IS WRITING EROTIC FICTION FOR YOU? —===—
Do you enjoy writing fiction? Are you at least a little bit creative? Do you just want to try another niche? Are you curious about the erotic fiction niche?
If you answered yes to any of these, erotic novels are a viable option you should look into.
Writing erotic fiction is one of the most profitable ways to make money with your writing skills and cash in on sales.
The biggest growing niche on Kindle is… drums… the erotica niche. It makes up about 4% of ALL Kindle sales. Outranking every category on computers and the internet. Interesting isn´t it.
But why is that so?
Lets face it. 30 years ago if you wanted to write an erotic novel you had to bring it to a publisher. This could expose you to humiliation and embarrassment and therefore was very unpopular.
Since a couple of years the Kindle market is booming. If you are not living under a rock you should have noticed by now.
One of the big reasons is how easy it is to self-publish your own eBooks. The other one being the anonymity of the internet. You can write the most twisted erotic story and nobody is ever going to find out.
Walking into a bookstore and going to the check out with a bundle of porn under your arm is a menacing thought for many potential readers, who simply didn´t read erotica because of this huge flaw.
Kindle eliminates this completely. Ultimate privacy and easy accessibility.
HIDE YOUR IDENTITY!
- DO NOT USE YOUR REAL NAME OR MAIN PEN NAME FOR EROTIC!
- Don´t leave any footprints to personal information or internet information.
- Create a new pen name, create a new email, create new accounts for every platform. Just make sure you leave no traces at all.
- Never ever, ever use a picture of yourself.
- Don´t think about getting interviewed under your real name or on camera when in conjunction with your erotic fiction eBooks.
If you make the huge mistake to not cloak your erotic writing and if they see that you are into “the kinky stuff”, I guarantee you that you will scare away conservative people or worse.
Ever heard of “Judy Mays”? A teacher and erotic writer who didn´t follow these set-in-stone rules and well… google her up.
CAN I MAKE MONEY OFF WRITING EROTIC NOVELS?
Is the pope catholic?
Erotic fiction is regularly making it to the Top 100 of every single publishing platform in existence. So yes, it can be a very, very profitable adventure to undertake.
The owner of eXtasy – an erotic book publishing company – claimed in an interview that erotic fiction sales have DOUBLED in 2011 and are still increasing in terms of sales volume. He gave an interview in 2012 saying:
“Customers are starting to discover them and finding that they can read certain books that they do not want other people to see and in privacy…”
God bless eReaders! They can be a gift from heaven to you if and only if you start to get into writing erotica too.
This is not just a random out-of-thin-air fact. This week when I was taking the train to another state in front of me was sitting a business man. Fancy suit, clean shoes, nice white eReader. I didn´t pay too much attention to him because I also was busy but then I had to arrange my thought. Looked around, looked out of the window and ultimately my gaze fell upon his Kindle screen. He was reading porn. A business man aged around 45-50 sitting in a public transport and reading porn.
Sounds obscure? Well, I thought so too until I witnessed it with my own eyes and trust me…. it is not!
Jump on the train and make money with erotic fiction. Check out my article on must-see tips on how to write great erotica.
Part 2 of the series on how to write Erotic Fiction
erotic romance and sex fiction. I offer valuable tips on creating and writing erotic fiction and adult books. Don´t miss out on the amazing opportunities this how to, step by step guide on erotic fiction has to offer.
After having read my previous article on Erotic Fiction LINK you probably have already figured out the great potential that writing erotic fiction exhibits.
A gigantic, not oversaturated (and likely never will be) market with loads of potential customers willing to give you their money in exchange for exciting stories.
Tips and rules for writing Erotic fiction
Now it´s time to show you do´s and don´ts of writing erotic stories and adult books.
If you made yourself some thoughts about it, it´s very likely that you already realized that there are many niches in the erotic/romance niche. Your job is similar to writing a non-fiction book. Find your target audience!
There are dozens of sub-niches you can tackle. Romance, fetishes like BDSM, homosexual, group settings etc. I´m sure that you can think of many. And I hope that there are many out there that neither you nor me could think about.
We can split these into
2 big categories
Number 1
is the erotic romance segment. The key area you need to focus on is having a cohesive romantic plot line throughout the whole story (spiked with sensual erotic of course).
It should be structured in a similar way to the following outline:
Woman meets man. They fall eternally into love but of course life is not Disney Land and therefore they encounter terrible obstacles that keep and/or tear them apart. Somehow they manage to overcome these extreme obstacles and find together and live together happily ever after. Or they are happy for the moment and get themselves into trouble in your sequel.
The romance focused book rarely involves more than two partners. It´s usually not the best idea for the atmosphere of the story. AND the Sex MUST play an important part in the plot and in the development of their relationship.
There is nothing wrong with the main characters engaging in more kinky acts of intercourse. Toys, bondage, candles etc are all allowed. But don´t make the mistake to take the false believe out of this that vanilla sex is boring. You and only you can decide how the main characters are going to express their love.
The second category
is the pure erotic. 100% straight into the eye. It´s generally kinkies and wilder than the romance story. You have the complete freemdon to decide what´s happening behind closed curtains. Ménage a trés, BDSM or other fetishes.
You can include multiple “characters”. Adjust the “setup” according to your target audience. If you focus on female readers you choose one woman with multiple men and vice versa.
A real plot with a lot of character development is not mandatory. You can get through with a woman who lives alone and faces the problems of clogged pipes, a broken TV and no food at home that get solved by strong male craftsmen and pizza delivery guys.
How much should you write?
This is a tough question where opinions regularly collide. Not only in the erotic fiction segment.
Your best bet in my opinion is a short story (4000-7500 words) or a novelette (7500-17500). If you are in the right writing mood and really enjoy your story. If you feel a novelette is not enough to leader your main character to a satisfactory number of happy ends then feel free to write a novella, ranging from 17500 to 40000 words.
If I was asked and had to give a definite answer I would say, go for 5000-15000 words.
Though short stories have proven to sell very well you can´t charge much for them. $1,99 is about the maximum you can and should charge. Another option is to bundle around 3 short stories and sell them for $3,99-$4,99.
Short stories have the huge advantage of not requiring too much time and they tend to establish a readership much faster.
I will release the third part of the erotic fiction series in the next days so stay tuned and look forward for tips on writing the short stories and novelettes and on important rules for creating a cover!
Welcome to part 3 of my erotic niche writing tutorial.
In Part 2 we have already talked about the benefits erotic short stories (let´s call them Erotic Shorts) have. Increased readership, hefty amount of sales, building and binding your audience.
Of course longer stories are great too but let us focus on Erotic Shorts for the moment. I present you 9 great little tips for writing erotic fiction. Let´s get started!
- Obvious. Make sure your work is properly edited. Proofread. Let your partner/mother proofreader. Let a professional proofreader do his job. In order to write a good erotic fiction story you need to make sure it´s professional. Your readers will thank you with an increase in sales.
- Make sure to write at least 4,500 words. Better aim for 7,000
- Get a great cover designed. Avoid showing private parts though. I will come to this later. But we all know the importance of a good cover. Get it done or do it yourself if you are a gifted designer.
- Keep your target audience in mind. If you are writing erotic fiction for women you will want to aim at fulfilling their fantasies, not yours if you are male.
- Give the reader the feeling, that you don´t let him/her down. It´s definitely best to be clear in the blurb, maybe even using the actual word count.
- Read some of the romance, sex fiction and erotical romance novels to get an idea about what sells.
- What´s universally true is that people want to read about beautiful people. They want the illusion. They want to lose themselves in your story. They are keen on reading about a fantasy that they will never experience themselves.
- Don´t release a short story as a stand-alone book. Make sure you have at least 3 books reader and release them all at the same time. This will arise the interest of your buyers even more and brings more money into your pocket.
- You can think about releasing all 3 books as a part of a bundle and sell it for a higher price. Bundles also tend to sell well.
- Target a specific audience. Not only will you need to choose wether you target men or women but also the micro niche. Sex fictions, erotic fiction, erotic romance. BDSM, erotic sci-fi, erotic horror etc, you get the picture
Let´s talk about money once again.
If you are not very well known and have yet to make yourself a name as an author you won´t be able to sell your books at $19,99. A more realistic price would be between $0,99 and $1,99. The determining factor here is the word count. If you write between 4,500 and 7,500 the price is just fine.
If you pack your books together an release them as a bundle you can sell 3-4 for around $3,99 to $4,99.
A great tip here is the following. If you release your stories as a part of a series it is an AMAZING idea to offer your first book for free. If you have a 5 part series you can afford to offer your first book for free. Actually it´s more like that you can´t afford to NOT offer your first book for free.
It´s an amazing way to kickstart your writing enterprise. This is not only true for erotic fiction but also for every other genre. Of course having a book series or at least a lot of books is a requirement. If you offer your only book for free, guess what, you probably won´t get rich.
So you want to write much longer stories? How should you price them?
around 15-30,000 words could be $2,99 to $3,99
up to 50,000 $4,99
even more than 50,000 and you can charge $5,99 or up
As a first time author I can recommend you to start with shorts. If you happen to produce a flop and burn your fingers, you won´t have wasted as much time. Also the more books you have out there the higher is the probability of you writing a best selling book.
Your book´s cover
The cover – like in every other genre – is one of the most essential parts of your book. The others being the quality of work you deliver, the reviews that you get, your description and the marketing efforts.
The cover is crucial for your eBook´s success. Think about it. Take a quick look at the Kindle store.
The only thing that grabs your potential buyer´s attention is your little cover thumbnail, the reviews and the title. That´s why you need an awesome cover! Best to get it designed by a professional. You can hire freelance designers/artists or just go to www.fiverr.com and look for a seller with at least 95% satisfaction and lots of good reviews.
Your image need to be eye-catching! It needs to be the beautiful pendant to a huge car accident. Nobody should be able to look away! (Not my best methapor to be honest…)
How should your cover look?
It needs to be tailored to your target audience. Just like your story and writing style.
For erotic romance choose a half-naked man and a beautiful woman, embracing each other. Double standards in society lead me to the following advice:
The man should look like a Greek half-god. The woman should be pretty but not porn star or Victoria Secret model beautiful.
You gotta love double standards! Welcome to our modern society!
Your second option is to just put an Adonis-looking man on the cover. NEVER EVER are you allowed to just have a single woman on the cover. This doesn´t convey that you are writing an erotic romance but rather a male porn that’s intended to be read with one hand.
So an erotic cover targeting women should have the torso of a half-naked semi-god or said man and a woman embracing and kissing.
If men are your target audience you can put a porn starlette on the cover. You audience won´t consist of women having problems identifying with the heroine in this case-
WARNING: You are not permitted to show genitals or exposed breasts on your cover. Doing so will get your book banned on most platforms.
WARNING: Don´t you dare to use the picture of anyone who looks youthful and may be considered underage. This will get your book banned and might get you into even more trouble than that.
Now go out there and let the creative juices flow! Pun intended.
Erotic Fiction Writing - Everything you need to know!
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