Paid to write erotica?

[hollibibi]

Does any one know of or has anyone ever been paid to write erotica. I am looking to get some of stories published, and hopefully get paid for doing so. I know it sounds like a pipe dream - but I was wondering if anyone had any advice/direction as to the best way to go about doing this!

xox

 

[sr71plt]

Writing erotica for pay is big business. Just go to Amazon.com or Allromanceebooks. com and search on erotica--and stand back for the deluge. By checking the publishers listed with erotica books, you can start researching who pays for what.

 

[R. Richard]

Yes, I'm being paid to write erotica, (as well as other things.)

The first steo in getting paid to write anything is to write things that people want to read.
Publishing stories in Literotica gets you published and usually gets you feedback. Most of the feedback is useless and damaging to your ego, but you do get some idea of the acceptance of your writing.
If someone doesn't like the story you wrote, fuck 'em.
If someone suggests that you purchase a good dictionary or grammar and use it, this may just be valuable information.
If Literotica tells you that they don't publish stories invovling underage children or animal sex, pay attention. Most other publishers won't either.
Once you have gone through your (to coin a phrase,) 'baptism by fire,' you're probably ready to start looking for a for-pay publisher.

 

[Bebeslut]

I have gotten paid in tiny amounts over the years.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I have gotten paid in tiny amounts over the years.

Me, too, but I haven't tried very hard. However, things may start looking up. I'm getting very favorable responses to my Steampunk universe tales.

 

[Babeslady]

Are small publishers good?

Is it worth getting on board with a smaller publisher who is just starting out?

I know that financially this won't be very rewarding at least initally but I am thinking that it is a nice gentle way to get started rather than grinding away trying to get the attention of the big players.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Is it worth getting on board with a smaller publisher who is just starting out?

I know that financially this won't be very rewarding at least initally but I am thinking that it is a nice gentle way to get started rather than grinding away trying to get the attention of the big players.

Most erotica these days, I understand, is published electronically. It makes it easier for women to purchase without having to go into sleazy bookstores. And no, I'm not bullshitting. I was told so at a writer's conference in San Diego.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

You can get paid for writing erotica but it's not easy and the pay is pretty much chump change. The market is flooded and the competition is fierce, and in addition you're competing with the tons of material available for free on the net. The chances of getting in with a legitimate name publisher are pretty much zilch unless you have an agent. Most publishers these days work only with agent-vetted material. No more of this over-the-transom stuff.

Still, there are some things you can do to increase your chances. Number one, forget all about short stories. Publishers want only novels. You might find some websites featuring really bizarre fetishes that will offer to publish you, but the $10-$20 you'll get is really only a token payment.

Number 2, market yourself. Selling books is all about marketing and advertising, and the only real difference between being published by Random House and Fly-by-night Press is that Random House will spend money to market and advertise your book. If your publishers doesn't promote (and most little internet publishers don't), you're gong to sell like 3-4 copies total, literally. Selling the rights to your book to a little start-up that doesn't advertise is basically the same as consigning it to the trash. No one's going to even know it exists.

Not all little e-publishers are scams, but they'd might as well be. They basically operate by taking your book, maybe doing a quick proof and slapping some funky cover on it, and selling it on their website. Then they split any sales with you in like a 60-40 deal (you get the 40). So it costs them nothing to "publish" your book, and they get 60% of whatever sales you manage to drum up on your own. Because of this, they'll publish absolutely anything. Storing and downloading your book costs them nothing, and who knows? Maybe you have a big family who'll buy some books.

If you do break into publishing, you can expect to get 40-55% commission on e-books, and 7-11% on hard copies.

Somone summed it up best when they said, "You don't become a writer because you want to be one. You become a writer because you just can't help it."

 

[sr71plt]

and selling it on their website.

That's nowhere close to the truth. E-books have pretty wide on-line distribution through multiple distributors and in multiple formats. And e-book readers were the big sales item of this Christmas season. Also, the new generation of readers is as comfortable, if not more so, with buying e-books (and print paperbacks from e-books) on line as with trapsing down to their local B&N to buy print books. That's the major difference between e-booking of five years ago and now. E-books, and especially erotica, are selling quite nicely on Amazon.com, as just one for instance.

Perhaps you'd better go take a look at your offerings from eXcessica again, Doc. Maybe you fully don't appreciate the work going into all of the different platform setups and all of the different on-line distributors your books are going to.

I had a great e-book sales Christmas from on-line stores--not just the publisher's site, Doc. I would be quite surprised if you didn't as well.