Monetizing your stuff

[jezzaz]

I see a lot of people here with links in their sig's to Kindle and digital ebooks - and I don't want anyone to take this the wrong way, but the likelihood of their being any successful sales with that approach isn't going to work.

I've actually got two (shortly to become three) Sci-fi novels on Kindle and they haven't even covered the cost of the editing pass (and that was only $250).

Now, I'm aware that self promotion is everything. It is in my day job too.

However, in this situation, I cannot put my name to this stuff. In the same way most of you here don't, if it got out that I write smut for fun, bad things would happen to my day job (whether that's ok or not is a discussion for another day). So I have to use the Jezzaz non-de-plume.

But then I look at what I've produced, and it's not that bad, and I look at utter shit like Shades of Grey, and I think "Well, if she can do it, and she can't write her way out of a wet paper bag, I should be able to as well".

But I don't have a clue how to present my stuff to a smut publisher, or if one even exists. I did try and get an agent when I was doing the Sci-Fi novel the first time around, but unsurprisingly, out of 87 attempts, I got 87 rejections, so I don't really hold out much hope of that.

I could just gather up related stories do Ebooks and see what happens that way, but I just feel, why bother? It's a lot of work, getting covers together and all that, and I've already been down that route once and it wasn't fruitful. If I could, I'd rather get a publishing deal.

What's the experience here? What are you guys doing?

 

[lovecraft68]

One note about Shades.

James was not a great "rags to riches" story. The woman was a television producer with more than fair media connections enough to get the attention she needed for sure.

as for amazon an e-book is a drop in the ocean there and you can be a hell of a self promoter, but there is a lot of luck involved.

But you can make some money.

If you would like some advice or have questions, feel free to PM me.

I am not going to post what has worked for me to have it picked apart by lits alleged expert on publishing.

 

[A_Little_Show]

[deleted]

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I post my smut at both Kindle and Smashwords. My non-smut stuff I only post at Smashwords due to a feud with Amazon over a few minor things. I too write under a couple pen names. I have links in my sig which do not go directly to either Smashwords of Kindle books but to my websites.

 

[sr71plt]

The glory of the e-book and online bookstores like Amazon.com is that you don't have to do any promotion at all for there to be profitable sales. People do window shop the covers and e-books sell without effort in ways that print books never have. Truth be known, you can even have the same material posted for free and the e-books will sell. It doesn't matter if it makes sense or not--it's a reality.

There are indeed book sales from referencing them here on Literotica too. I get e-mails showing readers have gone looking from here (often finding expansions of what is here). Don't know how many or care. It's working for those of us who are doing it.

If you want to publish with a "smut" publisher check out the Web sites of various publishers you see references to books like yours at online stores. Many of them have submissions guidelines posted. You'd submit to them what they ask for just like you would submit any other books. The difference is that it's easier to get a "smut" publisher than a mainstream one (less per-unit profit, but I'm finding more per-book total profit). I've published erotica with e-publishers ever since starting with New Concepts Publishing in 2001.

As far as I know agents don't work with new authors on erotica and are only beginning to work with erotica at all--but no matter, it's much easier to find an erotica publisher on you own--just as it's easier to make money off of erotica by self-publishing than with any other genre.

 

[LucyH]

Putting links in your signature is free. If it gets you even one sale, you're ahead. If it gets you nothing...well, it didn't cost you anything either.

(In my case, it won't make me any money since I've sold the rights to my work for a flat rate, but hey, I like seeing my work in print and I wish them much success with it.)

 

[jezzaz]

The glory of the e-book and online bookstores like Amazon.com is that you don't have to do any promotion at all for there to be profitable sales. People do window shop the covers and e-books sell without effort in ways that print books never have. Truth be known, you can even have the same material posted for free and the e-books will sell. It doesn't matter if it makes sense or not--it's a reality.

There are indeed book sales from referencing them here on Literotica too. I get e-mails showing readers have gone looking from here (often finding expansions of what is here). Don't know how many or care. It's working for those of us who are doing it.

If you want to publish with a "smut" publisher check out the Web sites of various publishers you see references to books like yours at online stores. Many of them have submissions guidelines posted. You'd submit to them what they ask for just like you would submit any other books. The difference is that it's easier to get a "smut" publisher than a mainstream one (less per-unit profit, but I'm finding more per-book total profit). I've published erotica with e-publishers ever since starting with New Concepts Publishing in 2001.

As far as I know agents don't work with new authors on erotica and are only beginning to work with erotica at all--but no matter, it's much easier to find an erotica publisher on you own--just as it's easier to make money off of erotica by self-publishing than with any other genre.

Not wishing to be contrary, but like I said, I've put my books up on Kindle already (not the smut stuff), and I'm here to tell you that, no, you can't just shove them out into the world, shout on Twitter and Facebook and make money. I've made less than a hundred dollar on both of them (yet had almost 3k downloads, on the free days for that Kindle advertising thing out there).

And I know that my stuff, while not being awesome, is not that bad. I sampled some of the other stuff that says they have sales, and theirs is a mis matched jumble of absolute crap. Mine may not be good, but it isn't that bad. Even my covers are better.

I don't believe for a second that you can just package it up and shove it on Kindle and make sales, because I've done that it It Don't Happen. People HAVE to discover your work and that takes effort. My point is, how are you guys doing that?

 

[Bramblethorn]

I see a lot of people here with links in their sig's to Kindle and digital ebooks - and I don't want anyone to take this the wrong way, but the likelihood of their being any successful sales with that approach isn't going to work.

Depends what you mean by "any". I put a book up on Smashwords a couple of months back, and so far I have twenty sales. That's on pretty minimal self-promo; most of those sales would be either people who stumbled across it while searching Smashwords for something to read, or people who found it on Lit first and asked me to let them know when they could buy a copy.

Not exactly enough to give up my day job, and if I was trying to earn a living that way it'd be a very poor return on my time. But it's still better than I expected to get for something that I wrote for fun, and I daresay authors who write faster and put more effort into self-promotion would be making more. (And even if you do find a traditional publisher, my understanding is that you have to do most of your own promotion these days.)

 

[jezzaz]

Well, if you are doing the self promotion anyway, what, exactly, is a publisher doing for you apart from taking from your bottom line?

The whole point of a publisher is that they are there do grunt work for you, get the book on shelves and then take a percentage. If they aren't doing that - the grunt work of organizing publicity, which is what sells a book, what's the point?


Yeah, I was thinking more in the realm of thousands of sales, not 20. 20 isn't worth the time to put it through Calibre and get a cover organized. I value my time as more important than 20 sales I'm afraid. I'm not necessarily looking to give up my day job here (although that would be nice), but I do want a return on investment that's worth it.

 

[sr71plt]

Not wishing to be contrary, but like I said, I've put my books up on Kindle already (not the smut stuff), and I'm here to tell you that, no, you can't just shove them out into the world, shout on Twitter and Facebook and make money. I've made less than a hundred dollar on both of them (yet had almost 3k downloads, on the free days for that Kindle advertising thing out there).

Then your experience is different from mine, because I make good money off of them and I don't even put them on Twitter and Facebook--I don't have anything to Twitter with even if I knew how to do it. What is done with my books, though, is that they are on many more distribution sites than Kindle--and I get the synergy of putting something new out every two weeks (having a couple of publishers, I can spend my time writing and leaving the rest to them).

There's that whole realm, too, of having a buying audience that wants to buy what you write--or not having it. You aren't going to sell books that readers don't want to buy.

Having said that, your experience can be what it is, you can't speak to my experience, and any others you call off is fine with me. They just won't be competition.

 

[hoo_hoo_boo]

I don't know. I've never tried to sell anything. I don't think my stuff is good enough. But I've seen a lot worse in the market. I think when money becomes involved it becomes difficult. The ego amplifies its self and when sales don't go well it becomes a problem- often interpreted as being an insult. For the most part authors trying to sell their work get very little for it. Rather like a lottery there are few winners. Instead of being rewarded with the pleasure of being appreciated the "author" becomes known for their mercenary approach. I think there is a price to selling work. It's not about money for the most part because there is so little of it around. It's about self esteem and other intangible things.

 

[sethp]

I've thought about partnering up and forming a porn site.

 

[StrangeLife]

Daniel Suarez broke into the market by self-publishing his first book (highly recommended btw.)

Not really erotica though... unless you get aroused by robotic mortorcycles with sawblades dismembering folks...

 

[hoo_hoo_boo]

I've thought about partnering up and forming a porn site.

I think there are so many porn sites it would have to be very imaginative. I think a nonporn site would be easier and probably do better. Especially if poetry wasn't allowed. I think a lot of sites are made tedious with their endless, introspective poetry. What would worry me is the competition in porn. I don't know if there is any but it doesn't take a big stretch of my imagination to think it could be very difficult to deal with. One would need a very well defined site and even then it could be treading on the toes of others. I think if drugs are legalised it could be that internet porn will be the next serious endeavour of organised crime. Would this be a fair assumption?

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

I would like to tell you guys something that I hope you will listen to, and take absolutely to heart, and then take a step back from and consider without being swayed by the olden days mass media model which still has a grip on too many uncritical thinking people's mentality:

THIS - Lit-Er - is THE leading scene as far as real writers goes.

Anyone who cares about his/her actual style and skill when it comes to writing what the mass market actually seeks out to read for their entertainment - puts their BEST work up here in order to be on the graveyard or the mountaintop against the best. This is about letting the cards actually fall where they may. This is about the risk-taking writers prepared to test themselves against all comers.

Those who are on the foot of the mountain here, are way ahead of the floors of cut-and-pasters (who used to be typists and typesetters) pumping out titles for the worldwide newsagent/airport/hospital/shopping mall distribution channel.

There is nothing stopping those 'well-known' olden days mass market names from competing here... Except actual talent. Which they haven't got.

You wanna make money?

Stay around here.

Do... ...WRITING.

Make. Do. Be.

Apparently, last year 3,000 some odd people bought a brand new Rolls Royce; and that's 3 and a half odd billion dollars of revenue - an all-time record for that esteemed company. These owners would rank - some of them - at the highest of the high end of the Ultra High Net Worth crowd. Not a single one of these bright sparks contacted me via Literotica and asked for a custom-made work of erotica.

And that doesn't mean I couldn't make sperm come out of their eyeballs or sillage waft from under their designer leather skirts from a mere half and dozen paragraphs on their rhodium-lined iPads.

And that doesn't mean that I don't already do work for them.

If you're a writer, write. It's fun.

The CEO of Rolls Royce, the world's leading luxury automobile brand, was just asked this week whether the company would move some of its manufacturing operations closer to its largest and most lucrative market, and he said 'never.'

And that's my attitude too. I am here. And I will never be 'there.' And besides, they can't afford me. And you know what, Rolls Royce might come only second, to the best value there is. Sure you can get an orgasm sitting for the first time in a new Wraith you just bought. But it's not the best value for money for that kind of thing.

Money is a push v. shove thing.

It's also somewhat of a nasty business. Do you really want to be in it?

 

[Bramblethorn]

Well, if you are doing the self promotion anyway, what, exactly, is a publisher doing for you apart from taking from your bottom line?

By my understanding: editing, cover, printing, distribution. Whether those are worth paying for depends on how good you are at DIY and how much you expect to sell.

Yeah, I was thinking more in the realm of thousands of sales, not 20. 20 isn't worth the time to put it through Calibre and get a cover organized. I value my time as more important than 20 sales I'm afraid. I'm not necessarily looking to give up my day job here (although that would be nice), but I do want a return on investment that's worth it.

Well, you said "any" sales. If you meant "thousands", you should've said so from the start

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

I do really respect the OP's basic point though.

I feel we are all (still) sailing in unchartered seas. NO ONE has a perfect insight into how to monetize anything on the net. In the big league theatres and performance companies in Europe (opera/ballet/drama) they are doing live digital performance on a ticketed basis, and that certainly may prove to have some longevity in the wider marketplace as far as live entertainment goes.

Books, though, always were a 'unit medium' rather than a mass media thing.

In the past you bought a physical 'thing,' a book; it was an actual object. At the moment, e-literature is a two-dimensional thing - it is a figure on a screen, rather than 'an object.' And thus it commands 'two-dimensional' (very limited) money.

I sympathize with the OP to a large extent.

But I think we're all still an innovation or several away from monetarily capitalising on the amazing benefits of the digital electronic medium.

Once again, e-Readers are great. The good ones. I like them a lot.

This morning I had reason to be part of an economic consultancy group working with a fairly big public company. The CEO of the listed company was voicing some concern that the financial research community viewed him as not a successful managing director because the company's share price was depressed. And I said that any serious professional in the equities markets would recognize that extremely low secular growth was having very negative effects on many share prices theses days, whilst only a select few privileged bank-favoured stocks did far too well compared with their underlying profits. Such things had nothing to do with anything a CEO actually did.

When you think about money earned (or the very low levels earned) by writers today, you have to take into your consideration that the broad economies themselves have extremely feeble domestic turnovers and people do not have enough cash liquidity to buy things they might be attracted to purchasing.

But not only is that state of general economic affairs going to change - including a massive potential capital wipeout again - there will continue to be innovations in digital literature systems and products and facilities and fashions and you might find in a few short years things will be vastly different from what is going on today.

I think the number one priority of all writers wishing to make things better for themselves and all other writers, is to have a strong interest in trying to promote the fashion of having the high end of the coonsumer market, think about BUYING digital literature in any form (meaning category/genre) or by some means and for some particular reason.

 

[sr71plt]

This seems to be a lot of wheels spinning, mostly by people who are pontificating on something they haven't done--or maybe tried to do and failed because what they write and publish isn't competitive in the marketplace.

I was in the print media for decades (and all the way through the print-on-demand era) before the e-book revolution began, and I'm finding making a profit from e-booking--in genres of erotica not normally making it to the shelves otherwise and with doing practically nothing myself on promotion--a piece of cake compared to trying to publish before that--just trying to get published, let alone making money from it.

I have an essay or two about riding the e-book wave posted to Literotica, which you may take advantage of or not, and enjoy making some money off your writing, or not--as you please. Unfortunately, the wave of erotic e-booking is no longer at its crest, because there's so much of it now and only so much people can buy and read. But there's a market there for those of us who rode the crest and are known names now and there's a bit of the market available for new folks.

Those who want to take advantage of it still can do so. I'm certainly not saying you have to, though--because all the time you spend on the sidelines either too timid to try or badmouthing what you have no clue about is that much less competition for those of us playing in what is becoming a saturated market, but what is still a more lucrative mode than traditional publisher print (and has defeated the print-on-demand self-publish market altogether).

When I'm cruising in the Caribbean this March from my fourth quarter 2013 e-book profits, I won't be thinking of those who told me I wasn't making money in e-book erotica.

And nertz to "the good stuff is here at Literotica, not in the marketplace." Although I have much more in the marketplace than I have here, nearly everything I have here is also out in the marketplace making money. And with that too, all anyone says about not being able to do it is wasted breath--because I'm doing it.

 

[Catharyn]

Whatever gets you through the night.

 

[sr71plt]

Whatever that means. The topic of the thread is about maximizing the reward of the writing process, not just existing from one day to the next. Certainly, you don't have to turn a profit from what you write to be fulfilled. You don't have to write at all to be fulfilled, for that matter.

 

[lovecraft68]

This goes around and around all the time.

I think it can be done-and successfully done-with and without a publisher.

I spent a lot of time about four months ago thinking about taking someone up on a publishing offer.

The biggest "pro" for having a publisher is time. If writing is what you love and you do not want to spend hours looking for a cover, making it, self editing-or finding someone-and formatting a word doc into any number of e-reader formats then a publisher can do all that and leave you more time to write and that is how they earn their "take"

Now the cons or "break evens" I was already selling on all but one site the publisher told me they were going to put me on. That is the case with pretty much all publishers. They will usually have their own store front and might be able to put you on a site like bookstrand where in order to publish you have to prove you have at least 5 authors in your stable. So it is not a vast difference in exposure.

In looking at covers from a lot of erotic publishers on amazon and other outlets I noticed a lot of the same photos being used that I, or anyone else, can get their hands on. Gimp is free old photoshop software is cheap and there are sites that are free that you can not only add simple text to, but features like changing the colors etc...

Formatting can be handled easily with a site called e-book converter. as for editing....well simply put having purchased some e-books from authors I know have publishers I have to say I found several to be any better than standard lit fare.

Profit margins are not huge for publishers. They make money in bulk. How much time do you really think they spend on your cover? What are they paying, and do you really think they are paying editors top dollar to handle your 10k erotic story? I am not saying all publishers turn out low quality, but if you expect to see your book turned into an "oh my god, I can't believe that amazing product is my book!" forget it. The average person here can get their book pretty close to "publisher quality"


A serious con is their percentage which is on top of the platform percentage. I.E if amazon gets 35% of a sale the publisher also wants a take. What I have noticed is that in order for the publisher to get a fair take and leave the author with a number the author is okay with means marking the book at a higher price.

People who buy e-books can be cheap. They want the BBD. Sure your book has a nicer cover, but $5.99? look at all these books for $2.99 and less!

Most "published" books by authors here sell hardly if any better than self published ones. How do I know that? Links, an understanding of amazon rankings and an interesting site that allows you to enter the title of an e-book on amazon and see its recent sales history. Using my works and some other self published authors I am friendly with and comparing it to authors I chose on amazon who have publishers I see no dramatic difference.

I'll add that is on average a couple of authors were doing very well, but many self pubs were doing better than published so as I said, on average a negligible difference to justify giving someone a percentage that goes on and on. The publishers $25(if that) investment entitles them to a take on your work for sale after sale.

Another thing to think of is how hard will you push your book? Hard, because it is yours. How hard will someone push your book? Not hard they have hundreds/thousands of others to push. Social media can help, but remember amazon disabled the facebook like feature on titles and who are you pushing your book at? Your same facebook and twitter friends.

Sad to say a huge factor is e-book sales is...Pure luck. Look at the erotica books in the top 4k crap! Seriously! Meh covers, crappy descriptions, so-so editing, but nasty and smutty as hell. There is a book I bought that was ranked 1200 meaning this thing has to be selling a few thousand copies a month. The thing sucks and it has 15 reviews and a rating of 2.5, but it just keeps selling.

There is not a rhyme or reason to what really sells. My best selling book to me was a throw away "whatever". Books I have put a lot of work into sell slowly and a publisher is not going to change that, not at all.

You think someone browsing for an e-book is going to find mine then find one published by excessia and if they can only pick one its going to be the published one? Please. The people buying are not saying "they are published, they are not"

So to me the only pro to publishing aside from the time saving is pure vanity. Look at me I am published.

On that note. The "publishers" that are out there are people who started where we are and took it one more level. The ones that said "I can make money on my stuff, but wait. I can make money on other people's as well.

The people here who brag about being published are being published by a self publishing publisher, pure and simple.

One more thing to note. A site like Smashwords or Draft2digital does in a way act as a publisher. Yes you are responsible for the writing/editing and cover. But they will format your book into all the necessary e-reader ready formats and place your book on B/N apple/kobo/sony and several others and for a small percentage so it is a little bit of a compromise.

In the end it comes down to how much work are you willing to do? Just want to write and don;t care about losing some money to save time? Then find a publisher. Want max profit and total control over your work? Do it yourself.

 

[sr71plt]

Yes, e-booking is a realm that you can make a profit from by self-publishing--and can have your book covers showing on a distributors page beside, and equal to, those of best-selling mainstream authors. (I do get a kick out of seeing my books outsell Nora Roberts on a given day at a given distributor site.) In this, the chances are much better than they ever were during the self-publishing print-on-demand era--during which erotica didn't come into play anything like it has thanks to the e-book revolution. (Many of my e-books are available in print-on-demand paperback too, and those sell far better than any print-on-demand books I had out before the e-book revolution.)

The advantages of going with publishers for me isn't just time. It's also deferring aspects of the production to others who have more expertise in that function--and are going to perform the task and pay for it (and swallow the shortfall if the total profit doesn't cover the total production costs), or the function is too tedious for me to enjoy, and/or can do it cheaper by the principle of economy of scale (e.g., buying ISBNs in bulk rather than by the ones or two; a publisher has editors on tap; a self-publisher has to find one her/himself or, typically, launches an inferior product without an edit). Having a publisher name--and one that can show a healthy list of holdings and multiple authors--has more credence in the marketplace that a self-publisher does. Not just buyers, but also distributors, pay more attention to publishers than self-publishers. (I don't have many of the problems self-publishers complain about on this boards they are experiencing from distributors. That's both because distributors give more leeway to publishers than self-publishers and because I have a publisher to carry that "what are we going to do about it" burden for me.)

Yes publishers take a portion of the profit--they've earned it for doing what I don't to do and bearing the production cost risk if the book makes no profit at all. I can write three books--and enjoy having done so--in the time that a self-publisher can put out an e-book--often of inferior quality because no one but them is buying into the book or doing anything with getting it toned up for the market. I have no idea what the difference in profit is. I just know that I enjoyed the process more than if I had to face all of the functions that were just chores and weren't as expert or cost-effective as a publisher could do it--and that I had the assurance that someone else was invested in the project too (and is going to cover the production costs if it shows no profit at all). From years of observation I can also say that self-publishers don't typically fairly consider the cost to them of producing a book themselves or honestly deduct this from their claimed profit.

This isn't really about going with a publisher or self-publishing (as much as Lovecraft68 wants to delude himself about his choices--because either he can't find a publisher, or enjoys doing it all himself, or doesn't want to chance trying to find a publisher). You can earn monetary profit on top of the reward of writing for free-read readers if what you write is any good--in terms of finding an audience that wants to pay to read it.

It's not only one option--it's two. It's even a combination of the two. Why do some folks still insist one way is good and the other is crap--other than that they are obsessed with them being the only ones who can get it right--and are too insecure in their marketability to try out both and look at the balance fairly?

 

[lovecraft68]

Everything you say makes sense to a degree and I can easily see your thought process.

Until of course you have to go off the topic of people here wanting to step into the selling market via themselves or finding someone- and start up with your outselling Nora Roberts crap. If you can keep your posting realistic and avoid your tall tales you can be quite informative.

For me, you hit it on the head in one of my "reasons" I like doing it myself. Just as there were a floor full of vendors at e-bay live telling us sellers they could do it all for us and handle everything for a fee, I prefer knowing how to do it.

And one major reason is should I ever get sick of doing it all or get a much better offer than the last one, at least I would have a good idea of what they are doing and is it really worth the take because I know exactly what they are doing.

The next point I hope I can make correctly and not sound like an ass and I think you might even agree with me.

One thing self publishing and e-booking in general have done is lower standards. Especially in erotica, a lot of people don;t care even if there are typos in the damn description. The books sell. See my prior point of looking at some of the book in amazon's top 5k or so for erotica there is a lot of poor quality junk. Many can hold to a standard and say "well mine is better edited with a prettier cover" and that is awesome, but....

who's bringing it home $$$ wise and end of the day isn't that the point?

I know what I have averaged monthly and could it be higher with a publisher? I doubt it as the extra sales would only even out through their percentage.

Now one area it would come in handy is the recent erotica witch hunt. It would have been easier to have a Selena Kitt dealing with amazon rather than me trying to read between their lies and hypocrisy. But in this day and age there were blogs and articles galore and I as able to adjust to their new game and am making as much as before.

Again a lot of these publishers, Pilot-and please let's keep it on the ground level and not discuss how you taught Grisham how to write or some other lame claim- are people who started where we are right now or similar sites and said, "Wait...I can sell my stuff AND yours!"

Self published authors with their own websites and shopping carts and connections and a lot of patience and ambition. That's all most of them are. The "big six" are not going to touch 99% of "lit style" erotica.

 

[sr71plt]

You're being your typical asshat self again by bringing Grisham into this. I've never shown him a thing about writing and never said I did. (I was assigned to try to edit Clancy once, but he wasn't interested--and I don't give two craps whether you choose to believe that or not.) You are constantly dinging me for taking positions here on the forum that I never take. You are obsessed and sick--and obviously green with envy. And if this were a moderated forum, you'd be gone for harassment and stalking.

Straight answer. Do you get your self-published e-books edited or don't you? If you don't, there's a ton of money right there that you aren't paying and can't be compared to my use of publishers, which come with an edit I don't pay for.

Do you get your e-books edited or don't you? Do you really think you have a high-quality product if you don't?

Do you come here frequently to whine about what Kindle is/isn't doing for you as a self-publisher? It can be checked by anyone interested. I don't, because I let the publishers deal with that. Was notified of lots of takedowns on one distributor today--and it isn't my problem, and since they are a minor distributor, I don't particularly care. The publisher is going to be reworking the blurbs to try to get them passed--not me.

Where do you have your e-books? Just on Kindle or mostly on Kindle? I don't. My publishers put in the effort to put on them on seven different electronic platforms and distribute them on a dozen distribution sites. I don't have to do anything to have that done--or pay a cent up front to have it done. If the book doesn't make money, I'm not out a cent of production costs. How about you as a self-publisher? Do you even bother to total up your costs? I'll bet not, because you basically are clueless and don't want to face what you would find.

If you'd just stop saying self-publishing is the only way of getting it done profitably (and crapping on going with a publisher as an option), there would be some sort of honest balance struck here for Litsers who might be interested in entering the marketplace.

Who said anything about the big six? No, they aren't interested in publishing fantasies of fucking and torturing your sister. There are heaps of erotica publishers out there and they can readily be found (I've frequently noted here how to find one). Bringing the big six into this discussion is an irrelevant red herring. I can tell you that Kindle pays more attention to publishers, even if they are shell, then to a single self-publisher because my publishers don't have the problems self-publishers report here to the same extent that the self-publishers have. You can't really argue that, because you are clueless about working with a publisher.

 

[lovecraft68]

Oops my mistake.