Question about publishing/sales, breaking up story

[MyDeepestSecret]

Hi guys, long time reader/first time poster. I'm working towards submitting a fairly lengthy story (novella?) to literotica for the first time, and on track for maybe July or August. This is literally the first thing I've ever written as an adult (and I'm not particularly young), but I think it's pretty good so far. I've got a couple of questions if you don't mind.

I was thinking about publishing the complete story on amazon for $1-$2 immediately, but then releasing one chapter at a time here every couple of weeks with a link to purchase the full story. So, I would intend for the whole thing to be freely available eventually. It's looking like a 10 chapter story so far. Has anyone tried doing something like this before? Did it work out to your satisfaction? I'm not looking to rake in cash, just get compensated a tiny bit for my time in exchange for getting access to the whole work at once. If 10 people paid me $1, I'd be immensely flattered.

Second, this is a longer story with a clear direction and a lot of buildup, meaning the first chapter is pretty much sex-free. That seems like it'd be a very poor lead. Would it make more sense to perhaps submit 3 chapters as one submission so that it can actually have some adult content in it? And then publish 4-10 as individual submissions as they're quite a bit more graphic (all consenting adults).

Thanks to all who reply. As stated, I'm really new to this but have been reading stuff on here for 7 or 8 years.

 

[sr71plt]

I was thinking about publishing the complete story on amazon for $1-$2 immediately, but then releasing one chapter at a time here every couple of weeks with a link to purchase the full story. So, I would intend for the whole thing to be freely available eventually.

Responding to this specific question, you can submit to Literotica after publishing to Amazon, yes (from the Literotica perspective. If Amazon finds out you are offering it for free, they'll either drop your Amazon listing or reduce the price to zero, though), but you can't directly link your story here to an Amazon version or any external URL.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I was thinking about publishing the complete story on amazon for $1-$2 immediately, but then releasing one chapter at a time here every couple of weeks with a link to purchase the full story.

Like SR said, you cannot link directly from your story, and Amazon require that you don't offer it anywhere else for cheaper than the Amazon price.

Alternative options: You can e-publish on Smashwords without the pricing restriction. You can link to your commercial profile from your author page.

So, I would intend for the whole thing to be freely available eventually. It's looking like a 10 chapter story so far. Has anyone tried doing something like this before? Did it work out to your satisfaction? I'm not looking to rake in cash, just get compensated a tiny bit for my time in exchange for getting access to the whole work at once. If 10 people paid me $1, I'd be immensely flattered.

I posted my work free here first, and then put it up on Smashwords. I still got about 30 sales at $5 each, with pretty much no promotion, and quite a few of those are people who'd already seen it here and read the whole thing for free. So, yes, if they like your story enough it's possible.

Second, this is a longer story with a clear direction and a lot of buildup, meaning the first chapter is pretty much sex-free. That seems like it'd be a very poor lead. Would it make more sense to perhaps submit 3 chapters as one submission so that it can actually have some adult content in it? And then publish 4-10 as individual submissions as they're quite a bit more graphic (all consenting adults).

That's one option, yes. Another is to tweak the structure to get some smut at the start, e.g. start in media res and then jump back to where it all started.

 

[MyDeepestSecret]

Responding to this specific question, you can submit to Literotica after publishing to Amazon, yes (from the Literotica perspective. If Amazon finds out you are offering it for free, they'll either drop your Amazon listing or reduce the price to zero, though), but you can't directly link your story here to an Amazon version or any external URL.

Aha, thank you. I hadn't fully gone through the terms of sale on amazon's self publishing. Thanks for the catch!

 

[MyDeepestSecret]

I posted my work free here first, and then put it up on Smashwords. I still got about 30 sales at $5 each, with pretty much no promotion, and quite a few of those are people who'd already seen it here and read the whole thing for free. So, yes, if they like your story enough it's possible.

Ah, thanks for the tip. I'll look into smashwords.

That's one option, yes. Another is to tweak the structure to get some smut at the start, e.g. start in media res and then jump back to where it all started.

Hm. I'll give that idea some thought, but I really like how it's currently structured. Thanks for the tip!

 

[PervOtaku]

I posted my work free here first, and then put it up on Smashwords. I still got about 30 sales at $5 each, with pretty much no promotion, and quite a few of those are people who'd already seen it here and read the whole thing for free. So, yes, if they like your story enough it's possible.

Ah, the webcomics model of book sales. That's not a bad idea. I've pondered getting into Smashwords, even just putting my stories up for free, mostly thinking there are probably some potential readers there that haven't seen my stuff elsewhere.

 

[sr71plt]

Conversely, I publish mine first to the marketplace (to a bunch of distributors) and a few months later I post some of it here (and to other free-use sites). The bulk of what is made off of them thus comes first, giving those willing to pay rather than wait the first read (which I think is more fair to buyers than giving them for free first). There's the added payoff then that if someone rips them off to publish at Amazon, they've already been published to Amazon and there's no hassle to go through convincing Amazon they've been stolen.