Many books, websites and courses tell you how to write and sell erotica. But they stop there. The fledgling writer is left with the impression that these two steps are all there is to it. In short, that successful writers of erotica earn enough to live on by simply writing and selling an erotic tale, and then moving on to the writing and selling of next one, never looking back.

Most of us would be starving to death if that was, indeed, all there was to it. Try it yourself and you will soon discover, via starvation, how absurd this idea is.

In fact, for many of us, especially those who write erotic short stories and novelettes, writing and selling the story are only the beginning of wringing the maximum income from it. When my friend Harlan Ellison (primarily a short story writer, whose example, while he does not write erotica, is germane) finishes a story, he first sells it to the highest paying magazine market he knows of. Then, a year or so later he sells it to some anthology it seems right for. A year or so later he puts it in a collection of his own stories. Next, he typically sells it to a magazine that pays it lower rates but whose contents page would be enhanced by a story with his name on it. Later other anthologists may also purchase the story. These steps sometimes transpire in a different order, but you get the general idea. He gets paid four or more times, usually more, for each story he writes.

That’s why when I sell a short erotic story the first time, if the magazine or anthology wants any kind of exclusivity on it, I insist on a one or two period of exclusivity, after which they can still keep the story in their anthology, but I can sell it wherever I like. At the very least, I absolutely insist on being able to put it in anthology of my own stories, after a one or two year period. This is, in fact, how many short story writers enhance their income and manage to pay the rent/mortgage.

The situation isn’t the same with novels or book-length collections of your own work, of course. Naturally, the publisher of a book wants exclusivity during the time they are marketing it and making it available to the public.

But there are still several ways you can leverage more income from your erotic novel/s.

Does your publisher have a strong presence (distribution to Amazon, B&N, Sony, and other major book selling sites) in both print books and ebooks? And what about audio? If they appear to be weak in one or more of the above, see if you can reserve those rights for yourself. Then search the web for information for publishers who do have strong distribution in those areas, and try to interest them in the rights you have retained.

Here’s another tip. The more books, novels or collections, you write and have out, the more copies of each individual book you will sell. If you only have one erotic book out and a reader buys and likes that one, all you can have is one sale. But if you have six books out, and a reader buys one for the first time and likes that one, that reader will inevitably come back for more. Resulting in one to five additional sales.

At my site, SizzlerEditions.com, we have seen this over and over. A new customer will come in and purchase a book by, say, Terri Pray, who has just written her 50th book for us. In a day or two and, sometimes even just a few hours later, they come back and buy a half-dozen more and they keep on coming back until they have read them all. And then they may discover another writer at our site they like and do the same. And from then on, they tend to purchase every new book by these authors.

The same is true of series. If you write six stand-alone books, each will sell better than if you had just written one book. But if all six are part of a series, and a reader likes the series, you have virtually ensured the reader will buy all six.

These are some of the key ways you can maximize your income from writing erotica. There are others. But, we will deal with those in a later installment of this blog.

Jean Marie Stine, http://SizzlerEditions.com