Getting paid for your Stories???

[PolarJuice]

Whats your thoughts on getting paid for your erotica? Whats a good price? Any good places to query? I've only posted one story and it wasn't even 10 days old before an British publication offered money for it .. hmmmm. Any views on the subject?

My story ... with more in the works!!!!

http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=24672

Polar

 

[christophe]

go for it

hi polar, well congratulatioins! hell id go for it i just put my fisrt story up as well and i hould have jumped at the chance to make some cash! but make sure after u become famous and all to give us folks here an autographed copy.... cheers
chris

 

[Mickie]

Congratultions!

As for where to publish and how much money....

There are a lot of zines and so on that will take short stories. For good listings get a current Writer's Market book from the library or buy one yourself. There are publishers and agents listed for all kinds of writing.

Money? It really depends on the publisher. Some places are paying higher amounts, but most of them, especially for erotica, are paying small royalties and no upfront advance for novels. For shorts they usually pay by the word.

It ain't the way to get rich, that's for certain

However, just a word of caution -- make sure you have a contract. Make sure you look over the contract. Make double sure all your rights as a writer are protected and don't be afraid to ask questions. There are a lot of scams out there. And MOST of all, if they ask YOU for money? Run away. Run away fast.

Mickie

 

[Sateema Lunasi]

cool

I do it all the time, it is a good way to make some extra money.

I reccomend getting a writer's market book and going at it. I published a lot with Oceania at PeacockBlue. She is very honest, pays promptly and is a great person. I think she pays around $10 to $15 a story but I could be wrong there. I was making around $12 a piece for short stories which is great when you turn in batches.

www.peacockblue.com

She also runs radioactivesex.com, which is stories on audio, and is fabu. My Academy Series is there.

I have a little personal site that I just put up. I don't pay as of yet, but within the next few weeks (the site is only a few days old) I will be marketing the site and such. I will be having story contests to win prizes (for instance: Kama Sutra gift set, adult video and such). If you'd like to submit a story early, that would be cool. It is a free site, just a little hobby I have. I make no money on it. In fact I lose money paying the hosting fees and such. Anyway, the URL is here:

http://thevision.ws/maralily/eve.html

(I am buying a URL this week) then it will be www.subdiva.com

 

[Mickie]

That's strange, Sateema. I looked up the peacock blue site and it states that "Compensation: I am not offering monetary payment for submissions accepted for publication in Peacockblue." How do you actually get paid then?

Mickie

 

[MissVictoria]

I'm not sure that I could accept money for what I write, since everything I write is greedily for myself firstly, and I only share it with others because I selfishly love to know that I can excite people with my words.

 

[PolarJuice]

We all write for ourselves first ... but when we get paid for it... doesn't it make it that much more sweeter?

Thanks for the advice everyone .. I'll be sure to read everything before I sign the dotted line but then again ... all the writing work is done so any money you get ... if you retain the rights, is money in your pocket I guess.

Polar...

 

[Mickie]

True enough, but there are a lot of scam's out there, that ask for money before printing. Reading fees, charges for postage and handling that are obviously over the amount that would be legit, etc. I'm a writer, and I'd like my work to actually appear in print, be advertized, and then make money. If other writers go for the scams, that only makes it easier for the scammers to bilk even more unsuspecting, hard-working authors out of cash or product.

My initiation into agents was one who charged a reading fee. It was a rather large amount, but I, in my naivete, paid it. The agent disappeared within six months. I never got my manuscript back, or saw any editing. He just plain disappeared. That's money out of pocket, plus that horrible feeling you get when someone robs you and you can't prove who did it.

ALWAYS be careful. NEVER pay out money. ALWAYS read every word of your contract. If you don't understand something, ask about it. If the publisher or agent doesn't want to explain it, there's something wrong. Remember, they may be publishing your work, but they'll make money off of it. You have a right to ask questions, and they have the duty to answer.

Sorry to sound so cynical, but experience has taught me to be extremely judgemental of the publishing industry.

Mickie

 

[Sateema Lunasi]

PeacockBlue (Oceania) I have not worked with in a while and her payment policies may have changed. She runs several sites though. Anyway, I rather thought it was an interesting idea.

Mickie,
I get paid because I still make royalties from the stories I published with her long ago.

 

[Guest]

PAPER BOOK
For a full-length BDSM novel the going rates are 12.5% of the net sales price (i.e. what the publisher gets) per copy, usually paid once or twice a year. That comes to about 70 cents and these things sell in thousands for an average one.

INTERNET DOWNLOAD
For a full-length BDSM novel the going rates are 45% (forty five percent) of the net sales price (i.e. what the publisher gets) per copy, paid at variable times, usually when some predetermined cash limit is reached. That comes to bit over 3 dollars a copy and these things sell in lower hundreds for an average one.

SHORT STORIES
I don't know; I have never tried.

*BUT*
Do not pay them to publish - ever. Paper publishers should give you an advance on contract, my first advance (on a book published in 1990) was = 450 US dollars and in the end I cleared just over ten times that in royalties. The book wasn't finished when I got the advance.

SUBMITTING A NOVEL FOR INTERNET PUBLISHING
Send only a synopsis and the first and one other chapter. Send it in a common format, even .txt is preferable to lots of fancy fonts in a posh WP package. (You don't know if they use MACs or Smartsuite or something that will mangle your beautiful Word2000)

 

[Mickie]

Most internet publishers are accepting queries ONLY in the body of the email, no attachments until you're asked for the MSS. Then they want the format in either txt or rtf only. It really pays to look through the submission guidelines before submitting to anyone, whether print or ebook, or even agent. If you can't follow rules, they don't want to work with you, anyway.

As for erotica in print form, most of the smaller publishers are not offering advances, just royalties. Ebooks are also only offering royalties, not advances. It really isn't a way to get rich, but who knows...? It might lead to selling that next best seller.

As for numbers -- the actual payment amounts vary from publisher to publisher. CrossroadsPub.com, which is the one I'm most familiar with, offers %50 royalties with no advance. That's pretty high, from the research I did on other ebook pubs. Other pubs offer anything from %15 to %45, and print pubs are very low in royalties, from what I can gather.

These are estimates for novels. I'm not sure about the short story arena. I haven't done much research in that market.

Mickie