I started this book some years back. I had a clever idea for a meet-cute, but I more or less petered out around 8900 words.

I re-read it this morning, and while the meet-cute is hilarious, there's still not enough gas to carry things forward. I started looking at the word counts of the chapters and something jumped out at me.

My opening chapter is nearly 6000 words all by itself, with the next three barely passing 1k each.

My MC is a female wildland firefighter with a Forest Service contractor. The first chapter is a bit of heroism.

It's fast paced and solid.

As soon I introduce the rich douche my MC is supposed to fall for, things flatten out and devolve into dialogue, dialogue, dialogue. The meet-cute is hilarious (I snorted re-reading it today), but I'm wondering if this is not a romance after all.

Am I crazy for thinking maybe this is a mainstream action story about an all female fire crew?

hello! i was wondering if, as the title says, is out there any kind of platform that allows a pay per creation system, without the subscriptions. i have ruled out patreon because i write very, very hardcore stuff and for a very specific niche kink, and i heard that it's possible they don't allow you to post there because of that, and i'm not a very consitent poster.

i was thinking about trying to use some plataform like OF, but i'm guessing that the format of writing stories won't do much there. the other possibility i had thought about, was straight up offering the stories on the pages/forums for this kink i frecuent, and offering a copy / send the stories through mail (?) after people just pay me through paypal.

i have done comissions before, but i want to have something in sort of a "passive way" where i just can sell the same story to a bunch of interested people. has anyone had success doing something like this or with any plataform?

thank you, xx

I am currently writing a series that I'd like to describe As "monster of the week, but femdom" or "Date A Live, but femdom".. The books total to around 6-10k (sometimes 15k, might write a full length novel at one point) each, set in Tokyo with a low fantasy vibe where dungeons have come into our world and guilds have sprung up to beat them.. almost every dungeon the male MC goes into is full of monster girls who inevitably get him to submit in one form or another. When not submitting to these women, his boss is a jovial, manipulative workaholic of a woman.

What I am struggling with is how to make these more appealing to the female gaze, if that's necessary? Typically, the focus of each story is set on what the women in the dungeon want - sometimes it can be "go get my stolen whip" or "clean my boots", and related scenes ensue. Is that enough for a third person perspective? I don't focus too long on describing the women's bodies, but I give enough description and mainly focus on describing how they train the male MC.

Over the course of the series, the male MC changes from a somewhat egotistical guy to someone who is genuinely submissive and lives to provide pleasure. Ultimately a reader doesn't need to go through every book to get that sentiment, but there is some character development

Advice would be appreciated, since I am relatively new.

Sprints are here

1. Goals for the day? (Word count? Reading? Editing? Covers? Something else?)

2. Rooftop yellings? Successes? Failures?

3. Tell us about your current favs? Book, music, app, movie, tv show, etc? What are you feeling passionate about?

When I get to the end of a book, the first chapter of the next one is included but before I get to it, the review pop up appears. How do you get the review to pop up before the end of the book?

So check this out. Yesterday I just found out that 4 of my books have been sent to the naughty corner, AKA The Dungeon. Like many of you, I have no sure clue what I did wrong since Amazon doesn't tell us, but I was thinking it was my covers since they feature either women's beautiful juicy round butts 🍑😍 or side boob 🍈🍈. So I changed the covers to something much less arousing, then uploaded it.

It was in review all night, and this morning it was approved and live. I went back to BookSpry and checked again, and it's still in the stinkin dungeon. Does it just take a while to get out of the dungeon or is it something else? Could it be this section that I have at the bottom of my descriptions? I only used it because I saw another very popular erotic writer use something much like it.

WARNING!!!
This is a very dirty short erotica story.
The Kinks/Fetishes Within:
First time/"virgin" anal (including use of objects), degradation/humiliation play (including playful degrading language), no condoms, teasing, spanking/impact play, use of the titles Sir/little girl, begging, praise kink, crying/tears, some Brat/Brat Tamer dynamics, over-stimulation, rough sex, sex in odd places, spit. rough handling.

​

Canva puts quite a bit of metadata (extra information) into images created with it. This includes the date and time that the final image was created and the username of the person that created it. That username can be the name used on a third-party log in. Windows's "remove all properties and personal information" tool does not wipe out all of this metadata. The data can be viewed using a hex editor.

The versions of images created with Canva on Amazon and Smashwords storefronts appear to have all metadata removed, including the information the Windows tool cannot detect. I am unsure if other storefronts have the same practice or if metadata is removed in every instance the image is used. Other websites may not remove metadata.

Does anyone know a good tool for removing all metadata from images?

I'm doing some quick research. Is there an erotica 'scene'? I found some interviews with 'Evie Hunter' but they date back to 2015, and to be honest, were more PR than anything else. I'm having a bit of difficulty getting an idea of how active the erotic writing scene is in the professional and published world. If anyone knows more than I do, or could direct me, I'd be very grateful and thank you and wear sunscreen

Hey folks!

Long-time lurker here, but two weeks ago I finally decided to take the plunge and start my erotic self-publishing journey. This sub was helpful in more ways than I can count, but I still managed to fuck things up on my first try (while the publishing process on KDP was very straightforward and intuitive, I was totally lost in the labyrinthine ways of Draft2Digital). Still, it’s all part of the learning curve and now I’ve gained some invaluable experience that I wouldn’t otherwise had.

I’ve yet to have any sales, but with only two published shorts so far, I wasn’t expecting much different results. I think my covers are good, but I definitely need to improve my blurbs and better optimize my keywords. Also, my niche is too broad right now, so I’m trying to focus on something more specific within it. We’ll see how it goes after a full month and a few more stories.

For now, I have two questions regarding acceptable content on Amazon:

1. If two brothers share a partner at the same time, is that considered incest/taboo? It’s basically a MMM threesome, but brothers never engage sexually with each other; it’s all about the third person.

2. Also, what if the son bursts into the room unannounced and catches his father having sex? It’s not meant to be titillating or voyeuristic, and the son wasn’t there to watch his dad having sex – he was shocked to see it, stood there frozen for a moment, and then promptly walked out when his father told him to GTFO. (Btw, the son is a twenty-something adult man, not a minor.)

From what I have gathered reading this sub, these are walking a fine line but are not outright against Amazon’s rules. Or am I mistaken? Both scenes are important to the plot so I’m not sure how to change/omit them and achieve the same character development, but if I must, I’ll find a way.

Thank you all so much for your help, it’s been a pleasure reading about all of your journeys, and I’m looking forward to being a part of this community!

I've published a book on KDP.

I have the age rating (as all my books are) as 18+.

It was adult-filtered (i.e. dungeoned), so I emailed Amazon and asked why.

They said it was because the book was rated 18+. They also said if I don't want it to be adult-filtered I can change the reading age of the book.

I'm not doing that for obvious reasons.

I'm not sure what to do now?

Cover concerning you?

Title tribulations?

Need feedback on formatting?

Post your books here so the community can offer constructive criticism.

Rules:

Kindness is not required, but constructiveness is.

Sprints are here

1. Goals for the day? (Word count? Reading? Editing? Covers? Something else?)
2. Rooftop yellings? Successes? Failures?
3. What are your goals for the week? And what are you going to do to make sure you achieve them?

I just finished writing a short story and wanted to post it on reddit for some Peer review. I'm new to writing. The story is very NSFW and involves a stalker kidnapping a women and forcing her to orgasm many times before letting her go. Can anyone recommend a aubreddit that dabbled it taboo subjects like this?

Hi all, I have decided to give Romance novels a go and am going to start under a new Name, but I currently have two pen names with erotica shorts (about 70+ titles). I am wondering if I start a new pen name for romance novels will Amazon penalize me in some way because they see I have erotica under another pen name? I have heard that this is sometimes the case but can't confirm. I do feel like my new erotica releases have perhaps been in some way tamped down, but can't say for sure.

Any info on this please let me know. The question is do I start a new pen name with my current account for purely romance. Or do I start something completely separated from my erotica account to avoid any potential problems with Amazon?

Sprints are here

1. Goals for the day? Word count? Reading? Editing? Covers? Something else?
2. Rooftop yellings? Successes? Failures?
3. How was your week? Did you get everything done that you meant to?

I have seen this once or twice when looking at how others market their work. Effectively, there's the title of the book, then a string of "SEO optimized" keyword-salad like "Femdom Dark Romance Fantasy".. does it actually make a meaningful difference compared to relying on metadataa, blurb, and tags?

Hit publish on Amazon and then realized I never went back and pasted in the main sex scene which I had written outside my main writing platform. freaking brilliant! Contacted Amazon and they said I can't do anything until its actually published, then I can edit it.

I told my husband that Amazon won't let me fix it right away. "Isn't that stupid" I complained. He said, "More stupid then publishing a sex book and forgetting to add in the sex?"

Guess he's got me there.

Seems like Amazon has a lot of restrictions for erotica (which does seem weird - after all it is erotica). Does anyone write taboo erotica (i.e. Noncon, bestiality, etc & where do you publish it? Also my stories tend to take on fantastical elements such as shapeshiting, morphing...weird things more fantasy & sci fi...is that taking away from the erotic aspect?

I'm back!

I posted my 1st month dataporn here and wondered if it was worth continuing. I initially started this as an experiment and way to work out the kinks (heh) of publishing on Amazon and improving passive marketing before I dive into novels this summer. You can see my hesitancy reflect in the pretty sad 2nd month of sales, which is a bit embarrassing but some great data to share nonetheless!

Let's dive into these numbers and see what worked, what didn't, and what I plan to do about it:

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Month 01: $60.05 total

Check out my 1st Dataporn for a break down of this here: https://www.reddit.com/r/eroticauthors/comments/1ayz13v/dataporn_first_30_days_experiment_tldr_60/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

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Month 02: $27.07 total

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Wow, wow, wow! Who knew that your profits drop to almost zero when you stop publishing? What? Literally almost everyone? Oh...

Haha, I suppose I knew that too. This was a weird month. I was still over analyzing the numbers from my first month to try and decide if it was worth continuing with things. I took a week off to think it over, then I decided I wanted to see how well a novella would do in comparison to my shorts, so I took 2 weeks to write one to satisfy my curiosity. I put my first bundle up while writing, in hopes of not dropping off the face of the planet completely, but it really didn't help any. I suspect my passive marking on my bundles is terrible because they get no notice.

But basically, I didn't post anything new for nearly 3 weeks, and the work I did post (a novella) never reached the right audience so this month was a big bummer.

What did I did right: I think my covers continue to be good. I've worked professionally as an illustrator since I graduated art school over a decade ago, with the last handful of years focusing on book covers. I think I'm also consistent with what I'm providing in my writing (M/F, romantic erotica, safe and flirty and fun with plenty of consent, and a Happily Ever After) so readers know what to expect across the board.

What I did wrong: Not posting! Especially this early. The fact that my 1st month's back catalogue made almost half of what I brought in for my first month is pretty cool but not at all sustainable. I shouldn't have been so in my head and analytical at the sake of consistent publishing. I also think this was too early to be experimenting with branching out (into novellas).

What I plan to do: Write consistently and stay on track was my goal for month 3. I went back to writing shorts with a plan of posting around 1 a week, and trying to make them a bit longer (went from 5k to 8k). I don't think the novella was a bad idea, just bad timing and needs more novellas to boost it up. I plan to write at least 2 more in-between working on shorts, just for the data, before I decide if I give up on novellas for this pen name completely. 1 novella simply isn't enough information to base anything on.

​

Month 03: $184.87 total

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What a change consistency can make! It's still small potatoes in comparison to what a lot of people in this sub are earning for their hard work, but having the numbers move in the right direction is a big boost to my motivation. I now have a handful of newsletter subscribers and 50 followers on Amazon. I have a long ways to go but I'm hopeful!

What I did right: I increased the length of my shorts to 8k and made sure to post around once a week. Covers are still easy on the eyes and consistent which I think it making my pen name more recognizable within my rather large niche.

What I did wrong: I think my blurbs still need work, and I don't know what the heck is going on with my bundles! I heard those were money makers but I honestly wonder why I even bother. I need to take a closer look at those soon since I'm about to put out my third.

What I plan to do: Keep writing! I'm doing my best to stick to that once a week schedule, which isn't easy since I work full time, do freelance illustration work on the side, and I have a family to take care of. Being organized has really made all the difference. Once summer starts things should be a lot easier and i'm hoping to jump into novels once I have that extra time. I also want to dip my toes in social media to get some practice for the pen name that will be publishing novels.

​

And that's it! If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Otherwise, please learn from all my mistakes so I know my data is going to good use. Thanks again for being such a supportive community. I really learn so much!

Alright, let's try this again. Damn those Reddit filters.

If you want to buy stock photos, now is the time because after it ends, the sale won't be back until Black Friday.

All you need to do is purchase the pack on Appsumo, register an account on Depositphotos, go to the relevant page there and paste in the code you've been given.

There's no 12 month 'use them or lose them' trap with this deal. Your credits will never expire. Links are in the comments.

ETA Here's a 10% off code for anyone who hasn't made a purchase on Appsumo before: sumochat10

Sprints are here

1. Goals for the day? (Word count? Reading? Editing? Covers? Something else?
2. Rooftop yellings? Successes? Failures?
3. How's it going? Anything you want to talk about or get off your chest?

Due to several factors, I had to take a break from writing erotica. My life situation has changed a fair bit in the last 6 month. I am jumping back into it with a zeal. I am waiting on SSDI payments, but can't expect them to cover much of my life needs. As a blind person I can earn over 2k/mo.. so I figure self publishing erotica isn't a bad route while I hunt for traditional work/traditionally publish other works.

I checked my KDP sales after months of not doing so, and found this last month I had at least 4 sales for my femdom works. Is that something of a good sign? For whatever reason I don't think I enrolled them in KU, so no pages were ever read.. I have since changed that.

My main femdom series follows a male MC who works at a host club, and ends up in a harem with several women.. which turns into a femdom dynamic between him and four Dominatrix and one woman who isn't quite sure about femdom.

One final small question: In the past I bought cover art off Fiverr, and it seemd like unless I paid north of $100, the covers were AI-adjacent. Has anyone else noticed this? I am hesitant on buying a subscription to some image generator but I mean.. it sucks to pay $80 and get a cover that looks like it came out of an anime image generator with slight alterations and no title.

(content warning: fictionalized trauma related to sexual assault ) Hello! I think I should state as a disclaimer that I am not well-versed in writing erotic literature, but I am currently in the process of scripting a graphic novel about a queer romance with mature themes including relatively graphic sexual content. One of the main characters is (to put it simply) a sex worker, and has many negative sexual encounters with other people prior to and while being with his current partner. I have no interest in divulging the details of his assault in my writing, but I think it would be important to express the pain and memories of his trauma and how it affects his sexuality. Most of the content includes vague implications and descriptions of how he felt in those moments, and how it makes him feel distant and uncomfortable with intimacy in the present. I have similar experiences that I can reference within my writing, but I'm curious to know if anyone has read any stories involving characters with trauma who are represented respectfully in a sexual setting. I'd like to see more perspectives on this specific dynamic. General tips would be helpful as well :) Thank you

To any other authors with ADHD (or similar), I could really use your advice. How do you manage to stay productive and keep writing on days when your brain wants to do something else? For my first two stories, the hyperfocus kicked in and I wrote thousands of words at a time. Now, I've been stuck on the same paragraph for a week.

I don't actually have an official diagnosis yet (I'm working on it), so chemical assistance is not currently available. And my usual patterns just aren't being successful. So I'm open to any advice that might help me get the focus train on the right tracks.

Got any tricks that help get your brain to make the words happen?

What do you guys think about erotica shorts that are in a series of 3 books, but each story ends on a cliffhanger? I have done this for book one and am about to do it on book two. Book 3 will be the ending; then I will bundle them. I know some people have issues with cliffhangers at the end of a book, but some people do not. My first book received 4-star reviews, so obviously, that reader had no issues with it. Also, there is still enough sex in each book to satisfy the reader.

I'm just brainstorming ideas at the moment to see what I can come up with for KDP publications and I've been reading all of the dos and donts surrounding risqué material, but one that I couldn't really find any information on was robots or synthetic lifeforms.

Does anyone know where the line is drawn on this? There's a few 'interesting' ideas that I can think of right off the bat.

I'm guessing it depends on how it reads to someone with limited context, right? Like you could therotically write a noncon story where a "female" sex robot is abused, but the censors arent necessarily going to pick up the part where theyre humanoid, but not human?

I'm doing some research into more romantic-ish books, seems like a halfway house between erotica and romance, still got sexual content but you don't necessarily have moist genitals banging against each other in the five 1,000 words. Something I'm noticing is that whether it's the male or female point of view, it's often first person, whereas erotica is often third person. Has anyone else noticed this trend or is it just a coincidence so far?

So I had an artwork commissioned and I didn’t forward think ahead. So, I’m trying to figure out where I can get paperbacks with nsfw inside. Thanks in advance for any and all advice!

Sprints are here

1. Goals for the day? (Word count? Reading? Editing? Covers? Something else?)
2. Rooftop yellings? Successes? Failures?
3. What are your plans for the weekend?

Im not experienced in erotica, i barely read it and im a young adult kind of artist, but for a while ive been thinknig and putting together a concept for a short wlw one shot, and i wanted to ask if there are some tips i could get for writting for the first time in these kind of themes. It wont include kink and its not from a malegaze, this is from wlw to wlw, in case this affects the tips.