Publishing Erotica Commercially

[CiaoSteve]

Okay, so I am totally ready to be chastised as the correct answer is Literotica, but I am wondering how many of you wonderful authors also publish their erotica commercially and whether you have been successful. I have a couple of stories which I have thought about over the years and wondered if there were any recommendations. Is KDP the go to place if you are not to publish on Literotica? Don't get me wrong, I'm not thinking to leave this wonderful site, but I did wonder how stories may be received if published elsewhere. Could money be made, or is it already a saturated market? I'll probably never do it a I doubt my own writing style too much.

And just to prove I am not intending to go elsewhere, I am already lining up another story to be published to Literotica in January (now 17k words in and making me quite excited)

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Patreon works very well for some authors, and once you acquire a decent number of readers it can be very commercially beneficial. Not so great for readers in my opinion, but eh, no one is forcing them, I suppose.

 

[NightPorter]

There's patreon which works for a lot of authors. Bear in mind that backers are going to want to see regular updates on their feed. So if you are one of those authors who writes a book as a whole as opposed to chapter by chapter, that many not be for you.

I've seen author's that will post a full story on Lit and then offer a more polished and edited version for sale. I've seen authors post 9 chapters out of 10 on lit and then try and sell the completed story with chapter 10 included. I personally think that last one is distasteful.

 

[KeithD]

I have some 250 works of erotica under several pen names published to the marketplace (two of the pen names are habu and Dirk Hessian. Works by these are announced here in the thread provided when they hit the marketplace). I use publishers, though, so I'm concentrating on the writing rather than the packaging, listing, and selling. Using publishers cuts drastically into any profit to be made by me, of course. But I find that it is profitable, yes, done in this volume, in that money is dribbling in for works I would be writing and giving away for free otherwise. I look for niches that are undersubscribed with material and believe that helps in the profit field.

 

[alohadave]

I've seen authors post 9 chapters out of 10 on lit and then try and sell the completed story with chapter 10 included. I personally think that last one is distasteful.

This against the TOS here. I know of one author that either had their account suspended or the story deleted because there was an accusation of them doing this. It turns out that the author is just very slow at at releasing new chapters and had all but their latest chapter available here.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

I only publish for free and am so slow at that, if published for money, I'd starve to death. LOL Not that anyone would pay to read anything I write.

 

[GrantBricksly]

I have one published book. It is, not erotica exactly..but close I guess. It is a small collection of bedtime stories for "littles" (Adults who practice age play, and act younger at least some of the time) They are meant to be relaxing, so they don't include sex, but they still are not meant for actual children, as they do have some adult language/themes to them.

I published it through KDP. I've sold a few copies, both Digital and paperback. Nothing much, and certainly not enough to call it a profitable endeavor. However, it was a very very short book, and a very very niche market.

If your writing is good, I imagine you could be profitable with that. I actually hope to do another book, when I have some good, longer erotic stories ready to go. I'm thinking about a collection of Christmas themed Erotica...

 

[KeithD]

I only publish for free and am so slow at that, if published for money, I'd starve to death. LOL Not that anyone would pay to read anything I write.

There's a sliding scale on "publishing for money." No, it's not going to be a living income for most, and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone not financially independent separate from publishing erotica. But it can pay for itself for an activity you were going to do anyway--and it can do this for many. (I wouldn't push it, of course, because it would be competition.)

 

[Voboy]

There are publishers who trawl Lit and look for writers. They'll reach out to you if they think you have something to offer. I did that for a couple of years, and I got a lot out of it (though never a great deal of cash).

 

[CiaoSteve]

Thank you all for the suggestions. My idea is to take stories already written, but to re-edit and polish them up, taking on board some of the reactions they had got at the time of publishing. I was thinking to issue as complete books, rather than chapters, but I may bear that in mind if I look at Patreon. I do agree that publishing part of a story on literotica and then offering the rest for sale is very underhand. I sent one to a publisher before and they came close to working with me on it, other than that the two MCs were female and they didn't do lesbian, so maybe that gives some hope. Let me see what 2023 brings, but for sure I don't want to be doing anything to break Literotica TOS.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

There's a sliding scale on "publishing for money." No, it's not going to be a living income for most, and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone not financially independent separate from publishing erotica. But it can pay for itself for an activity you were going to do anyway--and it can do this for many. (I wouldn't push it, of course, because it would be competition.)

I'm quite certain, I wouldn't be competition for anyone. And I'm sure IR cuckold stories are a dime a dozen on Amazon.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

There are publishers who trawl Lit and look for writers. They'll reach out to you if they think you have something to offer. I did that for a couple of years, and I got a lot out of it (though never a great deal of cash).

If they knock on my door, I'll answer. You know what Elvira the Mistress of the Dark says about fate and knockers don't you, "When fate gives you knockers, use them to get what you want."

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm quite certain, I wouldn't be competition for anyone. And I'm sure IR cuckold stories are a dime a dozen on Amazon.

I don't see it as much competition in the sense most e-books are 2.99-4.99. If I put out a new work and another author a person likes does as well, I imagine at some point they will buy both, we're not talking major financial investments here.

Cuck material is popular in the market, and unlike here, the reviews are generally decent. The difference in a paying market vs the trolling vultures on a free site

 

[TadOverdon]

I publish at Smashwords. I make some money. Not a whole lot, but enough for it to be fun to watch the numbers climb.

Writing I/T pretty exclusively rules Amazon out.

I'm thinking about trying Romance.

 

[CorvusTurrim777]

Second on Smashwords. They allow a lot of freaky stuff such as incest and fantasy creature / alien humping, as long as you note that when you're first submitting your book. My erotica titles sell more than my 'normie' action adventure stuff, which isn't selling at all. There is no easy way to stick out from the crowd, so if you write niche stuff like my incest, ghost and space erotica, people who are into that have a better chance of finding you. Cheating wives and empowered women humping whoever they want always seem to be popular there. They do not allow c. porn or bestiality. Good luck on getting rich!

 

[KeithD]

There's no reason not to publish works on every platform simultaneously that will permit that on a nonexclusive basis.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Second on Smashwords. They allow a lot of freaky stuff such as incest and fantasy creature / alien humping, as long as you note that when you're first submitting your book.

They do warn though that most retailers and aggregators will block that content, so whether you can sell it is another question.

Back in 2012 they banned incest altogether (see announcement at https://www.smashwords.com/press/release/27) - Mark Coker made it clear he wasn't happy about doing this, but PayPal were forcing his hand. I guess at some point they managed to resolve that issue.

I go through Smashwords, less for commercial reasons than because they seemed to be genuinely supportive of writers. At some point I emailed Coker with a question about their policies for erotica and got a human and reasonable answer for him, and unlike Amazon they don't try to restrict you from publishing elsewhere - if I followed Amazon's ToS I'd have to remove my stories from here. They got bought out a little while back so that may change, but at least so far I've felt happier doing business with them than I would with Amazon.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I've been told the key to making money by self-publishing is your ability and willingness to self-promote your work, which I seldom do.

In almost eight years on Smashwords, I have made a couple of hundred dollars, interestingly, mostly from international markets. I only publish action/adventure novels there and they are available on all their retailer sites, but apparently lost among the crowds of other, more effectively promoted works.

The same books are available on Amazon, which provides more publishing options than e-book versions alone (paperback and hardcover). Without promoting any of them there either, I earn a few dollars each month. When someone expresses an interest in reading my stuff, it's easier to send them to Amazon to find them than Smashwords.

I haven't been contacted by any publishers on Literotica, but I have been contracted to write some scripts for a few television shows based on what they saw of my stuff here. Those gigs averaged around $100 per hour of writing.

 

[TadOverdon]

I've been told the key to making money by self-publishing is your ability and willingness to self-promote your work, which I seldom do.

In almost eight years on Smashwords, I have made a couple of hundred dollars, interestingly, mostly from international markets. I only publish action/adventure novels there and they are available on all their retailer sites, but apparently lost among the crowds of other, more effectively promoted works.

The same books are available on Amazon, which provides more publishing options than e-book versions alone (paperback and hardcover). Without promoting any of them there either, I earn a few dollars each month. When someone expresses an interest in reading my stuff, it's easier to send them to Amazon to find them than Smashwords.

I haven't been contacted by any publishers on Literotica, but I have been contracted to write some scripts for a few television shows based on what they saw of my stuff here. Those gigs averaged around $100 per hour of writing.

Does the scriptwriting get you involved with the WGA at all?

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Does the scriptwriting get you involved with the WGA at all?

SAG comes to mind to me.

 

[lovecraft68]

They do warn though that most retailers and aggregators will block that content, so whether you can sell it is another question.

Back in 2012 they banned incest altogether (see announcement at https://www.smashwords.com/press/release/27) - Mark Coker made it clear he wasn't happy about doing this, but PayPal were forcing his hand. I guess at some point they managed to resolve that issue.

I go through Smashwords, less for commercial reasons than because they seemed to be genuinely supportive of writers. At some point I emailed Coker with a question about their policies for erotica and got a human and reasonable answer for him, and unlike Amazon they don't try to restrict you from publishing elsewhere - if I followed Amazon's ToS I'd have to remove my stories from here. They got bought out a little while back so that may change, but at least so far I've felt happier doing business with them than I would with Amazon.

Little history, when Paypal tried to pull that stunt, they claimed it was about the CC companies, specifically Visa and charge backs etc. They claimed they had a letter from Visa about how they would no longer allow people to purchase certain content.

Coker and others(along with Selena Kitt) called Bullshit and Coker flew out to meet with Paypal and demanded to see said letter after another publisher contacted Visa and was told they had no such policy and no letter was ever sent out, but they were happy to put that in writing, so paypal tucked tail and SW never stopped publishing taboo/beastie/NC and whatever other material they were trying to censor.

Unfortunately some smaller publishing sites that panicked and purged everything ended up going under.

The fact Coker fought for people to be able to publish what they want and didn't adopt some fake moral stance on it like other sites (by the way B/N how is losing tens of thousands a dollars a month in erotica sales been feeling the last couple of years?) I'll always be loyal to him

For anyone concerned, I e-mailed him about whether or not his content policies would change when they are fully merged with D2D and he said not at all as he is still on the board, active and these are his policies.

 

[lovecraft68]

Last two months on SW/D2D

 

[lovecraft68]

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Does the scriptwriting get you involved with the WGA at all?

Not so far. Most of the work had been for British, Canadian, and Australian production companies.

 

[gordo12]

Okay, so I am totally ready to be chastised as the correct answer is Literotica, but I am wondering how many of you wonderful authors also publish their erotica commercially and whether you have been successful. I have a couple of stories which I have thought about over the years and wondered if there were any recommendations. Is KDP the go to place if you are not to publish on Literotica? Don't get me wrong, I'm not thinking to leave this wonderful site, but I did wonder how stories may be received if published elsewhere. Could money be made, or is it already a saturated market? I'll probably never do it a I doubt my own writing style too much.

And just to prove I am not intending to go elsewhere, I am already lining up another story to be published to Literotica in January (now 17k words in and making me quite excited)

I have three books going now under two pen names. One sells constantly, one sporadically, and one has been a total failure. I'm not getting rich, but they have paid for themselves providing a few dollars in pocket money every month. But more importantly, people are paying for my work and not refunding the books. It's a real pat on the back.

Others may disagree but for me, it's the ability to pick a great cover, write a great blurb and stick at the promotion. One of the authors that follows me on Twitter credited her year of promoting the hell out of her book for 1,000 sales this month.