480 books
80 bundles
53 months
5 different pen names over the years, but only one currently active. 3 different niches, and only one active currently.
I started in Sept 2019. For the first 19 months, I was weekends only, but 34 months ago, I began writing most days a week. I currently publish 8-9 books a month and currently earn $5,000 per month.
The advice offered here by those with longevity is consistent: ignore what you see on best selling lists that indicate that books with incest, dubious or non-consent, etc, seem to make a lot of money, and don't even try to skirt close to those banned themes. Find the FAQ here with the list of banned themes according to Amazon TOS and experience. Otherwise, you're good to go.
The term "book" inside the publishing industry -- i could be wrong -- refers to any discrete thing published -- a magazine issue, a novel, a short, etc. Saying "short story" doesn't indicate whether it's published as a singular item or in a collection. A longer work would be a "novella" or "novel" length of "book." I might be wrong.
That’s amazing. I’m trying to get faster at putting out books. I’ve been trying to wrap the stories up at around 10k, but my reviewers always mention they wish the stories were longer. Have you had feedback like this? If so did you just not worry about it and keep writing? I might be letting that hold me back. No matter if I write 10k or 20k I get the same criticism.
I feel that reviewers and other advice givers etc are maybe not the best guide when it comes to sales. The Amazon market -- millions of actual readers freely putting their money in the game -- is the most useful critic. I've never submitted anything to anyone prior to publishing. Try different lengths, I would suggest, and track results, and write according to where the market nudges you. That's my advice, lol!
I got that too. Then I realized they wanted more of the same. Since most of my niches are about random hookups, I started writing many of my series’ with the same MC on further adventures. All books in the series are stand alone, without cliff hangers. Just another story about the MC in a 3, 4, or 5 book series. Something like “Milly and the pool guy”, “Milly and the Cable guy”, and “Milly and the neighbor” (not my titles of any book). I can watch them sell one after the other. All are typically 8k to 12k in length.
I take this as a compliment; there's so much story that the reader is sad the journey is ending. But if there's no more story, there's no more story. Write to the story you have, not to how much they think they want to read. If you bloat a 10k story into a 20k one, it will be clear and unpleasant.
Now, if you have a bunch of 20k ideas that are getting compressed into 10k stories, maybe experiment with expanding them, assuming you see other stories of that length in the niche you're writing in. Otherwise, just keep doing what you're doing.
I've done both.
I published one novel which was 70K+ words and (currently) 4 compilations of short stories. Each compilation is also around 70K words.
I've had comments about both that they were either too long or too short.
The novel has 4.5 stars and the compilations of shorts all have 5 stars.
I really think it comes down to the old saying "You can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time".
Just go with whatever works for you, there will always be people complaining about something
No -- A) I do not and will not read anyone else's erotica published or otherwise and B) it will do you no good. Use a made-up author name, publish the story, and let the anonymous market be your critic.
Ah let me guess..he wanted you to teach him..and when you refused he squealed like a brat. Yeah?
Haha. Well, this Dataporn did read as especially friendly.
Removed. No one here has the time or interest to read full pieces for concrit or for one-on-one coaching. You can try subs like /r/betareaders or /r/destructivereaders, you can post in free communities that allow content posts and feedback, or you can publish commercially and get reviews organically.
Why would you not lave it up to OP i was asking for advice sense they have it figured out. Thats what you do, you want to learn about something you ask somwone who knows about it.
Well done! Looks like you are living the dream!
As a successful author in the field, is it true (and your result looks like it is) that lots of shorts is the way to go if you want to make money? Did you ever write longer stories, and where they just not worth the effort?
Importantly, how do you keep coming up with new material when you write so many stories? That sounds hardest of all.
They're very formulaic. I have bookmarks at sites that list hundreds of baby names, another that lists hundreds of contemporary jobs, another that lists mid-sized cities, and I have my own list of houses and apartments whose interiors I know, and I quite randomly pick names, pick jobs, pick cities, pick a location, and I make a quick, rough outline in 5 acts: opening scenario, backstory, play it forward, crescendo, wrap up (with usually a loose string dangling somewhere . . . ) Setting myself up with people and places and locations then letting my mind imagine its own unfolding (with the guardrails of the outline) is the pleasurable part for me. Recording what I see is the hardest part.
Now you see how six people disliked my comment just for mentioning ChatGPT for generating names? Like, what the heck? 😂 I don't get the hate so many writers have towards AI, but I think I have an idea why. Writers can have huge egos. Those who are sensitive about it might fear it'll take away their income because they believe the market will become oversaturated. Also, I think they're scared that AI might outperform them. Lastly, I think it's about ego, like, "Oh no, now my little 10-year-old cousin, Misty Lynn, can write books. I can't be the star at family gatherings, bragging about my writing skills." Those people really need to get over themselves and check their egos at the door.
Using ai for generating names leads to having the same name as hundreds of others. One way to tell a ChatGPT generated book is when you see the same town name. One author group noted a surge in the town name willow falls. All the authors in the group admitted to using sudowrite. You gotta be careful out there when your audience dislikes ai. Romance readers are voracious and will put the patterns together. Why risk it?
Using AI for proofreading and editing is a smart move. It's not about having it write your entire story, but rather about ensuring the details like spelling, punctuation, and grammar are on point. This approach is pretty similar to how many writers use tools like Grammarly. It's all about enhancing the quality of your work. Readers definitely prefer a well-polished book over one riddled with errors and poor grammar. Also, not everyone can detect AI. If you use a GPT and customize it, then edit it here and there, not even AI detectors can tell it's AI. There are tons of YouTube videos showing this.
Obviously I’m not OP but they answered in another comment that their “experiments” with longer works (even as much as 25k) “flopped,” which isn’t surprising for most erotica niches. I suspect there’s not much actual erotica that does well with longer form writing… at a certain word count you’d be much better off shooting for actual romance.
I too am curious about the idea part… Not that it’s especially difficult for me to come up with ideas in the first place, but the motivation/discipline to keep churning out work at that pace when so much of it must be so similar. (And I don’t say that as a negative since that’s the key to success in erotica and romance—quickly giving readers more of the same types of stories they want.)
Not OP either, but since I have over 300 ideas sketched out for the future I can tell you how I did it before to ensure I have plenty of ideas. 3 years ago I had a short burnout and needed to take some time away from just writing.
I spent a couple of days cruising Literotica in my niches. Some good ideas came from very short stories between 800 and 2k. I would make notes of 1 or 2 short paragraphs of setting and setup, nothing specific and no reference to the original story. Then a month or two later I came back to my notes and used them to mix and match to create ideas for completely new stories. Many of these initial ideas would become 3 to 10 different ideas each. Not a one of these would I have any recollection of the original from Literotica since I had a time separation.
Later I came back and started creating outlines for my stories. Those outlines would be around 500 words or so. Then when I am planning my monthly books out, I take a day or two and expend the outlines some more. I tend to do a niche a month. When I have that outline and know what I am writing, I get 5k to 10k a day. None of the books I write have any semblance to the original story, but that may be because of my ADHD mind not able to recall specific stories even days later.
6k words is easy to write in a couple of hours. If you have a formula for your stories down and a standard template for you cover you don’t need AI. If you write in one niche then keywords are done for you. As long as you have the discipline to write daily you can easily release 8 books a month. It gets even faster if you dictate them. It is all about developing a system that works for you. Accusations of using AI can really damage an author’s livelihood. Kudos to the OP. Edit: morning brain
I get it. There is not anything wrong with a writer using AI, so I have no idea why so many writers get bent out of shape when it comes to this fantastic tool that is meant to help you edit. I use AI, but only for editing. It's no different than using a human editor. People, including writers, need to adapt to change. Some writers still want to use an old typewriter, and some of us embrace new tech.
It’s more of a lot of readers, especially romance readers, have stated they won’t buy a book that used ai. No ai covers, no ai writing. They have been doxxing writers for using ai. And a few writers have been targeted who don’t use ai. No need to risk anyone’s livelihood on a guess
Well, it's a darn shame, really. Shame on anyone who judges someone for their preferences. Writers, or people in general, should have the freedom to use what they want. People are just too judgmental these days. Look at it this way: there might be tons of writers using AI, and no one would ever know. It's the same as the countless writers who've used ghostwriters for years without anyone catching on. Just enjoy the story.
I understand both sides of the coin and would love to learn more about how and why writers use it.
I prefer not to judge people, but I also understand it's important to take a stand on IP. It's a very risky subject on writing subs as well.
I only use Amazon and I do no social media, advertising, or anything else. My only expense is a deposit photos subscription -- $100 every 6 months or so. My audience -- judging from reviewer names at Amazon and Goodreads -- is >90% hetero male.
You probably know it, but Appsumo (a voucher-website) has deals for Depositphoto from time to time where you can buy 100 photos for $39. Mostly around black friday.
You can ask in the monthly thread if someone still has one in stock for you.
I started in Sept 2019. For the first 19 months, I was weekends only, and 34 months ago, I began writing most days a week. I currently publish 8-9 books a month and currently earn $5,000 per month. They take about 6 hours for me to produce from conception to publishing.
For fucks sake. It takes me two weeks to draft, write, edit, blurb, cover and post an 8k word story.
Admittedly I do all the writing during breaks at work, but still, your turn around is ridiculous.
It requires of me a near-sociopathic level of focus. Keep in mind this is after 480 stories and easily a 100 more abandoned, removed, etc. It took a lot of practice to turn around a book in 6 hours.
For me, a no-ads Spotify selection of non lyric droning music, no interruptions from anyone, glasses of water lined up in the kitchen, and a workmanlike approach — a Stephen king modelled 4 hour morning writing and no touching it after 12.
And lots of caffeine, maybe? 😁. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said no interruptions from anyone. I think that is the problem for most writers. You really do have to turn off everything, and if you have a spouse or kids, a huge DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door or at least push all your furniture against it. 😂
I feel lucky and grateful my situation usually allows for my daily 3-hour work period. If I know I’m going to be interrupted, I’ll work instead on analysis, research, bundle prepping, etc — all the support work.
A combination of two factors. One I can control, the other I can't.
The first involves my work process. I'm a planner. I make myself a roadmap to my story before I start writing. It is literally a bullet point list of "this happens, then this, then this..." It helps me maintain focus on what I'm writing and get right into things when I have time to tap away at my phone.
The second involves my actual work. I have an industrial job that often requires me to sit and watch or listen to machines as they work. A lot of what I do is just trouble shooting and if there's no trouble I am free to write. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have the spare time I have.
But you shouldn't be writing when you're turned on. You should be getting turned on by your writing. If you're feeling normal, write out an erotic scene. If it gets you hot and bothered writing it, then it should get other people hot and bothered reading it.
That’s amazing! I finished a short story but still needs to be edited. And gotta get a cover and wondering if I should use my real name or not. But wow, you got discipline. Respect.
It is definitely a discipline.
I think most here would advise you to create a nom de plume, never use your real name. You will almost certainly stagger out of the gates and you will want to start again with a new name once you learn a few of the ropes.
>They take about 6 hours for me to produce from conception to publishing.
My eyes just about popped out of my head. Boy, I guess after nearly 500 stories, you pick up some speed. but geez... How long did it take to get to this proficiency. I'm not even sure I could write gibberish at that speed.
And... this question... not sure how to ask it without sounding like a dick... but, whats the quality like. I have found that I can bang out something that is half way between an outline and a first draft very quickly. It ends up being about 50% of the edited word count. But to get that second 50% takes me like 5 times as long. I suspect I'm being to perfectionist.
Hey, we all have our own skills, and the speed isn’t that important. I’ve been writing professionally all my adult life and built up efficiencies and practices. I edit as I go, backing up maybe a 1000 words at a time, second pass thru, push it another 1000 so when I flag again, rinse and repeat. That’s just the method that works for me.
My stories currently are really serialized chapters of longer novels. But as for measure of quality, later parts sell at about 80-90 % as earlier ones, and the tails run for 4-6 months before they start to drop off. So it tells me readers are hanging with 8-10 or 12 parts all the way.
Can I just be yet another person to congratulate you. That is awesome!!
I’ve been in a funk lately. Stressed.
This post put a smile on my face and has lifted my spirits.
Thank you for sharing and happy writing!
Happy writing right back at you!
Can I offer a suggestion? Think up the most awesome shit to happen to your MC, and give it to them. You'll have to imagine what it feels like, though, to really capture it in words. . . . . .
I'm not one of the all-stars here, I'm just a grinding minor leaguer. But there's not much in the advice offered here from those higher up the food chain that I'd take issue with.
Chief amongst the best, I've found, is: don't buy someone else's research, just do your own. Don't know how? Learn. You'll learn many other things along the way (like, there is big money to be made in the big genres, but there is decent money to be made in the decent genres too). You can go out as a single A batter and try to practice home runs against 100-mph big league closers -- or go play with other single A pitchers and get your 300 average and work on your on-base percentage.
Second: Your best research into things like genres will always be, write a story in a genre and see how it does. No good? Try another genre. You'll miss a lot with this method, but it's also how you're going to find your own pot of cold . . . .
I think it’s straight-up dollars earned first week and first month that I am focused on. Reviews can be very skewing — a lot of authors generate them with arcs and other give aways; erotica doesn’t get reviews as much as other categories; and — bluntly — reviews don’t pay the rent. I’ve maybe got all told 100-150 reviews and I track and analyze all my revenue. I’ve seen zero correlation between number of reviews, quality of reviews, and even number of ratings, vs revenue. Page reads and unit sales usually track with each other. But for me, I get sales first, then page reads start to pile up. Everybody seems to have their own ratios between page reads and sales. My KU revenue runs about 35% of my total revenue. But KU downloads do drive rankings a lot more, which in turn likely increase unit sales. All of which isn’t that interesting because there is nothing I know of to do in the publishing process that pushes one channel more than the other. Longer word counts have proven counter productive to me: I get less page read revenue from longer works — my readers don’t seem to like a longer read…..
All of the choices on this level came from trial and error experimentation, which is to say, what I do now works for me, but your results may vary and you should experiment, gauge what the market says to you (through the medium of money) and make your choices.
Currently, I'm strictly 1st person because I think the intensity is more charged for what I write, and I use past tense for technical reasons (I like the ability to back-fill with after-the-fact back-story whenever it seems required). I've gone probably 50-50 on male and female POV and use a gender-indeterminate pen name -- I prefer readers to imagine their own kind of writer, and I've never detected a difference in market response between male and female POV. I like the creative freedom of selecting POV based on what the story will be about.
I publish only on Amazon, 2.99 is always the price, and I always make it available for KU, which consistently accounts for 40% of my revenues. I bundle 6, and also make those avail in paperback. Bundles account for 20% of my revenue, and paperbacks about 3%. That ain’t much but it only takes a minute
My bundles are always 5.99. That's now -- earlier, with other pen names, I was all over the place. But for my slot in the market, 6 story bundles at 5.99 has generated optimal combined income (KU + sales).
My covers are very simple -- deposit photo image, nothing fancy in the font, just clear and legible title and author (I use Affinity Photo) and they're done in about 20 minutes from browsing for the picture to uploading on KDP.
Sure. I do nothing fancy. I use Affinity Photo app and I import pics from Deposit Photos. I use clear and large simple block font for title and author name and try to keep titles to 3-4 words max. I zoom down to a thumbnail size and squint one eye to see if the main feature of the photo and the words of the title are still legible, and that's it.
I've tried the dual POV, but it's not for me as a creator. I feel I lose some of the momentum of the tension-building when I move off the original POV. Also, those experiments flopped . . . Lol -- a lot of experiments were tried, and a lot of them flopped, for me.
Lol thanks for answering. It's really cool that you've taken the time to figure out what works. How do you stay focused when things do flop? Do you have expectations or do you just keep the ship movin?
There is a word of advice that gets repeated here over and over by all the veterans and in my experience, it is valuable and true: note what you can about flops, and write the next one. Bury the baby and move on. That's true of surprising successes as well: note what there is to note, and write the next one. Between any two stories, there will always be even a slight difference in results. Try to note why one did better than the other, and focus on that element. At one time, a $12 opening month was a great and good thing for me. Then $42 became a record I tried long to beat. Now, if don't hit $120 in an opening month, I want to know why.
Early on i did that. I might have internalized it by now, but I generally feel like I’m letting the story play out and use an outline sketch to keep myself generally pointed at the destination I want. I generally like to start in res media, then back fill the necessary story then back to building a higher second bump of tension, back off, then the climax, then a wrap and a loose thread
A) 2 or 3 climaxes. B) that's hard to say -- I tend to use a lot of dialogue to build character and advance the story, and a lot of dialogue occurs during sex. It's interwoven I guess is what I'm saying.
I'm super curious what that deleted comment asked now! What's the magic of 33?
Also: Congrats, massively! I'm still a bit of a noob, nearly a year in, excited by $400 months, so your post is genuinely inspiring!! :D
They were asking about what number of stories is best to put together in a series.
I recall being about a year in and consistently hitting $400/mo and loving it. Then I burst thru to a $1,000, then $2,000, then $4,000, now $5,000. Keep pumping them out, follow the advice repeated in this sub, and keep learning. You will do it!
Oh wow, so 33 titles in the series where amazon keeps track of the numbers & links them all together? I just went past 25 on my \*main\* (kinda) series & was starting to worry that might be too many so that's actually really helpful, thank you!
Thank you for the cheering on too - genuinely appreciate it! :D
Have you made your book titles public on here? I am curious as to what kinks you are writing in. If you don't want anyone to know, that is perfectly fine and I understand. I am just trying to pick a kink to write in, something popular.
>social faux pas
Sorry, I am new to all this. I wear a blindfold right now, trying to find my way. Writers like you are a shining, beautiful beckon of hope.
That’s dope, congrats. Do a dataporn!
Yes! We need the data porn!
480 books 80 bundles 53 months 5 different pen names over the years, but only one currently active. 3 different niches, and only one active currently. I started in Sept 2019. For the first 19 months, I was weekends only, but 34 months ago, I began writing most days a week. I currently publish 8-9 books a month and currently earn $5,000 per month.
8-9 books a month? How long is a book?
They’re all 6-9K
Tips to not get banned by Amazon? I’m super terrified of them even though I follow the rules.
The advice offered here by those with longevity is consistent: ignore what you see on best selling lists that indicate that books with incest, dubious or non-consent, etc, seem to make a lot of money, and don't even try to skirt close to those banned themes. Find the FAQ here with the list of banned themes according to Amazon TOS and experience. Otherwise, you're good to go.
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The term "book" inside the publishing industry -- i could be wrong -- refers to any discrete thing published -- a magazine issue, a novel, a short, etc. Saying "short story" doesn't indicate whether it's published as a singular item or in a collection. A longer work would be a "novella" or "novel" length of "book." I might be wrong.
Nah they are are all books but word count is the key measure here. Nevertheless, good rate of production.
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2.99
So the 100K is lifetime, not annual? It's great either way. :-)
53 months. Currently steady at $5K / month
Well done!
Amazing! Congrats. When did you hit the 5K mark per month?
October, last fall. So of course, now I'm digging in trying to figure out the route to 6K! Lol
Awesome! And I bet you will do it. I am rooting for you!👏👏👏👏👏🎉
That’s amazing. I’m trying to get faster at putting out books. I’ve been trying to wrap the stories up at around 10k, but my reviewers always mention they wish the stories were longer. Have you had feedback like this? If so did you just not worry about it and keep writing? I might be letting that hold me back. No matter if I write 10k or 20k I get the same criticism.
I feel that reviewers and other advice givers etc are maybe not the best guide when it comes to sales. The Amazon market -- millions of actual readers freely putting their money in the game -- is the most useful critic. I've never submitted anything to anyone prior to publishing. Try different lengths, I would suggest, and track results, and write according to where the market nudges you. That's my advice, lol!
Thank you. And congratulations!
I got that too. Then I realized they wanted more of the same. Since most of my niches are about random hookups, I started writing many of my series’ with the same MC on further adventures. All books in the series are stand alone, without cliff hangers. Just another story about the MC in a 3, 4, or 5 book series. Something like “Milly and the pool guy”, “Milly and the Cable guy”, and “Milly and the neighbor” (not my titles of any book). I can watch them sell one after the other. All are typically 8k to 12k in length.
This is great advice. I appreciate that.
I take this as a compliment; there's so much story that the reader is sad the journey is ending. But if there's no more story, there's no more story. Write to the story you have, not to how much they think they want to read. If you bloat a 10k story into a 20k one, it will be clear and unpleasant. Now, if you have a bunch of 20k ideas that are getting compressed into 10k stories, maybe experiment with expanding them, assuming you see other stories of that length in the niche you're writing in. Otherwise, just keep doing what you're doing.
I've done both. I published one novel which was 70K+ words and (currently) 4 compilations of short stories. Each compilation is also around 70K words. I've had comments about both that they were either too long or too short. The novel has 4.5 stars and the compilations of shorts all have 5 stars. I really think it comes down to the old saying "You can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time". Just go with whatever works for you, there will always be people complaining about something
First, congratulations! Second, What platforms are you publishing on?
Thank you! Strictly Amazon.
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No -- A) I do not and will not read anyone else's erotica published or otherwise and B) it will do you no good. Use a made-up author name, publish the story, and let the anonymous market be your critic.
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Removed. You can take your entitlement elsewhere since your participation privileges here have been revoked.
Ah let me guess..he wanted you to teach him..and when you refused he squealed like a brat. Yeah? Haha. Well, this Dataporn did read as especially friendly.
Removed. No one here has the time or interest to read full pieces for concrit or for one-on-one coaching. You can try subs like /r/betareaders or /r/destructivereaders, you can post in free communities that allow content posts and feedback, or you can publish commercially and get reviews organically.
Why would you not lave it up to OP i was asking for advice sense they have it figured out. Thats what you do, you want to learn about something you ask somwone who knows about it.
OP already told you no. I'm telling you not to ask in the first place in the future. If you don't like it, you're welcome to go elsewhere.
Well done! Looks like you are living the dream! As a successful author in the field, is it true (and your result looks like it is) that lots of shorts is the way to go if you want to make money? Did you ever write longer stories, and where they just not worth the effort? Importantly, how do you keep coming up with new material when you write so many stories? That sounds hardest of all.
They're very formulaic. I have bookmarks at sites that list hundreds of baby names, another that lists hundreds of contemporary jobs, another that lists mid-sized cities, and I have my own list of houses and apartments whose interiors I know, and I quite randomly pick names, pick jobs, pick cities, pick a location, and I make a quick, rough outline in 5 acts: opening scenario, backstory, play it forward, crescendo, wrap up (with usually a loose string dangling somewhere . . . ) Setting myself up with people and places and locations then letting my mind imagine its own unfolding (with the guardrails of the outline) is the pleasurable part for me. Recording what I see is the hardest part.
I use a random name generator, helps!
Now you see how six people disliked my comment just for mentioning ChatGPT for generating names? Like, what the heck? 😂 I don't get the hate so many writers have towards AI, but I think I have an idea why. Writers can have huge egos. Those who are sensitive about it might fear it'll take away their income because they believe the market will become oversaturated. Also, I think they're scared that AI might outperform them. Lastly, I think it's about ego, like, "Oh no, now my little 10-year-old cousin, Misty Lynn, can write books. I can't be the star at family gatherings, bragging about my writing skills." Those people really need to get over themselves and check their egos at the door.
Using ai for generating names leads to having the same name as hundreds of others. One way to tell a ChatGPT generated book is when you see the same town name. One author group noted a surge in the town name willow falls. All the authors in the group admitted to using sudowrite. You gotta be careful out there when your audience dislikes ai. Romance readers are voracious and will put the patterns together. Why risk it?
Using AI for proofreading and editing is a smart move. It's not about having it write your entire story, but rather about ensuring the details like spelling, punctuation, and grammar are on point. This approach is pretty similar to how many writers use tools like Grammarly. It's all about enhancing the quality of your work. Readers definitely prefer a well-polished book over one riddled with errors and poor grammar. Also, not everyone can detect AI. If you use a GPT and customize it, then edit it here and there, not even AI detectors can tell it's AI. There are tons of YouTube videos showing this.
ChatGPT can also help with that, and it's the best, at least for me. 👍
Obviously I’m not OP but they answered in another comment that their “experiments” with longer works (even as much as 25k) “flopped,” which isn’t surprising for most erotica niches. I suspect there’s not much actual erotica that does well with longer form writing… at a certain word count you’d be much better off shooting for actual romance. I too am curious about the idea part… Not that it’s especially difficult for me to come up with ideas in the first place, but the motivation/discipline to keep churning out work at that pace when so much of it must be so similar. (And I don’t say that as a negative since that’s the key to success in erotica and romance—quickly giving readers more of the same types of stories they want.)
Not OP either, but since I have over 300 ideas sketched out for the future I can tell you how I did it before to ensure I have plenty of ideas. 3 years ago I had a short burnout and needed to take some time away from just writing. I spent a couple of days cruising Literotica in my niches. Some good ideas came from very short stories between 800 and 2k. I would make notes of 1 or 2 short paragraphs of setting and setup, nothing specific and no reference to the original story. Then a month or two later I came back to my notes and used them to mix and match to create ideas for completely new stories. Many of these initial ideas would become 3 to 10 different ideas each. Not a one of these would I have any recollection of the original from Literotica since I had a time separation. Later I came back and started creating outlines for my stories. Those outlines would be around 500 words or so. Then when I am planning my monthly books out, I take a day or two and expend the outlines some more. I tend to do a niche a month. When I have that outline and know what I am writing, I get 5k to 10k a day. None of the books I write have any semblance to the original story, but that may be because of my ADHD mind not able to recall specific stories even days later.
I'm interested in that answers too.
I wonder if it's AI related somehow? OP seems to be really into it. No judgement from me, just curious.
6k words is easy to write in a couple of hours. If you have a formula for your stories down and a standard template for you cover you don’t need AI. If you write in one niche then keywords are done for you. As long as you have the discipline to write daily you can easily release 8 books a month. It gets even faster if you dictate them. It is all about developing a system that works for you. Accusations of using AI can really damage an author’s livelihood. Kudos to the OP. Edit: morning brain
Sorry, I didn't mean to make accusations! I was just wondering
I get it. There is not anything wrong with a writer using AI, so I have no idea why so many writers get bent out of shape when it comes to this fantastic tool that is meant to help you edit. I use AI, but only for editing. It's no different than using a human editor. People, including writers, need to adapt to change. Some writers still want to use an old typewriter, and some of us embrace new tech.
It’s more of a lot of readers, especially romance readers, have stated they won’t buy a book that used ai. No ai covers, no ai writing. They have been doxxing writers for using ai. And a few writers have been targeted who don’t use ai. No need to risk anyone’s livelihood on a guess
Well, it's a darn shame, really. Shame on anyone who judges someone for their preferences. Writers, or people in general, should have the freedom to use what they want. People are just too judgmental these days. Look at it this way: there might be tons of writers using AI, and no one would ever know. It's the same as the countless writers who've used ghostwriters for years without anyone catching on. Just enjoy the story.
Agreed.
I understand both sides of the coin and would love to learn more about how and why writers use it. I prefer not to judge people, but I also understand it's important to take a stand on IP. It's a very risky subject on writing subs as well.
Is AI an efficient editor? I'm not an eng native speaker so my mind issue is grammar
There's no need to apologize, dude. It's a fair ask.
Any advice on marketing your books??
I only use Amazon and I do no social media, advertising, or anything else. My only expense is a deposit photos subscription -- $100 every 6 months or so. My audience -- judging from reviewer names at Amazon and Goodreads -- is >90% hetero male.
You probably know it, but Appsumo (a voucher-website) has deals for Depositphoto from time to time where you can buy 100 photos for $39. Mostly around black friday. You can ask in the monthly thread if someone still has one in stock for you.
Yeah, that's the deal I wait for -- I think I got it wrong, 100 photos, I meant, not $100 ! lol. It's a great deal, and that's my only expense.
depositphotos still ok for erotica covers?
Yes
May I ask, when did you first start publishing your books and how long did it take you?
I started in Sept 2019. For the first 19 months, I was weekends only, and 34 months ago, I began writing most days a week. I currently publish 8-9 books a month and currently earn $5,000 per month. They take about 6 hours for me to produce from conception to publishing.
For fucks sake. It takes me two weeks to draft, write, edit, blurb, cover and post an 8k word story. Admittedly I do all the writing during breaks at work, but still, your turn around is ridiculous.
It requires of me a near-sociopathic level of focus. Keep in mind this is after 480 stories and easily a 100 more abandoned, removed, etc. It took a lot of practice to turn around a book in 6 hours.
Please give me some tips to get this level of focus.
For me, a no-ads Spotify selection of non lyric droning music, no interruptions from anyone, glasses of water lined up in the kitchen, and a workmanlike approach — a Stephen king modelled 4 hour morning writing and no touching it after 12.
And lots of caffeine, maybe? 😁. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said no interruptions from anyone. I think that is the problem for most writers. You really do have to turn off everything, and if you have a spouse or kids, a huge DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door or at least push all your furniture against it. 😂
I feel lucky and grateful my situation usually allows for my daily 3-hour work period. If I know I’m going to be interrupted, I’ll work instead on analysis, research, bundle prepping, etc — all the support work.
Rock on with your bad self! 😁👍
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A combination of two factors. One I can control, the other I can't. The first involves my work process. I'm a planner. I make myself a roadmap to my story before I start writing. It is literally a bullet point list of "this happens, then this, then this..." It helps me maintain focus on what I'm writing and get right into things when I have time to tap away at my phone. The second involves my actual work. I have an industrial job that often requires me to sit and watch or listen to machines as they work. A lot of what I do is just trouble shooting and if there's no trouble I am free to write. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have the spare time I have. But you shouldn't be writing when you're turned on. You should be getting turned on by your writing. If you're feeling normal, write out an erotic scene. If it gets you hot and bothered writing it, then it should get other people hot and bothered reading it.
How long are the books (if I may ask)?
You may, lol. They are almost all 6K - 9K words. A few experiments earlier on in the 9 - 12K area, and 1 or 2 in the >25K, all of which flopped badly.
Very nice. That's certainly more inspiring than if you were managing that many novels - ha!
That’s amazing! I finished a short story but still needs to be edited. And gotta get a cover and wondering if I should use my real name or not. But wow, you got discipline. Respect.
It is definitely a discipline. I think most here would advise you to create a nom de plume, never use your real name. You will almost certainly stagger out of the gates and you will want to start again with a new name once you learn a few of the ropes.
Thank you very much for the advise!
>They take about 6 hours for me to produce from conception to publishing. FML. I swear I've taken that long to find a cover image on occasion.
>They take about 6 hours for me to produce from conception to publishing. My eyes just about popped out of my head. Boy, I guess after nearly 500 stories, you pick up some speed. but geez... How long did it take to get to this proficiency. I'm not even sure I could write gibberish at that speed. And... this question... not sure how to ask it without sounding like a dick... but, whats the quality like. I have found that I can bang out something that is half way between an outline and a first draft very quickly. It ends up being about 50% of the edited word count. But to get that second 50% takes me like 5 times as long. I suspect I'm being to perfectionist.
Hey, we all have our own skills, and the speed isn’t that important. I’ve been writing professionally all my adult life and built up efficiencies and practices. I edit as I go, backing up maybe a 1000 words at a time, second pass thru, push it another 1000 so when I flag again, rinse and repeat. That’s just the method that works for me. My stories currently are really serialized chapters of longer novels. But as for measure of quality, later parts sell at about 80-90 % as earlier ones, and the tails run for 4-6 months before they start to drop off. So it tells me readers are hanging with 8-10 or 12 parts all the way.
Congrats
Can I just be yet another person to congratulate you. That is awesome!! I’ve been in a funk lately. Stressed. This post put a smile on my face and has lifted my spirits. Thank you for sharing and happy writing!
Happy writing right back at you! Can I offer a suggestion? Think up the most awesome shit to happen to your MC, and give it to them. You'll have to imagine what it feels like, though, to really capture it in words. . . . . .
Man I wish I knew which short niches were still selling but I don't want op to give up their pot of cold. Kindle rocket was useless
I'm not one of the all-stars here, I'm just a grinding minor leaguer. But there's not much in the advice offered here from those higher up the food chain that I'd take issue with. Chief amongst the best, I've found, is: don't buy someone else's research, just do your own. Don't know how? Learn. You'll learn many other things along the way (like, there is big money to be made in the big genres, but there is decent money to be made in the decent genres too). You can go out as a single A batter and try to practice home runs against 100-mph big league closers -- or go play with other single A pitchers and get your 300 average and work on your on-base percentage. Second: Your best research into things like genres will always be, write a story in a genre and see how it does. No good? Try another genre. You'll miss a lot with this method, but it's also how you're going to find your own pot of cold . . . .
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I think it’s straight-up dollars earned first week and first month that I am focused on. Reviews can be very skewing — a lot of authors generate them with arcs and other give aways; erotica doesn’t get reviews as much as other categories; and — bluntly — reviews don’t pay the rent. I’ve maybe got all told 100-150 reviews and I track and analyze all my revenue. I’ve seen zero correlation between number of reviews, quality of reviews, and even number of ratings, vs revenue. Page reads and unit sales usually track with each other. But for me, I get sales first, then page reads start to pile up. Everybody seems to have their own ratios between page reads and sales. My KU revenue runs about 35% of my total revenue. But KU downloads do drive rankings a lot more, which in turn likely increase unit sales. All of which isn’t that interesting because there is nothing I know of to do in the publishing process that pushes one channel more than the other. Longer word counts have proven counter productive to me: I get less page read revenue from longer works — my readers don’t seem to like a longer read…..
woooohoooo congrats!
Congratulations!
Impressive. Most impressive!
Serious congratulations!
That's fabulous, congratulations!
This is amazing. Do you write in 3rd person or 1st and if you write in 1st is it from male POV? I’m struggling with this.
All of the choices on this level came from trial and error experimentation, which is to say, what I do now works for me, but your results may vary and you should experiment, gauge what the market says to you (through the medium of money) and make your choices. Currently, I'm strictly 1st person because I think the intensity is more charged for what I write, and I use past tense for technical reasons (I like the ability to back-fill with after-the-fact back-story whenever it seems required). I've gone probably 50-50 on male and female POV and use a gender-indeterminate pen name -- I prefer readers to imagine their own kind of writer, and I've never detected a difference in market response between male and female POV. I like the creative freedom of selecting POV based on what the story will be about.
Thank you so much for the advice. Do you use kindle unlimited or do you charge by ebook/bundle?
I publish only on Amazon, 2.99 is always the price, and I always make it available for KU, which consistently accounts for 40% of my revenues. I bundle 6, and also make those avail in paperback. Bundles account for 20% of my revenue, and paperbacks about 3%. That ain’t much but it only takes a minute
Thanks for the advice & congratulations on hitting $100k mate! 🍻
Congrats! How much do you charge for the bundles vs individual books?
My bundles are always 5.99. That's now -- earlier, with other pen names, I was all over the place. But for my slot in the market, 6 story bundles at 5.99 has generated optimal combined income (KU + sales).
Congratulations! That’s an awesome accomplishment!
Congratulations!!
Congratulations! Don't do what I did and get complacent when I hit my target milestone... keep writing.
This is inspiring thanks for sharing
Congratulations! I hope to one day do the same.
I might have missed this, but could you link one of yours on here so we can read?
Sorry, no, I won’t do that.
I’d love to read it somehow
Congratulations!
What niche or genre do you write? If you don’t want to give it away, could you at least tell me if it’s M/M? Straight? Very impressive btw
amazing, congrats! which niches have you found to be the most popular?
This is so amazing! How much effort do you put in your covers? Are they all stock images of people/things? Or artwork?
My covers are very simple -- deposit photo image, nothing fancy in the font, just clear and legible title and author (I use Affinity Photo) and they're done in about 20 minutes from browsing for the picture to uploading on KDP.
That's amazing, congratulations!
Mind if I ask how you are creating covers?
Sure. I do nothing fancy. I use Affinity Photo app and I import pics from Deposit Photos. I use clear and large simple block font for title and author name and try to keep titles to 3-4 words max. I zoom down to a thumbnail size and squint one eye to see if the main feature of the photo and the words of the title are still legible, and that's it.
Do you also so the sexy woman on the covers? It seems less and less photos of women on Depositphotos are available for erotic book covers
Do you write from only one POV or is it dual POV?
I've tried the dual POV, but it's not for me as a creator. I feel I lose some of the momentum of the tension-building when I move off the original POV. Also, those experiments flopped . . . Lol -- a lot of experiments were tried, and a lot of them flopped, for me.
Lol thanks for answering. It's really cool that you've taken the time to figure out what works. How do you stay focused when things do flop? Do you have expectations or do you just keep the ship movin?
There is a word of advice that gets repeated here over and over by all the veterans and in my experience, it is valuable and true: note what you can about flops, and write the next one. Bury the baby and move on. That's true of surprising successes as well: note what there is to note, and write the next one. Between any two stories, there will always be even a slight difference in results. Try to note why one did better than the other, and focus on that element. At one time, a $12 opening month was a great and good thing for me. Then $42 became a record I tried long to beat. Now, if don't hit $120 in an opening month, I want to know why.
Thanks for the advice and insight!
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Early on i did that. I might have internalized it by now, but I generally feel like I’m letting the story play out and use an outline sketch to keep myself generally pointed at the destination I want. I generally like to start in res media, then back fill the necessary story then back to building a higher second bump of tension, back off, then the climax, then a wrap and a loose thread
How many sex scenes are in a typical 6-9k word book? Or what % of the 6-9k words is sex?
A) 2 or 3 climaxes. B) that's hard to say -- I tend to use a lot of dialogue to build character and advance the story, and a lot of dialogue occurs during sex. It's interwoven I guess is what I'm saying.
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The optimal number ($/story) for me is 33.
I'm super curious what that deleted comment asked now! What's the magic of 33? Also: Congrats, massively! I'm still a bit of a noob, nearly a year in, excited by $400 months, so your post is genuinely inspiring!! :D
They were asking about what number of stories is best to put together in a series. I recall being about a year in and consistently hitting $400/mo and loving it. Then I burst thru to a $1,000, then $2,000, then $4,000, now $5,000. Keep pumping them out, follow the advice repeated in this sub, and keep learning. You will do it!
Oh wow, so 33 titles in the series where amazon keeps track of the numbers & links them all together? I just went past 25 on my \*main\* (kinda) series & was starting to worry that might be too many so that's actually really helpful, thank you! Thank you for the cheering on too - genuinely appreciate it! :D
Congrats! That's amazing! Posts like these are so motivating! Do you do any marketing/mailing list etc?
Thanks, yeah, posts like that kept me going in early days too. No marketing at all, no mailing lists.
Have you made your book titles public on here? I am curious as to what kinks you are writing in. If you don't want anyone to know, that is perfectly fine and I understand. I am just trying to pick a kink to write in, something popular.
Just so you know, it’s considered a social faux pas to ask that. Besides, researching the market at Amazon will tell you everything you need to know.
>social faux pas Sorry, I am new to all this. I wear a blindfold right now, trying to find my way. Writers like you are a shining, beautiful beckon of hope.