All Comments on 'Writing Erotica for Fun & Profit'

i have ideas for stories, now the hard work in putting the words down on paper. I am not thinking of writing for publishing or profit, more so as another outlet for me.

I'm impressed by your prolific stories and have enjoyed many of them. Hope you are getting better and back on the road with writing.

Always good to hear dispatches from the front lines, those down in the story - trenches fighting the word-war. ^_^

I shall send you an email later -- I just wanted to show my appreciation here and now.

TE

An interesting read considering an anon just emailed me & challenged me to write a story or shut up based on a comment I made about another (piece of garbage) story. Heh heh! I just may follow your advice :-)

BTW that should be your, you're and yore. The misuses of the first two are among the most common mistakes in stories here but you should know the third.

A lot of very prolific authors (such as Stephen King and Piers Anthony, just to name a couple) have stated that they write because they enjoy it. They appreciate the feedback they get from their readers probably even more than the money they make (although I am sure that is debatable). At times writing becomes a chore because, like in life itself, anything can get tiring and drag you down if you do it too long (I love watching movies and listening to music but I can't sit in front of the boob tube for hours on end and binge like my wife can--she has a knack).

I used to write throughout Junior High and High School because I was forced to turn in something creative every week--essays, poetry, short stories, you name it. I even kept up my writing throughout much of my 20 years in the Military because the ideas just kept coming and people seemed to enjoy what I put on paper. But then I met and settled down with my girlfriend (who has now been my wife for 25 years) and the writing dried up. I can still whip out a short note (like this one) or a letter to the editor whenever I get moved enough, but I just do not enjoy writing anymore--there are too many other things I would rather be doing. Unfortunately I was always good at it, and my wife continues to bereave the fact that I have not written "The Great American Novel" like I promised early in our relationship. But, we own our own home in a great neighborhood, we do whatever we want whenever we want to do it, and continue to love and enjoy each other every single day. I can't say that I miss it.

For those of you that enjoy writing and want to make something of it, I think this was a well-thought-out piece that makes a lot of sense and explains the ins-and-outs of the business very well. There are bad people in all walks of life, even in companies that deal with the public on a daily basis (I worked in retail for four years, try that on for size), so it should always be foremost in anyone's mind to safeguard what you have to offer as best you can. And, as you stated so well, if it ain't fun then don't do it.

Thanks for sharing your insight.

Roger.

Another suggestion.

Do not be discouraged by rejection. One of my recent postings took four tries over nearly two months before acceptance to Literotica.

Just hold your story back a couple of weeks and it will eventually be processed by another site admin. Each one has different criteria for approving stories.

I've had stories rejected by LIT, sometimes even because they weren't reading carefully or for reasons I've found ludicrous. One time, it was because of run-on sentences, although they were intentional - the character was prone to them and it was in a heated moment.

I could have written miles more in this essay. I wanted to give an overview of my own experiences. If anyone wishes to discuss / debate or add to this, PM me or comment as you like. It looks like this piece went over favorably, all one can ask.

As an aspiring author who has done a lot of research into market trends, I can say, with confidence, that when the author of this how-to states that short-stories sell better than novels, he is mistaken. The following examples are to illustrate my point and are in no way meant to demean the author in any way.

To date, the author's highest rated submission to Literotica is a 4.8 (which is respectable). It has 13432 views, zero favorites and zero comments. It is called, "With One Step Ch. 03," is 4003 words written, or 21818 characters. If you click on his submissions and note the number of comments he receives, you will see a trend of single digits. I will also note that this is the longest submission I could find from this author, and that it's part of a "series" or a larger whole. The bulk of his submissions do not exceed one literotica page. In fact, this is the only one I found that did.

JazCullen's "Fighting the Inevitable Ch. 03" is rated at a 4.83 (comparable rating), has 91566 views, 52 favorites and 41 comments. It is 11434 words, or 61546 characters long. I will also note that JazCullen is not a professional author.

Why is this important? There's not enough text to generate an emotional response one way or another. People aren't rereading or commenting on his work because they don't feel strongly about it. What does this mean? People aren't discussing his work. They aren't telling their friends about it, which is limiting his visibility, which in turn affects his viewership/potential sales.

As an amateur author, word-of-mouth and reviews are your life-blood. You can't build a reputation with your reader-base if your reader-base isn't talking with/to/about you. It's been proven time and again that series of novels > novels > short-stories simply because there's more to discuss, which increases the likelihood of discussion.

Yes, he has stamped out a fuck-ton of SHORT-stories, but based on the numbers above, it would take almost 7 of his short-stories or 2.5 times (28,000 words) more text to generate the same number of views (nevermind the comments) that 1 longer submission did.

I will also note that all of JazCullen's submissions are part of a series, and that not a single submission is w/o a red H. I also want you to keep in mind that nonHuman (the category JazCullen writes in) is one of the least popular genres on the site.

The one point I will make for the author is that erotic literature commands a much higher price per character than non-erotic literature, because of the supply versus the demand. I've seen 20,000 words of erotic literature being sold at 5 dollars a copy and moving units when non-erotic literature goes for roughly 8 dollars for 80000 words. The main reason for this is because professionally written erotica is incredibly difficult to come by. As BrettJ mentions, there's a stigma surrounding erotic literature, but what he didn't mention is that not only is it the fastest growing genre of published literature, but e-readers have removed a lot of the stigma.

TL;DR The longer the work, the more people will talk about it, the more copies it'll sell, and the more money you'll make. Series > stand-alone novel > short-story

How better to live your life by not only doing what you love to do but also earning a living while doing it.

Someone, somewhere will read what you write and may even like what you write enough to pay you. I figure, by the time I'm in my 80's, I'll be a great writer. I figure, when I die, I'll be wicked famous (lol).

I earn more money going direct to the reader without using a publisher than I ever did writing e-Books. Publishers, whether e-Book publishers or large mainstream publishers aren't accurately reporting royalties. Authors are being cheated, the reason why I write directly for my fans.

Great piece.

Thank you for your kind insight and encouragement.

Some new points to consider

Anonymous - the one a few posts above me - may or may not be mistaken. I am writing from my own experience. The companies with whom I was in contact paid FAR less for erotic novels than they did for short stories. A novel was about thirty thousand words and the pay wasn't much. If I wrote an average story (4 thousand words or a bit more) for the same company, by the time I reached 6, I had made the same money. This is also not advice for an author of some years, this is advice for a novice.

It has been noted that there may be some confusion in the essay - I am not saying you can make money by writing for LIT. I write for the site solely for the enjoyment of my readers. How I made money is that a publisher (a few now) saw my work and extended an offer of employment. Over time, I wrote a lot more work and earned a nice sum of money.

You must still enjoy writing. Write for fun and the rest may follow.

Susan's experiences are not my own. She has, she says, achieved success in a different way. Likely, she has better marketing skills than I do and many of you likely will as well. I am only offering my story as a starting point, the foundation. What others do with it is entirely up to them.

Nor am I comparing myself to others. I have my fans, I have my nay-sayers. I can say, with 100% confidence, only ONCE has my publisher refused a story and that was because they don't publish "fantasy" tales. I stand by my work and my record.

Please feel free to contact me if any of you have questions. Or ideas.

Or employment offers - I'm still working.

BrettJ in Canada

This was a very interesting article, as were the responses.

Something that doesn't get talked about at all in the entire porn industry, is the financial side of the business. It's tough to find out how much porn stars make, or how big the industry is, or how much a production company earns, etc. There are estimates for all of these numbers, but very few hard facts. This is also true of erotic fiction.

So, I'm curious: what does erotic fiction pay? Are we talking a dime a word, a penny a word, or less, or more?

And on a related note - how do you find buyers? Did you wait for them to find you, or did you seek them out? If so - where? How? Did you look in the yellow pages under 'people that buy porn'?

Sorry to appear so clueless. It just that, unfortunately, I am exactly that.

I am thinking a follow up essay to this one is in order. Some questions have been raised that I can answer and some, I cannot. I do appreciate the time everyone has taken to write me and I will respond.

To all who read this, you may want to consider how factual this is, BrettJ is not as successful as he claims, a former Canada Post worker, not a mailman but support in the plant, now exists solely on ODSP, a disability plan, in Ontario. The disability, none obvious, he will make vast claims about mental or physical, either way he believes he is 'owed' and paid into it, basically a malingerers. Over all, a know it all, extremely unlikeable who want thinks is superior to all, not a single redeeming quality. Lives disability cheque to disability cheque,.... Little success has come his wayway.

Thank you for the tips. Does LIT pay you for your stories?

Thanks now I need to get writing.

Well written.