How Does an Author Make Money with their Writing Hobby?

[kiwibat]

So with the Patreon approach, does one get that following in Lit? Most of my stuff is very long and lends itself well to evolving into a ten chapter story.

Making assumptions here but do I keep posting new story ideas in Lit until one hits a home run? If so, what’s the next step? Put a comment that additional chapters can be purchased in my personal store for .50? And I suppose a website link in my bio so they can find that store easier?

I’d recommend trying to build your audience elsewhere. i recently did a survey on where all my subscribers came from, and out of the 4 or 5 main sites I post to, Lit was by far the smallest, only like 7% or so.

but maybe that’s just me.

 

[DreamingOfMyEx]

Another idea - I don't understand how any of this works, but once upon a time I happened across someone (an actual female - figure the odds) who makes recordings of her reading erotica aloud. I wrote a story from a female perspective I would love to hear read in a female voice and asked if I could send it to her for her consideration. She was gracious enough to say yes, then asked how much of a percentage I wanted if she got any money for it. I never dreamed of such a thing happening, but apparently it does.

Anyway, I just gave her the rights to the story. Just to listen to her read it was enough payment for me and I never asked any details. However, there might be some potential there, and it was far fewer than 30K words.

 

[PennameWombat]

I have been curious about this for a while. I am by no means an expert author but I have a million ideas in my head and now that I’m retired, I find I love writing smut.

I have no illusions that I’d make significant bucks or anything like that but I’d happily crank out 30k stories if I thought I could get some publishing house to buy them for $50 bucks a pop. I have half a dozen now that I haven’t submitted to Lit.

As has been discussed, the various self-publishing platforms (KDP, Smashwords, etc.) are more or less tolerant of erotica, but it's also easy to fall afoul of the rules and get your account nuked. And note, while various subjects and kinks are obviously verboten, much of it, such as Amazon's rules, is left intentionally vague. So if they get an ick, see ya, bye.

There are plenty of Literotica authors who use Patreon, although I don't so can't offer any personal experience. This is a thread from a couple of years back on Patreon as well as broader discussion of writing erotica for paid platforms: It's a short thread, only five entries. Way shorter than this one
https://forum.literotica.com/threads/patreon.1567514/

Just to highlight, you cannot link to any sites outside of Literotica in your stories. Hard rule. You can put a link to, e.g., your Patreon, in your profile. But that's it. Nothing in stories.

That would actually be easy for me since nearly everything I write has lots of slow build up with strong romantic overtones. I’d just need to adjust a little bit of the sex detail to suit my audience.

So where does one go to market a romance story?

They're very popular on Amazon, many of them as ebooks or via Kindle Unlimited subscription (you self-publish using Amazon's KDP, then make it exclusive to Amazon using KDP Select.) But keep in mind, that means the competition is fierce. In aggregate, it's the highest grossing fiction genre, and the vast swath of sub-genres means much can fit. But that also means it's a massive target for huge numbers of authors.

But despite the flexibility of sub-genres, note that Romance isn't simply 'romantic' or 'slow burn.' While the market is widely varied (open-door to closed-door to Christian (and even Amish Romance is a genre), yeah, really; spicy, hot spicy, nuclear spicy), there are tropes and beats that better be there, regardless of sub-genre and spice levels and the like. Not negotiable. Also the requirement of HEA or HFN.

 

[Wifetheif]

I have a nice sideline publishing shrink fiction on erotica at Amazon under a pseudonym. Not a great deal of money BUT I've made more off my smut than I have for my conventionally published award-winning nonfiction book!

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I give private readings.

I’m guessing the redhead pays well.

 

[StillStunned]

I’m guessing the redhead pays well.

We usually come to a mutually satisfying arrangement.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I publish stories through a Mom & Pop publishing company. I do okay. It's not great, but it's good enough to help with our monthly income. Most of my money earned from writing is from writing other people's stories as a ghostwriter. That's for blogs, podcasts, short stories, and novels.