Or here’s everybody who may have pissed me off. It’s not that,” he assured. “I can hardly believe that I’ve been around this industry for 20 years and it has entirely changed, including what happens behind the camera and the way business is done. I have 20 years of experiences to draw upon as far as what’s it’s like for a guy in my position.”
St. Croix added, “It’s not in narrative form, three acts and then I ride off into the sunset. It’s really for anybody that’s had any interest in what it’s like, or really die-hard fans, or even anybody that doesn’t like it that is going to have some questions or opinions about it. I think this book will answer those questions, and maybe make them more aware of the intricacies of what we do from the perspective of a man, as opposed to other books coming out from girls.”
He decided to self-publish to keep things simple.
“The thing is, I think Jenna [Jameson] was probably the lottery winner," St. Croix suggested. "She got a lot of high-profile mainstream coverage when that book hit at the right time. For anyone who’s ever looked into publishing, they know that it is probably as difficult to get a book published by a brick-and-mortar publishing house as it is to get movie made in Hollywood.
"With this, I didn’t have to wait for corporate people to come up with their thoughts and decide whether this would sell. I’m not trying to be a New York Times bestseller. My intention to just tell it like it is. I like that I had creative control and could get it out on my timeframe.”
St. Croix said that if the e-book “strikes a chord" that he would consider creating hard copies of it.
Photo of Lily LaBeau and St. Croix from 2013 XBIZ Awards by Rick Garcia.
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