Monetizing your stuff

Mullock!!

The ultracrepidarianism around here is so thick you need wings to stay above it. (My nod to Conrad.)

A serious and relevant thread of enquiry by a fellow member has once again degenerated... no -- has been scurrilously hijacked for a malicious ad hominem pissing contest between two Walter Mitty's who so-far don't seem worth a toss.


SR71PLT: You say you've been "in the print media" (whatever that means; in between flying cutting-edge sub-orbital aircraft for the CIA, I suppose), you've posted 30,000 messages since 2006 which is an average of 12 posts per day to this website alone, you say you pump out "something new" (assuming an actual publication) every two weeks, and that you make enough from your efforts to laugh at all us piss-ants from your Caribbean cruise this Summer.

Wow! You're a machine, man!

How about sharing some actual advice on how you did it instead of vague hand-waving toward all the un-named websites to which you publish, these two publishers that you have, and generalized advice that can be had from any number of websites? If you're doing as well as you say and have so much time to exchange self-aggrandizing insults with the second balcony, why not share some of your extensive and profitable experience with a fellow aspiring author who's asked for your help?

I mean, especially since all us timid folk have missed the crest and don't have a snowball's chance anyway...

So-far I haven't read anything from you on this site worth reading and I doubt that's going to change any time soon, but in this case I'd love for you to prove me wrong.

(The bedouin have a proverb about unproductive wells. I don't remember the exact wording but it leaps readily to mind at this particular moment...)


Lovecraft: You post an average of 7 messages per day (15k since 2009) and you also claim to publish. How about sharing your experiences and give us something that we can use instead of howling to sr71's tune every time he starts barking? He owns you, man. Cut the cord (or whatever).


Jezzaz: When it comes to smuterature, this seems to be one of the best websites on the 'net for both quality and variety of reading material -- in addition to an incredible freedom to publish. There's a lot of crap here, too, but story-for-story I think it far surpasses any other similar site.

However, when it comes to getting advice or actual help, I have been lucky to find some decent advice to the few questions I've asked, but as a rule there are four(-ish) easily identifiable, obstructionist, self-appointed "gurus" who's "contribution" here is little better than a pompous, attention-seeking, self-important exercise in driving away new members and hindering the creative process of the 99% who want to improve their writing while expressing themselves through smut, attested to by the fact that the only advice you've received so far in this thread largely amounts to "don't even try" and "I'm better than you without even trying".

Now that's a sentence! (My nod to Paul Hogan!)

I'm not lucky enough to have produced anything -- smut or non-smut -- that I consider worth or worthy of publishing and so cannot competently offer any advice on this topic. However, from my personal notes, Jeffery A. Carver has this to say about getting published: http://www.starrigger.net/published.htm

His genre is science fiction, but his brief, initiatory advice seems applicable in a general sense.


Now, I could sit back and watch the entertaining "hamina-hamina-hamina" chorus of predictable replies from those who feel that the last to post on a topic "wins", but I'm neither on disability nor retired and split my leisure time between writing, playing guitar, and working in my wood shop, out to which I'm going now to try making a Larkin tap for the kids' playroom.


p.s.:

I found this Turkish proverb:

"When one man drinks while another can only watch, Doomsday follows",

but I think that this one may be more appropriate:

"Throughout the history of literature, the guy who poisons the well
has been the worst of all villains..."
 
I'm 65 years old. Why would you think that all of my life was crowded into today?

I share quite a bit "how to" on publishing (and have done so on this thread), if that's what you're interested in seeing. If you are interested in being more than a smart aleck, you can start by reading this essay on Literotica (a little dated now--as I've noted, we are beyond the crest of the e-book wave now and Kindle is no longer the distribution elephant in the room). http://www.literotica.com/s/some-whys-and-hows-of-e-publishing

Then feel free to ask general questions. My specific production history books aren't open to just anyone who asks any more than anyone else's are.

Beyond that, who are you to demand free servicing with a snotty post? (what have you contributed to anything here?)

As far as the jab about writing and e-book production, you could have checked the former out by looking at my story list here and you could have confirmed the every-two-weeks e-book issue by checking out the "Lit. author's" thread at the top of this forum. Other things in my life--careers and such--happened before I wrote any erotica. You can do that when you don't sleep 24/7 for 65 years.
 
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"When one man drinks while another can only watch, Doomsday follows."

Love that. That is it.

And it describes the condition of today's publishing world as far as I'm concerned.

And for all the big-noting of Rupert Murdoch - who was possibly the one character who single-handedly achieved more to enact this 'one person drinking' situation vis-a-vis book publishing worldwide than anyone else over the last thirty years, his empire is in tatters, he is about to leave the Australian Listed Stockmarket, he has closed most of the newspapers he once exploited to the max and he still can't find the solution to the subscription pay-barrier for his online 'businesses.'

HE can't find it. I'm not sure it is simple TO find.

The critical - or logical - flaw to what the pilot is saying, is that if you go down the (theoretical) path of making it a numbers game, you really end up confronted with a presumption about standards and writing quality that most people would not be willing to make - namely, that if you crowded out the entire scene with thousands and thousands of titles that you spent all your mornings writing and handing up to a publisher who edited them brilliantly and diligently in five minutes flat, the quality of your work would be unquestionable...

That is a highly dubious proposition, and not that I was ever a great fan of J. D. Salinger for instance, but his is an example of the case: limited output, but highly commercially successful and arguably, of very high quality. He's not less of an author because Sr71plt produces more words...? You would think...?

The challenge, as I see it at least, is about making high quality, perhaps low volume/output, work, commercially viable as a professional activity. And I am assuming that is actually what the OP is more or less also driving at.

This is not a subject that needs to go down into any 'negative node' as it were - into bickering and so on.

It is, in my view, a subject that writers need to pay attention to until a well is found at which EVERYONE of median abilities can drink - there are far too many new english readers being born every year in the world for today's writers to drop the ball on this.

D.
 
"
The critical - or logical - flaw to what the pilot is saying, is that if you go down the (theoretical) path of making it a numbers game, you really end up confronted with a presumption about standards and writing quality that most people would not be willing to make - namely, that if you crowded out the entire scene with thousands and thousands of titles that you spent all your mornings writing and handing up to a publisher who edited them brilliantly and diligently in five minutes flat, the quality of your work would be unquestionable...

That is a highly dubious proposition, and not that I was ever a great fan of J. D. Salinger for instance, but his is an example of the case: limited output, but highly commercially successful and arguably, of very high quality. He's not less of an author because Sr71plt produces more words...? You would think...?

Show me where I said it was a wordage numbers game. I nowhere have equated volume with higher quality.

I did say that I choose to be writing instead of all of the functions of production and distribution--and thereby could turn out three books in the space of time that someone doing all the production could turn out one. That doesn't say a damn thing about the relative quality of what either puts out though. Show me where I posted that it did. It was a function of time to task, nothing more. I was saying I'd prefer to be writing to be doing a lot of technical work. What do you want to make of that to make it sound bad?

That said, I don't have any insecurities about the quality of my writing--despite all of the crap that goes on at Literotica by some to run other authors here down.

Seems we could use a good remedial reading course around here.
 
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That said, I don't have any insecurities about the quality of my writing--despite all of the crap that goes on at Literotica to run other authors here down.

Seems we could use a good remedial reading course around here.

You have got to be kidding. :rolleyes:
 
Naw, I think it's more that you aren't the sharpest knife in the drawer.
 
No you are right. You've never said it overtly but I did draw the conclusion from the types of things you tend to point to, about writing to make decent revenue.

Certainly, this thread does not need to degenerate by focusing on individual nuances of meaning. I would much much much rather be talking over ways and means to be helpful to any new writer and also to the OP, than be insular about personalities anyway.

I find that any OUTRIGHT assumption that actual sales take place in an actual marketplace - is a bald one.

The internet is not transparent. Big publishing houses are VERY 'not transparent.' And that is my perception from having worked inside them. And when I studied law and ended up in contractual law with some fairly prestigious partnerships, I observed that 'some' things are VERY VERY VERY deliberately obscured...

I'm only 55 but it stands true for me too that one acquires massive experience over the years without ever realising along the way that that is what you are doing. So I do not doubt many things that the pilot says but I don't believe his way is going to be THE way for many new/young writers. And that's what I'm trying to say.

The internet and the digital economy is a long way off from simply transplanting the pre-WWII social commercial and economic systems and structures.

To me a lot of people here also seem to have this nostalgic fantasy view of being an author and 'finding a publisher.' The reality of that viewpoint died during the years of Margaret Thatcher when Lord MacAlpine partnered with Rupert Murdoch and Jeffrey Archer to agglomerate ALL the printing and publishing houses and subsequently all the newspapers in England.

The 'marketplace' has not yet made any kind of real transition from pre-WWII publishing, through to a post-first mover stage of the internet revolution.

From memory Bocaccio (or was it Hugo??) also didn't sleep 24/7 so it's not a crime when it comes to authors - but then, he did die of caffeine poisoning too - so it's not a recommended lifestyle for everyone either.

I mean I would like to be helpful to those who seriously want to make a professional lifestyle out of writing.

That is not easy though because there is no one blanket approach that will work in all cases and for all temperaments.

Maybe one of the things that ought to be looked at right from the start of addressing the question is: what is your temperament and how do you want to be a writer i.e. what kind of writing lifestyle do you want to have?
 
That's just bullshit about me saying things have to be my way. You've fallen into Lovecraft68's creation of a someone I have never posted here being.

On this thread, I'm the one saying that both approaches to getting published are legitimate--both having pros and cons that have to melded to the particular needs of the author (And I'll bet I'm the only one on this thread who actually has an essay posted on Literotica saying that and giving help in getting it done).

On the opposite gender thread also running on the AH, I'm the one who's trying to establish that there's a vast range of fetish and arousal images sought on Literotica by writers and readers alike--and am trying to do it in the face of "this is the way it should be done" posters.

Over on the Editorial board, I'm the one questioning Lady Ver's posting of Editing 101 rules of how a relationship between an editor and an writer have to work.

Frequently on the Feedback board I'm the one telling the author that their choices in writing are as good as anyone else's--especially to someone telling them that as new writers they have to write third person.

It's just bullshit that I'm the one on the forum telling anyone my way is the way.

You have been duped and are engaging in ignorant innuendo.
 
That's just bullshit about me saying things have to be my way. You've fallen into Lovecraft68's creation of a someone I have never posted here being.

On this thread, I'm the one saying that both approaches to getting published are legitimate--both having pros and cons that have to melded to the particular needs of the author (And I'll bet I'm the only one on this thread who actually has an essay posted on Literotica saying that and giving help in getting it done).

On the opposite gender thread also running on the AH, I'm the one who's trying to establish that there's a vast range of fetish and arousal images sought on Literotica by writers and readers alike--and am trying to do it in the face of "this is the way it should be done" posters.

Over on the Editorial board, I'm the one questioning Lady Ver's posting of Editing 101 rules of how a relationship between an editor and an writer have to work.

Frequently on the Feedback board I'm the one telling the author that their choices in writing are as good as anyone else's--especially to someone telling them that as new writers they have to write third person.

It's just bullshit that I'm the one on the forum telling anyone my way is the way.

You have been duped and are engaging in ignorant innuendo.

Pilot, my thread was a thread about my experiences in editing, and what works for me. That you took it, ran with it, and used it in your constant propaganda campaign as your being the only editor and writer on Lit who truly understands and cares about writers, and who alone knows how an editor should edit, is ridiculous, especially concerning volunteer editors. Again, you are targeting another writer who dares state what you don't like. Actually, I was just getting ready to pm him, and ask him what he does when he's not talking. I found his comments interesting. :)
 
The OP of your thread is there for everyone to read (until/unless you change it). I trust they will understand how instructional and rules-giving it was even if you can't understand what you wrote (which doesn't surprise me a bit.)

I may even go and recopy it here so everyone can see what you posted.

Here, this is the sum total of your OP, under the headline "Working with an Editor Editing 101" (which is about as directive as one can get)

When working with an editor, it is important that the writer not delete all the editor's comments in MS Word Track Changes. It's also important that the questions the editor asked in the comments be answered.

Tag: Today's experience with an editing project


There isn't a damn thing in that post that suggests you are just giving your opinion and that there are other ways of doing it. If you think there is, you have no business editing anyone's work here, because your own English comprehension is close to nil.

I invite the curious to go read what other editors responded to you on this "this is how it is; you have to do what I say" post.
 
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The OP of your thread is there for everyone to read (until/unless you change it). I trust they will understand how instructional and rules-giving it was even if you can't understand what you wrote (which doesn't surprise me a bit.)

I may even go and recopy it here so everyone can see what you posted.

Why would I want to change my thread? I like it. That you don't has already been demonstrated in my thread. Most people could probably care less about my thread, maybe because they're busy, maybe because it's the same old tired crap from the peanut gallery. Obviously, you have a lot of free time to worry about other volunteer editors who don't edit the way you think they should.

If you want to continue this discussion, feel free to carry on at my Editing 101 thread.

:kiss:
 
Oh, I'll put it wherever I please, toots. :D

(Can't stop giving "do as I say" instruction, can you?)
 
Oh, I'll put it wherever I please, toots. :D

(Can't stop giving "do as I say" instruction, can you?)

My, oh my, aren't we a bad ass?

What a mealy mouthed little man you must be in real life.

Which is why you love the internet.

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The same could and can be said for you LC.

Pilot is and what he says. He's not hard to find if you know where to look.

Can the same be said of you?
 
The same could and can be said for you LC.

Pilot is and what he says. He's not hard to find if you know where to look.

Can the same be said of you?

Hmmm, well seeing I recall no claims to greatness I will answer yes.

You want me feel free to come find me.

As for him? You can back his BS for whatever lame reason you have to, I'll call you a liar as well. I know how to find things and better yet people who are far better at it than I am.

As for my bullying?

Mine pretty much stays with this piece of human debris who thinks he is better than everyone.

If you want to support his bullying of people, especially a woman, then that says a lot about you as well.
 
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Hmmm, well seeing I recall no claims to greatness I will answer yes.

You want me feel free to come find me.

As for him? You can back his BS for whatever lame reason you have to, I'll call you a liar as well. I know how to find things and better yet people who are far better at it than I am.

As for my bullying?

Mine pretty much stays with this piece of human debris who thinks he is better than everyone.

If you want to support his bullying of people, especially a woman, then that says a lot about you as well.

The problem with that is, it is you who seems to find his actions bullying. To most of us, he just calls it as he sees it. Yes, he does get a little brusk but then again when a whole bunch of you keep ganging up on him in what appears to be a coordinated attack, what else do you expect.

I've been around here a long time and around the internet before there was ISP's and log-ins. I know how the game works or how you expect the game to work. The problem is, you've bitten off more than you can chew. When are you going to figure that out?
 
The problem with that is, it is you who seems to find his actions bullying. To most of us, he just calls it as he sees it. Yes, he does get a little brusk but then again when a whole bunch of you keep ganging up on him in what appears to be a coordinated attack, what else do you expect.

I've been around here a long time and around the internet before there was ISP's and log-ins. I know how the game works or how you expect the game to work. The problem is, you've bitten off more than you can chew. When are you going to figure that out?

I wasn't going to respond to this thread again, but I think this needs to be said. Pilot is a bully to many people, both editors and writers. He can't seem to understand that people have different viewpoints and opinions than his, and he constantly insults those who dare to think differently than him. He doesn't get "a little brusk." He is constantly rude and hostile, unreasonably so. It would be one thing to occasionally get upset with someone and make a snarky remark, but it's a constant thing with him against anyone whose comments he doesn't like or agree with.

And "a whole bunch of you keep ganging up on him in what appears to be a coordinated attack, what else do you expect." Right. Poor Pilot. I'm laughing. What you're seeing are people responding to Pilot's offensive comments around the same time. And nothing else. Apparently it's ok for Pilot to be as offensive as he wants, but for anyone to call him on it, he's being ganged up on. :rolleyes:
 
Schoolboy brawl

When I first noticed this thread, I thought, "This could be interesting. I might learn something here. And I may ask some questions, and get some illuminating answers." Then I scrolled down and realized it was like the school yard in my grade school fifty-odd years ago.
It was something about the hormones and stuff. Most boys went through a phase. But most of us outgrew it, matured, realized it's a waste of energy and doesn't lead anywhere. We learned to walk away.
Read my lips: Walk away. Don't let him pull me into the brawl. Whatever he says, let it slide. Walk away. (Unless he slights my lady friend in her presence, in which case I have to act, but that's an extreme.)
Sad is what it is to see what could have been an interesting and illuminating thread fall to pieces, because some guys, however great writers, never outgrew their grade school attitude.

I realize I've made enemies now. My submissions will be bombed. Any hope I may have had of being a successful lit writer is now extinct. So be it. It needed to be said. Scrolling down, I was surprised that it wasn't.
 
I have read the replies to the original post and have backed away from them out of fear, and that is just silly. What am I afraid of when it comes to talking about writing? Nothing - because I have nothing to lose.

That said, I wish we could go back to the original subject because this thread is enticing to writers. It isn't really talked about much, especially by people we know and look up to. We want to learn from others and are thankful for Writing Veterans for sharing and encouraging.

I am fresh at writing smut and I am quite proud of the tiny progress I have made. This is because I am trying to look at the big picture of this as a business. I wanted to open a restaurant, it would take me quite a while to ever break even and put my family in a load of debt at a bad economic time.

With that in mind, my modest exploits to write are with hope that I can land some gigs and make some car payments in this crap economy.

My suggestions as a noob are to take criticism as a compliment because someone read your work and thought about it enough to say anything. Get a little better, write a whole lot more and see where you are in 6 months to a year. There will be progress if you stick with it. It may not mean that I will sell thousands of copies of my stories and buy a Mercedes with the proceeds soon. I can see that soon enough, something may go incredibly right.

Right now I am happy to have sold books in the double digits because that is more than I have ever sold before in my life. I hope next year to get into maybe even triple digits! Stuff does not happen over night and there is a certain amount of work and determination that also produces success. How much success will make you happy is up to you. If you are resourceful, you can find ways to make money at things you love.

It is a maze to figure things out, but keep trying. Keep writing if it really makes you happy.
 
Man I have to tell you TX that if you can sit there and say "poor Pilot is getting picked on" its time to call it quits on the day job because the fumes have finally altered your brain.

No one is ganging up on this idiot. No pm's are going around saying "let's get him"

although for the record he tried doing that to me last year. Guess that is okay with you though. It was fine with me. It was how he tipped his hat to being a fraud to me.

Pilot is catching heat from a lot of people-and seemingly more and more frequently of late-because he is an asshole.

he cannot render his opinion and drop it. Every thread turns into why every one here has to bow down to him. Every one.

This is a man who jumped all over JBJ a month or sop ago for simply posting he submitted a story to a publisher 40 years ago(and it ws rejected) and PIlot had to run out and call him a liar.

But we are supposed to believe every one of his BS stories? Do you TX? Do you believe Pilot helped write the existing copyright laws of the US? Really?

And who cares if he is a child telling tall tales. No one believes him. You can feel the collective eye roll when he tells people how he has starred in Broadway musicals and wrote dozens of successful mainstream novels

But it is not about the lie. Its the lie being used to constantly say "I am better than everyone here, every one of you"

And that is why he is getting jumped on and by more people and more often Because he deserves it. People are fucking fed up to here with him.

And you can say well LC its you. No its a lot more than me. And when as many people who have been offended and insulted by him come out and say what a tool he is it is not picking on some one

It is calling a spade a spade.

and when as many people as there are here that have him on iggy or argue with him as there are what that means is that spade is a spade and certainly not a heart or anything else.

he gets what he deserves.

You run around chasing scouries like a fucking parrot. every time he posts you post. Whatever he may have done years ago in my three years here scouries has been nothing but a court jester touting a contest that does not exist that only a fool would believe is real.

meanwhile your buddy you're so eager to defend has driven more people from these forums than scouries ever could.

And he'll never leave because he has nowhere else to go and nothing else to do. He is here 24 seven sniping and taunting because he's a retired bitter troll with nothing to do but insult people.

And whenever he does I or someone else will call him out on it.

You don't like it tough shit. Hope you have better taste in friends in real life.
 
You don't sound like a very happy person, LC. I'm certainly happy I don't have to be you. It seems pretty obvious who needs this forum for personal validation (and therefore who feels threatened by who). :D
 
You don't sound like a very happy person, LC. I'm certainly happy I don't have to be you. It seems pretty obvious who needs this forum for personal validation (and therefore who feels threatened by who). :D

Shouldn't that be "by whom"?
Just asking.
 
You don't sound like a very happy person, LC. I'm certainly happy I don't have to be you. It seems pretty obvious who needs this forum for personal validation (and therefore who feels threatened by who). :D

I'm quite content actually, which is why I am not the one making outrageous claims about how incredible my life has been and getting mad when no one believes me or doesn't take my advice.

You're the unhappy one Pilot, but I can understand why. You've led a dull vanilla existence and have been reduced to coming here and trying to be something you're not. Someone interesting who did things his way.

I wouldn't be surprised if your entire life you rode a desk at a job either your dad or your wife's dad got you. That would explain a lot of your story telling and foot stomping when no one bites and tells you how cool you are.

And my validation is very different from your attempts at it. I know who and what I am and am content to leave it at that which means only I need to validate me.

You're the sad low self esteemed liar trying to seek approval by making up stories. You sound like a kindergartener "And dat's when I flew da aeroplane really I did I did."

Now go ahead and have the last word. Everyone here knows you need to.
 
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