Getting published

[wife2hotblk]

So with Survivor 2009, I have learned discipline and honed my craft. I have written stories about things that I have dreamt of (gay male, incest). It has been a horrid and wonderful year.

But now, I need to make money. I definitely have a romantic bit to everything I write, so I will be looking first to those publishers. Although some of my stuff may be too racy for most of them.

Any advice from the published among you?

 

[Guest]

So with Survivor 2009, I have learned discipline and honed my craft. I have written stories about things that I have dreamt of (gay male, incest). It has been a horrid and wonderful year.

But now, I need to make money. I definitely have a romantic bit to everything I write, so I will be looking first to those publishers. Although some of my stuff may be too racy for most of them.

Any advice from the published among you?

I'm not published but there's a thread here that I hesitate to link that could help you out. Some guy is going through advertising his site and they are looking for submissions (not submissives) to sell. I think they do their own publishing.

Also, I know that Kindle and Amazon publish independent works. Might help.

 

[jomar]

Quite a few people here publish through eXcessica.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I read Robert Bloch's autobiography this weekend. Getting published is easy, amking money writing is hard. Bloch sold stories for 24 years and made nuthin until Alfred Hitchcock bought the film rights to PSYCHO.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

Group MVP.

they got a little bad press here a couple of years ago, but my own experience has been positive.

the moolah ain't great though, so ...

but they do pay.

 

[wife2hotblk]

Has anyone from here had any success in the romance/chick lit genre? If so, how?

 

[geronimo_appleby]

have you spoken to English Lady at all?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I read Robert Bloch's autobiography this weekend. Getting published is easy, amking money writing is hard. Bloch sold stories for 24 years and made nuthin until Alfred Hitchcock bought the film rights to PSYCHO.

Yeah. You're not going to make any money writing porn, not the kind of money you need to live on. A book with a small publisher might bring in $100 in royalties over the course of a year or so. A graphic romance--and it has to be a romance, not just porn--published with a name publisher might get you a few thou in royalties, but the competition is ferocious, and very good. Most web sites looking for stories pay <$25. I don't know of any erotic publishers who offer advances. It's all royalties: 5-11% on sales of hard copies, up to ~45% on E-books.

Selena's eXcessica is the best deal. You get to keep the rights to your work plus ALL the royalties, but that's still not going to keep you in cigarettes.

The most money I ever made from a story was with Harlequin, who paid me a flat $626 for a 12K word story for their Spice line of short erotica.

You don't become a writer for the money. You don't become a writer because you want to be one. You become a writer because you can't help it.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Yeah. You're not going to make any money writing porn, not the kind of money you need to live on. A book with a small publisher might bring in $100 in royalties over the course of a year or so. A graphic romance--and it has to be a romance, not just porn--published with a name publisher might get you a few thou in royalties, but the competition is ferocious, and very good. Most web sites looking for stories pay <$25. I don't know of any erotic publishers who offer advances. It's all royalties: 5-11% on sales of hard copies, up to ~45% on E-books.

Selena's eXcessica is the best deal. You get to keep the rights to your work plus ALL the royalties, but that's still not going to keep you in cigarettes.

The most money I ever made from a story was with Harlequin, who paid me a flat $626 for a 12K word story for their Spice line of short erotica.

You don't become a writer for the money. You don't become a writer because you want to be one. You become a writer because you can't help it.

Yep. I think Bloch laid it out straight when he revealed that writers make shit until someone important notices, then everyone wants a piece of you. And its how the elite writers come to notice you. He made 10K for PSYCHO and used it to buy public relations so everyone who mattered knew who wrote the book.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Group MVP.

they got a little bad press here a couple of years ago, but my own experience has been positive.

the moolah ain't great though, so ...

but they do pay.

They pay $20 for the right to print a short story once in one of their periodicals. They are slow about paying, but they do pay. They pay $150 for the rights to one printing of a novel, which can be a group of short stories with the same characters. They define novel length as 24,000 words.

 

[sr71plt]

Yep. I think Bloch laid it out straight when he revealed that writers make shit until someone important notices, then everyone wants a piece of you. And its how the elite writers come to notice you. He made 10K for PSYCHO and used it to buy public relations so everyone who mattered knew who wrote the book.

You seem to think that that publishing industry hasn't changed from the time Bloch wrote Psycho. You're several lightyears behind the industry then.

 

[sr71plt]

eXcessica is a good place to start on moving into publishing erotica, I think.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Quote:
Originally Posted by JAMESBJOHNSON
Yep. I think Bloch laid it out straight when he revealed that writers make shit until someone important notices, then everyone wants a piece of you. And its how the elite writers come to notice you. He made 10K for PSYCHO and used it to buy public relations so everyone who mattered knew who wrote the book.

You seem to think that that publishing industry hasn't changed from the time Bloch wrote Psycho. You're several lightyears behind the industry then.

They have changed drastically. For one thing, what we write would have gotten us arrested back then. For another thing, ebooks result in dribbles of money monthly, and there was no such thing as ebooks in the fifties.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

You seem to think that that publishing industry hasn't changed from the time Bloch wrote Psycho. You're several lightyears behind the industry then.

All I know is what I experience and what famous writers report about their own adventures. And from what I read things havent changed much since 1960.

 

[sr71plt]

All I know is what I experience and what famous writers report about their own adventures. And from what I read things havent changed much since 1960.

That's obviously because you haven't read past the 1960s on the issue. I went into e-booking (the second time I went into it) with all sorts of outdated preconceived notions that have been shattered by reality.

 

[Boxlicker101]

All I know is what I experience and what famous writers report about their own adventures. And from what I read things havent changed much since 1960.

Do the famous writers describe posting pornographic ebooks in the Sixties?

 

[geronimo_appleby]

They pay $20 for the right to print a short story once in one of their periodicals. They are slow about paying, but they do pay. They pay $150 for the rights to one printing of a novel, which can be a group of short stories with the same characters. They define novel length as 24,000 words.

yup, that about sums it up, but, as the doc said: You don't become a writer for the money. You don't become a writer because you want to be one. You become a writer because you can't help it.

MVP have paid for more than one hangover for me.

i see you're still grizzing it in the survivor. you're a glutton for punishment, eh?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

That's obviously because you haven't read past the 1960s on the issue. I went into e-booking (the second time I went into it) with all sorts of outdated preconceived notions that have been shattered by reality.

To set the record straight. You have no idea what I've read, what my experiences are, or whom I've spoken with. So I assume youre embracing an opportunity to be crabby.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Do the famous writers describe posting pornographic ebooks in the Sixties?

The ones who talk about porn published porn in the 50s & 60s. Recall that the trial involving Lady Chatterly's Lover occurred around that time.

 

[wife2hotblk]

Maybe I should be more specific. Harlequin Spice and similiar publishers are what I am talking about. As far as money, I am not talking about millions. I would define success as replacing my old salary of £30K. It is my understanding that writing for such publishers regularly (5 or more books per year) could accomplish that goal.

As anyone that has read my stuff knows, I probably belong more there than here although like I said some of my racey stuff is too hot for even them. I was just wondering if anyone else had made that leap successfully.

But yes, I am also interested in the ebooks option as well for the small steady income that can amount up over time. I also have a philosophical/moral prefernce for it because of the environment.

Can we take the conversation back more to options and what each entails? As I understand it...self-publishing using Amazon and eBay may fit my non-fiction writing more but would ony be a few hundred a year. E-publishing is easier and quicker than the Harlequin track but again is not as lucrative. But if I put my main efforts into the Harlequin track, how important is having an agent? Should I only attempt it after I have been successful with the e-publishing? Or do they look down on that sort of thing (ie is it like an actor having only soap opera experience on a CV)?

My ultimate dream is be a Christine Feehan type writer with a loyal following who releases two to three different books a year. Those types bring in six figures, but I know that takes time. I am so very thankful for my start here with the Survivor Contest that has forced me to stretch myself by writing on topics that sometimes are even repugnant to me (such as incest). It also gave me the discipline that I have always lacked to write...even through the hard times in life. That is why I feel that I may even have a shot after over thirty years of writing at this dream.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Maybe I should be more specific. Harlequin Spice and similiar publishers are what I am talking about. As far as money, I am not talking about millions. I would define success as replacing my old salary of £30K. It is my understanding that writing for such publishers regularly (5 or more books per year) could accomplish that goal.

It depends on how good you are, how much stuff you have published (your backlist) and what percentage your publisher is giving you in your contract.

I haven't read any of your stuff, so I don't know how good you are. But I started, like you, writing for Survivor, and I then had a huge body of work I wanted to place somewhere. Most of it wayyyyyy too racy for traditional publishers, even e-ones. So excessica was born.

My first year, I made close to your old salary (solely from my own writing). And that was publishing work from April through September. (Can't count the last quarter oct-dec - didn't see that money until the following year.)

It IS possible. But I don't know if it's typical.

 

[wife2hotblk]

It depends on how good you are, how much stuff you have published (your backlist) and what percentage your publisher is giving you in your contract.

I haven't read any of your stuff, so I don't know how good you are. But I started, like you, writing for Survivor, and I then had a huge body of work I wanted to place somewhere. Most of it wayyyyyy too racy for traditional publishers, even e-ones. So excessica was born.

My first year, I made close to your old salary (solely from my own writing). And that was publishing work from April through September. (Can't count the last quarter oct-dec - didn't see that money until the following year.)

It IS possible. But I don't know if it's typical.

Thank you Selena for your positive and insightful advice.

 

[sr71plt]

To set the record straight. You have no idea what I've read, what my experiences are, or whom I've spoken with. So I assume youre embracing an opportunity to be crabby.

No, I'm responding to what you said you read. A writer writing about his view of the publishing world nearly fifty years ago that you were projecting as the current state of publishing. It's not.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Edgar Alley Poe's books have sold millions of copies over the past 150 years. He died poor and destitute.

Maybe porn pays after you are dead.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Edgar Alley Poe's books have sold millions of copies over the past 150 years. He died poor and destitute.

Maybe porn pays after you are dead.

Bloch sez pornographers really want dates, and all porn is shameless self promotion of those long on talk and short on action.