Recently, a woman whose erotic stories have been widely anthologized wrote to say her day job was killing her, she needed to quit and write books for a living, and could I tell her what sold best these days? With a few changes, the following what I replied:
Could there be a worse time to need to write for money? I might have advised (nonerotic) scifi/fantasy or Harlequin a few years ago; they are the easiest sales to make to the big publishers and get nice advances, but the big publishers are all scrambling to catch up. Writing eBooks, certainly can earn some you money, but like all other publishing, the big sales are in categories, that’s because readers have their favorite categories and buy literally 90% of their books in that category or categories.
That said, grinding out category fiction can kill you.
And with any kind of books, it takes so long for royalties to mount up, because of systemic reporting problems. For example, we are too small to pay advances, and most distributors report sales to us at 30 days after the end of a month to 60 days to 120 days after. When we issue the Jan sales report in Feb, what it reflects, is not sales made in Jan, but sales we received reports of in Jan – which would be Nov., October, and even Sept sales. So when we pay royalties at the end of a quarter, they basically consist of 1/4 sales from the actual quarter, and 3/4 sales from the previous quarter.
Biggest sellers overall among ebooks: romance, erotica, success/self-help of all kinds.
Bestselling romance categories: erotic romance. Bestselling erotica categories: bondage and erotic romance. Bestselling subcategories: heterosexual erotic romance; male dom, female sub bondage from romance to pretty hard.
Then, to be one of the top sellers, it takes writing a lot of books and a very active and attractive website and/or blog with free stories, story samples, etc. (meaning contests, blog tours, and lots of other stuff). A good way to get an audience to your site/blog is post stories or hot scenes complete in themselves on Literotica.com, the free erotica website.
Our bestselling author, who writes strong bondage but often with romance, has written around 25 books over the last eight or so years, and currently earns about $28,000 through us. He works very hard to promote his books on the web.
Beyond this, everything is up in the air in publishing, sales and advances right now, with publishers in NY in a panic trying to figure out what the shape of publishing will be and what to sell. And a sinking economy. Of course, sex does sell, so there’s that.
Those are the basics, there are too many nuances to put in writing.
All the above notwithstanding, I always personally advise writers to write what they love.
Hi Jean Marie, Thanks for a very realistic post. A friend of mine always reminds me that there’s no accounting or predicting what the market will buy/like. If an author writes what they’re passionate about, they need to be prepared for lower sales if that isn’t the hot subgenre of the month. As one who is self-employed, i will say it’s a grind. Does it have freedoms? Oh yes, but it has huge responsibilities that I have to shoulder alone. The tax situation is a burden, too, in my state. While a nice royalty check may have you doing the happy dance, you must be disciplined enough to put away the money and pay Uncle Sam, cuz he does come collecting. The other part, of course is being disciplined enough to write when you feel like it and when you don’t. I write about 60 hours a week. Think about it as forming your own business, not just writing.
Hi Sas,
I’m a little surprised at the sub-genre you said sells the best. It’s been my experience m/m is the number 1 seller, at the moment. Whether there are paranormal, BDSM, contemporary or historical elements, it doesn’t seem to matter. Of all I have out right now, that’s the best seller, and has been for some time. Talking to other authors, it’s the same for them.
Hugs
Jude
Well, in my experience as a publisher with about 1200 erotic titles in eprint, bdsm outsells all other genres including manlove male-male, and that\’s across all major distributors
Jean Marie,
You always seem to tell it straight. And saying … “Beyond this, everything is up in the air in publishing, sales and advances right now, with publishers in NY in a panic trying to figure out what the shape of publishing will be and what to sell. ” No one in their right mind and any knowledge of what the industry is going can deny that statement.
Since no one knows the answer we have the other pearl of wisdom from you. Those of us who submit our work to you know… “Of course, sex does sell, so there’s that.”
Thank you,
Betty
Jean Marie,
You always seem to tell it straight. And saying … \"Beyond this, everything is up in the air in publishing, sales and advances right now, with publishers in NY in a panic trying to figure out what the shape of publishing will be and what to sell. \" No one in their right mind and any knowledge of what the industry is going can deny that statement.
Since no one knows the answer we have the other pearl of wisdom from you. Those of us who submit our work to you know… \"Of course, sex does sell, so there’s that.\"
Thank you,
Betty
As someone trying to invent their own sub-genre (eco-historical lesbian erotica, anyone?), this was bit depressing, but I can’t argue with any of it. I’m not entirely sure if sex DOES sell, at least not in the UK where the erotica market seems dead in the water. I have this notion that agents would be interested in my stuff, but the problem is getting them to read it – in synopsis form I think it comes across as too weird. Can anyone suggest a market for very pretentious erotic fiction?
The question I’d ask you, Alice is what is the main theme of your book? That will tell you honestly where it will fit for marketability in the grand scheme. Sex DOES sell int eh UK. If it didn’t, publishers like Total E-bound wouldn’t have the funds to keep running after five years of success.
Very pretentious erotic fiction…I’ll let M. Christian handle this one