Literotica Authors and Their Books (For Literotica Authors ONLY)

[sr71plt]

Why are you biting the hand that so graciously put your work out there on a paying venue that allows you to get off on such things as sales numbers and ratings? That's just folly.

If Selena doesn't think I've given more to eXcessica than I've received in this venture, let her speak up.

She's, speakiing of biting hands, the one who slammed me on this thread by interjecting information in public which a publisher shouldn't be putting in public. (And not information that's particularly relevant to the point, I might add, if she understand sales patterns).

 

[SweetWitch]

Pilot, you're a riot. What Selena says is true. Any time someone feels like celebrating, any time someone feels good about themselves, you have to point out how much better you're doing and how much more credit you deserve. Add to that your desire to be so negative and offer your sage "advice" in an effort to tear them down.

I thanked you for your congratulations. I'm sorry I didn't return the favor you bestowed upon me, but I was quite swept up in enjoying the moment -- a moment, I might add, that you've experienced for yourself on a number of occasions, or so you constantly point out.

You were being quite rude, dear man. You know it, even if you can't admit it. Attacking Selena for calling you on it is just ridiculous.

I understand your need to feel as if you're better than everyone else. Many people of your personality type are that way. That's something I can deal with, and for the most part, ignore because I deal with your ilk all the time. When you attack Selena, however, I have to speak up.

You've done nothing to help anyone here. Your advice is for your own gratification, not the good of others. You feel better when you can one-up everyone and that's the only reason you do it.

Selena, on the other hand, works her ass off for the common good of all who have participated in this venture. You jumped right in on the bandwagon, too, so don't deny that you enjoy the fruits of her labors. You said it was more lucrative than you'd imagined, yourself.

My unsolicited advice to you? Show a little respect. She's put a lot of work into it, and you've profited from it, too. You do everyone here a disservice when you go on the offensive. You should expect a dressing down, however teasing, when you behave rudely.

Have a lovely day.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

She's, speakiing of biting hands, the one who slammed me on this thread by interjecting information in public which a publisher shouldn't be putting in public. (And not information that's particularly relevant to the point, I might add, if she understand sales patterns).

I said Molly was outselling EVERYONE in the print department at eXcessica the moment, ya megalomaniac! And that, frankly, just proved your point, didn't it??

You totally baffle me sometimes.

And for Christ's sake, we've talked (on the author group, in which you have decided not to participate) about making our sales fully public, not just to other authors, but to EVERYONE. As the publisher I have a right to tell anyone, anywhere, who sells what. There's nothing anywhere to say I can't. I wouldn't make such a decision carte blanche, and didn't get enough feedback, as far as I was concerned, to go forward with the idea... but I've commented on bestsellers and other numbers, and was giving Molly a pat on the back while, I'll say it again, proving your point about print sales being far less than E.

And if you think I'm in this just for profit, you've got to be kidding me. Compared to how much work I put in doing web site updates, cover art, editing, marketing, formatting, accounting and the like, I make far less than minimum wage per hour, even with your contributions to the site. (Which aren't, as you know, unappreciated.)

 

[R. Richard]

Club Lighthouse has just published my latest novel, Second Chance: King of The Islands. Second Chance: King of The Islands is the fourth novel in the Second Chance series. Sales seem to be holding up and I will continue to publish new Second Chance series novels as long as the sales justify the effort.

By the way, I have enough rejection slips from earlier attempts to publish that I could wall paper a small room. If you want to publish, you have to be able to deal with rejection.

 

[sr71plt]

Pilot, you're a riot. What Selena says is true. Any time someone feels like celebrating, any time someone feels good about themselves, you have to point out how much better you're doing and how much more credit you deserve. Add to that your desire to be so negative and offer your sage "advice" in an effort to tear them down.

I thanked you for your congratulations. I'm sorry I didn't return the favor you bestowed upon me, but I was quite swept up in enjoying the moment -- a moment, I might add, that you've experienced for yourself on a number of occasions, or so you constantly point out.

You were being quite rude, dear man. You know it, even if you can't admit it. Attacking Selena for calling you on it is just ridiculous.

I understand your need to feel as if you're better than everyone else. Many people of your personality type are that way. That's something I can deal with, and for the most part, ignore because I deal with your ilk all the time. When you attack Selena, however, I have to speak up.

You've done nothing to help anyone here. Your advice is for your own gratification, not the good of others. You feel better when you can one-up everyone and that's the only reason you do it.

Selena, on the other hand, works her ass off for the common good of all who have participated in this venture. You jumped right in on the bandwagon, too, so don't deny that you enjoy the fruits of her labors. You said it was more lucrative than you'd imagined, yourself.

My unsolicited advice to you? Show a little respect. She's put a lot of work into it, and you've profited from it, too. You do everyone here a disservice when you go on the offensive. You should expect a dressing down, however teasing, when you behave rudely.

Have a lovely day.

Isn't it marvelous that we can have these discussions without one party moving to personal attack?

If showing concern that you not find yourself in the embarrassing position of getting a horse laugh from a B&N manager in the middle of a crowded bookstore is nasty, then I am nasty. If resorting to personal attack is nasty, then I guess it must be you. Should you ever want to put personal attack aside and discuss publishing and marketing strategy, I'll be happy to do that with you.

Incidentally, point of order to both you and Impressive. When I mentioned that publishing the eXcessica way is lucrative (since Selena is obviously going to let that slip under the carpet here), I didn't mean that it was personally lucrative--as it has been established that all of my eXcessica book profits are plowed directly back into eXcessica (to help make the publishing of your and Impressive books there possible). And while we're on the subject of who does work toward the eXcessica venture, in addition to giving it all my profits I've taken care of the editing of something close to a fourth of all of its books (plus given evaulations of multiple submissions and brought two other authors to the publishing house). Since this is supposed to be a cooperative venture, I'd be pleased to know what you and Impressive have done toward the eXcessica workload (other than cheap "thank yous," of course).

As for Selena on what publishers do, I doubt she has any inkling of the ethics publishers adhere to in industry standards.

 

[SweetWitch]

Isn't it marvelous that we can have these discussions without one party moving to personal attack?

If showing concern that you not find yourself in the embarrassing position of getting a horse laugh from a B&N manager in the middle of a crowded bookstore is nasty, then I am nasty. If resorting to personal attack is nasty, then I guess it must be you. Should you ever want to put personal attack aside and discuss publishing and marketing strategy, I'll be happy to do that with you.

Incidentally, point of order to both you and Impressive. When I mentioned that publishing the eXcessica way is lucrative (since Selena is obviously going to let that slip under the carpet here), I didn't mean that it was personally lucrative--as it has been established that all of my eXcessica book profits are plowed directly back into eXcessica (to help make the publishing of your and Impressive books there possible). And while we're on the subject of who does work toward the eXcessica venture, in addition to giving it all my profits I've taken care of the editing of something close to a fourth of all of its books (plus given evaulations of multiple submissions and brought two other authors to the publishing house). Since this is supposed to be a cooperative venture, I'd be pleased to know what you and Impressive have done toward the eXcessica workload (other than cheap "thank yous," of course).

As for Selena on what publishers do, I doubt she has any inkling of the ethics publishers adhere to in industry standards.

I stand corrected and apologize for not knowing the full extent of your contributions. It is a good thing you do and I appreciate it.

As for my own contributions, I can do little more than make sure my own work is as proper and correct as possible before sending it off to be edited. Once I'm able to quit my 60+ hour-work-week-type job and can devote the needed time to my family and home, I fully intend to offer my services in whatever capacity I can. As it is, I can only carve out a few sad hours a week for writing. It would be nice to say that my life is my own, but recent events have left me responsible for the needs of a great many people. My needs come second.

As far as "cheap" thank you's are concerned, there's nothing cheap about it. Each declaration of gratitude is heart-felt and important. Had I the money, I would have done something nice for her, but I'm only starting out after a shift in careers and my family must come first. My child, my surviving nephew and the rest of my family need all the help I can provide, so I have no choices here.

My post was not a personal attack. It was a voicing of my own opinions on the matter. A personal attack would have been to call you a mutton-headed asswipe for your attitude and pea-brained son-of-a-bitch for treating everyone else as beneath you. I didn't do that, though, did I?

Incidentally, there was nothing remotely embarrassing about my visit with the manager of book this morning. I walked in with my (former) agent and friend, and sat down with the guy. He liked my ideas and will be in contact with Fred to possibly set things up after the first of the year. That doesn't mean the books will be placed on the shelf. It's just a means for him to pull in customers and a way for me to get my name out into the community. As I said before, it's a local thing.

 

[SweetWitch]

Club Lighthouse has just published my latest novel, Second Chance: King of The Islands. Second Chance: King of The Islands is the fourth novel in the Second Chance series. Sales seem to be holding up and I will continue to publish new Second Chance series novels as long as the sales justify the effort.

By the way, I have enough rejection slips from earlier attempts to publish that I could wall paper a small room. If you want to publish, you have to be able to deal with rejection.

Congrats!

I papered one long wall with all my rejection slips.

 

[R. Richard]

Congrats!

I papered one long wall with all my rejection slips.

Thanks. It's tough, but you have to keep at it!

 

[sr71plt]

IAs far as "cheap" thank you's are concerned, there's nothing cheap about it. Each declaration of gratitude is heart-felt and important.

Cheap as in it takes no more resource than posting a sentence to an Internet chat room. That's pretty cheap.

 

[SweetWitch]

Thanks. It's tough, but you have to keep at it!

I'm still at it, doll.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Incidentally, there was nothing remotely embarrassing about my visit with the manager of book this morning.

I'm looking into ways we can get our books on actual shelves. If anyone knows any sources, LMK!

 

[sr71plt]

I'm looking into ways we can get our books on actual shelves. If anyone knows any sources, LMK!

A. Open your own chain of brick and mortar bookstores and stock what you please.

B. Otherwise, you would have to look for independent bookstores specializing in this sort of book--and set a very high markup, much higher than currently on the books. Regular bookstores will not touch print-on-demand books (except for academic books that have been on their regular order list and have moved to POD when put on the backlist). And any bookstore will take such a big cut of the price (like 60-80 percent of the retail price) that the only way the author/publisher can make money off them is to get the prices set extremely high and be happy with pennies-per-book returns.

Most any bookstore will also demand a returns policy--meaning they shelf but only pay for what they sell and those they don't sell in the time period they set, they tear off the cover (although you might be able to make a deal with individual stores not to do this--at your own shipping expense) and return just the covers to the publisher at the publisher's expense.

If you are able to make a cost-effective run at this with POD books, you quite possibility will be the first one industry history to pull it off. (It might be that independent porn stores are the first place where it could be made to work.) But in a print book operation, you must cover production, warehousing, distribution, promotion (not just book advertising--bookstore deals as well), and returns/remaindering costs. Yots of ruck with that.

 

[michchick98]

My first review!

Okay, so it was reviewed back in October, but this is the first I learned of it.

The Mechanic was reviewed by Nannette at Joyfully Reviewed:

http://www.joyfullyreviewed.com/reviews/Oct08/themechanic.VV.html

 

[Selena_Kitt]

A. Open your own chain of brick and mortar bookstores and stock what you please.

B. Otherwise, you would have to look for independent bookstores specializing in this sort of book--and set a very high markup, much higher than currently on the books. Regular bookstores will not touch print-on-demand books (except for academic books that have been on their regular order list and have moved to POD when put on the backlist). And any bookstore will take such a big cut of the price (like 60-80 percent of the retail price) that the only way the author/publisher can make money off them is to get the prices set extremely high and be happy with pennies-per-book returns.

Most any bookstore will also demand a returns policy--meaning they shelf but only pay for what they sell and those they don't sell in the time period they set, they tear off the cover (although you might be able to make a deal with individual stores not to do this--at your own shipping expense) and return just the covers to the publisher at the publisher's expense.

If you are able to make a cost-effective run at this with POD books, you quite possibility will be the first one industry history to pull it off. (It might be that independent porn stores are the first place where it could be made to work.) But in a print book operation, you must cover production, warehousing, distribution, promotion (not just book advertising--bookstore deals as well), and returns/remaindering costs. Yots of ruck with that.

Actually, I know Samhain and others do POD books, and they use independent middlemen (like Ingram's). So regular bookstores "touch" POD books all the time. And those publishers all made a pretty damned good success at doing it. I wish I knew someone personally who had firsthand experience with it. I won't contact Ingram's, yet, though, until we've been print published for longer, as they want our "top ten selling books" sent to them. But that seems our best route, as others have done it before us, and Samhain's books are on shelves in Borders and B&N. And I priced our books comparable with them (the same rough markup) so we could be competitive, if it came to that.

Granted, we're a little more extreme... and less mainstream, as we have less consistent romance in our stuff. But we still sell our asses off at FW. It would be interesting to see how we could do in that realm.

 

[SweetWitch]

Actually, I know Samhain and others do POD books, and they use independent middlemen (like Ingram's). So regular bookstores "touch" POD books all the time. And those publishers all made a pretty damned good success at doing it. I wish I knew someone personally who had firsthand experience with it. I won't contact Ingram's, yet, though, until we've been print published for longer, as they want our "top ten selling books" sent to them. But that seems our best route, as others have done it before us, and Samhain's books are on shelves in Borders and B&N. And I priced our books comparable with them (the same rough markup) so we could be competitive, if it came to that.

Granted, we're a little more extreme... and less mainstream, as we have less consistent romance in our stuff. But we still sell our asses off at FW. It would be interesting to see how we could do in that realm.

That just goes to prove that you never know until you try! Go for it!

 

[sr71plt]

Actually, I know Samhain and others do POD books, and they use independent middlemen (like Ingram's). So regular bookstores "touch" POD books all the time. And those publishers all made a pretty damned good success at doing it. I wish I knew someone personally who had firsthand experience with it. I won't contact Ingram's, yet, though, until we've been print published for longer, as they want our "top ten selling books" sent to them. But that seems our best route, as others have done it before us, and Samhain's books are on shelves in Borders and B&N. And I priced our books comparable with them (the same rough markup) so we could be competitive, if it came to that.

Granted, we're a little more extreme... and less mainstream, as we have less consistent romance in our stuff. But we still sell our asses off at FW. It would be interesting to see how we could do in that realm.

Well, then go for it, certainly. And let us know how it worked out for you. Wonder why you asked, though.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Well, then go for it, certainly. And let us know how it worked out for you. Wonder why you asked, though.

Just looking for other possible sources, like I said. That's the only one I know of... seeing if anyone had any other ideas!

 

[sr71plt]

Just looking for other possible sources, like I said. That's the only one I know of... seeing if anyone had any other ideas!

Uh. OK. Well, I gave you mine. And I didn't get that out of a textbook. So, it will be interesting to see how much of what you indicated is being done is wishful thinking urban myth and how much is an improvement in the system's accommodation of POD. I'll be pleased as punch if it's the latter.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

I'll be pleased as punch if it's the latter.

Me, too!

 

[slyc_willie]

Just because I can, and because I've never been able to before (not in this genre, anyway), I just wanted to share a little something with you all . . . .

http://i438.photobucket.com/albums/qq107/gabrieldaemon/small_Daemon-Stripped.jpg

And

http://i438.photobucket.com/albums/qq107/gabrieldaemon/small_Daemon-Gingerbread.jpg


You've really made me smile, Selena.

 

[SweetWitch]

Just because I can, and because I've never been able to before (not in this genre, anyway), I just wanted to share a little something with you all . . . .

http://i438.photobucket.com/albums/qq107/gabrieldaemon/small_Daemon-Stripped.jpg

And

http://i438.photobucket.com/albums/qq107/gabrieldaemon/small_Daemon-Gingerbread.jpg


You've really made me smile, Selena.

Congrats, doll!

 

[Zeb_Carter]

My newest is released...Walker Brigade Book of Incidents.

 

[michchick98]

New release from eXcessica!

No longer available for sale

 

[impressive]

New book with a new publisher ...

http://www.alessiabrio.com/images/The%20Lust%20Chronicles%20Anthology%20(200x300).jpg

Available in ebook and audiobook from Ravenous Romance. My "100% true" story "Digital Manipulation" is included.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

New book with a new publisher ...

http://www.alessiabrio.com/images/The_Lust_Chronicles%20Anthology.jpg

Available in ebook and audiobook from Ravenous Romance. My "100% true" story "Digital Manipulation" is included.

Hot cover!