Lit stories/selling books

I love writing stories at Lit.

Also like selling ebooks on smash words.

Any ideas how to maximize the exposure at Lit for more sales?

Do you make use of this thread?
http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=569279&page=86

You also could give a link to your Amazon author page in your story file profile.

jack30341 said:

I love writing stories at Lit.

Also like selling ebooks on smash words.

Any ideas how to maximize the exposure at Lit for more sales?

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*I hope I have your ideas right [or wrong].

Lit is not a vehicle for advertising your wares.
You can 'trail your coat' in the signature line thing, but as far as I know,
that's it!

Handley_Page said:

*I hope I have your ideas right [or wrong].

Lit is not a vehicle for advertising your wares.
You can 'trail your coat' in the signature line thing, but as far as I know,
that's it!

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Nope, Lit. authors can directly advertise their latest market books here:

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=569279&page=86

sr71plt said:

Nope, Lit. authors can directly advertise their latest market books here:

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=569279&page=86

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Not being a published author I didn't know that.
Thanks for putting me right

Excellent!

sr71plt said:

Nope, Lit. authors can directly advertise their latest market books here:

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=569279&page=86

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Thanks very much!

Deleted

Waste of time.

Not saying you can't have a story here on lit and get some sales off the same story in e-book form somewhere else, because oddly enough you can.

But My belief is the people buying don't know of lit. Ir they think everything here is low quality because its free.

But the people who come here to read? They read for the bubble and that's it. They will tell you how they love your work and love your stories, but when you don't put it here and tell them you're selling?

They move on to the next lit fav.

With very few exceptions here the readers will not support you financially.

You're only the best until you have the nerve to charge $2.99 for an e-book.

As for the authors and their books thread?

Look at me vanity. Very little if nothing is coming from it sales wise.

lovecraft68 said:

Very little if nothing is coming from it sales wise.

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In your unsourced opinion, of course.

sr71plt said:

In your unsourced opinion, of course.

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I have some 'sourced' opinions. Some I'm sure I've mentioned over time here and won't bother repeating.

And you made the comment because I'm sure you want people to think advertising here is doing wonders for you.

I have no doubt you sell books. I have serious doubts any of your sales are from here.

Just seems to me that there should be a synergy of sorts. The stories here are often pretty distinct in terms of a niche, and in terms of readership.

If readers like what they read, then it would seem they'd be interested in more of it, even if it means $2 or $3.

Wanted to air it out, I guess. By way of follow-up, does anyone know how the "following" feature works.

If someone/a reader follows me, then are they also alerted when I post like this?

Would love to have that kind of reach.

jack30341 said:

Just seems to me that there should be a synergy of sorts. The stories here are often pretty distinct in terms of a niche, and in terms of readership.

If readers like what they read, then it would seem they'd be interested in more of it, even if it means $2 or $3.

Wanted to air it out, I guess. By way of follow-up, does anyone know how the "following" feature works.

If someone/a reader follows me, then are they also alerted when I post like this?

Would love to have that kind of reach.

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The first part of your post is spot on. A lot of stuff here is niche and when people find what they like, they want more.

Problem is-if you're looking to make money-the more they want is the free more that's here. $2-$3 isn't a lot, but its more than free.

And its not just the free here that hurts sellers its the thousands of free e-books people continue to give away through amazon's rip off exclusive programs. But...that's another topic.

I'm not trying to discourage you from selling...or writing here. But thinking you can build a following on free material then expecting them to pay isn't how it works.

I've put books up for sale, then after a year or so when they're pretty much dead I might toss one up on here to enjoy some feedback, but its made money first.

This is a great place to write and learn and cut your teeth, but if you want to go next level? Some advice keep lit and the selling market separate.

On any venue I sell, I never mention lit. I never mention lit on social media. Not because I don't like it, but because let's see...I want you to buy my work, but here's a link to a half million erotic stories in every kink you can think of and some of it very good...

Counter productive.

You can enjoy both worlds, but my take is to keep them separate

lovecraft68 said:

And you made the comment because I'm sure you want people to think advertising here is doing wonders for you.

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Umm no, but you always find a way to be nasty, don't you?

I totally get what you're saying.

And from the looks of my smashwords sales, you are spot on yourself.

But here is what I do not understand. I put substantive work here that appears to entertain, and that I put a lot of time and effort into, and it would seem there would be follow-up for more.

I mean, $2 or $3 isn't even a fast food lunch really. And the kind of fiction here and put out by writers from here is not typically prominent at amazon.

Then again, maybe I'm overthinking.

Maybe the better analogy is stripping. If I'm stripping over here from time to time, then why shell out dough to go down the street to watch me strip more often. Just be patient and there'll be another show here before long.

jack30341 said:

Just seems to me that there should be a synergy of sorts. The stories here are often pretty distinct in terms of a niche, and in terms of readership.

If readers like what they read, then it would seem they'd be interested in more of it, even if it means $2 or $3.

Wanted to air it out, I guess. By way of follow-up, does anyone know how the "following" feature works.

If someone/a reader follows me, then are they also alerted when I post like this?

Would love to have that kind of reach.

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I make no bones (which LC has ignored so he can be nasty) about posting that most of my market writings eventually wind up here free and folks can just wait to read them here if they don't want to pay. Also, the cover images in my sig line aren't linked to a buy button. I imagine most putting cover images in their sig lines provided a buy link.

There's no reason not to do whatever advertising you can on this site--as long as you are an author on this site. If you don't do it, you certainly aren't going to get interest generated at all.

jack30341 said:

I totally get what you're saying.

And from the looks of my smashwords sales, you are spot on yourself.

But here is what I do not understand. I put substantive work here that appears to entertain, and that I put a lot of time and effort into, and it would seem there would be follow-up for more.

I mean, $2 or $3 isn't even a fast food lunch really. And the kind of fiction here and put out by writers from here is not typically prominent at amazon.

Then again, maybe I'm overthinking.

Maybe the better analogy is stripping. If I'm stripping over here from time to time, then why shell out dough to go down the street to watch me strip more often. Just be patient and there'll be another show here before long.

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Okay here's what I want you to do. Repeat after me in your best Homer Simpson voice "I was once like you."

Seriously, same mentality. If you like my stuff and you appreciate my work you'll maybe buy some books. $1.99-$2.99? You can find that in change in your car!

But...no.

Right now there's too much free out there and again, not just on a site like this which is meant to be free, but paid venues that allow free.

Go to Smashwords home page where they proclaim they have over 70k FREE books available. Then ask yourself again why sales aren't the greatest?

Pilot-who thinks I'm being nasty, but I'm not I'm simply not going to do act like he knows everything everyone does here-just commented he will put something here only after he's let it run its course in the market-that's the way to do it.

Putting everything here first then selling? Believe it or not you may still see some action on it, but I feel those are not people aware of lit and sites like it.

The books I've put here first then sold, have X sales. The books I have never put here have twice X sales.

As for a little proof of whether people will buy here or not...

I put a story that's part of a series here. Its a complete story featuring some of the characters. I put in an author's note that if you like the group and want to read more, let me know.

I get e-mails "Love them where can I read more?" I send them links to the e-books and with 25% off coupon codes.

That way I know if there's a sale on the book it came from that person from lit.

I've seen maybe four of those coupons used over the years. I did a coupon code and other 'incentive' type offers on the authors and their books threads when I used to bother with it. Again so I could see if lit was generating sales. Nope.

Thanks.

Use the thread Pilot mentioned and link your Amazon or Smashword pg on your bio. It does help. I haven't written here lately, but I do get readers from Lit.

All I'm going to say is I started here in 2010 with my series The Harvest and built a fanbase who followed me into publishing. Mainly I'm with Dreamspinner Press (which is a International gay romance press), but I self-pub too.

I wrote a scifi M/M and put it up here, then I later removed it and sent it DsP. The novel went live at the end of Dec of last year, and it's still on the top 100 LGBT Science Fiction section at Amazon. *shrug* Best thing I ever did was finding this place. You can build a readership here and do pretty well in the market place. I sure am.

nomoretears00 said:

Use the thread Pilot mentioned and link your Amazon or Smashword pg on your bio. It does help. I haven't written here lately, but I do get readers from Lit.

All I'm going to say is I started here in 2010 with my series The Harvest and built a fanbase who followed me into publishing. Mainly I'm with Dreamspinner Press (which is a International gay romance press), but I self-pub too.

I wrote a scifi M/M and put it up here, then I later removed it and sent it DsP. The novel went live at the end of Dec of last year, and it's still on the top 100 LGBT Science Fiction section at Amazon. *shrug* Best thing I ever did was finding this place. You can build a readership here and do pretty well in the market place. I sure am.

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I think you made a point that sort of helps mine. You have not written here much lately. Meaning anyone on lit who really liked your work now knows if they want mare they may have to pony up.

I'm speaking more of people who are hoping to sell here, but meantime are posting dozens of stories a year here for free and using social media to post their free lit stories while also trying to sell.

Conflict of interest in a sense.

The issue with the book thread is someone has to go to that particular thread. Most readers don't know about or bother coming to the boards. Many who come to the boards don't look in that thread.

A sig link most likely works a bit better, but they come with a hazard. There are a lot of trolls and assholes here and some sites allow reviews without purchase.

As for the platform here its a great one to learn how to write and make some friends and contacts(I found my cover person here and indirectly a publisher) but the vast majority of the readership is here for the bubble. Just like there are many people with kindles who have never paid for a book because there are thousands for free every day on amazon.

On the subject of this I decided to try an experiment. I have only placed one story up here since October. I've told several here privately I'm pretty much done posting stories here. I have no intention of removing my stories. They've been here a long time for free so I don't see much of a point.

Plus I feel a sense of loyalty to long time readers and want them to continue to enjoy what I put here.

So I made a note on my profile-if it takes-that I have been writing plenty, but its all been going for sale. I have a lot of material for sale that will never see lit and if you'd like to check any of it out I put the SW link.

So now we'll see if I see a spike in sales when people realize they won't be getting anything new from me here. If they loved my work that much it should be worth a $2.99 purchase here and there. But odds are most will be "What a jerk" un-fav me and move on.

I'll bump this in a couple weeks with an update on what I see not just in sales increae-or lack of-but how much negative response I get-or any well wishers.

Of course this assumes people even look at bio pages

Deleted

LeandraNyx said:

This honestly surprises me. Not that I disagree with your experiences; I honestly haven't tried to sell any erotica yet. But if I really, really liked an author--if their work hit my hot buttons in ways other writers couldn't--I would buy their stuff. I imagine a more casual reader--who enjoys your stuff, but isn't a die hard fan--might just unfavorite and move on, but the people who regularly check your page for new content? That surprises me. I mean, if J.K. Rowling had published her first book for free, then started charging, I doubt her fanbase would be like, "Nah, fuck you; I'll just get much crappier wizard fanfic on Wattpad for free." Maybe it's all about building a fanbase? I know Tefler makes $1,500/month on Patreon, and he posts all of his content for free.

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Then he's not posting for free, he's soliciting here and just not officially charging for his work.

But a very quick update. Today an author that has had me faved since 2010/11 just unfaved me. Must be coincidence. rolleyes:

LeandraNyx said:

This honestly surprises me. Not that I disagree with your experiences; I honestly haven't tried to sell any erotica yet. But if I really, really liked an author--if their work hit my hot buttons in ways other writers couldn't--I would buy their stuff. I imagine a more casual reader--who enjoys your stuff, but isn't a die hard fan--might just unfavorite and move on, but the people who regularly check your page for new content? That surprises me. I mean, if J.K. Rowling had published her first book for free, then started charging, I doubt her fanbase would be like, "Nah, fuck you; I'll just get much crappier wizard fanfic on Wattpad for free." Maybe it's all about building a fanbase? I know Tefler makes $1,500/month on Patreon, and he posts all of his content for free.

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The ability to sell material and also to offer material for free--and the apparent separateness of the groups of people buying and those only looking for free content--has baffled me for a decade. That doesn't mean that it hasn't continued working all that time in reality.

...........

I've had people contact me on Lit asking if I sell books too, saying they wish to pay for my stuff. I can't tell if it's honest or just empty words, of course. Either way, I'm just doing this for fun, so I tell them they can donate to PEN if they want to support writing.