In reply to ddavidv :
non-fiction can be very lucrative, yes! I actually started a fitness Instagram the other day and plan on posting regular shirtless photos once I get a tan, and building a following. I believe I can do it since I'll be hitting on several things: I'm vegan/vegetarian/plant-based, I'm 40 so not very young, and I'm in really good shape. I've been wanting to write a cookbook for years, so my plan is to build a following on Instagram, and then in a year or so boom release my cookbook to that audience. Should help drive sales.
Building the back catalog is the #1 way to make money as an indie author. Every genre/niche relies on that (unless you write a best-selling romance book, but romance is a different conversation altogether.) I have one scifi novel out and I'm working on sequel, and after that I'll write another to wrap it up in a trilogy. After that I'd like to do a collection of short stories and novelettes set in that world, then I'll move on. I have another interesting scifi idea that I'd like to explore, which involves a world where people are sometimes punished by having their bodies harvested and their brains installed into weak robotic bodies. After that I have 2-3 fantasy books I'd like to write.
In terms of short erotica, I need 30 stories per pen name before I have a back catalog that will make money consistently. Doable, just takes some time, especially when I have a full-time job and a family to focus on first.
Also, yes my wife knows I write erotica. No, she doesn't read the stories. I don't think I would really mind if she did, but she has no interest. Erotica worded for men and erotica worded for women reads very differently.
Where do I get my ideas? From pretty much anything. I work in IT, so in one of my stories the main character also works in IT. I like to travel and would love to have a tow pig/travel trailer, so in one of my stories the character is in one of those and the woman camping near them is of course gorgeous, you can see where that's going. I like going to the gym, so I'll write a story about I dunno, meeting someone at the gym and that'll turn into something. The basic plot doesn't need to be super in-depth, it just needs to be interesting enough to catch the reader's attention. I try to put in little things that I'm interested in so I can write about them and make them sound interesting. If I tried to write about golf, if would be horribly boring as I don't like golf. If I tried to write a story about a strongman competition it would probably be interesting, as I love exercise and strongman competitions. Hmmmmm, maybe I should look for some stock photos of a super muscle-bound woman, I wonder if I can do a story about that...
Working on a Chuck Tingle-style story now, with a slightly ridiculous title and a lot of humor. I'm pretty low on motivation when it comes to writing erotica lately, so I'm behind and my sales are slumping. I just need to sit down and write.
SV reX
MegaDork
3/25/22 11:37 a.m.
One of my favorite people was a woman who was a ghost writer for Millard Fuller (the founder of Habitat for Humanity). If you search, you'll find he wrote a lot of books. Millard Fuller was a lawyer- he didn't write them, my friend did.
She was a full-time volunteer. Earned no income. One day I asked her "How do you pay your bills? How do you afford to live on no income?" She told me that back in her younger days she had written a few "trashy romance novels" and lived off the residuals from those.
She told me how much she loved ghost writing about something she was passionate about, then gave me some life advice. "Whatever part of you is the BEST part, THAT'S the part you need to GIVE AWAY. You can't sell that part."
It was really good advice, which I haven't always followed.
Is it practical to get different writers working together under a single pen name? That way one person doesn't have to generate an entire catalog. Somehow the name should call attention to the fact that it's a group. "3 mediocre authors" or something like that. Credit the individual writer in the story itself somehow.
In reply to Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) :
It's certainly possible, you'd just have to find some like-minded people and it may get a bit awkward at times. The Expanse was written by two guys that use a single pen name, James S A Corey I think.
In reply to Apis Mellifera :
I hoisted her up by her chassis, supporting her from underneath. She hung tantalizing close over top of me. Using my extension I worked her loose, eventually breaking her off. She engulfed me in her warm lubricating fluid. It was time for me to find the oil filter.
My writing motivation has been a bit low lately and I've been busy, so I haven't been producing as much as normal and my sales show it. Granted, nearly everyone's sales are down right now (war, covid, there's a million reasons but I'm not the only one experiencing this) but I should still be writing more. I finished and submitted another erotica short today, Amazon should publish it either today or tomorrow. It has a kind of chuck tingle (google him if you aren't familiar with him, his stories are hilarious) styled title and a bit of humor in the story so I'm hoping that'll help.
I did sell 5 books yesterday, so that's always a big plus. I also came up with an idea for another erotica story so I word vomited a very rough outline. Once I have some free time I'll go write that one out, and hopefully get back on track. I was planning on writing some this weekend but instead we took our 7 month old to the aquarium. He loves the brightly-colored fish, and got excited when he saw an octopus and some sharks.
I also thought of something I'd like to use for another sci-fi story, once I finish this trilogy: A society where "traitors" are punished by having their bodies harvested and their brains put into frail robotic bodies. They're sent to the mines to work for the last of their years. I like the thought so I'll have to develop it some.
I also want to write a handful of science fiction short stories and get them published in various online zines and publications to help get my name out there. A few extra bucks is nice as well. Here's the first story I got published, which led to me writing Like Shadows in the Night:
Runner, by Armon Mikal
Total sales so far: $768.56
I would model the cover for "Don't get it on your Hootus" for free.
Jokes aside, this has been really interesting from the business sense as building up your catalog and getting a residual income generating. I am a terrible author (unless it's technical writing, the best kind of writing) but it's really hard to build up a catalog of image work.
Not sure if anyone has listened to this, but it's a hoot! We streamed it on a road trip a couple years ago and it sure made for some good laughs.
https://www.mydadwroteaporno.com/podcast
Good luck with the authoring!
In reply to Javelin :
Ah crap, I actually meant to use the term "hootus" in this story that I just published, but I forgot. I'll probably use it for my next story. I was thinking of doing some more humorous stuff, like when President Boe Jiden knows the true way to defeat the Russians *bow chicka bow wow music plays as he's swarmed by Russian women or something*
Hmm, this seems laughable but serious thought here: If I wrote a story about our president forcing Putin to crossdress, I'll bet it would sell. I'll have to give that some consideration.
I don't think I'm the best writer, but I've definitely gotten a lot better and I would attribute some of that to writing erotica. Writing erotica doesn't directly translate into better scifi, but I'm just more used to writing now, so my grammatical structure and stuff is better. Oh, speaking of which, I don't think I mentioned it earlier but these erotica shorts are not run through an editor. Just my brain and Microsoft Word catching some typoes. A professional editor is FAR too expensive to use for stuff like this (I paid $360 to have Like Shadows in the Night edited, which was a great price).
Reading this explains a lot of the content of Prime Reading, honestly.
I make a couple of grand a year in royalties from non-fiction books I wrote years ago - the first one was 2003, I think. But that's a very different mode of working than what we're seeing here, I went through the traditional publishing route - although I got the gig after being noticed due to one or two online articles. The effort to get the book on the shelves was much higher and I make far less per copy than an independent. But I've got a much bigger distribution footprint due to the publisher, and if I want to do a promotional push I can get them to help. I have both the benefit and limitation of having written for a narrow niche, which means the book has a long life but a limited audience.
It's interesting to see the other side. I have a sister-in-law who's also writing independently but she's doing novels instead of stories or novellas. Thanks for sharing this.
In reply to infinitenexus :
Runner is an excellent story! I would happily read an entire book in that universe.
Have you though about applying to Black Library (the publishing arm of Games Workshop in the UK)? I think that your style could easily adapt to one of their IP's and you might do really well.
Keith Tanner said:
Reading this explains a lot of the content of Prime Reading, honestly.
I make a couple of grand a year in royalties from non-fiction books I wrote years ago - the first one was 2003, I think. But that's a very different mode of working than what we're seeing here, I went through the traditional publishing route - although I got the gig after being noticed due to one or two online articles. The effort to get the book on the shelves was much higher and I make far less per copy than an independent. But I've got a much bigger distribution footprint due to the publisher, and if I want to do a promotional push I can get them to help. I have both the benefit and limitation of having written for a narrow niche, which means the book has a long life but a limited audience.
It's interesting to see the other side. I have a sister-in-law who's also writing independently but she's doing novels instead of stories or novellas. Thanks for sharing this.
Traditional publishing would be great, but the competition is simply too stiff and payouts are much different. For my scifi novels I would love to get something like that, but this route allows me more freedom and control. Plus, it's easier. After I finish this trilogy I'm working on, I may try submitting my next novel to a traditional publisher. The marketing capabilities they have would be a big help.
Javelin said:
In reply to infinitenexus :
Runner is an excellent story! I would happily read an entire book in that universe.
Have you though about applying to Black Library (the publishing arm of Games Workshop in the UK)? I think that your style could easily adapt to one of their IP's and you might do really well.
I wrote Runner specifically to submit to some online publications, and really enjoyed writing it. That story directly led to me writing Like Shadows in the Night, HERE, which has Zeke as the main character and a pretty awesome plot, if I do say so myself.
I'm currently working on the sequel to Like Shadows in the Night. I plan on writing a third book to finish out the trilogy, and then I think I want to write a collection of stories and novellas/novelletes all set in that world and publish them as one big compilation.
I have not heard of Black Library, so I just googled them. I'll definitely look into this, thanks!
infinitenexus said:
Keith Tanner said:
Reading this explains a lot of the content of Prime Reading, honestly.
I make a couple of grand a year in royalties from non-fiction books I wrote years ago - the first one was 2003, I think. But that's a very different mode of working than what we're seeing here, I went through the traditional publishing route - although I got the gig after being noticed due to one or two online articles. The effort to get the book on the shelves was much higher and I make far less per copy than an independent. But I've got a much bigger distribution footprint due to the publisher, and if I want to do a promotional push I can get them to help. I have both the benefit and limitation of having written for a narrow niche, which means the book has a long life but a limited audience.
It's interesting to see the other side. I have a sister-in-law who's also writing independently but she's doing novels instead of stories or novellas. Thanks for sharing this.
Traditional publishing would be great, but the competition is simply too stiff and payouts are much different. For my scifi novels I would love to get something like that, but this route allows me more freedom and control. Plus, it's easier. After I finish this trilogy I'm working on, I may try submitting my next novel to a traditional publisher. The marketing capabilities they have would be a big help.
It is a really different sort of setup for sure. If you want to get into the airport bookstores (the true sign that you have made it as a fiction author in my mind!) it's the only way to go. But the barrier to entry is very high unless you manage to bootstrap yourself in the way Andy Wier did. Which never happens. But Cory Doctorow has some interesting ideas on how to make it work.
You lose a lot of control and potential profit in exchange for that wider reach and support. At the time I started, on-demand publishing wasn't a thing and ebooks basically didn't exist. It's a lot easier to be an independent now, but of course that also means there are a lot more other independent authors!
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Sounds like you need to write a follow-up to your book and self-publish it on Amazon.
So I've heard of this thing called LitRPG and kinda had an idea of what it was, so I decided to check it out this morning since it's so incredibly popular. It's essentially the main character being thrust into a video game/role -playing game and then writing a story about that, including all stats. As in, "after fighting the mega doodoo dragon, Blimflark the Brazen created a campfire and slept for 8 hours to restore his hitpoints." It's...weird. It's also very popular right now, so of course I want to try my hand at it. About 21 years ago I played an awesome dungeons and dragons campaign with a couple friends and the storyline the DM created was pretty interesting. I may be able to turn that into a series of stories. Worth a try. Of course, writing all of this stuff requires having free time, which is something I'm very, very short on at the moment.
In reply to infinitenexus :
I don't have any interest in writing any more right now, I need the time more than I need the money :) I have a publisher who wants me to do another but I've been saying no. Besides, you can only write about the same cars so many times. They're not as interesting as fictional characters in that way!
Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:
Fifty shades of GRM
They don't call it the Bad Decisions Triangle for nothing....
I'm trying to average at least 1,000 words per day on my science fiction book. I usually don't write on the weekends, but I can often churn out a good bit during the week (especially on Fridays). That would see the first draft done in 2-3 months, which is honestly longer than I'd like but still not bad. I made a pretty major change to the ending of the book and decided to make that the ending to the next book (which will be the end of the trilogy), so I need to think of a new ending for this one. I'll do that when I get there, I guess. For now I'm working hard on the primary side plot and side character. I'm trying to do a lot more character development in this book, compared to the previous one.
If I truly have the free time, motivation, and a solid outline, then I can churn out about 4-5K words per day, which would be much preferred. To be honest, I'm excited to finish this book and this trilogy so I can start on the next book, as I have some pretty awesome ideas for that.
Currently at 23K words on my first draft.
When writing longer things I tend not to write from beginning to end. If there is a particular part I have all planned out, I'll do that and assemble the whole thing later.
In reply to Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) :
I'm the same way, I jump around a lot. In my previous novel, the ending was one of the first things I wrote. With this one, I'm sticking with character points of view and writing them in a row, it seems.
Today has been a productive day. I'm at 26K words.
I decided to write a couple friends into my science fiction book. One of them was one of the first people to buy and read my book, and he complimented me on my writing, so I decided to thank him back by writing him in as a minor character. Plus, he's a tech guy so that works perfectly because I need a "hacker" style character (It's cyberpunk, after all). Both the weekend and yesterday were too busy for me to really write any on my science fiction book, so I'm trying to work on that today.
Right now I'm writing a plotline in my book where the young female character (sort of a sidekick) finds the guy that murdered her old friend. She wants to get revenge on him but that means getting close, so she's being nice and even a bit flirtatious until she gets the opportunity to kill him. He is unaware that she knows he did it. This doesn't affect the overall plot much; it's mostly for character development and to show how such a dark, violent chapter in her life affects her and changes her as a person over the course of the trilogy.
Currently listening to this masterpiece of progressive death metal:
https://slugdge.bandcamp.com/album/the-cosmic-cornucopia-2
First draft is at 26,563. Tomorrow should be a more productive day.
