Sitting on a Gold Mine

[mrsmillwood]

I have posted a few stories on Literotica for the enjoyment of sharing my particular kinks, as well as the enjoyment of the creative process. It wasn’t until recently that I realized how many people were actually reading my work. Then I realized that if readers were to pay a very small price for each story read, Literotica would be an absolute gold mine for all of us.

I have posted five installments (chapters) to my ongoing story for a grand total of 281,000 reads (roughly). If I only received ten cents from each reader, I would have made $28,100. That’s not bad for a few hours’ worth of writing. Most of you have many more reads than this.

Of course, Laurel and Manu (owners of LIterotica) would need to take a share. If they only took one or two cents each time a story was read/downloaded from Literotica, they would make an absolute mint.

I understand that my 281,000 readers may not all be unique, so my actual income would be less. But if only 50% of the 281,000 readers who have read my chapters were unique individuals, I’d still be making over $14,000.

I understand that turning Literotica into a ‘pay’ site might chase some people away, but I believe that we have developed a following that enjoys our work, and would be willing to pay ten cents per chapter. Others may stay away for a while, but I think most would return because they would miss our stories and realize it’s cheap entertainment.

As a reader of this site, I would absolutely be willing to give a dime to the author of each of the chapters I’ve read.

A new start-up site might not make it as a pay site, considering all the free erotic story sites that are out there. But Literotica has an established readership and an established set of authors. If I were an author posting to any other free site, why wouldn’t I post here instead? Those other sites should dry up quickly just from lack of contributing authors.

Of course, standards for content and word count would need to be established, but that’s easy enough.

Simply have each reader log in and have them link to their PayPal account. I wouldn’t even deal directly with Visa/Mastercard. And the reader would be given the option to read online, or download into the various electronic formats.

What does anyone else think? Am I crazy? Do the math; how much would you have made by now at ten cents a read? Please tell me what’s wrong with this idea, because, to me, it sounds like a great business opportunity for all of us.

 

[sr71plt]

I wager that turning Lit. into a pay site would chase nearly everyone away. I mostly don't post stories here until they've already in the marketplace for a while, so any money I'm going to make on them was up front.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

If it's free, the people will flock to it.

If it isn't free, the flock will dissipate into obscurity.

 

[TxRad]

Views are just someone clicking on the story. They may be reads or they may not. No way to tell for sure.

So how do you charge for something you don't whether it is real or not.

Maybe it would be a way of stopping the people who spend their day clicking on and off a story to build up the views.

 

[jsragmanus]

I would Pay for Value Add

I wager that turning Lit. into a pay site would chase nearly everyone away. I mostly don't post stories here until they've already in the marketplace for a while, so any money I'm going to make on them was up front.

I would pay for value add features. For example, I'm reading a 12 part novella. If I could download that directly in EBook Format, I would like that.

Another idea would be to offer Ebook format for a set of a specific author's titles.

 

[sr71plt]

If you're willing to pay and you are interested in value added, you'd be best to look at books in the marketplace put out by a publisher. At least there someone in addition to the author saw the manuscript as worthy of publishing (that value-added element).

There are quite a few erotic publishers selecting, editing, and publishing works they've endorsed by sinking their own resources into getting them published. At Literotica, no one but the original author has decided it has value--well, until you've decided to buy it if it becomes a pay site. And chances are good you wouldn't invest in something at Literotica more than a couple of times unless you'd already researched the writing ability of the author in question.

 

[PervOtaku]

If it's free, the people will flock to it.

If it isn't free, the flock will dissipate into obscurity.

I've noticed that Amazon, etc., has a good number of erotica ebooks up. I've been curious about this because it even though they are just a dollar or two per story, the people buying these things could come to Literotica or a half dozen other sites and read much, much more for absolutely free. Does this represent an audience that genuinely doesn't know about free erotica sites, or just prefers ebook format over a web browser that much?

 

[mrsmillwood]

If you're willing to pay and you are interested in value added, you'd be best to look at books in the marketplace put out by a publisher. At least there someone in addition to the author saw the manuscript as worthy of publishing (that value-added element).

There are quite a few erotic publishers selecting, editing, and publishing works they've endorsed by sinking their own resources into getting them published. At Literotica, no one but the original author has decided it has value--well, until you've decided to buy it if it becomes a pay site. And chances are good you wouldn't invest in something at Literotica more than a couple of times unless you'd already researched the writing ability of the author in question.

First of all, I would offer a preview of the manuscript to the reader before they had to make the decision to purchase it...for a dime. It's much like when I took the chance to purchase one of your ebooks, sr71plt. I read an exert and decided it would be worth the chance. But for your book I had to risk $7 or so. IN my scenerio for Lit.com, I'm suggesting risking a whole dime on a chapter.

A lot of publishers do not think manuscripts are worthy of publishing, but that doesn't mean they are not worthy of being read. There's a lot that goes into the publishing process that would not happen here. What's great about Literotica is that all forms of manuscripts that might not be picked up by a more mainstream publisher can see the light of day. They can be read and enjoyed by others who share the interest.

 

[PennLady]

I tend to think that if there was a pay model that would work for Lit, it'd already be in place.

 

[Handley_Page]

I have posted a few stories on Literotica for the enjoyment of sharing my particular kinks, as well as the enjoyment of the creative process. It wasn’t until recently that I realized how many people were actually reading my work. Then I realized that if readers were to pay a very small price for each story read, Literotica would be an absolute gold mine for all of us.

I think you have missed the point of Literotica. It's as much a 'training ground' for would-be authors as it is a site for the sheer written fun of erotica.
Your logic may be impeccable, but there are other sites that do it (and have garnered all manner of problems, too).

There are those on this site who are published authors making the odd honest buck who might be willing to advise you on the best way to turn your talent into a bank account, if that's your desire.

I suggest that you consider yourself as much a tutor as an author and help those less blessed with writing talent gain a little skill, as well as putting out your own version of deathless prose for the collective enjoyment.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I have posted a few stories on Literotica for the enjoyment of sharing my particular kinks, as well as the enjoyment of the creative process. It wasn’t until recently that I realized how many people were actually reading my work. Then I realized that if readers were to pay a very small price for each story read, Literotica would be an absolute gold mine for all of us.

I have posted five installments (chapters) to my ongoing story for a grand total of 281,000 reads (roughly). If I only received ten cents from each reader, I would have made $28,100. That’s not bad for a few hours’ worth of writing. Most of you have many more reads than this.

Of course, Laurel and Manu (owners of LIterotica) would need to take a share. If they only took one or two cents each time a story was read/downloaded from Literotica, they would make an absolute mint.

I understand that my 281,000 readers may not all be unique, so my actual income would be less. But if only 50% of the 281,000 readers who have read my chapters were unique individuals, I’d still be making over $14,000.

I understand that turning Literotica into a ‘pay’ site might chase some people away, but I believe that we have developed a following that enjoys our work, and would be willing to pay ten cents per chapter. Others may stay away for a while, but I think most would return because they would miss our stories and realize it’s cheap entertainment.

As a reader of this site, I would absolutely be willing to give a dime to the author of each of the chapters I’ve read.

A new start-up site might not make it as a pay site, considering all the free erotic story sites that are out there. But Literotica has an established readership and an established set of authors. If I were an author posting to any other free site, why wouldn’t I post here instead? Those other sites should dry up quickly just from lack of contributing authors.

Of course, standards for content and word count would need to be established, but that’s easy enough.

Simply have each reader log in and have them link to their PayPal account. I wouldn’t even deal directly with Visa/Mastercard. And the reader would be given the option to read online, or download into the various electronic formats.

What does anyone else think? Am I crazy? Do the math; how much would you have made by now at ten cents a read? Please tell me what’s wrong with this idea, because, to me, it sounds like a great business opportunity for all of us.

This seems a lot like what Smashwords and similar sites are already doing (though not restricted to erotica).

Some considerations:

- A lot of people are very shy about reading porn. Requiring people to register and connect that registration with their RL identity (e.g. via PP account) would drive those folk away no matter how cheap you made it.

- I would expect an absolute SHITLOAD of bots to show up and start posting stolen work, along with old-fashioned thieves doing it manually. Take an existing story, do a search-and-replace to change the names, use a thesaurus program to change some of the words so it's non-trivial to identify the plagiarism, and let those 10c payments roll in until the site collapses under the weight of the parasites.

- Storing PP information for hundreds of thousands of readers = juicy target for theft - as well as the obvious credit-card fraud type angle, consider the potential for blackmail if you know that Pyotr from Russia has been buying Gay Male stories.

- Charging to read may create or increase legal liabilities for Laurel and Manu. (I dunno, I'm not a lawyer - and because Lit's readership is international, you'd probably need several lawyers from different countries.)

 

[Bramblethorn]

I've noticed that Amazon, etc., has a good number of erotica ebooks up. I've been curious about this because it even though they are just a dollar or two per story, the people buying these things could come to Literotica or a half dozen other sites and read much, much more for absolutely free. Does this represent an audience that genuinely doesn't know about free erotica sites, or just prefers ebook format over a web browser that much?

I've had readers on Literotica message me to say "please put this somewhere that I can buy it", and when I put it up on Smashwords, they did. Not a huge number, but there really are readers who want to own a copy and/or pay the author.

I expect ebook is a consideration for some. There may also be a respectability angle - surely if they're charging for it, it has to be better than something the author's giving away for free? (No, it really doesn't, but some people think that way.)

 

[legerdemer]

I have no direct experience with this - hopefully those who do will pipe in - but it seems that Lit does build up readership that can make authors money when they take their work elsewhere. Many examples come to mind, but Varian Krylov did something like that about a year ago - posted the first couple of chapters of her novel, started a thread posting some awesomely hot pics to titillate readers, and got a large audience for said book (Dangerously Happy). I use that example because I happen to have watched it unfold. (and no, I am not her, I only wish...) I bet there's a dozen other authors on Lit or more who've taken advantage of the readership here - but in a good way.

 

[sr71plt]

I edited that Varian novel--the whole thing, thinking it all was for Lit.--so (as you indicated) I think it went beyond the pale of what should be done on Lit.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I've had readers on Literotica message me to say "please put this somewhere that I can buy it", and when I put it up on Smashwords, they did. Not a huge number, but there really are readers who want to own a copy and/or pay the author.

I expect ebook is a consideration for some. There may also be a respectability angle - surely if they're charging for it, it has to be better than something the author's giving away for free? (No, it really doesn't, but some people think that way.)

These must be that small percentage of people who don't know about copy & paste or the Lit app for Android devices.

Then again, maybe they would like to reward the author for his work.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I tend to think that if there was a pay model that would work for Lit, it'd already be in place.

The pay model for Lit is the adds that appear. So if you want to help Lit get paid, click an ad. That's all that is required...click an ad.

But if you mean that the authors would get paid for reads and such, well even Amazon and Smashwords don't do that. You only get paid for purchases, not how many read the 10 or 20% previews.

 

[mikoli5763]

Who decides

what the standards are for content because there is already a minimum for word count?
All of my writing experiencemismfrom stories I have submitted to Lit. and I can see the improvement from my first stories and my most recent ones.
What happens to first time writers and their submissions? From my experience, it takes a few stories to build a base of readers so do newbies get the time required to build a following?
My opinion is that the difficulties of managing a pay-to-read site would outweigh the benefits.

 

[LaRascasse]

There are two obvious problems with this.

• The number of views are high only because they are free. If there was a price tag attached to a single click (of even 10 cents), I'd have to weigh the pros and cons before trying any new story. 10000 views on a free story does not equate to 10000 purchases of the same story (even for a pittance). What would happen in this case is that established authors with known styles would attract a few meager buys and virtually no one would try a new author. Sadly, everybody wants a return on their investment, even if it is of a dime.
  
  
• Ten cents a chapter, eh? A chapter is a dubious term here. Take, for instance, my upcoming novella, which is roughly 35K words. If I post it as one ten page chapter, I get 10c for it. If I post it as two five page chapters, I get 20c for it. If, for some reason, I break it down to forty-six 750 word chapters (the minimum number of words required for a Lit submission), I get a whopping(?) $4.60 for it. See the problem?
  

In addition to these two issues, Bramblethorn has highlighted several other technical, legal and functional issues the site would run into. Truth be told, the sort of migration you are referring to is virgin territory. Converting a free story site to a paid one overnight hasn't been done, and for good reason. Now if Literotica had a free story and pay story model from the start, it would have matured to a reasonable degree by now (with the obvious teething problems of hackers, bots, phishing scams and God knows what else).

Best of luck selling your stories on one of the many other sites out there. I've heard good things about Smashwords.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Readers will buy the highest scores and flattering comments.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

Well...

For one thing eReaders, at least the manufacturers of them, are letting themselves down as well as readers generally.

This is all about the same issue behind the great movie starring William Holden and Barbara Stanwyck - 'Executive Suite.'

A penny-pinching accountant tries to steer a great manufacturing company into anything that gives the company immediate annual profitability, mostly at the cost of its long term future.

The main character gets to become the President of the company after the old President dies when he tells the remaining board - made up of a salesman, a playboy, an investor, a worker's rep, and the disaffected daugher of the other founding director also deceased - that the only way forward was for pride to be shared by each division and each worker and by the whole company and not just one guy becoming the sole beneficiary of pride in his scheming.

We all have to face the fact that technology has taken us to a place - but also that the technology vendors have forgotten the content generators and in the end this will be the downfall of those who are solely benefitting from the commercial exploitation of technology at the present time.

Sony makes allegedly 15 million from on line sales and rentals of its Seth Rogen flick - what makes any of you less commercially viable? Nothing at all. Not even, in my view, the theoretical capacity for Sony to gain a lot of free marketing and 'profile' with a scam story about the North Koreans hacking their computers.

The fact that there really IS such a massive readership overall here IS a very big commercial advantage - but it does need a lot of co-operative, as well as sensible, effort for that potential to be realised.

It has come to be the wider market expectation, that content is free on line, whereas hardware and some advanced, specialist software, is not. And we cannot simply click fingers and change this. This is the insurmountable fact.

Which basically means that content HAS to be integrated into hardware costlines and there are one or two current examples of this starting to happen. Huawei's recent product placements in the ASMRequests Youtube channel is one example of this. And very valuable this would have been, too.

On your own, as a single individual writer, you're sitting on 'a hole in the ground owned by a mug;' as a co-operative group, you are sitting on a gold mine.

 

[robertreams]

I have posted a few stories on Literotica for the enjoyment of sharing my particular kinks, as well as the enjoyment of the creative process. It wasn’t until recently that I realized how many people were actually reading my work. Then I realized that if readers were to pay a very small price for each story read, Literotica would be an absolute gold mine for all of us.

I have posted five installments (chapters) to my ongoing story for a grand total of 281,000 reads (roughly). If I only received ten cents from each reader, I would have made $28,100. That’s not bad for a few hours’ worth of writing. Most of you have many more reads than this.

Of course, Laurel and Manu (owners of LIterotica) would need to take a share. If they only took one or two cents each time a story was read/downloaded from Literotica, they would make an absolute mint.

I understand that my 281,000 readers may not all be unique, so my actual income would be less. But if only 50% of the 281,000 readers who have read my chapters were unique individuals, I’d still be making over $14,000.

I understand that turning Literotica into a ‘pay’ site might chase some people away, but I believe that we have developed a following that enjoys our work, and would be willing to pay ten cents per chapter. Others may stay away for a while, but I think most would return because they would miss our stories and realize it’s cheap entertainment.

As a reader of this site, I would absolutely be willing to give a dime to the author of each of the chapters I’ve read.

A new start-up site might not make it as a pay site, considering all the free erotic story sites that are out there. But Literotica has an established readership and an established set of authors. If I were an author posting to any other free site, why wouldn’t I post here instead? Those other sites should dry up quickly just from lack of contributing authors.

Of course, standards for content and word count would need to be established, but that’s easy enough.

Simply have each reader log in and have them link to their PayPal account. I wouldn’t even deal directly with Visa/Mastercard. And the reader would be given the option to read online, or download into the various electronic formats.

What does anyone else think? Am I crazy? Do the math; how much would you have made by now at ten cents a read? Please tell me what’s wrong with this idea, because, to me, it sounds like a great business opportunity for all of us.

Your idea is the same one that struck me when I went over 750,000 downloads, so I learned how to e-published and published 8 books, which I am not selling for ten cents, but am offering very cheap. In one year I have sold about $25 worth, so you see what could happen to Lit. If it became a pay site. I toyed with starting a web site called "Dime Novel" on which readers could download stories paying ten cents an episode, especially for serialized work, like they did in the old magazines. (Twain, Harte, Dickens, etc.), but I haven't the technical expertise. Yes it would be wonderful to have a bit more income, but for now I am somewhat content that my readership is approaching a million. At least my work won't die on my hard drive or in a drawer, to be pitched in the trash by my heirs.

 

[robertreams]

Smashwords and other sites allow the author to establish a percent that can be read free, I offered ten percent but now have reduced it to 5 percent. So potential buyer can read say 5 pages of a hundred page book for free, then must pay for the rest. However WARNING do not take smashword's advice and offer a free copy time period. Barnes and Noble and Amazon each downloaded 57 copies during the one day I was advised to offer it free.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

I have posted a few stories on Literotica for the enjoyment of sharing my particular kinks, as well as the enjoyment of the creative process. It wasn’t until recently that I realized how many people were actually reading my work. Then I realized that if readers were to pay a very small price for each story read, Literotica would be an absolute gold mine for all of us.

I have posted five installments (chapters) to my ongoing story for a grand total of 281,000 reads (roughly). If I only received ten cents from each reader, I would have made $28,100. That’s not bad for a few hours’ worth of writing. Most of you have many more reads than this.

Of course, Laurel and Manu (owners of LIterotica) would need to take a share. If they only took one or two cents each time a story was read/downloaded from Literotica, they would make an absolute mint.

I understand that my 281,000 readers may not all be unique, so my actual income would be less. But if only 50% of the 281,000 readers who have read my chapters were unique individuals, I’d still be making over $14,000.

I understand that turning Literotica into a ‘pay’ site might chase some people away, but I believe that we have developed a following that enjoys our work, and would be willing to pay ten cents per chapter. Others may stay away for a while, but I think most would return because they would miss our stories and realize it’s cheap entertainment.

As a reader of this site, I would absolutely be willing to give a dime to the author of each of the chapters I’ve read.

A new start-up site might not make it as a pay site, considering all the free erotic story sites that are out there. But Literotica has an established readership and an established set of authors. If I were an author posting to any other free site, why wouldn’t I post here instead? Those other sites should dry up quickly just from lack of contributing authors.

Of course, standards for content and word count would need to be established, but that’s easy enough.

Simply have each reader log in and have them link to their PayPal account. I wouldn’t even deal directly with Visa/Mastercard. And the reader would be given the option to read online, or download into the various electronic formats.

What does anyone else think? Am I crazy? Do the math; how much would you have made by now at ten cents a read? Please tell me what’s wrong with this idea, because, to me, it sounds like a great business opportunity for all of us.

Pardon the rudeness, but you talk piffle. Lit has a business plan that has been successful over more than a decade and they are not going to change it for some fly-by-night carpet bagger that has no concept of the business. I agree.

Lit attracts readers and writers, benefits from their work, and watches them launch into the erotic fiction market. I think the word is symbiosis. If you can't buy into the ethos, you probably shouldn't be here.

Don't be so arrogant.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

No one buys cows when milk is free.

 

[mikoli5763]

Another issue

I thought of was stories that 2 or more writers collaborate on but they are submitted under by one writer who would be the one to receive the income from the story. Even with the notation that it is a collaboration, there is no way to insure each writer is treated equally.