Has anyone published anything?

I'm asking about any kind of writing, not necessarily erotica. How did you publish your first book? Did you run into any problems? Why did you decide to publish? How was it received? What happened after that? What do you think about traditional publishing methods (as a book) vs digital, as an e book?

So many questions

I publish stuff occasionally but much of it is newspaper filler in the puzzle section.

50 years ago I published poems.

I sold some horror stories.

But the real money in writing isn't fiction, its legal and medical writing. If you wanna make points with judges be clear and lucid and succinct. Get to the point and convince.

Kimikimidoll said:

I'm asking about any kind of writing, not necessarily erotica. How did you publish your first book? Did you run into any problems? Why did you decide to publish? How was it received? What happened after that? What do you think about traditional publishing methods (as a book) vs digital, as an e book?

So many questions

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Depends what you count as "publish" and "book". I contributed short pieces to several compilation books, but I don't really think of them as "my" books.

First published things with me as sole author would be my Honours and PhD theses. The Honours thesis involved a lot of wrangling with LaTeX (mathematical typesetting language); the PhD thesis was a lot longer but my org had an admin person who did a lot of the formatting for me, bless her!

After writing and formatting I just had to print them out, take them down to the binders, and get them professionally bound. These days I expect I could just email a Word file and pay by credit card.

How were they received? I don't know if anybody has ever read them since my examiners said I could graduate

My first book came from a non-erotic story I wrote and posted here on Lit. It was one of those friend of a friend deals. A reader passed the story along to an editor she knew whose publishing company was looking for stories with a racing theme. That was eight years and eight books ago.

Kimikimidoll said:

I'm asking about any kind of writing, not necessarily erotica. How did you publish your first book? Did you run into any problems? Why did you decide to publish? How was it received? What happened after that? What do you think about traditional publishing methods (as a book) vs digital, as an e book?

So many questions

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I've published six e-Books with three different publishers.

The first publisher gave me a $100 advance. I published two books with him, Stripping my Mother-in-law Naked and Sex with my Sister-in-law Samantha, two family books approved by the Mormons, kind of, a little bit, not really but Donnie Osmond liked them.

Then, as if I had imagined publishing two e-Books the publisher disappeared.

'Poof!'

"Hello? Hey where'd you go?"

A couple of years later, I published two more e-Books, one was an anthology of short stories and the other was a book of poems. This time, not so stupid, I insisted on receiving a $200 advance.

Just as the first publisher disappeared, the second publisher disappeared too. No e-mails and no royalties. What the fuck? Are you kidding me?

Then, a couple of years later, I published too more e-Books, a 2 volume, 120,000 word set, Love So Young. This time, smarter than the average bear, I insisted on $300 upfront.

Even though the books are still for sale on Amazon, the publisher is gone.

Now, I write directly for the fan. I make 100% profit with no split for stealing publishers.

If anyone tells you that they're making money from writing e-Books (lol), they're writing fiction.

Yeah freddie, that's a nice ball of fiction. Your publishers didn't drop you for no reason. You were so much of a headache they had better things to do.

As for writing special stories for readers, that's more crap than truth. Why would people reading on a free site spend money on stories? Oh, it might happen once in a while but nothing like you try to blow it up to be.

As for making money on e-books, yes, the crest of the wave has passed but if you keep putting books out, you can make some money. Several here that i know of make as much as twelve to fourteen hundred a month. Not enough to quit your day job but enough for something most of you are doing for fun anyway.

Kimikimidoll said:

I'm asking about any kind of writing, not necessarily erotica. How did you publish your first book? Did you run into any problems? Why did you decide to publish? How was it received? What happened after that? What do you think about traditional publishing methods (as a book) vs digital, as an e book?

So many questions

Click to expand...

I first published in a non-erotic field with independent presses some years ago. It was a fun experience but I didn't see much money from it.

I'm currently publishing in e-book format with this here little press out of the UK; doing a couple of novellas and an anthology submission with them as well as releasing the Space Princess stories I had originally posted (in somewhat rougher form) here.

I was tempted to try self-publishing but there are a ton of things both big and small that an honest-to-goodness press is just much better placed to handle, and it seems to me there's a better chance of actually doing something in the e-book market through an established outlet. I have already technically seen more money this way than from my older books; OTOH that isn't saying much. I'm interested to see what the ultimate outcome will be.

Are you aware of this sticky thread at the top of the Authors Hangout? http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=569279&page=84

These are Lit. folks who have published in the marketplace. You could find someone in there who has published what you'd like to publish and ask them questions directly. These are the folks who can show they've published erotica.

sr71plt said:

Are you aware of this sticky thread at the top of the Authors Hangout? http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=569279&page=84

These are Lit. folks who have published in the marketplace. You could find someone in there who has published what you'd like to publish and ask them questions directly. These are the folks who can show they've published erotica.

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Thanks for the thread link, and yes, I have noticed it. But I just wanted to see in general how everyone's method was. The difficulties, decisions, etc. Not just how to do it.

Kimikimidoll said:

Thanks for the thread link, and yes, I have noticed it. But I just wanted to see in general how everyone's method was. The difficulties, decisions, etc. Not just how to do it.

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Fine. But as you can see, you get responses from people who are just pretending to publish. If you use that thread, you can check out for yourself that they have (you can get to Amazon, for instance, to see that they really have been published to the marketplace). This is the Internet, the home of pretense and bad/malicious advice.

Yes. Two full-length (mainstream) novels published in 1993 and 1997.

At that time, I hired a professional editor. I also had an agent who got me in front of publishers.

The publishing world was VERY different back then.

Haulover said:

Yes. Two full-length (mainstream) novels published in 1993 and 1997.

At that time, I hired a professional editor. I also had an agent who got me in front of publishers.

The publishing world was VERY different back then.

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I can imagine. Now I can just move around online until I found someone, or at least ask a forum for help.

My first book was a children’s book, published in 1965. It did OK, but, by the time it was ‘out and about’, I was writing radio drama, film scripts, and columns for several specialist magazines, and so I didn’t get around to another proper book until 1989.

Publishing the first book involved quite a bit of luck, and after that I got myself an agent. For the next 30 years, he did most of the heavy lifting.

The ’89 book was reprinted twice in the first year – which helped me to get a further two-book deal from the same publisher. And, while publishing those first three books, I became quite good friends with my editor. When he moved on to become managing editor at another publishing house, he took me with him (so to speak).

If I was starting over again today, I’m sure that things would be very different – although I’m also pretty sure that success still requires hard work and a big dollop of luck.

Personally (and this is personally, I have no clue if it's real or imagined) I think I can be a good script writer. Many of my friends and teachers recommended that I take up writing as a profession (but hahah, who listens to advice, right?) and also on Lit I've gotten good feedback on my writing skills.

Now, I would like to go into writing in general as a career BUT I know how difficult it is, and 2. I already am on a kind-of-sort-of career path. Still, I want to do something on the side, to at least keep it polished.

I did some freelance writing while in college, and although I was paid peanuts I was happy with my work & happy with what I learnt. I've been looking into medical writing, but I wonder if it's a thing that needs a degree or do you just go and do it sort of thing... anyway..

Thank you, everyone, for your input!

TxRad said:

Yeah freddie, that's a nice ball of fiction. Your publishers didn't drop you for no reason. You were so much of a headache they had better things to do.

As for writing special stories for readers, that's more crap than truth. Why would people reading on a free site spend money on stories? Oh, it might happen once in a while but nothing like you try to blow it up to be.

As for making money on e-books, yes, the crest of the wave has passed but if you keep putting books out, you can make some money. Several here that i know of make as much as twelve to fourteen hundred a month. Not enough to quit your day job but enough for something most of you are doing for fun anyway.

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Rachel Dawes. Surprise! Surprise! You didn't think I knew your real name, did you?

My mother stripped in the same club with your mother. They even shared the same pimp. Everything was good until Big Baby, a huge black man, impregnated your mother with you.

That's when your mom moved to Texas and hooked up with Ronnie Dawes, ergo TxRD. How am I doing so far.

Things were good until your mother died, run over by a steer and then gorged, the poor thing. Now, there you are stuck with Ronnie, a real heavy drinker who didn't like you. He kept you around to cook and clean his house and fucked you from time to time when he was drunk enough.

The last straw was when he hit you with the shovel and caused brain damage, the reason why you don't remember that my name is Susan and not Freddie.

Freddie is my brother's name, Rachel, and if he heard you call him Susan, he'd hit you with a shovel too. I used Freddie when I wrote as BostonFictionWriter because I was afraid to write erotica on a porn board and you continue proving my point why.

That was when you moved to Derry, New Hampshire to get away from your step-dad. In essence you're really NHRad and not TxRad.

You should get a tissue, Rachel, you're drooling again.

TxRad said:

Yeah freddie, that's a nice ball of fiction. Your publishers didn't drop you for no reason. You were so much of a headache they had better things to do.

As for writing special stories for readers, that's more crap than truth. Why would people reading on a free site spend money on stories? Oh, it might happen once in a while but nothing like you try to blow it up to be.

As for making money on e-books, yes, the crest of the wave has passed but if you keep putting books out, you can make some money. Several here that i know of make as much as twelve to fourteen hundred a month. Not enough to quit your day job but enough for something most of you are doing for fun anyway.

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Now that we cleared up who you are and why you are, let's talk about my stories.

I started a business back in '94 when I was 22. I called it What's Your Story. I wrote stories for people. Mostly I wrote biographies. My biggest customers were the elderly who wanted to leave their grandchildren something about them.

As I got to know more people, I wrote resumes, term papers, cover letters, and whatever anyone needed written.

Then, along the way, an older gentleman, I think it may have been your father, Ronnie, asked me if I could write an erotic story about him and his daughter, Rachel.

Ergo, 22-years-later, here I am still writing erotica for fans.

I know you don't believe me but that's okay. How could you when you can't even remember my name? It's Susan.

Are we done here or are you going to continue to stalk me and start trouble with me whenever I make a post to someone else's thread?

I don't follow you around the board. I don't post after you. I don't call you a liar, even though you are, Rachel.

Please, get help. That wasn't right what your father did to you just because you were lesbian and not the son that he wanted.

Only, please don't take your anger out on me. I can't help it if I'm tall, blonde, beautiful, busty, and modest. It's not my fault that you're short, fat, and ugly.

By the way, now everyone knows that picture is of your father, Ronnie Dawes, and not you.

Have a nice day, Rachel. I love you.

Kimikimidoll said:

Personally (and this is personally, I have no clue if it's real or imagined) I think I can be a good script writer. Many of my friends and teachers recommended that I take up writing as a profession (but hahah, who listens to advice, right?) and also on Lit I've gotten good feedback on my writing skills.

Now, I would like to go into writing in general as a career BUT I know how difficult it is, and 2. I already am on a kind-of-sort-of career path. Still, I want to do something on the side, to at least keep it polished.

I did some freelance writing while in college, and although I was paid peanuts I was happy with my work & happy with what I learnt. I've been looking into medical writing, but I wonder if it's a thing that needs a degree or do you just go and do it sort of thing... anyway..

Thank you, everyone, for your input!

Click to expand...

You may find that some commissioning editors are more comfortable if you have some sort of specialist subject knowledge. However, my degree was in 20th Century English Literature and, over the years, I have written about many, many topics – architecture, branding, corporate governance, design, etymology, fine art, food, innovation, marketing, politics, psychology, travel, wine, and yachting – to name but a few.

I think if you want to be a professional writer there are really only two requirements.

First, you need to be a better-than-competent writer. In my experience, 99 percent of writing is more craft than art.

Second, you need to be an organised thinker.

Oh, and you need to be disciplined. You need to be ready to start work at the same time every morning. If you need to wait for your muse to arrive, you’ll probably struggle to make a living.

Good luck.