PUBLISHING All of My Erotica!

[blackstallion21]

Happy as Fuck as I'm Finally Sending ALL of my Erotica I have published on here and other sites to print currently! It Feels Good to use this as a Retirement Move from writing stories since I haven't written in ages and have lost my touch. LOL (I think not, but...)

Has anyone else gone this route and how lucrative was it?

Please feel free to give me any advice or stories you may have!

Much Love!

BS21

 

[ElectricBlue]

Hahaha.

I self-published three novels (one x 103,000 words and two about 60k - 80k words) and some smaller print versions, plus ebooks for all of them, a year ago, and I've got about $100 in a PayPal account.

I'm still in the red for one of my covers. Curse you, German girl!

You can see my bookshop in the link below.

Don't order your yacht just yet .

 

[blackstallion21]

Hahaha.

I self-published three novels (one x 103,000 words and two about 60k - 80k words) and some smaller print versions, plus ebooks for all of them, a year ago, and I've got about $100 in a PayPal account.

I'm still in the red for one of my covers. Curse you, German girl!

You can see my bookshop in the link below.

Don't order your yacht just yet .

No yacht in the future, I only did it to have it on paperback. I published my poetry just recently so I am new to the game and just trying to get my name out... but thank you for your response

 

[lovecraft68]

Sad to say I would keep the expectations low. Paperback sales on amazon are few and far between, especially in erotica where most people want to keep their dirty little kinks hidden on their kindle.

One thing you can do is look for book events that are okay with erotica(I don't know what you write) or fetish cons where anything goes, and set up a table and sell in person, you can move some books and its fun to get to meet people and talk about your work.

I do a lot of cons, but my Paperback material is erotic horror, so the horror aspect is what gets me into the cons.

Good luck.

 

[EvelynEden]

How exciting! Good luck

 

[SyleusSnow]

Please feel free to give me any advice or stories you may have!

BS21

I don't have any advice, but I've long had plans to do the same.

Are you putting everything in one large "collected works" volume or several smaller publications?

And if you don't mind sharing, who are you using for printing? Amazon?

 

[Ada Stuart]

Happy as Fuck as I'm Finally Sending ALL of my Erotica I have published on here and other sites to print currently! It Feels Good to use this as a Retirement Move from writing stories since I haven't written in ages and have lost my touch. LOL (I think not, but...)

Has anyone else gone this route and how lucrative was it?

Please feel free to give me any advice or stories you may have!

Much Love!

BS21

Congratulation on getting your stories published

I'm definitely not an expert in publishing but I have made some discoveries - mostly by trial and error

I've only been self-publishing since November 2019, so I agree with EB that you should wait before ordering that yacht

So far I have 8 published eBooks and the income varies depending on the book category - all in all, it's not possible to live on, but it's a nice supplement and a lot better than giving it all away for free.

Dubcon romance seems to sell a lot better than erotic romance though, but mainly on Apple Books. I sell 6 times more books on Apple than on Amazon, but that's probably because I haven't cracked the Amazon-code yet, LOL.

Still, it seems the following does work:
- publish often (once a month at least)
- publish shorter stories (around 20k) instead of longer works - that way you can publish more often
- publish at as many publishers as you can (Amazon, Smashwords, Google Play) - don't go for Amazon exclusive
- go for Premium approval on Smashwords - then your book will be available for Apple Books and a lot of other sellers
- create a good book cover using free photos from a photographer- for erotic romance, I've discovered that naked men sell a lot better than naked women
- write a good brief description that contains a "hook" to draw the reader to buy the book
- snoop around on the bestseller lists on Amazon and learn what sells and what works.

And there's probably a lot of other tricks that work too.

I see that many writers split their book into around 8 smaller parts and sell each one separately. The first book often appears as a Free read. I'm not sure if they sell more or not. Personally, I think it's annoying to get 14 pages in each and not the entire book - but if it works, well, why not .

 

[Wifetheif]

Happy as Fuck as I'm Finally Sending ALL of my Erotica I have published on here and other sites to print currently! It Feels Good to use this as a Retirement Move from writing stories since I haven't written in ages and have lost my touch. LOL (I think not, but...)

Has anyone else gone this route and how lucrative was it?

Please feel free to give me any advice or stories you may have!

Much Love!

BS21

I'm a writer of shrink fiction under an alias on Amazon. I make at least 500 dollars a year and that figure is increasing. No, I have not broken big yet, but not having to worry about an insurance payment or another minor expense every month is pretty nice. I try to add one book a month consisting of at least four stories. I have a person who gives me evocative covers for free, so my expenses are low. I don't sell many paperbacks but my fans appreciate their availability. The fan mail is a real kick. I have almost exclusively five-star ratings. No more L.com trolls! I still post here occasionally, but I got tired of giving my work away for free. Even at a few cents a day, it adds up. and No more L.com trolls!

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm a writer of shrink fiction under an alias on Amazon. I make at least 500 dollars a year and that figure is increasing. No, I have not broken big yet, but not having to worry about an insurance payment or another minor expense every month is pretty nice. I try to add one book a month consisting of at least four stories. I have a person who gives me evocative covers for free, so my expenses are low. I don't sell many paperbacks but my fans appreciate their availability. The fan mail is a real kick. I have almost exclusively five-star ratings. No more L.com trolls! I still post here occasionally, but I got tired of giving my work away for free. Even at a few cents a day, it adds up. and No more L.com trolls!

What is Shrink fiction?

 

[gordo12]

I see that many writers split their book into around 8 smaller parts and sell each one separately. The first book often appears as a Free read. I'm not sure if they sell more or not. Personally, I think it's annoying to get 14 pages in each and not the entire book - but if it works, well, why not .

It's annoying as all hell when an author takes a story that might make two small books or one regular one and breaks them up. I have one into book 7 that would only cover two novels. By the time you've paid 40+ dollars when two novels should have cost $12-$15 it's a pissoff.

I've dropped authors because of that. I think readers will get wise to the tactic and cost those writers big time.

So I'm heading in the same direction and I congratulate the OP for his decision.

I could use a recommendation for someone that does good covers. Adult and paranormal work would be great. I know Kindle has stuff for doing the actual ebook but I'd like a recommendation for someone like that too. Pricing if anyone knows. I talked to one artist just for the cover and he wanted $1000.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It's annoying as all hell when an author takes a story that might make two small books or one regular one and breaks them up. I have one into book 7 that would only cover two novels. By the time you've paid 40+ dollars when two novels should have cost $12-$15 it's a pissoff.

I've dropped authors because of that. I think readers will get wise to the tactic and cost those writers big time.

So I'm heading in the same direction and I congratulate the OP for his decision.

I could use a recommendation for someone that does good covers. Adult and paranormal work would be great. I know Kindle has stuff for doing the actual ebook but I'd like a recommendation for someone like that too. Pricing if anyone knows. I talked to one artist just for the cover and he wanted $1000.

Agree with your first point, absolutely. I look at some of the "story" lengths (page counts, file sizes), even in e-books, where authors are charging several bucks and think, you've got to be kidding.

Covers. You can buy pre-mades of staggeringly different qualities anywhere between $30 and $500 plus, where the cover designer will put your title on it, might even tweak the art-work. The quality is what you see - usually pretty bad. I paid too much for my Dark Chronicles cover, which was pre-made art-work from a German artist. She did three go-arounds to get the lettering how I wanted it and some subtle changes to the art, then disappeared. You want any sort of customisation and competence, you're up around $500 minimum, I'd say. That one was €180 - far too much, but it was my first, my baby.

My other covers, i did myself using non-copyrighted images manipulated in Photoshop - I came up with my own aesthetic and, once I got the knack, could do a cover in an hour or two. I use Lulu for e-book and print-on-demand formatting, and their tools sort out the rest (page size, book size). The longest time is spent formatting the text, but since the return is so minimal, it's not worth my time to do that. It was a fun experiment, but there's no return in it, not with my content model. I might get back to it, if somehow it ever starts selling. Right now though, forgetabout dollahs .

 

[Wifetheif]

What is Shrink fiction?

Erotic fiction of women rendered tiny through science fiction or magical means. It has a long tradition dating back to "Gulliver's Travels."

 

[lovecraft68]

Erotic fiction of women rendered tiny through science fiction or magical means. It has a long tradition dating back to "Gulliver's Travels."

Thanks....didn't know that was a thing....but hell, when dinosaur sex is a thing I guess I should assume everything else is

 

[gordo12]

Erotic fiction of women rendered tiny through science fiction or magical means. It has a long tradition dating back to "Gulliver's Travels."

Men too.

Often accompanied by being used as dildos in unsavoury places in the body of the (now) (m/f) giant that shrunk or found them. Even eaten. Or squished under bare foot or high heels. (femdom)

If your wife, husband, fiancé, boyfriend, girlfriend, enemy, friend does it to you, they can abuse your little body to their heart's content.

At the opposite end, you've never lived till you see a 500 foot woman using a transit bus filled with passengers for a dildo and after; opens the door and pours them down her throat.

I've spent too much time on the internet...and I don't ride transit

 

[ElectricBlue]

At the opposite end, you've never lived till you see a 500 foot woman using a transit bus filled with passengers for a dildo and after; opens the door and pours them down her throat.

I've spent too much time on the internet...and I don't ride transit

I'm thinking one of those interstate freight trains with 200 wagons chock-a-block with shipping containers. Where on earth does that go? And here's me, thinking all the colour on the side was graffiti, when it was clearly... something else!

 

[gordo12]

I'm thinking one of those interstate freight trains with 200 wagons chock-a-block with shipping containers. Where on earth does that go? And here's me, thinking all the colour on the side was graffiti, when it was clearly... something else!

As long as I don't know the colour, I don't have to think, I don't have to think...

 

[SyleusSnow]

I could use a recommendation for someone that does good covers. Adult and paranormal work would be great. I know Kindle has stuff for doing the actual ebook but I'd like a recommendation for someone like that too. Pricing if anyone knows. I talked to one artist just for the cover and he wanted $1000.

The sites that provide customizable pre-made covers are much cheaper than full-blown designers and the quality can be pretty good. The Book Cover Designer (google it) is on my short list. Another is Go On Write, if only for the hilarious fake titles the guy gives his sample covers.

 

[KeithD]

The sites that provide customizable pre-made covers are much cheaper than full-blown designers and the quality can be pretty good. The Book Cover Designer (google it) is on my short list. Another is Go On Write, if only for the hilarious fake titles the guy gives his sample covers.

Has anyone found a packager who does this for erotica--and/or image services that include a lot of images usable for erotica?

 

[gordo12]

The sites that provide customizable pre-made covers are much cheaper than full-blown designers and the quality can be pretty good. The Book Cover Designer (google it) is on my short list. Another is Go On Write, if only for the hilarious fake titles the guy gives his sample covers.

Thank you, somebody else referred the same one too. Good to know people are happy with them. I've already found some good stuff.

Edit: Oops missed the go on write. I'll check that out too. Thanks!

 

[gordo12]

Go on Write turns out to have Western covers which is my next project. Awesome!

 

[JPGmvny]

Go on Write turns out to have Western covers which is my next project. Awesome!

I have covers on Amazon for my pen name, Terry Brewer. Free and done by me. If anyone's interested, let me know and I'll give details. PM me.

 

[RejectReality]

The biggest problem with pre-made covers or even free for commercial use images is finding anything that even remotely represents your story, and is also enticing enough to make people click. If you have any description of your characters, it's going to be difficult to find anything that matches.

You're going to be lucky to find something that accomplishes both of those goals for an existing story. If you're thinking of going that way, it may be worth it to blink through the available possibilities first and see if any of them spark story ideas. At the very least, bookmark anything that catches your eye while searching for something specific, to see if you can have a ready-to-roll cover for a later idea.

You'll get a lot more variety with purchased stock photo or "Tube" artwork. I don't even know if tubes are still a thing. I purchased about four of them probably a decade ago, and each had about a dozen images. They were very reasonable because I only purchased a non-commercial license, knowing I had no plans to sell them. But, considering the number of images in each tube, they were far more economical than stock photos even at the commercial price, and there are a lot of excellent erotic artists out there.

Like I said, I don't even know if this method of distribution is still in use. I did a quick Google search, and had mostly video sites like RedTube coming up. I don't know whether that's popularity of the "tube" named porn sites bubbling them above the artwork, or whether artists have moved to a different distribution model. Maybe I'll dig a little deeper at some point. I am on vacation in a week, and not having much luck getting my muse to cooperate.

Just checked the website of the artist I purchased mine from, and it no longer exists. But here's one of the covers. Sexy, but will probably fly on a lot of providers because it's not overly explicit.

If I were to redo it, I'd probably use a little more distinct font, or at least use some stronger highlighting. I'd absolutely tweak some of the greeblies ( hearts, roses... the little bits added to the base image )

No matter what way you get your images, if you're planning to do the design yourself, get Photoshop Elements if you can afford it. ( about $99, though it appears to be on sale on the website for about $75 at the moment ) Elements is a somewhat less powerful version of Photoshop primarily meant for editing photos, but it has all the tools you need to make covers.

I tried to use several of the freeware alternatives, and none of them were as easy to use. Once you get the hang of layers, transparency, and the magic extractor tool, you can quickly do some pretty good work. Save those layer files and any full-size images once you finish, though. You never know when you may need to come back and rework a cover. You'll be glad you still have those resources if you do. With the size of today's average hard drive, the file size of those resources amount to a fart in a whirlwind. No reason not to keep them.

 

[KeithD]

Or you can try to get accepted by a publisher who does all of that and covers the cost. Mine do the work, giving me a say in the cover design and image, cover the cost, and register both the text and the covers in my name. My avatars are my various book covers--usually used, as the current one, when the books come out in the marketplace.

 

[lovecraft68]

Has anyone found a packager who does this for erotica--and/or image services that include a lot of images usable for erotica?

Deposit photos (add the dot com) pretty reasonably priced. Some of the stuff is no more erotic than what you'll find on sites like bigstock 123rf etc...but they do have a good selection of fetish stuff

If you're looking for something publish ready there are pre made cover sites that have selections in every genre. But many are $100+ range

 

[KeithD]

Deposit photos (add the dot com) pretty reasonably priced. Some of the stuff is no more erotic than what you'll find on sites like bigstock 123rf etc...but they do have a good selection of fetish stuff

If you're looking for something publish ready there are pre made cover sites that have selections in every genre. But many are $100+ range

Deposit Photos is what my publisher uses. Increasing number of photos OK for erotica but not all that much. I think someone could establish a niche if they opened a depository for erotica-supporting images.