Want To Make A Buck From Your Erotic Novel?

Tips To Pimp Up Your Book

I waited a year for the phone to ring! — Unknown novelist

Modern days have brought to writers many opportunities that weren’t available a decade ago. For the novelist, being published is a life-changing event after he had spent the last year drafting, reviewing, editing, and proofreading his work. From that point, the traditional course of the event would be to send the final draft to a batch of renowned publishers to seal a deal. You’d have to endure a year-long wait before having a 99% chance of rejection.

Amazon has democratized the publishing process… and squashed the competition

The behemoth that is today the online store is radically different from its 1994 version. Nonetheless, Bezos and his team’s advancement with the online business enabled the creation of services that are open to all of us mortals. Anyone can open a seller’s account, list their books on the store, and start promoting his art.

The American professional associations for authors, publishers, and booksellers recently called to the House Antitrust Subcommittee for scrutiny over the Seattle company’s market concentration.

“…wield extraordinary leverage over their competitors, suppliers, customers, the government, and the public.” — letter provided to Publishing Perspectives by the associations

Whatever the politics involved with the online store, one thing matters to us novelists; the platform is behind 50% of the books market share in the U.S. and 75% of the eBook sales. Why would you want to ignore this market?

Why would you write erotica material?

The erotica genre has tremendous potentials for the writer who desires to specialize in the niche. It is indeed a crowded market, and your marketing approach will significantly impact your results.

Flash facts for the U.S. market

• 85% of erotica readers are women
• 46% are over 46-year-old
• Over half are from the South and Mid-West, retired and Christian
• 50% reads romance at least once a week
• 15% buys at least once a week
• 6% buys more than once a week

How much is the market worth?

The market analysis provided for August 2020 reveals the following:

At first, we might be confused to see such low numbers for the romantic genre. We would not suspect the anthologies or the western style to be more popular. But this chart is only one part of the story.

If we have a look at the number of titles listed in this chart, we can acknowledge that the genre is overcrowding the space. Let’s see what the numbers tell us.

• LGBT : 100K
• BDSM : 60K
• Romantic : 50K
• Interracial : 20K
• All categories : 385K

By gathering all the sub-types in the erotica category, we can estimate that the genre accounts for 60% of all sales.

For an average of 70 sales per title, we could estimate that those kinky readers buy more than 16 million titles per month. This figure is astonishing!

70 monthly sales per title * 230k titles = 16M sales per month

For comparison, the Victorian genre clocks in 600K sales.

We can see now why it is compelling to try our hand (or our fingers in that case) to self-publish in an erotica-related category.

So you have made your mind and decided to go ahead in the self-publishing world? If you are new to the publishing world and you plan to release your first book, have realistic expectations. Very few turn into overnight success but the more you’ll walk the road leading from writing to publishing, the better you’ll become at marketing your art.

Because you don’t have to recreate the wheel, here are some things to consider as you go along your way.

What are publishers paid for, anyway?

Publishing a book is a risky endeavor. There is no proven recipe to define the potential sales for a book, and the subjective side of the art remains intangible. How do publishers beat the odds?

Your fanbase is the foundation of success.

A given publisher will stick to a few genres around which they will build a fanbase. They grow their potential customer base with marketing and social presence with promotions they advertise through their mailing list. As time goes on, publishers have a more accurate feeling of what their customers expect from them, and they search for these features in the submissions they receive.

The cost of publishing

Editing and Proofreading.

Editing is the process where the book is formatted in a way to ease the reading experience. The editor might start with developmental editing, which should resolve plotting issues, character development, and concerns with the narrative. He might then proceed with copyediting, where the editor removes typos and mistakes from the manuscript.

Proofreading is the last opportunity to catch the errors that have passed stealthily under your eyes before pressing the publish button (or starting the printing press).

For both of these services, you can expect to invest between 1000$ and 3000$. Don't skip these steps, as they will increase the value of your work for your future readers.

Cover page.

Consider using professional services to craft your cover page. You can find many freelancers who’ll provide you with quality work.

Consider those sites for your search:

• Fiverr

Fiverr offers a large array of freelancers where you can find talented artists. For the category Graphic Design, you’ll find more than 14K services available. Prices vary on the premise of the artist's talent and the demand they receive. Consider searching for Level 2 Sellers or Top Rated Sellers to improve the odds of hiring superior craftmanship.

• 99designs

99designs gives you two ways to hire your artist. You can either choose to hire a single artist or submit your gig to a contest. Contests are available in four packages. The basic bundle gives you over thirty designs from which you can pick your final choice.

• Upwork / Freelancer / Others

I haven’t had any experiences with those providers. Maybe you can share your experience?

For your book cover, you could be prepared to shed somewhere between 300$ and 700$.

A/B testing

So you just received your flaming hot cover design. Then what?

Order a second one!

Create an ad on Instagram or Facebook and use the metrics to find out which cover attracted more the kinky minds surfing social media. From there, pop open a beer and celebrate… you’re inching closer to getting your book published.

Don’t spend too much on ads. Invest somewhere around 20$ and 50$. It’ll be enough to figure out which one creates more traction.

Your title.

Your title is the second thing a potential reader will see before buying your book. With the book art, the title is one of the most critical ingredients that will decide the faith of your work. Consider spending here again on ads to validate the traction associated with different titles. Investing 5$ to 10$ on each title can bring a lot more in earnings than what you’ve spent.

All in all, consider between 4000$ and 7000$ to get your book ready for publication.

You could use ads to promote your book on Amazon or the Kindle Unlimited program to promote your eBook. Keep in mind that your focus as you start your endeavor as a publisher is to attract some visibility to you. The more people talk about you, the more they will know about you. Growing your fanbase should be on top of your list. Here are some quick tips for you:

• Join writing groups on Reddit, Discord, Facebook, and others. Connecting with other writers will expose you to the world of writing and may open opportunities to connect with key players in the industry.
• Send your book to reading clubs. Many Youtubers host channels where they review books and post their comments online. Using their fanbase exposes you to new readers who might not have heard from you otherwise.
• Maintain a blog on the genre you write. People attracted to a specific genre will seek to learn more about the latest releases from their favorite authors. By maintaining an informative or critical blog around those authors, you’ll position yourself to attract a larger crowd to your fanbase.
• Owning a professional-looking website will add credibility to your online presence. Of course, your site will not be the lead traffic generator. See it instead like your visite card, or the equivalent of the thank you card you find in your Amazon shipment.

Of course, we have only scratched the surface, and there’s a lot more to see to outperform the best publishers. I hope I have succeeded in exposing the larger picture of self-publishing and maybe inspiring you with some tips and tools.

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