Literotica policies concerning Amazon and Patreon.

[Snekguy]

I'm hoping that this is the correct section for this.

Over the past couple of months I've been going back and re-editing many of my stories ready to release them as Ebooks on Amazon, and I just wanted to ask the staff what the policy is concerning making my readers here aware of that?
I've also had a Patreon for quite some time, and I'd also like to know if and how it's acceptable to advertise it.

What I want to do ideally, is to re-upload the stories to Literotica (replacing the old versions), which feature all of the new edits and content, and then include a foreward informing readers that Amazon versions are available and that there are links in my bio. I know that including links in stories is a no-no, but is it acceptable to direct people to the bio instead?
Would it be acceptable to, for example, inform people at the end of a story that there's a Patreon link in my bio?

I've also been told that Literotica itself offers Ebooks for sale, although I've had trouble finding any information concerning what that entails, nor have I been able to locate a storefront on the website. Is there any kind of resource for that?

Thanks in advance!

 

[ElectricBlue]

Lit allows links to your off-site places in your bio and in your post signature block.

There is also this thread, which permits promotion of off-site content (only if you are published on Lit):

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=569279&page=88

Other than these sanctioned places, to my knowledge, that's it.

Note - I'm not staff, they might wander by and see your question, but there's no guarantee, so this is advice based on my five year's here.

 

[RejectReality]

You're not going to be able to directly reference your off-site work in the story text itself. "Check out my Bio to find out how to support me by buying my work on Amazon" isn't going to fly.

Ditto for Patreon, or anything else.

I had a brain fart and mentioned in a closing note that one story was originally exclusive to my website, and I decided to post it here. I didn't mention the website URL, or that it was linked in my bio, or anything of that nature. Simply saying that I had a website in the story text was out of bounds.

That gives you an idea of where the bar is for mentions attached to individual stories. There's little to no leeway.

You can provide such links in your Bio, but you can't call out specifics in the story text itself. EB66 brought up the other places you can post such links.

 

[Nezhul]

No. As others have said, Literotica wants to profit exclusively from your works posted here. ANything you post - they earn money off of, but you can't be so egoistical as to earn money yourself and promote your work! You don't deserve that right, according to Lit.

 

[RejectReality]

You're not allowed to advertise within individual stories or spam the forum with advertisements. Otherwise, there are ample opportunities for readers to discover your paid/offsite work, which are allowed by Literotica, as you were so kind as to demonstrate via your signature banner linking to offsite work, and a bio doing the same.

No. As others have said, Literotica wants to profit exclusively from your works posted here. ANything you post - they earn money off of, but you can't be so egoistical as to earn money yourself and promote your work! You don't deserve that right, according to Lit.

 

[Snekguy]

Thanks for the replies guys, I guess directing people to off-site resources within the story is out of the question then, which is not unexpected.
On a related note, if I do reupload my stories with the new edits, how can I communicate what I've been doing over the last few months and why the stories are being resubmitted without promoting my Amazon work?
Anything along the lines of "I'm resubmitting a dozen stories because they've been re-edited and rewritten for sale on Amazon" will come off as advertising, am I right? I would feel weird lying to people concerning the reason for my recent absence in order to adhere to the rules.

I really want to get the best possible versions of these stories into the hands of readers, but Literotica is complicating that somewhat in this case. I'm assuming that any mention of Amazon would be seen as advertising in this case? I was really hoping to include a foreward with each story, detailing the reason for its resubmission and what new and improved content it featured.

Also, I'm still confused as to whether Literotica actually sells Ebooks or not, is anyone able to clarify that? If I can just sell them here, then that makes things a whole lot easier.

 

[KeithD]

No, Literotica doesn't support references in story text that pull the reader to other sites, including Amazon. It's not in the business of sending readers somewhere else. That said, it's generous about letting its authors--those who post stories here--to advertise their marketplace books. If you are a Literotica author, you can advertise your marketplace books here: http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=569279&page=88. You can highlight them in your discussion board signature line and mention your marketplace listing in your story side profile. I also use my book covers as my discussion board avatar.

On the e-books, no Literotica itself doesn't publish and market books and the books it references as Literotica books on its home page were a long ago, one or two shot effort. Literotica claims a lot of functions it doesn't really do.

 

[Snekguy]

No, Literotica doesn't support references in story text that pull the reader to other sites, including Amazon. It's not in the business of sending readers somewhere else. That said, it's generous about letting its authors--those who post stories here--to advertise their marketplace books. If you are a Literotica author, you can advertise your marketplace books here: http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=569279&page=88. You can highlight them in your discussion board signature line and mention your marketplace listing in your story side profile. I also use my book covers as my discussion board avatar.

On the e-books, no Literotica itself doesn't publish and market books and the books it references as Literotica books on its home page were a long ago, one or two shot effort. Literotica claims a lot of functions it doesn't really do.

I see Keith, thank you for clarifying that.
In that case, do you think it's acceptable to link readers to the Literotica forums from within a story? Or perhaps in the comments section? I'm actually not all that hung up about not being able to advertise my Amazon/Patreon, mostly I just want to find a way to let my readers know what I've been doing during my absence in a way that doesn't violate the site rules.

For example "I've been editing my stories to make them into Ebooks, please see the forum thread for more info".

 

[KeithD]

I see Keith, thank you for clarifying that.
In that case, do you think it's acceptable to link readers to the Literotica forums from within a story? Or perhaps in the comments section? I'm actually not all that hung up about not being able to advertise my Amazon/Patreon, mostly I just want to find a way to let my readers know what I've been doing during my absence in a way that doesn't violate the site rules.

For example "I've been editing my stories to make them into Ebooks, please see the forum thread for more info".

I doubt that would fly. Any attempt to monetize your Literotica stories probably wouldn't go over well with the Lit. management--especially if you then pull your stories from here to make money off of them elsewhere. I could go even deeper into the danger you would be in with Amazon itself over any of this but I don't want to highlight that issue. Just saying you are on very dangerous ground here, and it isn't only with Literotica.

 

[Snekguy]

I doubt that would fly. Any attempt to monetize your Literotica stories probably wouldn't go over well with the Lit. management--especially if you then pull your stories from here to make money off of them elsewhere. I could go even deeper into the danger you would be in with Amazon itself over any of this but I don't want to highlight that issue. Just saying you are on very dangerous ground here, and it isn't only with Literotica.

As I understand it, Kindle Direct Publishing enforces zero restrictions on how and where Ebooks can be sold. I think you're referencing KDP Select, which is a separate program entirely that does require exclusivity.
I'll also have the Ebooks up as a Patreon tier reward, I'm going to try to get them on Smashwords and any other storefront that will take them, really.

On the contrary, my intention is to get the new and improved versions of the stories that I'm using for the Ebooks up on Literotica, replacing the old versions. I get the majority of my traffic here, and I really want people to get the best possible version. In fact, I cringe when I imagine people reading outdated versions that are chock full of compound sentences and comma splices, lol.

If there's no way to even reference Amazon or Ebooks in a foreward or in the comments, I guess I'll have to find another way to word it, then.

 

[KeithD]

I'm not going to argue with you. I've been in this business for more than a decade. You do your thing as you want and take your chances. Pushing it here will undoubtedly increase your exposure elsewhere, is my two cents.

 

[Snekguy]

I'm not going to argue with you. I've been in this business for more than a decade. You do your thing as you want and take your chances. Pushing it here will undoubtedly increase your exposure elsewhere, is my two cents.

I didn't see this as an argument. By all means, if you have any wisdom or warnings to share on the subject, I'd love to hear it. I'm only just reaching the stage where Ebooks are becoming a possibility for me (hence my inquiries). I'd also be interested in taking a look at your books, I'm curious to see your covers, I'm hoping that mine are up to scratch.

I will be checking out the part of the forum that allows self-promotion, certainly, I'm trying to cast as wide a net as possible.

 

[KeithD]

You've heard my advice.

 

[KeithD]

You've heard my advice.

You can find me as habu and Dirk Hessian (at least) on Amazon, Smashwords, and elsewhere. And I announce my marketplace books in those names on the AH thread I cited above.

 

[Snekguy]

You can find me as habu and Dirk Hessian (at least) on Amazon, Smashwords, and elsewhere. And I announce my marketplace books in those names on the AH thread I cited above.

Interesting! Your stuff is actually a lot more sexually overt than a lot of my covers, and I was worried that I might fall afoul of Amazon's rules, so that's good information to know. I hope you've been seeing some luck with those!

 

[KeithD]

I see two ocean cruises a year from those.

 

[RejectReality]

You could say that you've edited the chapters to improve them, and to go to your Bio for more information about that and your absence to edit the chapters.

That should pass as an author's note. Doesn't tell the whole story, but it should be within bounds, and arouse enough curiosity for readers ( especially the most invested ones ) to look at your bio.

 

[Nezhul]

You're not allowed to advertise within individual stories or spam the forum with advertisements. Otherwise, there are ample opportunities for readers to discover your paid/offsite work, which are allowed by Literotica, as you were so kind as to demonstrate via your signature banner linking to offsite work, and a bio doing the same.

Tell me honestly. How often did you read a story that you really liked, and then went on to check out the author's profile/biography section?
At most, you go to a list of other stories, but you aren't visiting biography.

As for forum signature:
A lot of people who read stories NEVER visit forum. I don't think I'll be super-wrong to say that for 10 unique users who read your stories only 1 or 2 of them would ever go to read/talk on forums. And then they actually need to be lucky and see your post with your signature. And not only that, but they need to associate you with that cool story they've read before and wanted more of.
This is really inefficient.
Literotica does everything they can to actually prevent users from discovering any links that you may have to your personal sites or off-site works. For no reason.

I mean, I can understand why they wouldn't want to have links in the text of the story. That's fair - it's just a sensible security measure.

But you can't even HINT to your readers that you may have other stories elsewhere. This is just being dicks about monopolizing readers' attention.
And it's not like they work a lot for it too. The site is awful and buggy, it's stuck in early 90-s as far as interface goes.

So no, don't try to appologize what Laurel and Manu are doing here. They ARE being shameless dicks about it, nothing more.

 

[KeithD]

Literotica does everything they can to actually prevent users from discovering any links that you may have to your personal sites or off-site works. For no reason.

Of course there's a good reason. They are in business for themselves, not to promote anyone else's business and or to encourage users to leave here to go there. The linking they do permit is very generous. You don't even have to send them a check for your advertising of someplace else other than here.

 

[Snekguy]

Of course there's a good reason. They are in business for themselves, not to promote anyone else's business and or to encourage users to leave here to go there. The linking they do permit is very generous. You don't even have to send them a check for your advertising of someplace else other than here.

I wouldn't call it generous, honestly. Every other website that I post my work on allows me to either include a link in the description of the story, or in an endcap at the end. Literotica is unusual in that respect.
Not saying that they don't have the right to run their website the way they want, it's absolutely not in their interest to direct people off-site, but as an author who is trying to build a community around their work, it does make it very difficult to keep people up to date concerning what's happening behind the scenes. I regularly receive emails via the Literotica feedback form asking if there's a way to support my writing, despite there being Patreon links in my Bio, so what few links are allowed are not being seen by the majority of readers.
Of course, I'm also free not to post my work here if I don't like it, but I get a lot of traffic here and I really like the community, so here I am!

You could say that you've edited the chapters to improve them, and to go to your Bio for more information about that and your absence to edit the chapters.

That should pass as an author's note. Doesn't tell the whole story, but it should be within bounds, and arouse enough curiosity for readers ( especially the most invested ones ) to look at your bio.

This is likely the best solution, yes, good suggestion. I feel weird beating around the bush, but hopefully, those who are interested will make their way to my Bio. I was a little hesitant to reupload the improved versions of the stories at all if I couldn't find a way to inform people as to why. I reuploaded a story one time to fix some errors, and I got like twenty emails asking me why it had been resubmitted, lol.

I do wish that a member of staff would stop by, however, just to clarify what the concrete rules are concerning all of this.