Pay for Personalized Erotica?

[itas]

Call me crazy, but I woke up this morning thinking about sites like Etsy--where people go to buy and sell handmade crafts, vintage clothes and jewelry, logo and header design work, etc., and wondered, what else could a person sell on the internet?

Specifically, is there any market at all for selling personalized erotica? I see it working like this: you go to a website, and decide you want to buy some personalized erotica--either for yourself, or maybe for a loved one or partner as a dedication, or something to ignite a little new passion in the bedroom. The erotica itself as sold as a "scene." So you're not buying an entire story, but more of a fleshed out, quality literary scenario, involving whatever characters you want (as long as they're of age) wearing whatever clothing you want, wherever you want.

You decide to pay the fee (maybe 50 dollars for something "short"--5 to 6 double spaced pages, or 80-90 dollars for something "longer" 9-10 double space pages) and then fill out a questionnaire about what exactly you want that scene to be:

-a first time encounter?
-re-ignited love?
-something supernatural?
-non-consent?
-etc.


and who the characters are:

-names?
-what are they wearing?
-what are their ages?
-what is their frame of mind?
-etc.

Then, within an agreed to amount of days, voila! An erotic scene involving yourself, or others! I have a Master's degree in creative writing, Fiction in particular, and I think if someone can sell pictures of names on a beach (http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Money/8-Ways-to-Make-Money-Online.html -- see under "Fiverr" section") then couldn't someone sell what drives our culture the most, and in a literary form: sex?

What are your thoughts? Would it work? Or is something like this over commoditized as it is?

Yours,

itas

 

[Naughty_Misty]

What a lovely idea, however the biggest issue that I could see would be guarantee of payment/delivery of story.

Sure you could send me the fifty bucks for a stoy, but what guarantee would you have that you would get your story? I could put in the time, effort and creative juices on a story, but what guarantee do I have that you would:

A) Like the story
or
B) Pay for the story

I mean I could spend 2 days writing and rewriting the story only to have you say "This isn't how or what I had in mind. I'm not paying you."

If there was some way to protect both parties against shadiness (I guess I naturally distrust people) then I would be willing to give it a go.

 

[itas]

Two fine points to bring up, Misty! Hm. For the first issue (would I even get the story?) I suppose the website selling the service would have to have an appearance of professionalism. An E-commerce shopping cart would have to be available, along with a FAQ section!

Your second point, an issue of "liking" or "not liking" the story. I guess that would have to be addressed under "FAQ"--though what exactly would be said, I have no idea!

 

[SweetErika]

Personalization is what the imagination is for. When I read a good story that's to my liking, I don't really have trouble imagining myself in the situations described. I can't imagine paying someone $50 for something I can do for free quite easily.

That said, there are authors here who write personalized stories for money. EnglishLady is one of them, IIRC. ETA: She's also a published author with a big fan base and established presence here, not just some random person writing for money.

There are also plenty of authors here who will write fairly personalized stories for free.

I just think it's a bit too intangible to be a big business. Etsy works well because people are making things that a lot of others can't or don't want to make, and those goods are available for review prior to purchase. Most are pretty affordable and can be used a lot, too. You can use that $30 trivet over and over again, but are you really going to get $50 out of a very short story?

 

[cathrynb]

.....

 

[ThinkWrite]

Interesting idea and very good input from the others. When reading the OP, it felt like the stories could be very "canned" with only the names plugged in. One thing you may consider is marketing it to couples, where they pick a topic and then each answer questions (separately) from you. Their responses are then integrated into the story. That would make it more personal and, to me anyway, much hotter if it is based on actual thoughts and feelings from your SO.

Good luck!

 

[JuanVato]

Great idea! I would be all over that like white on rice.

Perhaps it could be a 50/50 deal with $25 down, a sample PDF with "proof" watermarked all over it. Final payment gets to full word format document.

 

[mentionME]

The market is there, but I don't think it is very profitable. For one, as previously mentioned most people can pretend or find the services done for free. Secondly, people are just cheap. That said, I have seen a site that kinda does mad gab literotica. It comes out kinda awkward, but the personalization is still exciting. My girl also was more accepting of it, because seeing it was about us made it less porn-ish to her.

I've also seen where people make custom porn videos...alas I dont have the site for that and havent tried it but that's an interesting business too.

Even still if you were able to maybe do art as well would probably help if you wanted to fetch a decent price. The 'long distance relationship support' market is in need of innovation so maybe you're on to something lol

 

[fuckmeat]

It's a good idea but I can't see how you can get the client to approve the story without running the risk of them stealing it and then not paying. I think you have to have the money up front. But that will make refunding people who aren't happy a real chore. Plus, once they have a draft of a perfectly good story, what's to keep them from using it anyway, while complaining and demanding a refund from you?

Sorry to be negative.

 

[Noira]

It's a good idea but I can't see how you can get the client to approve the story without running the risk of them stealing it and then not paying. I think you have to have the money up front. But that will make refunding people who aren't happy a real chore. Plus, once they have a draft of a perfectly good story, what's to keep them from using it anyway, while complaining and demanding a refund from you?

Sorry to be negative.

Half downpayment, they get the first few pages as a watermarked PDF... approve the story, pay the rest, you send them the rest of the story. Yeah, people will always be asshats. I've done commissions and never been paid for them.

I wonder if you could literally make a porn Etsy, though... a site where people could sell pornographic pictures and stories (obviously with stories, you'd have to have a sample) complete with Etsy's Alchemy sort of system, where people can do custom requests and then people can bid on the request, including samples of their writing, so that the buyer can chose the writer they feel is best suited to them... also the buyer can set the price they're willing to pay so that writers can decide. And then if writers could rate buyers so people know who pays and who doesn't...

Obviously eBooks are a market. It'd just be sort of like an erotica eBook store, but with a custom stories section.

 

[NoirPur]

I thought about doing something similar-even sending scented, handwritten erotic letters-and the research I did echoes most of the sentiments already here in this thread. There are services that write love letters/erotic notes, but it's like any other letter-writing service-you've gotta build up your reputation and clientele, and be aggressive with self-promotion. Also, I think Ebanned has an entire section for eBooks (but maybe I'm just thinking of the "reading material" category). Best of luck if you're still interested in this.