If you publish a story elsewhere do you pull it from Lit?

[lovecraft68]

While still trying to work the bugs out of a "full length" novel I decided it would be a good idea to take something fairly short and put it up through Smashwords to see how it works and if I am formatting correctly, if I sized the cover right and generally get the feel for how it works. I picked a Mother/son incest story that I had written last summer and had done well fro me here. I used the same title and with the exception of my editor cleaning it up and maybe a half a dozen new paragraphs it's the same story. My question is what do I do with the lit version? seeing I am the author I don;t think there is a legal problem with having it here but as far as if I ever wanted it to "sell" i suppose i should pull the "free" one. Or do you guys just leave them there anyway? I don't include my lit link on my web site-as I figure it would be a a kiss of death to show someone where they can fond thousands upon thousands of free stories- so I suppose it's a couple of different audiences. Just wondering what others here have done.
Also a follow up question. My full length project is the series I have on here now but with chapters that I left out on lit so I could possibly convince people here to pay fro it even though they have read a good part of it. Once that gets up should I maybe pull a couple of chapters off of here? Key chapters that would make people want to purchase it to see what happens? I'm thinking if they look in advance and see chapters missing they probably won;t start reading so unsure on that situation as well.

 

[PennLady]

Hmmm. Well, here's my experience.

I wrote a novel-length story called Exiled, and posted it here and at the now-defunct Erotica Republic. The people running ER also run Republica Press and the approached me about a possible sequel to Exiled. I wrote the sequel (Young Blood), and they published it as an e-book. I posted three chapters of YB here. When I published Exiled, I removed it from the site.

I am currently working with MugsyB to publish a compilation of a few of our hockey romances, and I will remove the two I am including (Ghosts of the Forum and Game Misconduct), although they have been pretty significantly re-worked. Mugsy will remove her two as well.

What I've noticed -- for example with Daniellekitten -- is that an author will post a story, let it sit a while, and then remove it when the publish it for sale. It really makes no sense (most times) to leave a free version of a story available. However, different publishers have different requirements, and if you are the publisher, it'd be up to you.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Hmmm. Well, here's my experience.

I wrote a novel-length story called Exiled, and posted it here and at the now-defunct Erotica Republic. The people running ER also run Republica Press and the approached me about a possible sequel to Exiled. I wrote the sequel (Young Blood), and they published it as an e-book. I posted three chapters of YB here. When I published Exiled, I removed it from the site.

I am currently working with MugsyB to publish a compilation of a few of our hockey romances, and I will remove the two I am including (Ghosts of the Forum and Game Misconduct), although they have been pretty significantly re-worked. Mugsy will remove her two as well.

What I've noticed -- for example with Daniellekitten -- is that an author will post a story, let it sit a while, and then remove it when the publish it for sale. It really makes no sense (most times) to leave a free version of a story available. However, different publishers have different requirements, and if you are the publisher, it'd be up to you.

On an entirely different note...You seem to have a Tiger, rather than a Lion, as an AV, though you are PennLady. Is your heart in New Jersey, perhaps?

 

[PennLady]

On an entirely different note...You seem to have a Tiger, rather than a Lion, as an AV, though you are PennLady. Is your heart in New Jersey, perhaps?

LOL

Here's a quick bio -- I was born and raised in South Jersey, went to undergrad in PA, grad in DC and moved back to PA about three and a half years ago. So I'm PennLady b/c I currently live in PA, not b/c I went to Penn State (which is a fine school, but not the one I attended). The tiger is b/c in my first were series, the main characters were weretigers.

If that's not confusing enough, let me know.

 

[Jake Marlow]

My publishing contract states that I can't publish the stories anywhere else once they publish, so it's not really my decision, however I would pull them anyway. I agree that it doesn't make sense to have something up for free while you are trying to sell it. That said, there is an author here who does not do that and doesn't believe it negatively impacts his sales. I do post excerpts of longer works on my website. I used to do it here, but was told I wasn't allowed.

Also, I haven't found that something having previously been free hurts my sales, in some cases the previous popularity of the stories seems to have helped. My current policy toward Lit & ES is to keep current stories up here, but only host my back catalog on my website.

 

[sr71plt]

Everything I have posted to Lit. (over 450 stories) are also posted elsewhere and/or for sale in some form on multiple distribution sites. It's true that some publishers will make you pull your stories from here when they go to market--which is a truism from the mainstream print world. But some don't, and I haven't noticed that my sales of works also available here in some form suffer noticeably (in comparison to how well others are selling). So, the e-book world doesn't really follow the "rules" of the print world.

 

[3113]

It's up to the publisher. I've been working with an e-publisher on a couple of stories they want to put up, and they've asked me to take down those here. So down they come. But I did have talks with one e-publisher a while back (they went under and only published one of my stories) who was more flexible.

I think it only right to go along with whatever the publisher wants. And yes, it does tend to make sense--for you, never mind the publisher--that if they're asking for money for it one one site, you take it down from the free site. Otherwise, people will go to the free site and you won't get that money

 

[Tio_Narratore]

LOL

Here's a quick bio -- I was born and raised in South Jersey, went to undergrad in PA, grad in DC and moved back to PA about three and a half years ago. So I'm PennLady b/c I currently live in PA, not b/c I went to Penn State (which is a fine school, but not the one I attended). The tiger is b/c in my first were series, the main characters were weretigers.

If that's not confusing enough, let me know.

Perfedtly clear, Ma'am. Thank you.

 

[lettersaroundmidnight]

If you publish elsewhere do you pull it from lit?

I have just submitted my stories for publishing and my contract stipulates that I ought not publish those elsewhere. So I have pulled them from Lit.

I asked the publisher direct and they were very helpful - 10% of a book gets given out free on most esites anyway and the publisher was very pragmatic. There is some cross marketing possible when stories are published elsewhere but you probably want to post parts of stories rather than whole stories - just teasers which is what I will be doing on my blogsite from now on.

There is of course the possibility of writing stories for Lit w/o submitting those for publishing just to achieve some market presence.

If I hadn't posted my stories on Lit and if I hadn't got noticed by the publisher then I wouldn't now be in the position of maybe having something published.

I will let you know if my stories go to eprint,

Regards

Letters After Midnight

 

[LunaEroticaMystica]

I pulled a story that I'm pitching to a publisher currently. I'm not sure about their policies, but figured I'd be proactive about it. If they aren't interested, I can always put it back up later. If I didn't have another story for that particular contest, I might have been slower to pull it. But, I did save my comments, scores, ratings, so that I have them. I also revised and revamped (literally) parts of the story, added another steamy scene, and fixed some inconsistencies that were brought up during comments/feedback. If I hadn't placed it on Lit to begin with, I probably never would have realized those weaker areas. This place is a great venue!

 

[rgraham666]

I pull them whether the publisher stipulates I must or not. People will find out that the story is available for free here on Lit and not buy the book, digital or paper.

Why should I damage my income in that manner?

 

[sr71plt]

I pull them whether the publisher stipulates I must or not. People will find out that the story is available for free here on Lit and not buy the book, digital or paper.

Why should I damage my income in that manner?

I thought this was a reasonable assumption too. In reality, I've found it isn't. I don't see where having something free here and also in the e-market has had much effect on e-market sales at all.

I just put them in the e-market about six months before putting them here and on other free sites--and often I have fuller versions in the e-market. And there are some I only have in the e-market.

And they still continue selling in the e-market after I've posted them for free.

So, you can make assumption or you can actually do it and find out the reality of it.

 

[R. Richard]

Publishing for pay a story that's available here for free just doesn't make any sense. However, publishing the first few chapters of a for pay novel for free here, in order to maybe drum up a bit of interest, hmmmm.

 

[sr71plt]

Publishing for pay a story that's available here for free just doesn't make any sense. However, publishing the first few chapters of a for pay novel for free here, in order to maybe drum up a bit of interest, hmmmm.

Oh? Want to compare sales statistics with me?

You are supposing and I am doing, and judging by our relative Amazon rankings, I'm doing just fine.

 

[lovecraft68]

I thought this was a reasonable assumption too. In reality, I've found it isn't. I don't see where having something free here and also in the e-market has had much effect on e-market sales at all.

I just put them in the e-market about six months before putting them here and on other free sites--and often I have fuller versions in the e-market. And there are some I only have in the e-market.

And they still continue selling in the e-market after I've posted them for free.

So, you can make assumption or you can actually do it and find out the reality of it.

Right see what your saying but you sold yours first made initial money and popped them up here. My situation is opposite I tossed up a story that has been here for a while so question is to keep it up or yank it. for the record as we have discussed you being curious about my sales when I publish I sold 9 copies since it went up on Thursday on Smashwords and that is through their catalog, it has been submitted for "premium" whis is when they push it through other outlets. So 9 @ $1.99 and I get 80% not much but honestly so far the best $13 and change I have ever made.

 

[lovecraft68]

Publishing for pay a story that's available here for free just doesn't make any sense. However, publishing the first few chapters of a for pay novel for free here, in order to maybe drum up a bit of interest, hmmmm.

This helps me with another question I was going to ask i am making my Lit series into a series of e-books and was thinking of leaving some up here but pulling a few in between so the ycan;t read the complete edition also each e-book will have 2 chapters never posted here.

 

[sr71plt]

Right see what your saying but you sold yours first made initial money and popped them up here. My situation is opposite I tossed up a story that has been here for a while so question is to keep it up or yank it. for the record as we have discussed you being curious about my sales when I publish I sold 9 copies since it went up on Thursday on Smashwords and that is through their catalog, it has been submitted for "premium" whis is when they push it through other outlets. So 9 @ $1.99 and I get 80% not much but honestly so far the best $13 and change I have ever made.

I'm not sure it matters when you publish stories here first, but now that I have name recognition in the e-market I (mostly) give a story a twirl there well before posting it here. I didn't start e-booking until I had about 300 stories posted here, though, so my first year of e-books was all material already posted (some expanded or reworked, though) here (and to other free-read Web sites).

Evidence of my point that they keep on selling. My very first e-book anthology, Across the Threshold, composed entirely of stories written and posted here for four years or more, is, the last time I checked today, #73 on the Amazon Kindle best-sellers list for gay anthologies. The anthology I released on 24 March 2011, The Sporting Life, is two thirds stories already published here and one third new stories. As of a few minutes ago,it was #60 on the Amazon Kindle best-sellers list for gay anthologies. Both anthologies, along with Fetish Galore (three fourths previously published stories) were under the 100,000 ranking level at Amazon when last checked. (The Amazon list is very volatile and changes constantly.)

Although there may be some overlap in Lit. readers and erotica e-market buyers, there doesn't seem to be much.

Yes, this flies in the face of supposition, but it's reality. Those of you who want to suppose can sit on the sidelines and suppose if you like (in fact, it helps my sales probably if you do). I'll go where the markets are.

I'm finding that selling isn't about where else it's available, even for free--it's about building name recognition for readable works in genres readers want to read and using the synergy of having new offerings often. The new offerings keep the backlist alive.