Those scandalous vultures!

[MaxSebastian]

Hello peeps!

I've been sent another one of those requests by another site to put one of my stories up there:




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Hello! My name is Kage, and I'm the Story Editor for a new erotic website called Blue Fantasies. In addition to great photography, Blue Fantasies will be offering our members the best erotic fiction on the web. I've read some of your work, and I enjoyed it so much that I would like to ask your permission to post it on Blue Fantasies.

We would publish your story in its entirety and, of course, give you credit as the author. The only changes we would make would be to correct, if necessary, grammatical errors such as punctuation and sentence structure.

We will also select a few stories each month to be read by a professional voice talent and published on the site as an audio story.

If you agree to allow us to post your work on our site, we would be happy to offer you a free membership to Blue Fantasies. Thanks, and I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Warmly, Kage

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Now, this appears to be an impersonal message (note no details about me that might denote this 'Kage' has interest in my individual story or writing), so I assume this has also been sent to other people, too.

I checked out the site, and it costs $20 a month to join! This is scandalous! Sure, they offer me as author a free membership to the site, but there's no pay for my efforts, and they are making $20 a month from their punters! They would be making money from my story, and in return I get membership for a site that has on it lots of... erotic stories. Uh... what about my free membership of Literotica? I can get it all there!

It's outrageous!

The extra readers might be nice, but to be honest, the particular story they put in the subject line of the email (i.e. the one I assume they want) has had 107,113 people read it on Literotica so far, with 1,503 kind souls having voted for it. So it's not as though I need the small number of paying punters from Blue Fantasies (who, let's face it, are unlikely to respond with anything in the way of feedback).

So I'd make no money, I'd get no response from the extra readers and... uh... that's it.

What does everyone else think? I think I've persuaded myself which way I'm going to go, to be honest, but I'd be interested to know what y'all think.


p.s. Yahoo announced today that for the first time in its seven-year history, the most searched-for term was not 'sex'. It was 'World Cup'. Hooray! Go England!

 

[SexyChele]

Well, not to be disrepectful of your feelings, but I'd be flattered if any one of my stories garnered that kind of attention. I wouldn't accept, for the same reasons you've mentioned. But I'd be flattered, yeah. Very flattered. And smiling the whole time I wrote my "Thanks, but no thanks" email to them.


Take it as a compliment and move on. Not all of us can count ourselves as being that gifted!

 

[Axeltheswede]

Vultures

Well, Hey, Howdy again, Max. Missed you around the boards.

The nerve of those guys! I think you should turn the tables. Let them post a story. Let them get those bloody punters addicted to your fiction. Then, when they want more, well, the bidding starts at a lot more than twenty leaves of lettuce.

How is the new job going?

 

[Ray Dario]

I once agreed to an offer like this. Not because I wanted the membership, but because I was flattered by the offer.

They butchered my stories, posting only the first 1500 words and actually cutting some of them off in mid sentence. I tried several times to get them to correct the problem with no success and then they disappeared. Probably went broke or were busted or something.

I wish I'd done the smart thing and refused. Next time I will. If there is a next time.

Ray

 

[MaxSebastian]

Hi Axel, job's going well, thanks - going to try and get down to some more writing now, too!

Thanks for the words of wisdom - especially from Ray. I guess that's the worst that could happen, so I might as well not risk it. It's flattering that someone wants my stories, sure, but I don't see the need for introducing a middle man into the relationship between my readers and I, especially when that middle man is getting money out of the process when the important members of that process (i.e. the readers and myself) are getting nothing.

I feel it would somehow go against the Literotica ethos to agree to these vultures anyhow.

 

[TheEarl]

Negotiate. Say you'll give them your stories if they'll pay you per hit and you're given final editorial option. Go on, be mercernary. They deserve it.

The Earl

 

[Mule]

PT Barnum is still right.

I've never had the "offer" but I've had my stories outright ripped off.

I'm not as offenced by those who stole the stories as I am the fools who will pay good money to get what they can get for free. I have to figure out a way to cash in on that scam myself .

 

[DPMaster]

From The Other Side

This is only my second visit to this board and, as a webmaster that has done almost exactly what you wrote about, it has been a learning experience, let me tell you. Up until very recently I have written almost all of the stories that we publish at Darker Pleasures. I have recently started looking for other people that might like to consider writing for us simply because I'm swamped.

Admittedly, I have just started doing my homework on paying *writers*, and, as I've said, though my letters to prospective writers have been personalized, I was as guilty of thinking they'd just be happy to get credit for their story as a lot of webmasters are. I mean, I write, but I don't bare my tush for pictures, so I'd have been flattered and perhaps willing to let someone use a story if they were nice, so I thought it was the same for others.

And I stepped on a toe or two as a result.

When you get these types of letters, keep in mind that most webmasters dedicate so much time to getting hold of pictures that they're just... well... stupid, when it comes to writers and stories, even those of us webmasters that write.

Take it as a compliment and negotiate as you see fit. In my position, www.darkerpleasures.com has stories that range between 3000 and 5000 words. At this point, I couldn't afford to pay a lot... $75.00 - $100.00, so I offer the membership and exposure. Having read this string and others now, I realize I would probably be seen as being a cheapskate, but it wasn't as much a deliberate act of cheapskatism as just a lack of knowledge.

Poor excuse, probably, but at least there is no malice aforethought.

Take care...

 

[spankableBelle]

i myself would have to say 'woohoo!!!!!' and do a happy dance...then sit down and politely say no for all the reasons that you stated...~smile~

i have received one or two offers of the same notion, though different sites than the one you listed, and i said yes...i was terribly excited and thought 'wow! this is it! i'm being noticed...yada yada yada' and what did i get for my story that they thought was wonderful and grand and worthy of their site?...nada...nothing...not a thing...not a word of feedback...for all i know the story was never read...perhaps that's my shallowness, but, i like feedback, i like knowing that someone out there is reading what i work so hard on...

these, of course, are just my thoughts and experiences...feel free to toss them out the window...

belle


http://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=72711

 

[TrinaT]

I've found this website that does ask for online membership and does pay you royalties for novellette, etc.

http://www.wickedvelvet.com/

I've have commmunicated with them several times about a novellette I'm currently working on and have received replies to each email. It is a site mainly for catering to women, but you may want to check it out.

Trina T.