Wildecat
Registered
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2013
- Messages
- 11
- Reaction score
- 0
Look yourself up on http://salesrankexpress.com/ anything that is filtered will have a big red ADULT next to it right on the first line. You really can't miss it.
Successfully Self Publishing Erotica
- Thread starter JJMoon
- Start date
Look yourself up on http://salesrankexpress.com/ anything that is filtered will have a big red ADULT next to it right on the first line. You really can't miss it.
Great, one of my ebooks that I just published a few days ago has this. It's not even explicit AT ALL -- it only has 2 paragraphs of sex scenes and they arent explicit. Yet the other ebook I published that is explicit doesn't have the adult tag.
Is there a way to get rid of the tag??
Is there a way to get rid of the tag??
I don't have personal experience of self publishing erotica but I've got to know quite a few writers who do. I would agree it's all about promotion, even if you are published with a publisher who sells other erotica.
How are the readers going to find you?
How are the right kind of readers going to find you?
I suppose it's the same as in any other market (potatoes for example)
And the erotica market is very overcrowded.
So the writer has to be her own PR machine...
How are the readers going to find you?
How are the right kind of readers going to find you?
I suppose it's the same as in any other market (potatoes for example)
And the erotica market is very overcrowded.
So the writer has to be her own PR machine...
Do you have butts or nipples showing on the cover?
Yeah... It pays if you write in certain niches to be friendly in the kinds of places where readers of this stuff hang out. I think you really need to work on finding good places to promote.
I'm still working out how to reach both readers-of-M/M-erotic-romance and readers-of-fantasy-with-M/M-overtones.
Wildecat
Registered
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2013
- Messages
- 11
- Reaction score
- 0
Sometimes it seems a bit random what gets picked up and what doesn't. It could be that there is something objectionable in there (cover, blurb, title), or it could be that someone new happened to be at the keyboard and flagged a book that would normally be fine.
[email protected] is who you want to get in touch with to get it removed once you clean up whatever you think might be the problem. Send them the ASINs involved and politely say that you think the filter should be removed.
I've done it all of once so I'm no expert. It only took about a day before the flags were taken off though, and that was on a weekend even.
Last edited:
^Thank you for the tip, Ill definitely try that 
This is the cover...
I did put "New Adult Erotic Romance" in the title, maybe THAT is why it ended up getting flagged :/
This seems logical to me. Yet everyone else keeps saying just to write more and people will automatically find you, which seems strange to me.
This is the cover...
I did put "New Adult Erotic Romance" in the title, maybe THAT is why it ended up getting flagged :/
This seems logical to me. Yet everyone else keeps saying just to write more and people will automatically find you, which seems strange to me.
Last edited:
^Thank you for the tip, Ill definitely try that
This is the cover...
I did put "New Adult Erotic Romance" in the title, maybe THAT is why it ended up getting flagged :/
This seems logical to me. Yet everyone else keeps saying just to write more and people will automatically find you, which seems strange to me.
Oh, that's a great cover. It's often the cover, but the title and blurb can trip up the filters something fierce. Remove the 'erotic' and try emailing them to reconsider the filter.
I don't know if there's a definitive list of words somewhere, but even words like 'Daddy' will trip it up. If it's really affecting you and Amazon won't change it even after you email them, your option is to republish.
ETA: Oh, stuff like 'Dirty girl' has had books filtered. Maybe it's purely because of the added 'girl', but it might also be the connotations of 'dirty job'.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2013
- Messages
- 53
- Reaction score
- 3
So I followed the advice I got through this thread. I modified my covers, I've set up a free promotion that starts tomorrow, I've started writing books that begin a bit more sexually and I'm going to cut out on the superfluous stuff. I just released my latest book, but I had written 80% of it before starting this thread, so it doesn't have all the new additions in it.
My next book, I've cut down from the planned 12,000 words to 4,000. It's a challenge to write short fiction like this, but I'm embracing the challenge. But, if I get the hang of it, then I'll be able to put out work quicker, so there's that. And, if that's what the audience is looking for, then that's important too. I'm still going to do the odd longer piece but I think my next 5 will at least be shorter fiction, and I will see how they perform against my longer ones.
Any additional advice is welcome, as I'm still only selling 1-2 copies of each book (with the exception of one, which sold a few more). I'm remaining persistant.
My next book, I've cut down from the planned 12,000 words to 4,000. It's a challenge to write short fiction like this, but I'm embracing the challenge. But, if I get the hang of it, then I'll be able to put out work quicker, so there's that. And, if that's what the audience is looking for, then that's important too. I'm still going to do the odd longer piece but I think my next 5 will at least be shorter fiction, and I will see how they perform against my longer ones.
Any additional advice is welcome, as I'm still only selling 1-2 copies of each book (with the exception of one, which sold a few more). I'm remaining persistant.
Are you uploading to All Romance Ebooks? I realise I'm in the minority here, but I get a significant majority of my sales through them. If you stick to some simple rules, your new release will automatically be featured on the front page in the new release section, which should give you exposure to readers. It was a complete pain getting set up at their site, but well worth it.
The main category pages default to showing the bestseller list, with free downloads ranked the same as paid sales. Obviously free downloads are easier to come by than paid sales, so free books often dominate the bestseller rankings. But paid books still sell, I can promise you.
I price mine at $2.99 per short story and $9.99 per bundle and ARE seems pretty happy with it.It's better to list a book as romance rather than erotica at ARE if you can possibly get away with it, because only romance titles are featured on the front page - not erotica. I always list mine as erotic romance under the romance category, even though the happily ever after doesn't come until the end of the series. I really need to hit that front page every weekend to keep building sales.
Just a thought, JJ. I know received wisdom is that people don't sell well through ARE, but for me ARE sales are double or even triple Amazon sales, so I think it's worth considering.
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2007
- Messages
- 2,548
- Reaction score
- 228
I download a lot of $0.00 books and never ever read any of them. lol
But in fact books of high quality are sometimes released free as promo for series etc...I've seen books I've already bought and read for a price, suddenly released free to promote another book in the series.
Erotic fiction is not a gold rush, mainly because thousands of people think it is, and flood the market. I personally know more self publishers making big money self publishing historical romance and young adult fiction.
Yes I write erotic romance, and I started out selling to ezines, and print anthologies that paid at least $40 US for 4000 words. I've yet to try self publishing anything. But when I started erotica and horror seemed to me to be the only genres where you could just submit by email and get paid something (rather than receive 2 contributors copies and be grateful to have your work publihsed) The landscape has changed to an astonishing extent.
Last edited:
Thank you! I made it myself so I appreciate the feedback on the cover
Dang it, I didn't even consider the tagline -- I will try that. Thanks for your input!@Old Hack - so sorry about that! I fixed it manually, so hope it's showing up correctly now! Thank you for the compliment btw
@Old Hack - so sorry about that! I fixed it manually, so hope it's showing up correctly now! Thank you for the compliment btw
Ingrid, it's still way over the maximum size I'm afraid. It's more than 400 x 600 pixels still.
Rina, could you please sort out that giant image in the quoted portion of your post?
We have lots of members on slow connections here and large images like that make threads impossible for them to read and contribute to. Thanks.
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2012
- Messages
- 617
- Reaction score
- 93
- Location
- Atlanta-ish (NW Georgia, y'all!)
- Website
- www.vanessanorth.com
I second this!
I make way more money from ARe than Amazon across all titles, small press published and self-published.
Glad I'm not alone! I've never met anyone else for whom ARe outsells Amazon - I was starting to think I was imagining it.
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2012
- Messages
- 617
- Reaction score
- 93
- Location
- Atlanta-ish (NW Georgia, y'all!)
- Website
- www.vanessanorth.com
Nope, not imagining it. Hostile Beauty was number four in gay erotica on Amazon, top twenty in both gay romance and general gay fiction, and it didn't even sell half as much in that month as I sold in the same timeframe at ARe. (Where it hit the overall bestseller list for a few days, but just barely)
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2013
- Messages
- 53
- Reaction score
- 3
So, I've published my first shorter book, taking in all the advice I've gotten here.
You can see it here.
It will be free tomorrow and Sunday. I'd love to know what you all think, and possibly get some more useful advice.
You can see it here.
It will be free tomorrow and Sunday. I'd love to know what you all think, and possibly get some more useful advice.
I sell more through ARe, too, sometimes just a little more; sometimes a lot more.
Good luck with your new book, JJ.
Good luck with your new book, JJ.
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2009
- Messages
- 6,004
- Reaction score
- 1,233
My ARe sales seem to be holding their own with my Amazon and BN sales, which is quite nice, I think.
Maybe this is a dumb question, but am I right to assume that ARe is only for romance and erotic romance, though? Not for erotica?
They do sell erotica, although not taboo erotica like step-incest, but my understanding is that erotica doesn't hit the new release slots on the front page. So you don't get as much exposure.