r/eroticauthors
Have a burning question and are worried about looking foolish?
Maybe you're too shy to post or you're worried we'll be mean to you?
Worry no more! This is safe space to ask questions elementary or elaborate and to get real answers from people who are more than likely to have them.
Rules:
No sarcasm or snarky answers, please.
No guessing or supposition. If you have no experiential (or at least anecdotal) information, please don't offer a response.
Have a blurb that is bugging you?
Want to maximize its marketing moxie?
Post it here, either in its entirety or in part, and let your peers take a crack at whipping it into shape.
Rules:
Blurbs only, please.
Kindness is not required, but constructiveness is.
I've done this in several of my stories. I don't necessarily have a problem with writing "Mmmph" just because it's simple and as a response can be kind of hot (to me anyways).
But when the MC is trying to ask a question while gagged it feels really weird to me to write out several muffled words and it just looks messy on the page. I often instead just put it in action saying something like:
I let out a muffled moan as I tried to ask a question in the hopes she understood, but none of it was intelligible.
I feel like that's just cleaner than going "amph mmph omph?" lol.
Anyone else feel the same way?
Sprints are here
Publisher Rocket just released an update for foreign markets.
I have quite a few sales from the Uk, Australian and Canadian markets, so I went and checked out the statistics about my books.
I was surprised to find out they were off by a huge amount. By those numbers, I should be rich and on a beach for the rest of my life!
So word of advice: be careful how you use Publisher Rocket to assess the viability of a market. And honestly, I wouldn't even publish a software that shows those numbers at all. It's almost a joke for the users who, like me, paid for it!
Okay, color me confused, ladies and gents. I've been trying to book a promo for my work on this site (I've heard great things), but I can't seem to book dates at all between April-September. Are there no dates or available, or am I doing something wrong? Help here would be much appreciated.
Sprints are here
So, while I've had some moderate success on KDP with more mainstream writing I keep getting drawn to more taboo topics and have been building a large catalogue on Smashwords with my older stories.
The biggest question I have is...how do you optimise for Smashwords? The search seems to be more ad hoc and less algorithmic than Amazon's, and anything with the most generic search terms in their titles always crowd the topmost results, even when trying to drill down to a niche.
Any tips or guides I can refer to?
Sprints are here
This is a rant, please do take the tone of this post as someone upset of the services provided by Draft2Digital and their team.
So I was flagged for a previous erotica book cover once due to its inappropriate nature (my fault completely, I had fixed it) and recently I was asking for their book cover requirements for erotica works as I was not able to find a comprehensive list anywhere on their FAQ page, knowledge hub or Smashwords TOS on what even is considered prohibited on their site. I was in good faith trying to work with the team to ensure my covers are not going against their standards.
For authors in the same boat, this is their prohibited content for erotic books:
Prohibited, explicit, or objectionable content is (but not limited to):
Today, I had received this list (first time I am seeing it) alongside an email stating I had been terminated due to "submitted objectionable covers and content that crosses the line without self certifying once again". I had only submitted 1 new work in the time between the first issue and this one and there was no content that I needed to self-certify. The book cover in question was that of an anime styled woman with her mouth open wide as the cover, which I assume would be considered for the sole purpose of sexual arousal?
This list however is not found anywhere obvious after I had searched for a few hours on the internet. The book covers previously were all approved by their own internal staff as I was not flagged out like my other cover.
I believe Draft2Digital's team is completely unprofessional as they had terminated my account not from a second flagged book cover no, it was from my enquiry on their book cover requirements so I can make covers to their standards. There was no flag of new content, there was no mention that old content was apparently against their standards and there was no list of requirements sent when I asked them multiple times.
For all self-published authors. Avoid this service like the plague, they are not worth your time and effort.
I need some suggestions on good reads in this genre. I’m stumbling across some pretty poor examples and I need a really kick a$$ sample list. Help a girl out. What inspired you? What knocked your socks off- so to speak.
Cover concerning you?
Title tribulations?
Need feedback on formatting?
Post your books here so the community can offer constructive criticism.
Rules:
Kindness is not required, but constructiveness is.
Has anyone tried publishing texts in platforms like Ko-fi or Paetron? What was your experience?
Sprints are here
I'm all-in on KU currently (erotic shorts), and I'm considering considering pulling out after KDP Select expiration for each title and publishing wide. Just wondering what people who have done this have seen with their overall royalties.
Any input is appreciated!
*Edit to add: I did search the subreddit on this but all the threads are like 6+ years old
Hey there- new here (and to Reddit, believe it or not). I think this is the place to ask this…?
I’ve been writing erotica for almost 30 years… sort of a compulsion, journaling kind of thing.
I actually sold a fair bit (for my then ambitions) in HS during lunch. I made a couple bucks a week and thought it was a hoot. All from the school’s computer lab. All printed in dot matrix.
That was great until I got creeped out by a teacher reading it. That’s a whole other story of its own, and not really a fun one. It’s still creepy 30 years later. Creep. Fucker.
Anyway… I’ve got a pretty good backlist. All of it needs work. Literally none of it ever read, even by my lifelong partner. And I dunno. Nervous I guess.
Would you lot start with a choice cut, or test with a throw away piece? Start on substack? KU? In a different forum here? (And again forgive me, I’m not really after “workshopping” stuff. Just want to see how it hits.)
Does it matter that much? I guess I’m worried about shooting my wad (ha!) with the good stuff and missing opportunity with it somehow?
Maybe release longer pieces a bit at a time?
Maybe it all just feels really personal since it’s been mine for so long. Maybe just start out with something new?
Anyway. It’s all much more to the point than this post.
Appreciate any thoughts.
Just wondering what people's thoughts are on this. Working on part 2 of what is ultimately going to be only a two-part series. But I suddenly got an idea to have part 2 be the launching off point for a setting I kind of want to continue in other standalone books and series.
Not sure if it's that good of an idea. Has anyone else tried this?
So, im hearing alot of horror stories about erotica ending up in ku dungeons. Is this all erotica? If so where should I publish where that won't happen?
Sprints are here
I'm looking for erotica that focus more on the writing itself, writers that make you think "oh, fuck, that's amazingly written" Got some tips?
So, I have been working on my book on and off for about 2 years (more off than on). It's my first book, and it started as a 16-page word vomit and has grown to 139 pages of... something. The book has a lot of pacing issues, repetitive literary vices, a lack of character depth and a need for more naughty bits that actually flow with the story. I have asked friends to read it cause I need some suggestions, but I haven't had anyone interested. My goal is to have at least 250 pages for my first book (of course, I would love more), but I'm stuck and just kinda seeing nothing but negative how the story has evolved. How do you get over that? I feel like I can't see the forest through the trees, and I'm lost. I really want to finish this story, and even though I criticize it, I am really proud I have stuck with it. I am just so lost now. Any suggestions? I should add that I have ADHD, but I am fairly confident I actually have AuDHD. This can make things even more difficult.
Anyways anyone have similar issues? Am I just overthinking it?
I'm reading MM erotica on Amazon in my niche and was curious about a few things...
Is it common for writers to turn MF stories into MM, simply by switching out all the 'she's to 'he's?
I was reading a short story collection and was a bit disturbed by the anatomical impossibilities (men's posteriors self lubricating, that sort of thing.). It wasn't a niche book, just an mm sex story. And not the first time I've read awkward scenes like that. (And for the record, I'm a gay male, and no, our asses don't lube up unless something like the clap is involved. That's why I ask.)
And I started reading another work where the sex was front and center and explicit, but the story wasn't labeled as erotica on Amazon. Is graphic sex in MM romance a thing? Or are writers just mislabeling for greater reach?
Can romances be explicit if the sex scenes are spread out instead of concentrated, wall to wall humping?
Inquiring minds wanna know! Thanks!
Sprints are here
So, I'm new to writing erotica, and I know the standard is to stick to one subgenre per pen name. I've written 3 cuckold/femdom type books that are doing okay. I could also see that genre getting boring, so it would be fun to branch out. Is it really necessary to start another pen name account just to try another erotica subgenre?
I can understand why someone who wrote in wildly different genres--say, self-help books and erotica novels--would not want those things associated under one name.
But if all you write is erotica...what's the harm? Just branding?
Just curious!
After years on the fence, I've finally decided to take the dive into erotica. After going through the FAQ's and some posts that follow them, I was curious if established genre authors find anything in the FAQ's that may include an asterisk now in 2025. I'm always hesitant applying articles written before COVID regarding publishing, but I could also see romance/erotica as fundamentally not changing much due to the prolific readership and earlier adoption of digital.
For example, Amazon's vague criteria for dungeoning is outlined as having quite a strict threshold for anything remotely adjacent to questionable: light PI, the word "student," etc. While doing best seller research, though, I found A LOT of PI. Like, blatant, straightforward PI. Do those who've been writing erotica for a few years find Amazon not as strict in as they were pre-lockdown, or is this the typical level of inconsistency they display?