I just submitted my first story...

[Gamblnluck]

Thank you. I've never does Patreon, but I've heard that they have some odd rules regarding anything R-rated and above. With that being said, do you think a 3-4K-word story released every two weeks be considered steady?

My stories (and chapters) are generally 2 to 3 times that size. I'm not sure what a reader has to pay to read a story that short but if more than a dime a read, I wouldn't do it.

 

[Afrojasi]

Congrats!

 

[Gamblnluck]

Check this author out for reference. You can see his Patreon page in his bio. Keep in mind that this guy has written millions of words already and it took him a lot of time to build up the interest and readership.

He writes exclusively sci-fi as well. I had the idea for a novel/series but could not get anybody to work it with me. It would have taken some real research to flesh out my idea. My sister who has published four textbooks and another non-fiction book, and (according to her) some fictional romance stuff that I have not read ignored me. Oh well. I get the idea, but making it work is tough.

 

[Voboy]

i was put on to a publisher by a 'face' on this site. they spread the publication around a lot of areas, pay royalties every month, and are all-round good people. if i wasn't so lazy, i'd put a book out each month (10k words would be my minimum), and probably get a load more money than i do.

I have a similar story, except that the publisher sought me out based on my successes here; it might well have been the same imprint as geronimo. It was a great experience while it lasted. I discovered I didn't like it enough to keep it going, though I still contribute to the publisher's pieces from time to time.

This is a difficult way to make a good wage, honestly. My total earnings from 6-7 years of writing, including several published e-books (advances plus continuing royalties), appearances in features and anthologies, and quite a few commissioned pieces from interested readers, probably comes to around $7k or so.

I have little doubt I'd be able to make a bit more if I spent more time and effort at promotion and "churn," but this is not generally a way to get rich. For every EL James, there are probably several hundred Voboys.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Flash erotica is generally priced at $1.99 for stories from 1500 - 3499 words, $2.24 from 3500 - 5000, and $3.24 for 5000 - 8000—a dime it ain't. Longer stories in erotica, between 10,000 and 30,000 words, are around $3.99 or more. Erotic fiction costs more than the non-erotic.

My stories (and chapters) are generally 2 to 3 times that size. I'm not sure what a reader has to pay to read a story that short but if more than a dime a read, I wouldn't do it.

 

[Gamblnluck]

Flash erotica is generally priced at $1.99 for stories from 1500 - 3499 words, $2.24 from 3500 - 5000, and $3.24 for 5000 - 8000—a dime it ain't. Longer stories in erotica, between 10,000 and 30,000 words, are around $3.99 or more. Erotic fiction costs more than the non-erotic.

And what does the author get? Sorry, but no way would I pay 2bucks for 99% of the stories I read here. And I am selective in what I read. I still read at least 15 to 20 of the new stories daily and probably another six or eight older stories.
I tend to look at the profiles of those who favorite one of my stories. I look to see their other favorites and that leads me to read a few.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I'm not asking you to pay anything. And what I make off sales is none of your business. Go to Amazon, Smashwords (Actually, it belongs to D2D now), or BookApy and publish stories if you want to. But don't snap at me about what you won't do. You said you wouldn't pay a dime; you can't buy any literature anywhere for a dime. You can sometimes get stories for free somewhere. And you are welcome to do so. But you said, "I'm not sure what a reader has to pay to read a story that short," and I gave you a breakdown of the average erotica for sale. And you snapped your cap at me about stories here.

And what does the author get? Sorry, but no way would I pay 2bucks for 99% of the stories I read here. And I am selective in what I read. I still read at least 15 to 20 of the new stories daily and probably another six or eight older stories.
I tend to look at the profiles of those who favorite one of my stories. I look to see their other favorites and that leads me to read a few.

 

[Gamblnluck]

I'm not asking you to pay anything. And what I make off sales is none of your business. Go to Amazon, Smashwords (Actually, it belongs to D2D now), or BookApy and publish stories if you want to. But don't snap at me about what you won't do. You said you wouldn't pay a dime;

Not snapping. I was simply stating a fact. I would NOT pay. BUT if I can make a few bucks, I'll do it. Was seriously wondering how much of that money people pay to read goes to you and how much to the site.
Don't get overly sensitive about what you think I said.

 

[SyleusSnow]

Psst... many folks who write Erotica for profit gather at the Erotica Authors subreddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/eroticauthors/

Helpful discussion of strategies, Amazon's latest dirty tricks, and other parts of the craft... including frequent postings on income.

Just don't ask what niches they publish in. No one will share what makes them the bucks.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

Perhaps I've put too much thought into this (although to succeed at anything, I don't believe you can put in too much thought... or effort!), but right now, I have twenty-five stories averaging just over 3K words each stockpiled up. It's a series with consistent characters and development, although each story does stand on its own merit, too. I'm thinking of releasing a story every two weeks, then a book for sale of that year's output (~80K words). Maybe offering perks like writing someone into a story, etcetera...

Still thinking of everything...

each stadalone book really needs to be 10k+ words to justify the price tag on the forum i use, but regular release like you mention is the key. i also write for a producer, which is less effort for greater return. so that's my focus.

that's a good sized chink of writing you've done there, though. i hope it's a success.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

From personal experience, unless you manage to build a large following over time, the best approach is doing commission work. You can set the boundaries for what that means for you. Personally, I wouldn't want anyone else to dictate what the story should truly be about, but I do allow them to pick the fetishes and kinks they want the sexual stuff to be focused on, and the general feel of the story. (Romance, graphic sex, horror, etc)

Sometimes they also want you to add a specific character in there. As in "Female, blonde, this and that tall, these interests.." - I assume they either want to self-insert or add their wife or something. I don't usually ask.

But if you do commissions, make sure you make it clear that you still want to keep ownership of the material, and that after you've written it for them, you can still upload it here or elsewhere - for free or for sale. Most people don't mind that one bit. They just want to read the story and don't care what you do with it afterwards.

Best of luck! And be warned; Commission work is usually less fun than writing what you're really in the mood for, and to adapt to someone else's fetishes, you have to do a fair bit of research in order to get it just right. Furthermore, the more niche fetishes you target, the more likely that someone's willing to pay, as they can't find much of that for free anywhere. So expect some really weird requests. I mean, really weird sometimes. Brace yourself.

Interesting!! Thank you so much for your input. I'm still trying to amass as much information about all of this as possible. Thank you, again!!

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Flash erotica is generally priced at $1.99 for stories from 1500 - 3499 words, $2.24 from 3500 - 5000, and $3.24 for 5000 - 8000—a dime it ain't. Longer stories in erotica, between 10,000 and 30,000 words, are around $3.99 or more. Erotic fiction costs more than the non-erotic.

Thank you!! That is very helpful information!!!

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Thank you all, so far!!! I just checked the listing of top stories of all time (curious on word length) and the top story with over 15M reads is 3.1K words. The second story is 2.7K. It's down to the sixth or seventh story before we break 10K words. Then we start getting some HUGE works! Like novel-sized, 300-page submissions!!! I'm guessing those read numbers are a "bit" skewed only in the sense that if I've read a physical book, I've read it once. But I've picked it up and opened it dozens of times.

So, a shorter story may have been read 10 million times (sometimes re-read by the same person, but still read nonetheless), while a much longer story may have actually been read 1/30th as many times, just over the course of many different sessions.

Caveat: that is *IF* I'm understanding the read numbers correctly...

 

[Devinter]

Thank you all, so far!!! I just checked the listing of top stories of all time (curious on word length) and the top story with over 15M reads is 3.1K words. The second story is 2.7K. It's down to the sixth or seventh story before we break 10K words. Then we start getting some HUGE works! Like novel-sized, 300-page submissions!!! I'm guessing those read numbers are a "bit" skewed only in the sense that if I've read a physical book, I've read it once. But I've picked it up and opened it dozens of times.

So, a shorter story may have been read 10 million times (sometimes re-read by the same person, but still read nonetheless), while a much longer story may have actually been read 1/30th as many times, just over the course of many different sessions.

Caveat: that is *IF* I'm understanding the read numbers correctly...

The shorter stories do get read slightly more, I would imagine - but what's important is that you have enough time to build up characters that the reader can enjoy, and that you are able to set sexual or romantic tension, and then deliver some sort of finale. Preferably that really arouses the reader. Doing that in less than 3k words is possible but tricky if you want your story to have depth. If you're writing an on-going story, chapter after chapter, that changes things, because people can just jump straight to the next chapter right away. (if it's already been written and posted)

 

[StillStunned]

The shorter stories do get read slightly more, I would imagine - but what's important is that you have enough time to build up characters that the reader can enjoy, and that you are able to set sexual or romantic tension, and then deliver some sort of finale. Preferably that really arouses the reader. Doing that in less than 3k words is possible but tricky if you want your story to have depth. If you're writing an on-going story, chapter after chapter, that changes things, because people can just jump straight to the next chapter right away. (if it's already been written and posted)

Small quibble: you can tell a story in any number of words. The shortest one I've heard of goes something like this: "For sale: crib. Unused."

It's important to focus on what you're trying to achieve. If you're writing a stroker, you can just get right to the steamy stuff. It will be more memorable if at least one of the characters is relatable, or the setup is unusual. But you don't need to start by giving a full description: you can weave the character or situation into the "smut" and leave the reader feeling as if they've got to know your character, or experienced the situation, while being carried along on the sexier elements.

On the other hand, more words don't necessarily add more depth. I've read plenty of stories that have reems of dialogue that do nothing to advance character, plot or setting.

So yes, overall I agree with you: more words give more opportunities for depth, fewer words will tend to focus on stroke material. But if we're here to discuss the craft of writing, the opposite should at least be mentioned.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Royalties at Amazon are 70%, Royalties at Smashwords 80%, Royalties sold through Smashwords partners 80% of whatever Smashwords is paid, and Bookappy 87% of the net price of each book then you lose whatever the transaction fee is from PayPal for both sides of the transaction, (Yeah, that's a can of worms).

Not snapping. I was simply stating a fact. I would NOT pay. BUT if I can make a few bucks, I'll do it. Was seriously wondering how much of that money people pay to read goes to you and how much to the site.
Don't get overly sensitive about what you think I said.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Just found this. It could be a start...
In the My Options section of your profile at the bottom, look for this.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Just found this. It could be a start...
In the My Options section of your profile at the bottom, look for this.

View attachment 2295089

Ah-hah! That could definitely be a start!! Thank you!!!

 

[MillieDynamite]

I meant to show you that when I told you about being able to link to one outlet—stupid, stupid, stupid me.

Ah-hah! That could definitely be a start!! Thank you!!!

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Hello, all! To paraphrase a famous phrase, "long time viewer, first time poster." I have an FYI and a couple of questions.

First, if you submit your initial story and make ANY changes to anything, be sure to resubmit it!! Mine sat in "drafts" for seven days before I realized!!! :-(

Now, a few questions (and I did spend almost three hours searching this forum and a few weeks doing independent research, so I'm not just asking someone else to do all my work)...

How do I cash in??

I've been a published author for almost 30 years, have self-published books, written articles for print media, blah-blah-blah... Still have a day job.

I saw a news report of a woman on FansOnly who is earning $90K per month (incidentally, she was found out and lost her "normal" job, but I don't think she's super concerned at this point!). I do not want to pose nude and my beauty years are behind me, so I figured I could write erotica. I spent the last few months writing twenty-five stories (averaging 3,500 words each) about a young lady and her sexual adventures. I'd say it's more "romance," but still plenty of graphic scenes. No ped, non-con, abusive, etcetera.

It seems that trying to sell on an established site can be an issue. Mainly you play by their rules. You could build your profile up and then suddenly get shut down and lose it all. A few years ago, an online algorithm flagged something I wrote as copyright infringement and it took weeks for me to finally prove that the copyright infringement they found was for MY OWN copyright. Ugh!!

I read about someone writing and publishing their material for free (one of the sites they used was this one!) and setting up a way for people to tip them. The downside, I would think, is the lack of a steady income that subscribers would provide.

One way that looked promising was doing it yourself. Simply setting up a way to accept payment and a way to get stories out to subscribers. This would be more work, but possibly more freedom, reliability, and less fees taken out of subscribers' payments (therefore less end money for you).

So, what are your thoughts on this? Any success stories you'd like to share? Any failures you'd like to share? Any advice at all?

Thank you so much and I look forward to becoming a real part of this community!!

Erotica is finding a place in mainstream publishing, porn too, but not so much. If you can find the right balance of erotic content to keep your stories in the "R-Rated" or soft "X-Rated" categories, you might want to explore publication.

Bloom Books is one publisher that comes to mind who is always open to erotic content. E.L. James, Lucy Score, and several other writers have found success through them. You might want to check out their website, but getting the attention of an erotic story publisher will be no different than any other publisher. Be prepared with a solid query letter, synopsis, and a completed manuscript.

I had posted on another thread earlier this year that there are more and more agents also willing to take on erotic content authors as clients. Visiting Query Tracker dot com and searching for "erotic" under categories will identify these agents for you.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

I have a similar story, except that the publisher sought me out based on my successes here; it might well have been the same imprint as geronimo. It was a great experience while it lasted. I discovered I didn't like it enough to keep it going, though I still contribute to the publisher's pieces from time to time.

This is a difficult way to make a good wage, honestly. My total earnings from 6-7 years of writing, including several published e-books (advances plus continuing royalties), appearances in features and anthologies, and quite a few commissioned pieces from interested readers, probably comes to around $7k or so.

I have little doubt I'd be able to make a bit more if I spent more time and effort at promotion and "churn," but this is not generally a way to get rich. For every EL James, there are probably several hundred Voboys.

yeah, the return isn't much unless there's consitent output. the scripts, however... that's bought a few plane tickets over the years.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Caveat: that is *IF* I'm understanding the read numbers correctly...

Don't fall into the trap of thinking Views = Reads. A View means a person has clicked into a story, but there is no way of knowing if that person actually read it. They might have clicked out after one paragraph.

My rule of thumb, based on a number of chaptered stories where I can see the drop-off in Views per chapter, is that maybe, only maybe, one in five people who open Chapter One will finish Chapter Last. I apply the same principle to a stand-alone story.

Also, don't always think a short story is better. It's erotica, remember. You need to give readers time for arousal, and even more time for a result. So unless your target audience is sixteen year old boys who get off in two minutes, you might want to think about longer stories. 8k - 10k words (3 Lit pages) seems to be a sweet spot, whenever this gets talked about.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Don't fall into the trap of thinking Views = Reads. A View means a person has clicked into a story, but there is no way of knowing if that person actually read it. They might have clicked out after one paragraph.

My rule of thumb, based on a number of chaptered stories where I can see the drop-off in Views per chapter, is that maybe, only maybe, one in five people who open Chapter One will finish Chapter Last. I apply the same principle to a stand-alone story.

Also, don't always think a short story is better. It's erotica, remember. You need to give readers time for arousal, and even more time for a result. So unless your target audience is sixteen year old boys who get off in two minutes, you might want to think about longer stories. 8k - 10k words (3 Lit pages) seems to be a sweet spot, whenever this gets talked about.

Thank you!! That's great information!!!

 

[FreyaGersemi]

My first story has been published on the site!! One vote so far, but it was a 5-star!!!

 

[ElectricBlue]

My first story has been published on the site!! One vote so far, but it was a 5-star!!!

Cute story, very "writerly". Freya was very determined, but poor young what's his face won't be able to keep up!

A couple of paragraphs tense-shifted towards the end, which leapt out at me - but don't worry, we've all done that on occasion. Also, ? just by itself, not ?,