Made barely anything from erotica, any advice?

[karmazon]

I have 14 items published so far. 1 Novella, 12 short stories(between 6000 and 10000 words), and a bundle of 10 short stories. All in the popular BDSM/Billionaire genre. They're on Amazon, Smashwords, and Kobo. Friends who read the stories told me that they've liked them and that they turned them on, so they're doing their job(and they're not the kind of friends that would lie just to be nice.) The covers are decent. I'm consistently putting out new stories. I've played with their price, from $0.99 to $2.99. I haven't done any marketing, but from Held for Ransom's I gathered that the best marketing is publishing more stories.

I've been at it since late April. Made less than $20 so far. I've read experiences of many authors earning hundreds their first month. Is my experience unusual? Am I doing something wrong? Does anyone have any advice?

This is my catalog if anyone wants to take a look.

 

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[GuestUser116]

Do porn instead

 

[AndrewNC]

Does anyone have any advice?

I haven't done any marketing

Advice: Do marketing

 

[csalvato]

IMHO, you got a shitload of content.

Which one sells best? Gets the most views? Which do your friends/readers like the most?

Pick that one, and promote the shit out of it. Give away a free chapter (or hell, an entire free book) to people who sign up to your mailing list through a post on Reddit. Find someone who is a self-publishing blogger and talk about publishing. Let him/her know what you're working on. Get them interested. Give them a free copy of one of your books. Ask him if you can do a guest post, and push people to your book from there.

The trick isn't in the content. It's in the promotion.

 

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[LIkeafox]

I don't know what your stories are or how you have them listed on Amazon but if they get tagged as being for adults-only they aren't going to be easy to find by users if they aren't looking specifically for your titles. A couple of years ago it was a lot easier to write this kind of stuff and make fairly easy money on Amazon, now you do need to do some marketing of your own and not just hope for people to stumble upon your stuff.

 

[karmazon]

Advice: Do marketing

IMHO, you got a shitload of content.

Which one sells best? Gets the most views? Which do your friends/readers like the most?

Pick that one, and promote the shit out of it. Give away a free chapter (or hell, an entire free book) to people who sign up to your mailing list through a post on Reddit. Find someone who is a self-publishing blogger and talk about publishing. Let him/her know what you're working on. Get them interested. Give them a free copy of one of your books. Ask him if you can do a guest post, and push people to your book from there.

The trick isn't in the content. It's in the promotion.

Better marketing seems like a logical choice. However, I've read numerous experiences of other authors, even those on this forum, who have sold well without any dedicated marketing.

Have you guys done any erotica ebook marketing and can share your experience?

 

[Tom.V]

Better marketing seems like a logical choice. However, I've read numerous experiences of other authors, even those on this forum, who have sold well without any dedicated marketing.

Have you guys done any erotica ebook marketing and can share your experience?

I've read of many people my age who are doing $50k profit per month selling hair products. Maybe if I start importing hair products they will just sell themselves?

The magic is in the marketing. No matter what you're doing.

 

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[karmazon]

I've read of many people my age who are doing $50k profit per month selling hair products. Maybe if I start importing hair products they will just sell themselves?

The magic is in the marketing. No matter what you're doing.

Could you share your erotica marketing experience? The experience of the person who inspired me to get into it seems to differ.

 

[Karla]

Hi karmazon,

I have 12 books in total so far. The genres are mainly kids stories and fitness/health/nutrition. I also have 3 erotic stories and I must tell you that they are not selling well. While my other books are making 30€ - 200€ per month the erotic stories make 3€ ;-) (I have a german account by the way, that`s why I talk about euros).
I know that there are authors out there that make a lot of money with erotica. I am not saying that it doesn`t sell.....just telling you my personal experience. What I do is test one genre/niche with one book. If it doesn`t sell (although I am doing marketing) I try another genre. Once I find a genre that works I stick to it and produce more books on related topics. I started 2 month ago and so far I am making between 500 and 600€ per month. This is no fortune of course, but I think I am on a good way.
Have you tested different covers and/or titles? This made the trick for one of my books.

 

[csalvato]

Could you share your erotica marketing experience? The experience of the person who inspired me to get into it seems to differ.

I sell about $1k/month for one eBook that also comes with a video package. It's non-fiction -- and not erotica.

I make very little money on Amazon (only about $100/month)...most of my sales come through direct marketing through email. People sign up for my list for an interesting "hook" then I show them 2 chapters of my book and provide value for the next 30 days. About 2% buy a book/video package.

A friend and partner of mine put their book on amazon and makes 10k. If you asked him, he would just say he wrote the book, put it up, and it sold.

Truth is, he was doing a ton of work building up a reputation on various forums for about 3 years before writing a word of his book. Then a bunch of the forum people bough it, and told all their friends. It created a positive feedback loop.

I know that if I just threw my book on Amazon, I would make F*ckall. Take that FWIW.

 

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[biophase]

I don't know anything about ebooks but your titles are all, "the (insert person)". Not very creative to me.

 

[Kyle Tully]

Could you share your erotica marketing experience? The experience of the person who inspired me to get into it seems to differ.

And here is what he said in the first post of that thread:

Not being a writer myself (thank God for Word's spell and grammar checker!), I relied heavily on my ability to do market research and understand the Amazon ecosystem throughly (in terms of keywords). In my mind, this is definitely what has made me successful in this so far. Aside from that, I am an expert in creating catchy titles, coming up with eye grabbing covers, writing enticing descriptions and hooking folks when they "Look Inside" at the first 10-12% of my books. Of course, I do the very best job I can as a writer but I'm no Shakespeare. Luckily, it turns out that it doesn't matter at all.

My formula is simple.

Step 1 - Look at what is selling.
Step 2 - Come up with my own spin/version of it and sell it.

That said, I don't want to mislead anyone that is reading this... Behind the scenes, within that simplicity are mutiple layers of complexity that represent my system. Nothing I do is accidental or "inspired".

Did you do all of that to the same level he did?

If not then there's your answer as to why your plan isn't working.

 

[LIkeafox]

I just took a look at your catalog and I agree with Biosphere, you need to make your titles more provocative and you need to be a little less coy in your copy. Or if you want to keep the coyness than add the warning a lot of Amazon erotica books have, something like "For Mature Audiences, contains spanking, cosplay and auto erotic asphyxiation", or whatever is in your stories.

Also as Kyle mentioned do some research about what sorts of books in this genre are selling better than others and play up those aspects in the copy for your own stories (as long as they are actually in the story, it's not right to lie).

 

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[GuestUser116]

How does one market on amazon?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I have 14 items published so far.

I'm going to assume that you write well based on the quantity.

IMO, I'd tone down the content so you can get the adult filter removed. And then start over. If you're good, then it will help tremendously, plus what other's recommended, marketing.

You're covers are OK.

You're titles are OK, bordering weak. Agree with @biophase, using the [person] as a title seems a little uninventive.

 

[ChickenHawk]

The Good News...My first guess would have been that your titles are being caught up in Amazon's adult filter, which makes titles virtually invisible for readers to find. However, yours don't seem to be impacted by that. To tell, I usually check www.salesrankexpress.com. If your title is filtered, you'll see the word "ADULT" by your title name on the results page. (Of course, maybe they WERE tagged as adult, and within the last couple of days, you've successfully gotten the filter removed. If so, congrats!)

I don't know anything about ebooks but your titles are all, "the (insert person)". Not very creative to me.

I agree with this.

The magic is in the marketing. No matter what you're doing.

Maybe. But I'm in the same camp as Held for Ransom. I believe that the best thing you can do to promote book#1 is write book#2. Like him, I haven't done any marketing either. I'm sure marketing could help, but I don't believe it's the key to any author's success.

A couple of years ago it was a lot easier to write this kind of stuff and make fairly easy money on Amazon, now you do need to do some marketing of your own and not just hope for people to stumble upon your stuff.

I agree with this. I'm not sure that sex stories are where the money's at anymore. A couple years ago, you'd hear of authors making gobs of money writing what is basically porn. I don't mean any insult by that. I just mean that your books appear to be mostly sex books without a lot of plot, kind of like a porno video, but of the written variety. Now that the novelty has worn off, I suspect that readers are wanting their sex wrapped in a plot. If your books DO have a plot, I'd make that more clear. Biophase made an excellent point above. Maybe just re-titling them would do wonders in shifting the perception.

I think also what happened was that after "50 Shades" took off like a rocket and made the author a zillion dollars, a lot of writers jumped on that bandwagon. But if you look at "50 Shades", those are really long books with an actual romance. If your books target women, I'd suggest playing up the romance a bit. If your books target men, maybe that's not quite as important. (Hate to generalize, but hopefully no one would dispute that women constitute the vast majority of romance readers.)

Edit:

1 Novella, 12 short stories(between 6000 and 10000 words), and a bundle of 10 short stories.

I've also heard that short stories aren't selling like they used to. I don't have any personal experience with that, but I figured I'd pass that along for what it's worth.

 

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[Kyle Tully]

I believe that the best thing you can do to promote book#1 is write book#2. Like him, I haven't done any marketing either. I'm sure marketing could help, but I don't believe it's the key to any author's success.

How does writing another book help promote the first one?

Especially if no one is buying either of them.

MJ dedicated a YEAR to marketing his book. And he had this forum to build initial momentum. Only now is he starting to write a second. I doubt he would have been as successful if he just threw it on Amazon and then started writing another one.

I looked at the catalog and browsed through a few titles and the first few things that stood out to me are:

1. None of the books seem to have reviews or ratings. As a consumer my first thought is because the product sucks.

2. They're mostly short 23, 24, 100 pages long. Barely enough time to rub one out.

3. They all kinda sound the same and it feels like you're just pumping them out.

I would pick the book that has made the most sales. (Or if no sales then the one you feel has the best potential.) And then spend a month promoting the hell out of it. Get people to buy the thing and review it. I guarantee this will get you more sales than pumping out another book no one will buy.

 

[Determined2012]

This is my catalog if anyone wants to take a look.

I hated the NAMES of all of them. Sound corny and cheesy. Not sure if the titles matter, but I won't buy it just based on that. (Sorry for the blunt remark, but maybe this comment will be helpful)

I don't read much fiction stuff, but if I did I know I would like books that are written in a series style/format. I see the Orange County theme; are all those ones about the same woman?

EDIT: Decided to take a peek inside of the one called The Manipulator. I found an error on the 1st page of Chapter 1. (There are more spelling/grammar errors in the preview as well)
Other than that, the little that I read sounds like it might be good, also might be predictable. Without reading further than the free sample I imagine that Sara's husband is going to have an affair with Lauren.

 

[RoadTrip]

Agree that the titles can be improved. Think of titles that create visuals in the mind of your customers. In order to write catchy titles, learn copywriting. There's a whole section on the forum called "copywriting challenge" or something like that.

If you don't want to read all books, I suggest you start with Cashvertising. That book should get you give you enough tips to convert your titles to catchy titles.

Also, you might consider asking @ChickenHawk for some advice. She is very succesful selling fiction books on Amazon.

 

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[Determined2012]

@ChickenHawk. He

This is a WOman! LOL [HASHTAG]#GirlBoss[/HASHTAG]

Tis is all!

 

[MorgothBauglir]

Since late april and you're ready to pack it in?

Write more books.

 

[smarty]

Do porn instead

Actually grab a web cam and do virtual porn

Friends who read the stories told me that they've liked them and that they turned them on, so they're doing their job(and they're not the kind of friends that would lie just to be nice.)

screw their [free] opinion, did they actually PAY anything for the book? If they pull out their credit card and pay for it, (or buy one of your other books), that's the real test.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

How does writing another book help promote the first one?

A common strategy with fiction titles, basically, you're trying to grab visibility and eye-balls in the Amazon ecosystem. If the product is any good, it churns the wheel for the author.

 

[karmazon]

I'd like to say thanks to everyone who replied, I definitely have a lot to think about and tinker with.

I'd like to make few clarifications:

Did you do all of that to the same level he did?

I don't have access to his brain, so I'm not sure if it was at the same level, but I did the same things he spoke about as far as finding a niche etc.

IMO, I'd tone down the content so you can get the adult filter removed. And then start over. If you're good, then it will help tremendously, plus what other's recommended, marketing.

I've checked with salesrankexpress, the tool Chickenhawk mentioned, before and the titles don't seem to have that adult filter, or "adult dungeon" that authors talk about. It was one of the reasons why I chose 'unsexy' titles.

2. They're mostly short 23, 24, 100 pages long. Barely enough time to rub one out.

That's the standard length for erotica shorts on amazon

3. They all kinda sound the same and it feels like you're just pumping them out.

That's correct. That's what other authors are doing too.

EDIT: Decided to take a peek inside of the one called The Manipulator. I found an error on the 1st page of Chapter 1. (There are more spelling/grammar errors in the preview as well)
Other than that, the little that I read sounds like it might be good, also might be predictable. Without reading further than the free sample I imagine that Sara's husband is going to have an affair with Lauren.

What is the error? And your guess is incorrect.

Since late april and you're ready to pack it in?

Write more books.

If I was ready to pack it in I wouldn't have made this thread.

Thanks again to everyone that replied, I'm going to spend some trying out some strategies, maybe even trying different genres. Hopefully the next time I'll make a thread here it'll be about my success.

 

[Kyle Tully]

A common strategy with fiction titles, basically, you're trying to grab visibility and eye-balls in the Amazon ecosystem. If the product is any good, it churns the wheel for the author.

That's correct. That's what other authors are doing too.

What does the average fiction writer using this strategy make?

I know a few people doing pretty good with kindle books and they all spend time marketing, especially in the beginning to get reviews.

 

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[csalvato]

What does the average fiction writer using this strategy make?

I know a few people doing pretty good with kindle books and they all spend time marketing, especially in the beginning to get reviews.

The logic of just releasing more stories doesn't make sense to me, too. I'd love an explanation.

Maybe by having tons of books, when you find one that does work, people are like "Oh let me see what other books this guy has written!" and your sales get an overall bump. Aside from that I am not understanding the logic/system that makes this possible.

I'm not hating, just wondering. Whenever I write or create aimlessly and just produce a ton of content without doing market research and promotion, I feel like I just waste a shitton of time.

I don't see how the dynamics of Amazon's organic system would change that so I am super curious.

 

[Magik]

The logic of just releasing more stories doesn't make sense to me, too. I'd love an explanation.

It's along the same lines as someone who builds a sales funnel or has multiple products within the same niche. In other words, you've got 5 books, someone discovers book #5, likes it and is inclined to buy the first 4 books. That's why some authors will make the first book in a series FREE or .99 as a loss leader in order to get sales for the remaining books in the series. Same concept as the sales funnel. The money and time spent to acquire a customer is what it is, so why not have more products for them to buy. Whereas, if you only have 1 or 2, then that's all you have a chance at selling.

The problem though is you need books that are already selling, otherwise that doesn't work. For someone like Chickenhawk it makes sense, because her first book sold thousands of copies the first few months. In the OPs case, she has 12 and isn't selling any, so she needs to stop releasing for a while (note that I didn't say "stop writing") and market them. I think for most people both schools of thought should be employed (market more and release more).

There's a third item as well that fiction writers need to employ: release higher quality work. If you'd be embarrassed or bashful about showing it to an acquiring editor of a major publishing house, then it might not be good enough to be released. Quantity usually does not equal quality, and it doesn't always equal sales. That's a hard truth that a lot of people don't want to hear, but it's true. Fiction authors are in the same marketplace as mega-authors who already have a following and thousands in marketing dollars backing them, and readers have the same 24 hours in a day that everyone else does. To have a chance, you need to aim very high, and most authors just throw some words together, sling a book out there, and then do it over and over again, like a garment factory in China, mass producing the same thing over and over. There's way too much noise out there, and way too many money chasers. Every book an author publishes should be written and published with the reader in mind, with the goal of it being so good that people market for you. Aim HIGH every time. Sorry for the soapbox rant (and this is not aimed at the OP), but writers around here just don't seem to care about the quality of their work, they're more concerned about their sales and their Amazon ranking than putting something excellent out there and giving the reader a good experience, and that's a HUGE reason why many fiction authors fail. Am I successful? Not yet, so I'm no poster boy for this, but I write everything as if I were going to send it to Random House or Simon and Schuster instead of Amazon.

 

[DennisD]

Could you share your erotica marketing experience? The experience of the person who inspired me to get into it seems to differ.

I'll be honest, this pissed me off a little. Seemed a bit needlessly aggressive.

#1) You're not on an erotica forum, you're on a business forum. Say "thank you" to anyone that goes out of their way to help give you business advice. If you want specific advice from specific people PM them. If you only want those with erotica experience to speak up, find an erotica forum.

#2) Marketing includes packaging, promotion, positioning, naming, exposure, and pricing. If your product is good and it's not selling, your problem is by definition bad marketing.

Mass publishing books is a form of marketing. Writing Book #18 to gain traction for books 1-17 is a form of marketing.
You're a unique person and it doesn't suit YOUR strengths to market this way. If it DID work you wouldn't be posting here.
Other authors didn't need to do more, you do.
So suck it up and try something different.

PS/Afterthought: I ASSUMED that you said the initial statement a certain way.
If you didn't, I'm a little skeptical, a little less pissed, but my points still stand

 

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[DennisD]

The logic of just releasing more stories doesn't make sense to me, too. I'd love an explanation.

Stephen king writes books about hospitals, haunted houses, demons, possessions, psychics, witches, etc.
So maybe one catches your eye because you always thought ghost towns were creepy and the cover and title of "Desperation" grabs you.
When you're done, you don't walk away just happy with the setting and plot, but the author's style. So even though you weren't initially interested you pick up The Shining, and The Green Mile, and Carrie.

Each one of those books is similarly a starting point for other readers. Somebody else thought psychics were cool and picked up The Dead Zone before reading the others. Somebody else was attracted to Misery. etc.

Same thing with erotica, or mystery, or scifi. You get somebody hooked on the author, or the universe, or the set of characters, and they're hooked. They seek out other books, review the ones they've read, and make recommendations to others.

 

[Kyle Tully]

Stephen king writes books about hospitals, haunted houses, demons, possessions, psychics, witches, etc.
So maybe one catches your eye because you always thought ghost towns were creepy and the cover and title of "Desperation" grabs you.
When you're done, you don't walk away just happy with the setting and plot, but the author's style. So even though you weren't initially interested you pick up The Shining, and The Green Mile, and Carrie.

Each one of those books is similarly a starting point for other readers. Somebody else thought psychics were cool and picked up The Dead Zone before reading the others. Somebody else was attracted to Misery. etc.

Same thing with erotica, or mystery, or scifi. You get somebody hooked on the author, or the universe, or the set of characters, and they're hooked. They seek out other books, review the ones they've read, and make recommendations to others.

I think everyone understands that if people like one book they will seek out others from the same author.

And I also understand it from an Amazon real estate perspective in that more books = more appearances in the search results.

But in the context of this problem that strategy doesn't seem to make much sense... if it did it would be working.

She just needs to take her foot off the writing brake and gently apply the marketing accelerator.

Get traction on one book and the rest will follow.