Amazon's 'Adult Romance' category.

[lovecraft68]

I have an August first date for the launch of my BDSM novel. So as that draws near I'm trying to figure out all the little things I need to do.

Something that has been bothering me is category. Yes, this obviously is erotica, with a heavy BDSM element and everything from group to lesbian to even some love-making

Thing is as I have been editing this, I can;t help but feel I'm selling it short as just "erotica" it's 550 pages and contains about 35 chapters. maybe 13/14 of which contain some type of sex. The rest is all story driven with several plot line, it reads to me like a work of fiction and it is a romance.

So I found out that I can pick multiple categories and see Amazon has an "adult" romance category. I want to use that as a second category, but does anyone know "how much" you can get away with there?

I have two scenes in the book that would fall under "holy shit" for brutal, but everything else is I would say "standard" fair and a couple of the scenes are sweet and romantic. But the sex is "lit style" and pretty much pornographically described.

Does anyone have any experience with that category either publishing or reading, and would I get the boot from it?

I'm just stuck between feeling as if I have too much story to just say erotica, but maybe too much sex for romance.

any opinions?

 

[MagicaPractica]

I tried looking at it from the consumer side and did not find an "Adult Romance" category so I used that as the keyword in their Advanced Search and basically got romance with some adult content, which makes sense if you condsider that the order of the words suggests that the content is mainly romance modified by the term "adult." Therefore, I would expect Adult Romance readers to expect something heavy on romance. But that's just my 2 cents. *shrug*

 

[sr71plt]

I don't know how the categories work on Amazon. But I'd suggest putting it in as many categories as you can--and let the buyer decide (can't decide in your favor if your book doesn't pop up as an option).

 

[lovecraft68]

I don't know how the categories work on Amazon. But I'd suggest putting it in as many categories as you can--and let the buyer decide (can't decide in your favor if your book doesn't pop up as an option).

That's a good point and my original plan.

I'm just leery because of Amazon and their "policies" I don't want someone getting report button happy with me.

 

[Thefamiliar]

Well...depending on the plot, and characters adult romance could be alright. Though, those are usually the typical romance novel type stories. I have seen complaints like "dont bother, its just sex" but, give the freebies a look to judge for yourself. (i have actually found some gems.in the freebies, though dont expect much)

I think erotica would be enough, as looking strictly for erotica, you will hit your target audince. The free erotica leaves tons to be desired...lol but I am one of those, its worth reading just cuz someone put inthe effort types. (besides it reminds me what not to do)

When one types in romance, in the search on amazon, that is exactly what they are looking for. So.if.you have romance in the story, you should be fine.

 

[lovecraft68]

Well...depending on the plot, and characters adult romance could be alright. Though, those are usually the typical romance novel type stories. I have seen complaints like "dont bother, its just sex" but, give the freebies a look to judge for yourself. (i have actually found some gems.in the freebies, though dont expect much)

I think erotica would be enough, as looking strictly for erotica, you will hit your target audince. The free erotica leaves tons to be desired...lol but I am one of those, its worth reading just cuz someone put inthe effort types. (besides it reminds me what not to do)

When one types in romance, in the search on amazon, that is exactly what they are looking for. So.if.you have romance in the story, you should be fine.

Thanks for the two cents.

And I agree when I was researching some step mother pseudo incest books to see if they were really "step" or not I found some free ones and I.... got what I paid for.

 

[topace]

This is the reason I've chosen to not use Amazon for my future novel.

Smashwords is a lot easier to understand IMHO.

 

[lovecraft68]

This is the reason I've chosen to not use Amazon for my future novel.

Smashwords is a lot easier to understand IMHO.

You're right, Smaswords is easy and allows everything, lot less bs and hoops to jump through and I will also be putting this there as well.

However, lets put it this way, so far this month between smashwords "proper" and affiliates I have about 90 sales. On Amazon I'm at 200+ and that's with only a third of the title, so I'll jump through the hoops.

 

[topace]

You're right, Smaswords is easy and allows everything, lot less bs and hoops to jump through and I will also be putting this there as well.

However, lets put it this way, so far this month between smashwords "proper" and affiliates I have about 90 sales. On Amazon I'm at 200+ and that's with only a third of the title, so I'll jump through the hoops.

Fair enough, that's your call.

But then again, you don't have new fans joining your page on Facebook almost every day.

 

[sr71plt]

Yes, Amazon is still the elephant in the room as far as sales. If you're going to put a book on distribution anywhere, you do best by having it at Amazon.

 

[lovecraft68]

Fair enough, that's your call.

But then again, you don't have new fans joining your page on Facebook almost every day.

I'm going to sound like Pilot here, but money talks and we know what walks. I think I have maybe 8 friends on facebook.

But I've been getting royalty checks for several months now, and find them preferable to people I don't even know posting every time they take a shit and "liking" when someone else says they took a shit.

 

[topace]

I'm going to sound like Pilot here, but money talks and we know what walks. I think I have maybe 8 friends on facebook.

But I've been getting royalty checks for several months now, and find them preferable to people I don't even know posting every time they take a shit and "liking" when someone else says they took a shit.

Well, I've turned them into traffic to my sites. Traffic on sites with ads also equals money.

 

[lovecraft68]

Well, I've turned them into traffic to my sites. Traffic on sites with ads also equals money.

I just entered the "modern era" and made a blog for myself, I really can't stomach facebook for a lot of reasons.

I think the biggest of which is the daily e-mails telling me so and so might be someone I know and I have "notifications" pending.

 

[R. Richard]

You're right, Smaswords is easy and allows everything, lot less bs and hoops to jump through and I will also be putting this there as well.

However, lets put it this way, so far this month between smashwords "proper" and affiliates I have about 90 sales. On Amazon I'm at 200+ and that's with only a third of the title, so I'll jump through the hoops.

I have almost the reverse situation, more sales in Smashwords and less in Amazon. I have been publishing either just in Smashwords or just in Amazon. It seems that I should look at duplicate publications. However, Smashwords has been trying to hook up with Amazon and that might complicate things.

 

[lovecraft68]

I have almost the reverse situation, more sales in Smashwords and less in Amazon. I have been publishing either just in Smashwords or just in Amazon. It seems that I should look at duplicate publications. However, Smashwords has been trying to hook up with Amazon and that might complicate things.

A couple of months ago I had the opposite as well.

I was averaging 150 affiliate sales a month on SW plus the 50 or so on the "proper" site. Last few weeks though the affiliates either died or they are not reporting them at the moment, but amazon is taking off.

Of course that's because I converted 5 of my SW mother/sons to "step mother" and they're doing well on amazon.

If the ass-hats would stop acting like they had morals where incest is concerned I could quit my job with the amount of it I have.

 

[topace]

A couple of months ago I had the opposite as well.

I was averaging 150 affiliate sales a month on SW plus the 50 or so on the "proper" site. Last few weeks though the affiliates either died or they are not reporting them at the moment, but amazon is taking off.

Of course that's because I converted 5 of my SW mother/sons to "step mother" and they're doing well on amazon.

If the ass-hats would stop acting like they had morals where incest is concerned I could quit my job with the amount of it I have.

They'd get a backlash so quick it wouldn't be funny if they ever did that, and they know it. It's why it will never happen, LC. Sorry if that disappoints ya.

 

[lovecraft68]

They'd get a backlash so quick it wouldn't be funny if they ever did that, and they know it. It's why it will never happen, LC. Sorry if that disappoints ya.

It wouldn't disappoint me if it was their original policy, but it wasn't

A few (and in comparison to how many people browse the kindle store daily it was a percentage of a percentage of a percentage point) of people complained.

They first said they would not practice censorship and sell what they wanted too, then they caved on incest.

meanwhile they have no issue with torture porn such as Saw and Hostel, rape or anything else.

You know I don;t believe in God and one of these days just for fun I'm going to hit the report button on the bible and tell them it offends me.

 

[MattblackUK]

Does Amazon offer advice to authors? Might be worth giving them a call or emailing them with your questions on this. Perhaps with the relevant sections of the book attached?