Guidance Sought for Self-publishing Erotic Shorts

StoryofWoe

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I'm thinking about starting a new pen name exclusively for self-publishing short spank-bank erotica to help pay the bills. Not enough to make a living but perhaps to supplement. Is that even a thing anymore? If it is, I'd love some guidance as to how to go about doing this. Should I invest in a new author domain or will a [penname].wordpress.com address suffice? How important are the various social media platforms for this kind of writing? Should I start a mailing list? Approximately how long should these stories be and how should I price them? Should I join Kindle Unlimited?

Most of the guides I've found are a few years old, and presumably, a little outdated. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.
 

the.real.gwen.simon

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Okay, so, I'm looking at this from a slightly different perspective, because online sex work and online erotic fiction are different spheres, but there's some overlap so I'll toss in my nickle.

Your day face and your night face never meet. Not anywhere. You pick a pen name, and you build around it COMPLETELY SEPARATE from your other writing, your day-to-day life, the whole shebang. You do this because A) Your grandmother doesn't have any idea what privacy settings are, and the universe loves a good laugh and she will find your dirty laundry and you're gonna have a bad time, and B) The internet is full of total weirdos and if you're good there's a chance one of them will decide to be weird at you. Heck, if you're bad they may be weird at you. Mostly, this does not happen, but you never want to be the one girl who winds up on the evening news.

If you're not expecting this to turn big bucks, I wouldn't invest in a domain. It's a lot of money you might not make back. I've consulted Amazon, and I got over 2000 results for Kindle erotic short stories. Novel length got me over 50,000. So, it's definitely a thing people do. A stupid huge number of those were free, but I would be doubtful of their quality because of it. (Although, maybe you don't need to be very good. 50 Shades isn't exactly Nobel material.) Excluding the most expensive title ($99. I have no idea.), series box sets, and what looks like a mislabeled textbook, single short stories seem to top out at around $4 and novels at around $10. Customer reviews don't translate directly into sales, but the top ten range from 20 reviews to almost 500.

I'm not sure ifa mailing list applies to short erotica specifically, but I can say that Sean Platt swears by it, and half of his job is marketing short novels and serials (Some of which is erotica), so I would put that on your 'To Do' list.

I'm not sure what the exact breakdown is, but Amazon also had that filter sidebar option for your favorite flavor of porn, which included Billionaire, Men In Uniform, and options for all the more popular paranormals. Looks like there's also lots of LGBT and BDSM in the mix.
 
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louisecooksey

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I'm an audiobook narrator and use a pseudonym for my erotica. I don't know that it truly matters. I've not been turned down yet, despite it :)
 

Melty

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I've been publishing erotica shorts on Amazon since late 2016. I try to do 3,500 words minimum, and aim higher when I can. I don't charge over 99 cents if I'm under 5k words. Having a higher rank will grant you more visibility, so if you aim for the top 100 for erotica (which I'm sure everyone aims for) your sales will go up. I have been there several times, and my sales always see a noticeable increase when that happens. However, you need to release a lot of stories to get there. Well, not a lot... I got there after getting 31 published. Then lost it shortly after.

I want to get there and stay there eventually! :)
 

StoryofWoe

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I've been publishing erotica shorts on Amazon since late 2016. I try to do 3,500 words minimum, and aim higher when I can. I don't charge over 99 cents if I'm under 5k words. Having a higher rank will grant you more visibility, so if you aim for the top 100 for erotica (which I'm sure everyone aims for) your sales will go up. I have been there several times, and my sales always see a noticeable increase when that happens. However, you need to release a lot of stories to get there. Well, not a lot... I got there after getting 31 published. Then lost it shortly after.

I want to get there and stay there eventually! :)

How long did it take you to write those 31 stories? From what others outside AW have told me, it sounds like the key is to release often and, if possible, on a consistent schedule. I'm not the fastest writer, but I've been writing short erotica long enough that I think I could probably produce one 3-5K short a day if I had to. My best bet would probably be to stockpile stories so that the pressure isn't always on to write next week's stories NOW.

Are you in KU?
 

Melty

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How long did it take you to write those 31 stories? From what others outside AW have told me, it sounds like the key is to release often and, if possible, on a consistent schedule. I'm not the fastest writer, but I've been writing short erotica long enough that I think I could probably produce one 3-5K short a day if I had to. My best bet would probably be to stockpile stories so that the pressure isn't always on to write next week's stories NOW.

Are you in KU?

Longer than I wanted to take. From December to May, although I wrote a ton of partials in that time that are still waiting to be finished. Currently, I have 59 stories out there, and over 300 partials that need to be finished. I certainly tried to produce one a day in the beginning, and burned out.

Yes, I'm in KU. Although not all my stories are on Amazon, some are elsewhere.