What's the Rejection Percentage in Erotica?

My novella was accepted on my first submission of erotica to an epub, and I'm not saying that to brag (I'd been writing and being rejected elsewhere for ten years, after all, so I'd done my fair share of suffering and improving my craft), so I don't have any good data on rejections in the erotica world. Once you've been published with one publisher, though, the rates of acceptance by that publisher increase (not to 100%, but higher than the rates for a previously unpubbed author).

I do know that, despite the general impression that epubs will take anything, the erotica epubs do reject manuscripts. What I don't know is the quality of the manuscripts being rejected.

The only way for you to know is to submit your work. Create a hierarchy of your ideal publishers, from first choice to last, and start submitting.

Meanwhile, this might be a good topic for veinglory to pursue at the Erotic Romance Epub Comparison site, and maybe get some data compiled in one place.

JD

Me too

Accepted first time on debut novel. You can judge the quality by clicking the not work safe (duh) link in my sig which leads to the opening couple of scenes.

Generally, looking at 1st chapters available on most publisher's websites, I'd say that erotic plot and content matter more than execution.

In other words, if you have an actually story with some forward momentum, and if you have the right % of engaging and varied erotic action, then you have a good chance of a sale, even if your style is a little clumsy, and your characterisation is crude.

I don't think this means you can write cynically. Quite the reverse, it's verve and gusto which seem to make for a sellable erotic novel.

It's impossible to say. If it's appropriate, good and they have a slot--they'll buy it. Some places are pickier than others. I have sold everything I've written but not always to the first place I sent it.

EC interview information

There's an interview with some EC people that kind of addresses that. Here's the relevant quote:

To break it down to actual numbers I would say about 25% of what we get is blatantly not enough sex to fulfill our minimum requirements. Another 25% is auto-refused due to general poor writing, etc. An additional 25% is seriously misguided as to what constitutes romance and/or hot sex. The remaining 25% is what we have to go through in order to find new authors.

Click to expand...

Here's the URL for the full interview:
http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/interview_with_the_folks_from_elloras_cave/

They also used to have a "submissions FAQ" on their website. The page is still available, but I don't know that it is linked to anymore. (But I had it bookmarked from way back.) Here is the URL:

http://www.ellorascave.com/writingFAQ.asp

That says that they have a 4-5% acceptance rate overall.

Putting those figures together, and leaning on my tenuous math abilities, I come up with a 16% to 20% acceptance rate if you make it into the "golden 25%" of people who have enough erotic content, passable writing skills, and aren't misguided about romance/hot sex.

I don't know if that's a valid estimate. The 4-5% could be an outdated figure and the 25% was just an estimate to begin with. But still interesting to think about.

That sounds about right. But if they don't go for it there are another 45+ erotic romance publishers to try