Lit as a Platform?

[jack30341]

Here's a question I've wondered about lately, and I would be very interested in hearing from other writers about this.

How workable is it to use one's writing on Lit to cross-promote and support works that may also be elsewhere, such as on Smash words?

I want to write and post on both, but it would seem to me entirely do-able to cross-promote.

Any thoughts, ideas or experience?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I simply revise some of my published stories and watch the usual subjects harpoon them.

 

[sr71plt]

You can promote your market work here in various ways (the "Lit. Authors" thread at the tope of the Author's Hangout, in your forum signature block, on your story page profile), but you'd hardly want to the advertise free-read stories on your Smashwords books.

 

[lovecraft68]

You can advertise your paid stuff here, the previous post gives you good advice.

I want to elaborate on not advertising lit on your website(if you want to sell) or your books or SW/amazon pages.

Think about it. You're trying to get people to pay to read your erotic works.

Do you want to send them to a site that has hundreds of thousands of FREE stories in every kink imaginable?

Also and I'm not going to bore people with my experiments that brought me to this conclusion, but lit is not really all that great for building a paying customer base. Again go back to free stuff. Why would they pay?

What lit is great for is practice and learning the craft and getting feedback. You get very few reviews on an e-book especially if the content is one people don;t want others to see reviewing. I have a book that has sold 200+ copies a month since January of this year. It only has 3 reviews.

But a story here? You can get dozens of comments, both public and through e-mail telling you what people thought of your work. So look at lit as the first step and publishing the next progression many people here have and are doing that.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

You can advertise your paid stuff here, the previous post gives you good advice.

I want to elaborate on not advertising lit on your website(if you want to sell) or your books or SW/amazon pages.

Think about it. You're trying to get people to pay to read your erotic works.

Do you want to send them to a site that has hundreds of thousands of FREE stories in every kink imaginable?

Also and I'm not going to bore people with my experiments that brought me to this conclusion, but lit is not really all that great for building a paying customer base. Again go back to free stuff. Why would they pay?

What lit is great for is practice and learning the craft and getting feedback. You get very few reviews on an e-book especially if the content is one people don;t want others to see reviewing. I have a book that has sold 200+ copies a month since January of this year. It only has 3 reviews.

But a story here? You can get dozens of comments, both public and through e-mail telling you what people thought of your work. So look at lit as the first step and publishing the next progression many people here have and are doing that.

Hmmmf...I have one on Amazon that has sold over 1,000 copies since it got a single review in the UK.

 

[lovecraft68]

Hmmmf...I have one on Amazon that has sold over 1,000 copies since it got a single review in the UK.

I'm not sure I get your point?

What I said was reviews are rare on pay sites whereas you get a lot of feedback here on lit.

I didn't say anything about reviews vs sales.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I'm not sure I get your point?

What I said was reviews are rare on pay sites whereas you get a lot of feedback here on lit.

I didn't say anything about reviews vs sales.

No you didn't.

 

[sr71plt]

Comment feedback and book reviews aren't the same thing.

 

[lovecraft68]

Comment feedback and book reviews aren't the same thing.

Feedback here tells you/people what that person thought of your story

a review tells you/people what the customer thought of your book and let's face it most e-books are 'stories" . Many on amazon are barely 4k words so a lit story can easily be an e-book

The only point I am making is lit is great for getting a lot of feedback. here I can get 30 or so comments per story, more in incest. So lit is a great starting point because you can easily get an idea of what people like/don't like that in your work.

Someone can then take that knowledge to the next level where you're not going to get much in the way of feedback through infrequent reviews.

 

[lovecraft68]

No you didn't.

Okay, well if your point was to mention you got a lot of sales on a book then congrats.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Okay, well if your point was to mention you got a lot of sales on a book then congrats.

Yes, I do.

 

[RichardBacula]

The only point I am making is lit is great for getting a lot of feedback. here I can get 30 or so comments per story, more in incest. So lit is a great starting point because you can easily get an idea of what people like/don't like that in your work.

Agreed.
If nothing else, it's good for morale, because you know that people are reading your stuff.

 

[sr71plt]

It's not a book review, though. I guess those who don't get them, don't understand the difference.

 

[lovecraft68]

It's not a book review, though. I guess those who don't get them, don't understand the difference.

Guess you don't either.

54 titles on smashwords, some over 3 years old.

Not one review between all 54.

You have 71 Titles on amazon again some several years old.

Only 12 of the 71 have reviews.

Only 19 reviews total and 5 are on one book.

Looks like "real" success to me.

Oh, and if you ask me to cite proof like you do all anyone has to do is look up Habu on amazon and smashwords.

 

[sr71plt]

Doesn't everyone here wish they had their own special stalker on Literotica?

I'm not aware that anyone has ever reviewed one of your books--but I don't care like you do about me.

 

[RichardBacula]

It's not a book review, though. I guess those who don't get them, don't understand the difference.

You seem the be the only one equating the two.

 

[sr71plt]

You seem the be the only one equating the two.

Ummm, no. I'm the one who says they aren't the same thing. You obviously haven't read in on the thread before slamming me. Doesn't surprise me a bit.

 

[RichardBacula]

Ummm, no. I'm the one who says they aren't the same thing. You obviously haven't read in on the thread before slamming me. Doesn't surprise me a bit.

If you think that was a slam, I'm guessing you're used to kid gloves.

Edit:
But feel free to quote the other person who made that equation that I missed.

 

[sr71plt]

If you think that was a slam, I'm guessing you're used to kid gloves.

Edit:
But feel free to quote the other person who made that equation that I missed.

You can do your own research if it's so important to you. Grow up and stop being such a dick just because you want to play king of the mountain. I'm betting you've never had a real book review either.

 

[patientlee]

I've read quite a few reviews on Amazon. Many seem to be written by the same customers who write product reviews on baby strollers before the baby is born.

 

[lovecraft68]

I've read quite a few reviews on Amazon. Many seem to be written by the same customers who write product reviews on baby strollers before the baby is born.

Amazon has a nasty habit of removing reviews from indy authors because they seem convinced it must be family members.

But if a horrible review is given, oh, well that one must be legit and they leave it.

The worst part of their review policy is people don;t have to buy the book to review it. So just like lit people could just go and troll away.

 

[carlieplum]

Having seen how the sausage gets made on book reviews, a review from an actual reader on an e-commerce site is has a good chance of being more objective and just as worthwhile as a review in the New York Review of Books (aka the New York Review of Each Other's Books), or the London Review of Books, or Commentary, or the Paris Review, etc., although it won't be pre-vetted and 1,500 words to 3,000 words long. Amazon doesn't check your ideological purity before it lets you post a review.

Which isn't to say that a lot of the reviews on Amazon et al. aren't total crap.

 

[sr71plt]

Erotica reviews don't publish in those publications. There are e-book review sites that review books independently and post the reviews to the sites and also often post them on Goodreads and Amazon/B&N as well. These aren't the same as one off commenters either on stories here or on distributor sites.

Those who don't get this type of review of their e-books are mostly those who haven't been able to get them. Read some promo essays on promoting books. You'll find "get legitimate reviews for them" on the list of things to do.

Just because you folks want to razz me doesn't mean I'm not giving appropriate advice to folks coming here for help in their wish to put their writing in the marketplace and not just to play Internet games.

 

[carlieplum]

Pilot, of course erotica isn't reviewed in those publications. But any group of authors/publishers/agents with a similar focus will inevitably form their own networks of association. Of course, and the same forces come in to play of whose back has been recently scratched or whose back will need to be scratched in the future, and the normal human feelings of who you like, don't like interacting with. And those all color the reviews. That's all I was saying. I said objective and worthwhile. I meant to the writer and potential reader.

But of course, getting your book reviewed in any sort of media, from a sales perspective, is the gold standard. I never meant to say or imply otherwise.

 

[RichardBacula]

You can do your own research if it's so important to you. Grow up and stop being such a dick just because you want to play king of the mountain. I'm betting you've never had a real book review either.

Nice.
Now tell me that I'm projecting, and REALLY believe it.

You're the only one talking about kings of any mountain. No idea why that's your particular area of focus, but I'm just a random guy saying stuff that's true. Why you have to try to make this a King Of The Mountain thing is far beyond me.

YOU made a claim. Either support it, or admit that you can't.
It's not MY job to do your homework for you. It's really not that important to me.
If it's not that important to you either, then maybe don't make the claims in the first place, if you don't have the stuff to back up your own views.