Gongzhan, the book that Tianyi wrote and put out for sale, contains explicit homoerotic content, which lead to her arrest and sentencing.Photo: Courtesy of wuhunews.cn

An online homoerotic story writer was recently sentenced to four years in jail for illegally publishing and selling the books in Central China's Hubei Province, the latest case of homoerotic story writers being punished after another such writer was sentenced to 10 years in jail in January.

The writer, surnamed Tang, was sentenced for illegal business operations which seriously disrupted market order, on May 15, Tencent News reported on Monday.

Beside Tang, two owners of a Taobao online book shop were sentenced to three and a half years in prison, while three owners of the printing factory were given two and a half years in jail.

Tang's case came after another writer, whose pen name was Tianyi, was sentenced to ten and a half years in jail in January for writing and distributing homoerotic books that describe obscene sexual behavior between males, sparking discussions on Chinese social media amid a tendency that more and more online writers print and publish paperbacks by themselves.

Law experts noted the trend and called for a specific management system for homoerotic novels. But others stressed the authority of laws and regulations, saying they should not be changed simply because a new phenomenon occurred.

Tang was arrested by police in Wuhan in December 2017 for publishing and selling novels identified as illegal because they were not issued by legal publication agencies and did not have an issue number, Chutian Metropolis Daily reported.

Tang's five books contain lewd depictions of gay sex, the report said. 

Tang has reportedly earned 1.18 million yuan ($170,692) from these illegal publications.

Whether books make a profit is the key in the sentence, Lü Xiaoquan, a Beijing-based lawyer told the Global Times on Monday. 

"For books published for scientific research or public benefit, the court should give a lesser punishment," he said.