New Self Published Author...need help promoting...

[MadameTripleX]

I am a self published author that just came out with a book. The theme and and everything fits with Literotica. I will also be writing other books too.

I am trying to get my name out there and readership. Is there anyway Literorica can help me with that? Can you direct me to areas on your site where I can promote if that's possible?

Thank you ve much.

 

[SweetErika]

Are you a Literotica author, or are you just here to promote your outside writing?

If you're a Lit author, there's a book promotion thread here, and I'd suggest putting links to your Lit work in your sig so people know you're an author here.

If you're not a Lit author, your best bet is to write some stuff for Lit and become involved in this community. If you don't want to do that, you'll need to find other places to promote yourself (unless you want to contact the site owners and pay for advertising, of course) because that's certainly not the purpose of this site.

I don't think you'll get very far with a 'what can you do for ME' attitude because this site is about enjoying the erotica posted here and the community, but I suppose you can try and see how that works out for you if you're unwilling to invest in changing your approach and building your reputation here.

 

[MizCreatrix]

Congrats on your book!

I think that the best way you can "use" Literotica to help get your name out there would be to be active in the forums. Maybe stay involved in topics that pertain to your particular genre. And as Erika already said, it would be a good practice to share some of your work on the lit story side too.

Do you have an outside blog or website? That would be a great place to work on marketing and promoting your work. Include a link to your site in your signature line so that every time you post people can see it and hopefully go visit. Use social media such as twitter, facebook, etc. to interact on a larger scale. It does take time to build a reputation online and be able to deftly navigate the web to help promote your projects, but if done correctly and not in a spammy way, it can be very rewarding. =)

Good luck in your endeavors!

 

[MadameTripleX]

Oh I'm not trying it for the What you can do for me. I wnat to post some stuff here too. What I should have asked is can a published author get on here to if she has a book outside of Lit>

Thanks.

 

[MadameTripleX]

Thanks MixCreatix!

That's what I wanted to know too. Can I put my webpage there too. I do plan to write a lot of stuff in each genre. I was just wondering if it was okay for a published (or self0published) author to contribute.

Thanks so much. Now I have to go check the site and see how I post a story. That would help. LOL!

 

[SweetErika]

I'm sorry if I misinterpreted your intent. A lady posted a similar question here awhile back, then insisted she simply didn't have the time or energy to develop a reputation via posting and writing stories for Lit. She just wanted us to help her sneak around the rules and promote her work, and she had a terrible rude, entitled attitude about it. It's unfair, but your initial post was similar enough that you got some of the blow-back from my feelings on that, as well as the ongoing spam that legit members here loathe.

As you can imagine, there are tons of published authors here. And, yes, they promote their Lit AND non-Lit work with tasteful links in their sigs and such. The ones who don't come across as being here for the purpose of self-promotion are those who write for Lit and contribute to the forums on a variety of topics. Remember, the more you post, the more people will see your tasteful link(s) in your signature.

English Lady is a really good model of a successful Lit and outside author who promotes all of her stuff here without spamming, but you can certainly find plenty of other examples of members who promote themselves in proper, classy ways in the Authors' Hangout forum in particular.

Observe the posting in each forum, then jump in yourself (you'll likely be welcomed everywhere but the General Board if you follow Lit's rules and forum-specific norms). Once you've got a good handle on the protocol and have established yourself as a contributing member here (100+ quality posts is probably a good guideline for you), gussy up your profile and sig with a bit of info about you (e.g. "I'm thrilled to be here and am working on writing some stories for the wonderful readers of Lit right now! In the meantime, you may want to check out my <FREE story/e-book here>, <blog> and current published work <link to your book>"), link to your other book, and perhaps a snippet of info on it. You'll probably get more click-throughs if you provide a personal blog/website and make it clear that there are freebies (excerpts, first chapters, stories, e-books, etc.) there, along with your published book. Freebies/generosity on your part send the message that you're a giver who's interested in pleasing her fans and not just here to sell your stuff. Don't try to sell sex toys, referral links, or other stuff that competes with Lit here, or even gives the appearance of violating the rules. If you do post your blog or site, I'd suggest making sure it's "clean" in that way, too, and not one big ad for your book. Honey vs. vinegar, you know?

Get to work on your Lit-specific stories right away, too - developing a solid readership via quality work here will likely lead to much more success with your other work. Avoid posting stuff here that you may want to publish and sell in the future; people have to go through a ton of work to approve and post the stuff you submit here, and readers often save their favorite pieces, so you're not going to get a good reputation by, say, posting chapters to your next book here, then taking them down in the future so you can put the book together and sell it. Unless there's a genuine problem that can't be fixed with editing, plan submitting your best work, then leaving it up for good.

 

[MadameTripleX]

Thanks so much SweetErika!

I am looking over the different stories now on the board. BIG variety. LOL!
I understand your concern and what that other lady did. I want to use Lit for several things.
One, practice my craft. I'm new to the hardcore sex writing, I want to try it out. Two, get a following and three read others people sexy works. WHOO-HOO!

I write tamer eroitca under a differnt name. The stuff I'm doing now pushes the envelope, but I like to read that kind of stuff sometimes. Some do it well, others maybe not.

I will check out English Lady too, plus the genres I'm interested in.

Thanks for all the cool advise. I might have something up in a couple of weeks. Right now I'm working on my other tamer works. Deadlines you know.

Madame

 

[Noira]

Best way to promote is to make friends the hard way... by posting on the boards, reading and reviewing, commenting, interacting. Make people genuinely interested in you and what you do. Then you can tell them! I'm a writer, I wrote these books.

Oh yeah, and a link in your sig line won't hurt. Even better, a link with a (reasonably sized) graphic, but even just text that links to your site will do. I got a lot of hits for my comic from sigline links (with an image), and I even get the odd hit from here for my website with no sigline link, but it does help to have the attachment to your post.

Lit has a non-erotic section if you're not so keen on the hardcore stuff.

And if just promotion is your goal, I suggest you join Project Wonderful (which is in my opinion the single best option for small scale creators such as webcomic artists, self published writers, etc, trying to get word out, because you can get advertising on the cheap).

Social networking is also great. Get on Twitter and find other writers.

As for deadlines, the only deadline you should have if you're self-published is yourself. =P

 

[KatieTay]

Hi Madame TripleX,

Congratulations on your book.

 

[MadameTripleX]

Best way to promote is to make friends the hard way... by posting on the boards, reading and reviewing, commenting, interacting. Make people genuinely interested in you and what you do. Then you can tell them! I'm a writer, I wrote these books.

Oh yeah, and a link in your sig line won't hurt. Even better, a link with a (reasonably sized) graphic, but even just text that links to your site will do. I got a lot of hits for my comic from sigline links (with an image), and I even get the odd hit from here for my website with no sigline link, but it does help to have the attachment to your post.

Lit has a non-erotic section if you're not so keen on the hardcore stuff.

And if just promotion is your goal, I suggest you join Project Wonderful (which is in my opinion the single best option for small scale creators such as webcomic artists, self published writers, etc, trying to get word out, because you can get advertising on the cheap).

Social networking is also great. Get on Twitter and find other writers.

As for deadlines, the only deadline you should have if you're self-published is yourself. =P

Thanks So much Noira! I've been cruising the posts. Checking out everything, just trying to get familiar! Seeing great stuff!

 

[MadameTripleX]

Hi Madame TripleX,

Congratulations on your book.

Thanks KatieTay!