A question to those who (self-)publish smut

[JohnSm123]

How do you decide which stories to post here for free and which ones to (self-)publish trying to make money?

 

[ElectricBlue]

If you don't get a good response to stories here, you're not likely to out there. Lit is where you dry run everything, I'd say - content rules permitting.

It's also a myth that you need to take content down from here to publish in the market-place, but never mind about that. Read the small print closely - most people don't seem to read it at all.

You need to churn out stories to make any money. Start writing, but don't drink too much coffee unless you have other income.

 

[JohnSm123]

It's also a myth that you need to take content down from here to publish in the market-place, but never mind about that.

Supposing I decide to try my luck in the market later, do you advise me to remove from here the stories I want to self-publish?

 

[SeraphNocturne]

My advice to you is to build a following and plot out novels you intend to publish for compensation thoroughly... complete the novel even, if you want to save yourself from having your readers waiting for you to make progress. If your writing is enjoyed and well received, it's been my experience that readers who are interested in your work and your presence as an author will be glad to buy your work--even if it's something you have already offered free of charge. It's no different than being able to rent a popular title from the library, or buy the hardcover copy; at the end of the day, people are willing to buy what they enjoy, even if it's available for free.

I've got a series spanning six years of work and breaking 100K words with only the first two published e-book volumes (Chapters 1-10). It might very well break another 200K before I eventually end it, and my only regret is that I wasn't prepared for it. I started publishing for compensation on a whim and by the encouragement of it's little cult following. I've since had readers offer to purchase unpublished content... my only issue is that it's all sitting in plotted form in a document with weeks before I can get to writing it out.

The two volumes I have published however have been gladly purchased by it's small cult following, and I've gained at least fifty new readers since I've returned to writing... I'm not pressed for money so I'm glad to take my time, but it's surely given me confidence that a career as a writer is not at all unobtainable, you just have to put in the work and be prepared.

That said, marketing will get you a long way, so look into building a social media presence and think of how you want to go about promoting yourself as an author. You may want to seek an editor--well written and put together work will always be better received than work that is clearly amateur and done for leisure or as a hobby. Get serious about it, and you'll do well.

 

[JohnSm123]

My advice to you is to build a following

How so? Should I "sacrifice" one story or two and post them for free to see whether people are willing to follow me?

 

[SeraphNocturne]

How so? Should I "sacrifice" one story or two and post them for free to see whether people are willing to follow me?

That's a bit of a given starting out here on Literotica with the intention of self-publishing. If no one knows you as a writer you'll be hard pressed to sell right away, and the market for traditional erotica is quite saturated, so you want to have followers ready to support you. Another obnoxious trait of publishing for free before compensation is that you'll have to be vigilant of the chance of being plagiarized if your writing is well received.

You could always try utilizing an established publisher who can get your work out there for you... but you'll sacrifice royalties doing it in that way. You'll have less worries as publishing companies tend to offer the assistance of editors and handle things like novel covers and promotion, but you'll earn less because they'll have their cuts in it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I publish stories here for free, sometimes on Ao3 for free, and on Smashwords for money. Usually I publish here first, then cross-post when I get around to it.

I don't make any effort to promote the paid stories beyond putting them out there. I thought about doing that, but I don't enjoy trying to market myself and I have better options for paying my bills. So it just sits there as a kind of tip jar, and any time somebody buys one it's a nice surprise, rather than something I have to fret about if it's underperforming. I'd guess that most of the people who buy them on SW have found them on Literotica first and are paying by choice rather than because they don't know how to get it free.

It's not a lot of people, but over the last ten years it's been a few hundred dollars for stories that I'd already written to share for free.

 

[ElectricBlue]

How so? Should I "sacrifice" one story or two and post them for free to see whether people are willing to follow me?

If you look at the folk here who do publish, and who say they make some money out of it, you'll find one thing in common - content, and vast amounts of it, churned out regularly.

Not "one or two stories" as you're talking here, but hundreds of stories, many hundreds of thousands of words. I've got about a million words here, over ten years (nearly). The folk making money (and they never say how much) are putting out that much content, each year.

You might want to give yourself a reality check, do some homework, get a following here, before you even think about publishing.

You've got no content on Lit, you probably should fix that. Just sayin' .

 

[JohnSm123]

If you look at the folk here who do publish, and who say they make some money out of it, you'll find one thing in common - content, and vast amounts of it, churned out regularly.

You mean they choose different stories to post for free and different to publish at a price? Or that they both post for free and publish at a price the same story?

 

[CJLahrainn]

Go to the eroticauthors subreddit. You'll find almost everything you need to know there. Go through the dataporn posts especially closely, where you'll find people posting about how much they earned, what they got right, what they got wrong, all kinds of good info. That sub is all about the business of selling smut, not so much about writing, and can be very useful when starting out.

 

[onehitwanda]

Go to the eroticauthors subreddit. You'll find almost everything you need to know there. Go through the dataporn posts especially closely, where you'll find people posting about how much they earned, what they got right, what they got wrong, all kinds of good info. That sub is all about the business of selling smut, not so much about writing, and can be very useful when starting out.

actual advice? get the fuck out of here!

 

[Laodice]

Build a time machine*, go back to the summer of 2000 and publish a story here.
Publish 20 before Christmas and another 200 or so in the next ten years.
Oh ... very important ... Use a different alt for every genre ... If Laurel thinks it belongs in a different genre do not argue, just pull it and resubmit it under that genre's alt ... This will keep many if not almost all of the one-bombers away.
Let people recognize you for the stories you write and parlay that ... It takes time.
Co-post everything at AO3, even though it has the world's worst search mechanism, once people know your alts they can find your stuff.
Be prepared for 'holes to plagiar your work and publish it on sites that then won't take it down. It is the cost of doing business.
Smashwords** and Lot's Cave***, are ... well ... pretty much everybody is better than Amazon.

*I didn't actually build a time machine, I'm just that old.
**Other than Incest titles, although they also sometimes have weird interpretations of what consent is.
***Incest titles

 

[Blind_Justice]

Or you could try the Patreon route once you have a suitably big readership.

I never thought anyone would find my writing good enough to pay me for it. Until a very nice person sent me a message and asked if they could give me some money for my effort. But as with everything, you need to spend time and effort to promote your Patreon page (and work around Patreon's stance on adult content - which makes you literally invisible on their site unless you plaster links to it everywhere else).

My "paying audience" has solidified around the 20 people mark, but I do jack shit in terms of advertising. Also, my health and mental issues did a huge number on my creativity, so new stories and especially bonus content for the Patrons has been slow to produce.

By now I'm surprised anyone is still throwing money my way, honestly.

 

[ElectricBlue]

You mean they choose different stories to post for free and different to publish at a price? Or that they both post for free and publish at a price the same story?

No, I mean they generate content, lots of it. Some writers start with content here, then pull it down, re-package it to publish "out there". Others do it the other way around, and use Lit as a free archive. I've seen writers do it both ways.

My point is, to even think about making a dollar, you need a ton of content, and you need to keep that content rolling. Whereas you're talking about one or stories, how do I get a following, yet you've got nothing up on the world's largest erotica site.

What's in your content (one assumes, yet to be written) that's going to make people flock to it with their money?

You might want to start writing first, and in 2030, ponder the money side of things. Because it's not going to happen the other way around.

 

[JohnSm123]

Build a time machine*, go back to the summer of 2000 and publish a story here.
Publish 20 before Christmas and another 200 or so in the next ten years.
Oh ... very important ... Use a different alt for every genre ... If Laurel thinks it belongs in a different genre do not argue, just pull it and resubmit it under that genre's alt ... This will keep many if not almost all of the one-bombers away.
Let people recognize you for the stories you write and parlay that ... It takes time.
Co-post everything at AO3, even though it has the world's worst search mechanism, once people know your alts they can find your stuff.
Be prepared for 'holes to plagiar your work and publish it on sites that then won't take it down. It is the cost of doing business.
Smashwords** and Lot's Cave***, are ... well ... pretty much everybody is better than Amazon.

*I didn't actually build a time machine, I'm just that old.
**Other than Incest titles, although they also sometimes have weird interpretations of what consent is.
***Incest titles

What if I post the first few chapters of a story for free, and then go like, "To read the rest, buy the full version (link on my signature)." Is that a good idea, or will it piss off readers?

 

[ElectricBlue]

What if I post the first few chapters of a story for free, and then go like, "To read the rest, buy the full version (link on my signature)." Is that a good idea, or will it piss off readers?

You'll get thrown off the site. You need to read the FAQs.

 

[JohnSm123]

You'll get thrown off the site. You need to read the FAQs.

Wait, I thought links on signatures were allowed. I have seen users including them.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Wait, I thought links on signatures were allowed. I have seen users including them.

Laurel gets very angry if you poach readers and force them through a paywall. By doing so, you'd be reducing Lit to your ad space and since you don't pay for advertisments, you'll get kicked off the site. Do not do that.

You COULD do what Etaski is doing - she has written a huge amount of material, honed her craft here on Lit and once her readership had grown enough, she started a Patreon to sell her books. She took the material she'd written here, completely reworked it and released it, thanks to her Patrons' funding, as printed books.

 

[JohnSm123]

Laurel gets very angry if you poach readers and force them through a paywall.

Is Laurel the mod?

 

[KeithD]

Wait, I thought links on signatures were allowed. I have seen users including them.

It has nothing to do with signatures. It's bait (initially free) and switch (you'll have to pay for the rest). And, yes, it will get you thrown off this site.

Laurel is the sole submissions editor and also one of the owners of the website.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Wait, I thought links on signatures were allowed. I have seen users including them.

Links to off site books are allowed (but only if you have content on Lit), but teaser chapters on Lit are not allowed.

You need to have content here, before you can promote any other offsite content, using Lit.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Is Laurel the mod?

Yes. She owns the site.

 

[JohnSm123]

It has nothing to do with signatures. It's bait (initially free) and switch (you'll have to pay for the rest). And, yes, it will get you thrown off this site.

What if I declare it at the beginning of the story? The story you're about to read won't be published here to completion. To read the full form, click on my link on my signature. Will it still be considered bait?

 

[KeithD]

Yes, of course. There's no reason the website would be willing to host any story that's not finished unless the reader leaves the website to read it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

What if I declare it at the beginning of the story? The story you're about to read won't be published here to completion. To read the full form, click on my link on my signature. Will it still be considered bait?

https://www.literotica.com/resources/content-guidelines

"we DO NOT publish works of any type featuring the following content... Works that contain advertisements, outside links, domain names, or outside promotions of any kind within the description, body text, or audio (including “See my profile for…”)."