There’s a lot of bad erotica out there. A lot. What happened was, when the book 50 Shades of Grey boomed onto the literary scene in 2012 it generated so much excitement among the public (and newly-inspired housewife who finally found an outlet to let their ‘Inner Goddess’ shine) that erotica became the new ‘thing’ and EL James the latest sensation. Furthermore, it provided inspiration to scores of writers who soon realised that there was a big audience out there for these kind of books, especially erotica shorts.
Delighted erotica writers in the UK realised that 50 Shades had opened up a whole new gateway for them, and it wasn’t long before similar stories followed, some of them meeting with similar success.
Of course, what also happened was that scores of other people, many of whom had never read or written erotica in their life, suddenly saw a new source of revenue. One website boldly claimed, “Take our course and earn over $1000 per month writing short stories! You don’t even need to be a good writer – if I can do it, anyone can!” People were in a frenzy. Earn over $1000 from writing some 3,000 word stories for people to get off on? Easy!
But since everyone started doing it, the market became flooded; the genre started to lose its appeal. What’s more, some really bad stories started swimming around with the quality stuff – badly edited, poor spelling, unrealistic scenarios, dry writing style. The genuine erotica writers were seriously peeved. This new horde of writers had taken it to heart that a decent income could be made through very little effort; many soon realised that perhaps it wasn’t going to be as easy as they’d originally thought. Perhaps in 2013 it would have rang true; but now, due to the stiff competition and hundreds of thousands other erotica shorts floating around, it has become much harder to generate an income to that degree. So below are some tips for how to increase your chances of hitting the goal that many writers in 2013 achieved with relative ease:
Write loads. To see any real income from erotica short stories, you need to have at least ten books out. Even then, things progress very slowly and you may see very little reward for your efforts for some time. But churn out a new story every week if you can. If your shorts are ranging between 3,000 to 5,000 words, it should be more than possible to do.
Write what you’re good at: If you’re brilliant at writing BDSM, but rubbish at writing about blowjobs, don’t write about blowjobs just because you think it will increase your sales and gain you a wider audience. Readers can tell when a writer is struggling or forcing the words to come out, and what you end up with is dry, unrealistic writing that usually makes for a poor story, killing of the enjoyment factor. Stick to what you’re good at and readers will trickle in.
Escorts make great erotica: Escorts surprisingly make good stories and you will find that people will enjoy and engage with this content, what’s great is you can interview these girls for their stories and combine them into one making it a very realistic experience.
Be patient: It’s probably the most important one of the lot. In reality, no matter how talented you are, no matter how artistic, no matter how many orgasms you can provide the reader with, writing erotica shorts is a business and like any business it takes time, patience, effort, and energy. Many writers give up after the first few books when they realise they’re not making wads of cash as the adverts claimed; be realistic and understand that it will take time. Patience will carry you far, so keep plodding on.
Hopefully, these tips will help you if you’re embarking on the path of an erotica writer – good luck!
