Forbes considers the Ellora's Cave business model, which "netted an estimated $600,000 on revenue of $6.7 million" in 2006 by peddling "raunchy taboo fare for the ladies." What really catches the biz mag's eye, though, is that they're doing it with e-books, to the extent that Ellora's and other romance publishers are "singlehandedly saving the electronic Gutenberg from extinction."

Susan Edwards, the imprint's media relations director, also dropped me a line to let me know that Ellora's Cave has expanded its relationship with Simon & Schuster. Having already printed and distributed ten triple-decker anthologies of erotic novels under the Ellora's Cave brand, Pocket will be accepting thirteen more similarly packaged volumes, as well as a to-be-determined number of single-story books. (That's Edwards in the photo above, in front of the company bus that was parked in the Javits basement BookExpo weekend.)