Pay Sites

[mdb9555]

Anyone have any experiences with pay sites for sex stories? I was wondering what the deal is with those, like how they compare? How does one go about submitting work to them or whomever to get paid? Do any sites pay for good stories?

Thanks in advance,

mdb9555

 

[sr71plt]

I've contributed to a couple of pay sites. They tend to be highly selective. They paid by Paypal to a blind account. They contacted me; I didn't contact them.

 

[BONNIEBREA]

It depends on what you want to do and what you mean.

If you are looking for an e-book publisher you can go onto erotica-readers.com. You'll find an author resources/call for submissions page that has a lot of e-publishers listed, and through the links there you can get an idea of some of their specifics (word length mimimums and maximums, what they don't publish, and the like).

Whether you should go in that direction is a question you should consider before doing. Getting manuscripts ready for submission is time-consuming and tedious and I find it very irksome (every publisher wants a different type face, line/paragraph spacing/indent, etc - so you end up endlessly re-formatting your manuscripts individually for each submission).

The other issue is what you write and are willing to write. I write very high-quality literary stories based on original ideas with complex characters and plots. There is no market for that in erotica e-publishing.

Erotica e-publishers and editors are looking for narratives very narrowly focused on particular and specific sexual/erotic practices/orientations/fetishes - so they can put stories into their 'bondage e-bin', or their 'cross-dressing e-bin', or their 'BDSM e-bin', or their 'lesbian shape-shifting vampires e-bin' or their 'gay male shapeshifting werewolves e-bin'. You get the idea. If you write stories like that and you have a reasonable command of grammar and syntax and usage and punctuation then you should perhaps submit some writing.

But if you're writing anything original or with literary values or real characters or plots I'd be inclined to encourage you not to waste your time. Erotica publishers and editors just don't have the professional skills to evaluate and respond appropriately to quality work, and apparently they really believe there's not a market for it

The other option is to self-publish, and for me and writers like me producing quality work it really is the only option. I've just started submitting my stories to Smashwords. They take your manuscript and put it through a program that formats it for many different devices. Your story is in their store, and if you take the trouble to do a professional cover your story is included on their 'premium list' which sells through a variety of other outlets (sony, the apple store, and several others). It takes some careful formatting for your manuscript, but you only have to do it once, and their style guide is very easy to follow.

Self-pubbing is really the only option if you write quality work. Also, you'll get much better royalties from Smashwords - even on sales through their affiliates - than you'll ever get from an e-publisher. I've finally gotten past the point where my jaw hits the floor in amazement every time I get a sales notification.

Best wishes.