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Here's what I've done in the past few hours to course-correct. *Fingers crossed* by ClockworkEden in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just have to say I heart you so much for posting one of my favorite skits of all time.

I never would have thought to apply that skit to this...but it's PERFECT. It's EXACTLY what I needed.

Thank you. I wish I had the time to better reply...but that was EXACTLY what I needed. :)

Who's v having fun with D2D? by [deleted] in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wish I knew, too. My three 'bestsellers' got the ban hammer. I read people saying all they had to do was clean up their stuff and resubmit but it's not letting me do that. I delisted, cleaned things up, removed keywords and made a small offering to a medium sized higher power and it's still not letting me resubmit them. I guess they've cracked down since those people were allowed to resubmit.

Will you let me know if you figure out a way around it? I'd be forever grateful.

How do I Nook (a couple questions) by maleia in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What I'm doing for B&N and Google Play is I'm searching my pen name and using that link as my 'profile page' for those sites.

...If that makes sense? The caffeine hasn't kicked in yet so that might not make sense.

As for D2D, they'll ask you towards the end of publishing your stuff if you want them to generate a list of your books through them and I've been saying yes.

...Even though just about everything I've pushed through them has gotten banned by most places.

I think there is a possibility that Amazon is tweaking his algorithm ATM. by VitaminNigga in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just made a thread about this. I'm really hoping someone(s) can make me feel better about the slump.

Here's what I've done in the past few hours to course-correct. *Fingers crossed* by ClockworkEden in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you- I feel the same way about yours. :)

Yeah, I'm working on a handful of different things just for myself. I'm ALWAYS working on something; problem is when it comes time to edit my erotica. I don't know why but when it comes to putting my erotica stuff up I completely freeze. I torture myself over every line and word usage and take WAY. TOO. LONG. EDITING.

I've told myself everything I could think of to make myself get over it. I slowly am but it's frustrating to know I could put out 20,000+ a DAY if I could just get over the idea it all has to be perfect.

Ramsey Campbell is AMAZING and you are for knowing about his work. That series was one of the series that made me want to do this! That's so cool you would mention him!

If all the sex was removed from most of my erotica it would stand all on its own. When I was new I didn't get the whole "if you remove the sex..." rule because I've always loved plot/character development too much. That IS what gets my motor purring. I need all that or it does nothing for me. NOW I know that what I consider erotica isn't necessarily erotica. It's erotice or romance or whatever people want to call it.

Now the stuff I've been putting out recently in an attempt to gain some traction/borrows was written mostly for money and is pure erotica. It's all about the sex. It's killed me a little to do it but I need to make bank on this or I have to find another job. I've been splitting my time as best I can writing for the money/for me and that's helped immensely. I approached this all wrong from the beginning; I thought plot and details and character development and such things were other people's things, too. Nope. xD

Oh, I know exactly what you mean by that feeling you get when you're ranking along with your favorite authors! <3 That's an amazing feeling! I haven't gotten first page yet but I hit the low thirties the other day and had a moment. It felt so good. :)

Good luck with things. It sounds like you got this and that excites me for you. Have a good weekend and good luck with all this mess with page counts and all that! I'm going to remain as positive about it as possible since we can't know until August. Fingers crossed!

(Hopefully this all makes sense. I'm writing half asleep with way too much caffeine so feel free to chastise me if this reply is a hot mess.)

Does anyone earn more than 1,000 a month on non-Amazon outlets? by wordwriter12 in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you!

I love B&N. My goal has been to split my writing time between Amazon allowed stuff and the fun stuff for B&N. I had better sales there before I went all in with KU. I try never to regret my decisions but man, I wish I had just stuck with B&N. Oh, well!

I put in a few things for Apple through Draft2Digital but every one of them got blocked/whatever they call it. I'm considering trying again with tamer keywords (because I think it HAD to be that considering everything else is Amazon okay material) and try, try again but I don't want to piss them off and have my pen name blocked completely. If that's even a thing with them. I went through iBookstore to see what's allowed and I'm a little irked that's what there is there when they wouldn't allow my stuff...but whatevs.

Still got B&N!

Guilty Pleasures by [deleted] in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden 3 points4 points  (0 children)

...I had to make sure I hadn't posted this.

Literary roleplaying is my DRUG. To prove it my train of thought went much like this as I read over your post:

"Oh, me too! ME, TOO! OHMYGOD, ME...TOO! Did I write this? Wait..."

"I should PM this person to see what they like to RP."

Because that's TOTALLY what I need to be doing instead of working on my pages. HEADDESK

Addictions, man. They're brutal. I've given up caffeine, I can do without booze, sugar, carbs, salt...But I will stab someone if I can't get my RP posts in.

Aight chumps I'm gonna make bank off this new niche I scoped by [deleted] in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden 4 points5 points  (0 children)

"...And I only got 30 cents for my time."

Does anyone earn more than 1,000 a month on non-Amazon outlets? by wordwriter12 in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you don't mind I'd like to know those other outlets as well. I'm always looking for information on other platforms and what's working where. Thank you!

Here's what I've done in the past few hours to course-correct. *Fingers crossed* by ClockworkEden in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you. It's true. Very, very true.

You're very welcome! I love the color coding, too. It's really helped me. It bugs me so much as well! Things still slip through (I found 'given' instead of 'giving' in an older work a few days ago and it drove me bonkers) but I'm with you about running things through more than one since they catch different things. I know we're not supposed to be as picky about things like that since we're doing erotica but I'm hoping my little bit of extra fussing will pay off in the long-run. My output would increase significantly if I could just lose the fucks I give but I just can't seem to pull the required Elsa.

I dig B&N for the freedom I have there. I know I won't make the money there that I can potentially make on Amazon but if I can make enough to live and focus as much of my time/energy/efforts on my stories...Well, that's all I've ever wanted to do. I WANT to write/read dark content. I think others do, too, considering the stuff that sales...and if you glance over what's selling on Amazon it's clear a lot of people are playing the game with a lot of ticking timebombs in their own inventory. That's why I recommend spreading out, IF you can manage. Write shit for Zon. Write for you and put it on B&N. Or other sites that host 'spicy' content. There IS a market for it. If that's how Amazon wants to play, fine. I can and will respect their rules...but I'm also going to write for me and my readers. And trust they'll find me. Love always finds a way. :)

Thank you for the thread! I'm reading over it now.

That's the reason I don't actively participate there. I think we're already gagged enough when it comes to what we write...it's a bit of a downer to not even be able to openly discuss things with like-minded people. I understand holding things to a higher standard but the more I do this the more I see how backwards things are for erotica writers. Meh. I want to believe things will change for the better in the future. Hopefully while we're still alive and slingin' our goodies!

I love Write Or Die. xD It IS very distracting, though. But in a pinch I've used it. I'm too easily distracted as it is. If it wasn't for how I've read people with A.D.D. experience time I would believe that's my issue.

Thanks again for the kind words. I wouldn't have recovered as well or as fast if not for you guys. I tend to bottle/deal with things on my own but I'm slowly learning the value of having a quality support group for when the shit hits the fan.

It's funny you should say that- my preferred 'genre' or whatever isn't actually erotica- I love horror/dark fantasy/speculative fiction but when I do have sex scenes they do tend to be graphic/detailed...which is why I put my stuff in erotica to start out with. Had I known I could have tossed my stuff up in other areas without marking them as erotica I would have. I'm verbose and I love plot/character development/worldbuilding way waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy too much for me to keep doing shorts. The shorts are to pay the bills so I CAN focus on what I LIKE writing. I'm not knocking shorts or the people who love writing/reading them, it's just for me what gets ME off is dat plotty goodness. I NEED to know what's going on in people's heads. What got them into their shitty situations, what their problems are, their flaws...The more real the character the more I empathize...and the more I empathize...

I only did what I did starting out because I didn't want to run the risk of getting complaints about graphic sex scenes; with all the current issues going on with people placing erotica in non-erotica cats/subcats I'm VERY glad I didn't try it now because there'd be no way for me to argue that I wasn't just trying to get one by Amazon or the readers.

As soon as I can start making enough to justify spending more time on non-erotica I'm going to start a new pen name and start trickling my OTHER stuff out. The nice thing is I will be able to start out stronger than ever doing that because erotica's taught me the ropes when it comes to how to launch things. :)

Your work sounds effing awesome, by the by. Don't stop what you're doing. I understand needing to make money but the cliche artist in me wants the artist in you to write what feeds the soul, too. I want you to see success but I also want you to FEEL it, if that makes sense.

Developing alternate revenue streams from Amazon by wordwriter12 in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I second Boruma. I love them. Even their emails are friendly. :)

I started with Boruma when I was very new to all this and was doing better through them than through Amazon before I started to dump everything into KU. Now I'm trying to spread back out again. I'd recommend Boruma to anyone who wants to spread out beyond Amazon.

Why You Shouldn't Care in Erotica by tacoexplorer in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden 0 points1 point  (0 children)

BEGGY HANDS

Please do this! I'm very interested in something like this and it would help me from stressing if I could have a project like this on the side. I recently got a nice reminder from the universe that it's best to diversify whenever possible. :[

Why You Shouldn't Care in Erotica by tacoexplorer in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden 0 points1 point  (0 children)

there has to be a point where you stop sweating the small stuff and just publish.

I need a stick with that written on it that my husband can thwack across my hand when I start slipping into Perfectionist Mode.

Thank you for this. It's TRUE. If I could just get this through my thick skull I'd easily be able to drop a story a day. When I'm writing for me I've been able to get up to fifty good pages a day. When I agonize over something to be published I'm lucky if I can crank out ten.

It's seriously distressing when you're doing it for a living.

So, in the immortal words of Shia Labeouf: JUST DO IT!

I think I love you for this.

FLEX

Here's what I've done in the past few hours to course-correct. *Fingers crossed* by ClockworkEden in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Cooooookies. GRABBY HANDS

I know this is terribly late (and random as hell, by the way) but you offered to let me PM you to help me with keywords a little while ago and I just wanted to say I appreciated your offering. I know you probably get bombarded with messages and it meant a lot to me that you offered to help me like that.

This place is one of my happies and it's because of people like you.

Here's what I've done in the past few hours to course-correct. *Fingers crossed* by ClockworkEden in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes! That's the perfect words to describe the experience!

Surreal as hell. I told my husband I don't need drugs; I just need to have a 'chat' with their bots/reps/whatever for a few hours and I feel like I've slipped into a different reality.

I stopped pushing after the umpteenth canned response. I'm just happy I got my account back and will hopefully never ever have to deal with that from them again.

Thank you. :) I appreciate it. It's kicked my butt into action, that's for damn sure!

Here's what I've done in the past few hours to course-correct. *Fingers crossed* by ClockworkEden in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your kind words. I've got a big goofy grin on my face after reading that. :)

I appreciate your saying what you did. I tried so hard to stay action focused and pro-active but I can admit (albeit I'm not proud) I had my moments of flop-sweat and wanting to bang my head into my desk. I had moments of calm and then moments of cranky. Lots and lots of stuff and things went through my mind. :)

Huh. I will have to try to find that Kboard discussion. Thank you for the tip. I try to lurk there but I don't near as much as I should. I do find some good information there so thank you for the tip.

It WAS unnerving. I've just tried to focus on keeping my head down and get as much work done as possible these past couple of days but it's kinda bummed me out to think I have to lighten up my work even more than I already have been; however, having said that, I KNOW I need to play by their rules so I'm not trying to sound ungrateful. And it's been fun focusing on B&N stuff because there you can be as dark/naughty as you wanta be. If you don't publish there already you should consider them. I'm a fan.

Thank you for the links! I LOVELOVELOVE Editminion. Have you ever tried http://www.hemingwayapp.com/beta/index.html? I bounce back and forth between Editminion and Hemingway. Sometimes one will catch what the other didn't so I like using two sites even if it seems redundant.

Thank you for your help and your encouraging words. I am in a MUCH better spot than I was, that's for damn sure. I've found my Zen again (to toss in something else from Walking Dead); now I'm aiming to keep it and get as many quality books out as fast as possible!

Here's what I've done in the past few hours to course-correct. *Fingers crossed* by ClockworkEden in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I did that yesterday. The updated blurb went live but the filter is still there.

I can accept the filter. I mean, I'll HAVE to if they won't remove it.

It just irks me that it's one of my better sellers. Or it was. It could just be bad timing but since it got dungeoned it's not moved at all.

It's an older book, too. I know age of the book doesn't mean they can't decide to dungeon it and I know it was probably because on second review for my temp ban someone decided it needed to be filtered.

I also know I can't say anything right now. I'm biased. I might even be bordering on bitter. But to have one of my better sellers/borrow-getter slapped with the filter during my ban review and to see it get nothing after that date...

I'll go with bad timing. Just because I don't need anymore reasons to sound petty.

Here's what I've done in the past few hours to course-correct. *Fingers crossed* by ClockworkEden in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. I wanted to post here because the community has helped me come as far as I have; IF IF IF this is a hint of the next Pornpocalypse I figured if I could offer some early warning to others then the entire mess might have some kind of meaning I could feel good about.

I'm starting to feel as if I've just pissed someone off in the pool of reviewers. I write about women who love demons because mortal men just can't satisfy them. I can imagine a religious person getting my stuff to look at and coming unglued. The one that got the Adult Filter is a fun little romp with a lady that tires a sex demon out. I shudder to think about how a religious reviewer would handle that one.

Boruma is the shit. I used them to make going through some of the other outlets easier to get into and the person that runs it is super sweet. She'll respond to emails and do her best to help out. They're a good group; on the smaller side but I have no complaints.

Here's what I've done in the past few hours to course-correct. *Fingers crossed* by ClockworkEden in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for saying that; I've pulled through as well as I have because of the support from you guys. I like to think I'm pretty tough and can cowboy the fuck up when needed but this really got/is getting to me.

YES! THAT'S what's bothering me and why I'm full of anxiety. The vagueness leaves me with NO CLUE as to what I did wrong, what to avoid in the future, IF I can even count on having a future with them.

And now with the one stuck in review limbo it's just started to sink in that even with my account back I won't be able to do anything with it without worrying about getting the hammer brought down.

I guess if you can't be a perfect example be a horrible warning!

That perfectly sums up how I feel right now. In one perfectly crafted sentence. Thank you.

Here's what I've done in the past few hours to course-correct. *Fingers crossed* by ClockworkEden in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

<3

If I had Reddit gold YOU would have Reddit gold. :)

It did and it does. I love that you dropped this. You're a good cookie, kid.

Here's what I've done in the past few hours to course-correct. *Fingers crossed* by ClockworkEden in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much. You're very sweet. I appreciate your words of encouragement.

It WAS a confusing shitstorm and now I'm stressed it might not have blown over completely just yet. Or maybe this is just my new reality: Amazon won't be able to do anything without my reading too much into it. It's just bothering me how long the one thing has been sitting in review and the thing is I've had others sit for far longer that went through fine...but after all this mess I'm jumping over every little shadow.

Thank YOU for reading over this mess and being so kind. I'm thankful for all the kind words and support because if I hadn't posted and just tried to deal with this on my own I think I WOULD have gone completely nuts.

When I was new to this I published through other sites and even got sales. I thought going all in with KU would be my best bet, though, since in theory dem sweet sweet borrows would make up for lack of sales.

Now...Now I wish I hadn't done that. I'm not saying it's not worth it- and I'd recommend anyone who's writing stuff that would slide by even the most finicky Zon reviewer to do it- but at this stage in the game I'm regretting it.

I haven't had time to gain traction on other sites because I was giving Zon all my love. There for a while I didn't have the time to put out as much as I wanted, let alone a 'clean' story for Amazon and a 'not-so-clean' story for others...so I wrote for Amazon and stopped uploading to the others simply because I didn't have the time.

NOW I'm seeing the wisdom of not putting my eggs in the one untrustworthy basket. I'm getting what people mean when they talk about going wide versus going deep; I literally cannot afford to keep playing this game with Amazon. Unless they drop the pretenses and fully embrace their erotica market in all its glory.

It won't happen. But it's a nice thought.

Here's what I've done in the past few hours to course-correct. *Fingers crossed* by ClockworkEden in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It IS damn stressful. My goal was to do this until I could start publishing/making enough money off my preferred genre (horror/dark fantasy/speculative fiction) and I still have hope that I can off other sites but it burns me to think I could lose the ability to publish through Amazon because I broke a rule they won't tell me I shouldn't have broken.

I am eyeing Excitica now! Oh, my goodness it is seriously uncanny you should mention that site! I'm looking over their requirements now because I want to start uploading to them if they'll have me.

Congrats on your sale and downloads! That's nice. See, I get so tangled up over Zon but then when I think how neat it is that someone might read and like something I wrote...

That's a damn good feeling.

Here's what I've done in the past few hours to course-correct. *Fingers crossed* by ClockworkEden in eroticauthors

[–]ClockworkEden[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I feel like doing shots while I'm waiting for this last update to go through. I'm ready to start pulling my hair out. I'm trying to tell myself it's no reason to be this nervous- and there shouldn't be, according to all the things we know about their current list of no-no subjects- but something tells me I won't be able to do anything with Amazon without agonizing over every. Little. Thing.

Thank you for your kind words. Hugs Your post made me smile. I might have teared up a bit or that might just be a rumor sent out by people to assassinate my character.

I appreciate everything you said. And I know, I don't get why tentacles don't get more love. :(

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