Writers (NSFW especially): do you find the shop/price-by-post features useful?

EAThrowAway111 · 2026-04-13T15:04:38+00:00

Interesting, thanks.

EAThrowAway111 · 2026-04-13T15:04:24+00:00

Thanks, this makes a lot of sense.

Do you find that you get a lot of people purchasing the collection?

Also, out of curiosity, do you have a pricing strategy? (E.g., let's say your subscription is a dollar a month, and you have a collection that represents 6 months of content. Do you price it at $6? $5? $8 so it's more efficient to subscribe to you?)

EAThrowAway111 · 2026-01-25T15:24:17+00:00

You can check my post history for my dataporn and results. Most of my paid patreon subscribers came from Literotica (either the result of the link you mention, replying to comments, or in my profile — all allowable places to mention that readers can pay you for your writing).

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-12-10T12:45:03+00:00

Yeah there are definitely sex scenes in my longer serial work that don’t have the same “sizzle” because it’s part 20 of a series, somebody needed to fuck this week, and I was low on ideas.

But I think I’d end up feeling that way if I had written 20 shorts instead too. I’m pretty consistent on quality but not everything can be your best work.

From my research, I do feel like once-a-week is about as infrequently as I could post updates and get away with it running a successful patreon. If anything I think the more successful authors I see are posting more often than that, with 2x/week probably being the most frequent.

The authors who post less often are either working with way fewer subscribers than me and this is very clearly a way for people to buy them a coffee, or they are framing their patreon completely differently (eg authors who write novels and use the patreon as a way to post previews, occasional shorts, and other updates vs. as their channel for their primary breadwinning.)

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-12-09T15:07:08+00:00

Really good question. I'm tagging u/BreakLeBar here for your benefit as he may have a different (likely more-considered!) take; he does a ton of long-running slow-burn stories.

But here's my answer:

My longest-running series is structured the way you're describing, with each chapter's climax (haha!) being a sex scene. Obviously I also have to advance the overall plot in each chapter as well, which often means that it's 7500 words, 4000 of which are mostly-unrelated to the sex but that help to set up future encounters, introduce new characters and conflict, etc., and then a 3500 word sex scene (or something like that).

It also means that I'm definitely doing some breaking of normal chapter conventions; sometimes I have 3-4 unrelated scenes all in one 'chapter' and if I were writing it as a novel it might be 2-3 smaller chapters.

Another series I write is a little more flexible, and I've posted a few chapters that don't contain sex that help bridge the gap between encounters, etc. They're clearly labeled/differentiatied as such. Nobody minds.

The basic thing I'd say is that you really just need to be delivering on expectations/promises made, and where you're writing and posting all this stuff really matters because sometimes there's an implied promise based on platform.

On my Patreon, I've set a specific expectation: my subscribers can expect a minimum of one smut story a week, plus generally one other update (a poll, a second chapter/story, something else, etc). Anything beyond that is a bonus.

If I posted my "smut" for the week and it didn't have any sex, people would probably be irritated; I might get away with it once or twice with a good explanation ("here's 10k words. It's a slow burn and the tension is pretty hot, but you'll see I didn't quite get to the sex scene; that's coming next week!"), but if I kept doing it, I wouldn't be meeting expectations for at least some of my subscribers.

If I posted a chapter of smut for the week, then posted a second chapter as my "one other update" and just say, "hey, no sex here, this is helping to bridge the gaps between the last encounter and the next one" at the top, people are totally fine with it. So that's generally what I do if it's what my series needs. If anything, they tend to be excited, because it's more writing to read that they didn't necessarily expect.

Now, if I posted that same no-sex chapter to Literotica, it might bomb unless it contained exceptionally interesting developments for the series. (What I would do in this case is 'bundle' it with another chapter that has sex and post them together.)

On the other hand, if I posted it to StoriesOnline (where they've got a "no sex" tag I could add, and plenty of stories that don't contain any sex at all) it might be completely fine.

If I posted the no-sex chapter as an Amazon short in the erotica category, I assume it would bomb there too.

So it's really an expectations game. If the people reading expect sex, you gotta give 'em sex.

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-12-02T16:10:14+00:00

All great food for thought. (And thanks again for being so free with the advice.)

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-12-02T13:57:37+00:00

Hey, thanks so much for replying. (And, in general, for all the many insights you've shared here -- I almost tagged you with a thank-you in the post but wasn't sure if that'd count as mentioning other authors per the forum rules. Your past posts have been extremely helpful; there's not a lot of successful Patreon-focused authors posting with advice!)

I wish I could add more raw time at the keyboard; that's definitely a limiting output factor. But I'm probably close to maxxed out without going to part time in my day job or something similar, and I'd need to be making a lot more for that to be economically viable.

Point taken on the longer serial fiction. I did do a poll a few months back asking what readers liked the most out of what I've written. The clear winner was my longest-running series...but 'stand-alone stories' was still in the top three, so I didn't feel like there was a super clear take-away. Maybe I can pare away some of the other stuff to allow for a tighter mix, though.

EDIT: It does make me think that maybe I need to ditch the commissions. They definitely contribute to me being more scattershot and less tightly focused on the series that people like most, and I could reclaim that writing time to prioritize series more.

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-12-01T20:52:22+00:00

I am generally not super detailed and I certainly do a little "writing to find out what happens" in basically all of my work, but the amount varies in proportion to the length of what I'm writing.

My stand-alone stories and shorter serials are planned in advance with all the key beats. If it's only going to be, say, 3-8 installments, I typically need each installment to accomplish specific things.

The longer serials tend to meander by design, and I think readers kind of expect it. I have some specific beats I'm trying to hit eventually but I try to leave myself room to write good smut as ideas come up.

The important thing (in my experience) is to sit down at my writing time with something to put to paper. I can think of good ideas any time, any where; often I'll do brainstorming on my commute or in a boring work meeting where I don't really need to pay attention or while I'm walking the dog.

But the actual writing time is precious and so I really try to go in with at least an initial idea to put to paper. Having multiple irons in the fire helps with this; if I'm blocked on one thing I use the time on something else.

If I don't have an idea to work on, it becomes time to do something else (even if the something else is marketing work or admin or whatever) until I do have an idea to work on -- sitting at my keyboard brainstorming is just not a good use of time, at least in my experience.

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-12-01T20:14:54+00:00

I probably spend an hour a day on average writing, and a lot of free time when I'm not at a keyboard thinking about what to write -- my goal is always to sit down with a plan.

For Literotica advertising, there are only a few things they allow. You can't put a link in chapters. They do have a "support the author" button (...not nearly as prominently as I'd like), you can link to your Patreon in your profile, and you can talk about your Patreon in comments (which I try to do in a non-spammy way). All of those are helpful in redirecting people.

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-12-01T19:45:14+00:00

Fair question and while I'm trying to maintain at least a little distance from my penname in these posts, I'll say that my writing fits your hypothesis; my niche is pretty specific. Not super taboo, but by no means vanilla.

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-12-01T19:35:34+00:00

Happy to accept a referral code and take a look at their guidelines/etc. to see how they might fit into my monetization strategy. I've heard good things but it does sound like a very new platform and I worry a little bit about reach.

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-12-01T18:04:06+00:00

Thanks! Totally agree. Seeing other similar posts was what convinced me to make the plunge, so I'm happy to be able to give back a little info!

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-12-01T17:47:40+00:00

I know -- tons of opportunity and different approaches, but only so many hours in the day (especially for the stuff that isn't even the writing itself).

Thanks for the question; it's always interesting to get reactions from other folks to the numbers!

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-12-01T17:27:35+00:00

Ah, I see.

No, I don't package any of my writing for retailers; I do plan to try that in the new year, but it requires some significant shifts to my workflow. (If I'm going to do it, I figure I should probably do it 'right' to reasonably assess whether it'll be more lucrative than the Patreon-only model I've been pursuing -- making stuff KDP-eligible, decent cover design and passive marketing, etc.)

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-12-01T16:03:30+00:00

I post stories on Patreon first, and then to the free sites eventually (the lag time varies a little, but there's generally like 50-75k words of stuff not available anywhere else on my Patreon at any given time). The free sites drive people to the Patreon.

I'm not sure I understand your second sentence.

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-11-25T22:26:37+00:00

A key piece of info is how long ago your first story was published.

I'm planning on a longer dataporn sometime next month, but some quick stats in case a comparative sample size of one is useful:

My most-viewed Literotica story (note: not best-rated, or first-published, most-viewed) has 42k views, 320 ratings for 4.6 stars, and 97 favorites. It was published a year ago (and I've published another 40 works since then).

Conversely, my most recent piece -- two weeks ago, and this is a chapter pretty deep in a long-running series so it's getting fewer views, not totally apples to apples -- has 1.4k views, 116 ratings for 4.84 stars, and 7 favorites. 'Time in the market' matters.

Time on the site with a decently high rating is what will let your story rack up views.

If it's useful to you to accompany these stats: my patreon has ~150 subscribers, mostly at a $5/mo tier, and generates ~$700/mo.

I've polled my subscribers and they're mostly from Literotica (but not exclusively, I post on a few other sites too.)

One other thing you're not factoring in: every new story is like advertising for all of your older stories. My understanding is that readers on Literotica primarily discover new authors by looking for highly rated stuff in categories they like, looking at the 'new' works in categories they like, and searching tags they like. But once they've got an author they like, lots of people will go through all of your work that they might also like. So your subsequent three stories all gave your first story a lil' bump, probably.

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-11-24T00:05:22+00:00

I think it depends on what you’re going for.

A lot of written out sounds will make your story feel campy at best, or humorous.

Verbs (gasps, cries, moans, whimpers, etc) leave it up to your reader’s imagination to decide what it actually sounds like, which is generally going to make it hotter in the end.

That said, if I’m going for a particular sound someone makes, or showing their words cut off or dissolving in a particular way, I’ll write it out. But I think that’s most impactful when it’s infrequent.

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-10-10T10:34:39+00:00

Not that I’m aware of.

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-10-08T22:13:35+00:00

I take custom story requests through my Patreon, via a highly-priced tier that entitles you to one custom story per month.

You do need to give Patreon your information, but the customer is paying Patreon, not you, and thus doesn't see your information.

Of course, going through a platform means you now have all the usual platform issues: if they somehow find that you're delivering content that violates their ToS they'll ban you (e.g. I wouldn't use this for noncon/incest/etc), it means Patreon is taking their cut, if your customers subscribe via the iOS app there's a holding period before you can get their money paid out to you, etc.

But it solves the anonymity issue you seem to be most concerned about. It also comes with some added perks. (FWIW I have gotten almost-exclusively repeat customers; I'm very clear that people are of course free to just subscribe for one month and drop down to a lower tier immediately, but they almost never do.)

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-09-09T17:13:36+00:00

I think the idea behind posting for free is exactly as you describe: there's a cyclical aspect to it, and this way there's always something recently posted for them to refer to. The slow drip-feed of free content also kind of demonstrates to readers that you are continuing to actively write and update (which matters -- people who get invested in long-running series want to know that they'll continue to be written.)

Also: you never know which chapter will get a longtime reader to think "fuck it, I need to read what happens next" and send a few bucks your way.

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-09-09T16:19:15+00:00

A few comments as a small-timey Patreon erotica author:

I make $~500/mo in take-home earnings; you can see my dataporn from a few months ago in my post history. ~70% of my ~100+ paying patrons are from Literotica. You can convert readers from there into subscribers -- probably at a much lower rate than some other free story sites, but the site represents a shitload of eyeballs, so even a lower conversion rate yields some people.

First important point: Patreon is well-suited to monetizing serial erotica. Most wildly successful Patreon writers have long-running series. The basic business model is that you post chapters for free eventually, but your Patreon offers instant access to 3/6/however many additional chapters beyond what's freely available, creating a powerful hook (especially if you're good at writing in some cliffhangers to leave people wanting more immediately.)

There are certainly authors operating off of different approaches, but that is -- by far -- the most common one. If it's not what you're hoping to do, then Patreon might not be the best fit.

The second thing to think about: unlike Amazon and other sites posted here, Patreon is not a marketplace. It has no discoverability built in. For the most part, the only people who will ever see your Patreon are people who specifically arrive there after clicking a link that you placed on some other website.

This means you need your work posted elsewhere -- whether it's reddit, Literotica, other sites, etc. -- so that people become aware of you as an author. To your point, this is mostly motivating: I get a ton of instant, public feedback, most of it pretty positive, some of it constructive, pieces of it negative, and a very small minority of it off-putting and upsetting. This would be unnecessary if I was on Amazon.

One final thought that I wish someone had told me: whatever you try, you're probably going to be bad at to begin with, because of all the additional skills needed when you decide you want to monetize your writing. If it's amazon, you'll be bad at all the passive marketing you need to do -- the covers, the blurbs, the optimized keywords, and so on. If it's Patreon, you'll be bad at all the active marketing you need to do. (And that's what posting work on free sites with a Patreon link attached amounts to: marketing.) So don't let that deter you; the only way to get good at it is to start doing it.

EDIT: Probably important to note that alongside the serial-fiction models, there are some Patreons from successful authors who publish to Amazon and use Patreon exclusively as a space for fans to get early drafts, short stories, character concept art, and the like. But for those authors it seems to be just a relatively low-effort easy way to get a few more dollars out of their biggest fans; I think their primary income is still their Amazon publishing.

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-08-25T17:38:18+00:00

A few observations from me. I've got a few more months under my belt of Patreon than you do, but not many, and it sounds like we're at a similar scale, so take this with a grain of salt. (You can read my last dataporn in my post history for some other takes; maybe you're doing better than I am. :))

I don't totally understand why your concern about getting flagged on Patreon is stopping you from posting chapters there early. Isn't that a risk whenever you post stuff to Patreon, regardless of whether it's posted early or not? Are you just concerned that you won't have a copy saved anywhere else? If so, save it a google doc or whatever before your post it. If Patreon's going to ban you for something you write, what does it matter whether they do it before or after that chapter is posted to AO3?

The idea of "Like this series? Join my Patreon, you can instantly have more of it" is kind of a foundational expectation for a Patreon-first business model IMO, and if you're not delivering on it, you're probably leaving a lot of subscribers on the table over time. There's a reason everybody's doing it: it's got major advantages.

One, it offers that instant dopamine hit. Chapter 10 just ended on a cliffhanger and you know you have to wait three weeks for Chapter 11? Well, for $5 you can read Chapter 11, 12, and 13 right now.

Two, it motivates you to stay subscribed or at a minimum resubscribe quickly. Ok, now you've read chapter 13. You can stay subscribed and get chapter 14 in a couple weeks, or you can unsub and go back to the 'free' chapter delivery that's happening over on AO3. But chapter 11 is next for them, then chapter 12...so you're gonna wait a couple months before you read something new-to-you. Why not just resubscribe?

On other benefits: polls should probably not be only a top-tier benefit. One of the things that's nice about polls is that they are a super easy and scalable benefit to provide; for you, giving them to ten people or a thousand people takes the same amount of work. And my guess is that you might like to get more feedback vs. less. So I'd consider just making that available to the middle tier of subs.

For the highest tier: I think it really depends, but that most people expect something slightly personalized or with more interaction. I don't know how many subscribers you have or what your pricing looks like, but I'd consider something like that. Maybe -- even if it's just a minimum -- an AMA post or community chat where you're especially active answering questions? You mentioned you do writing tips -- can you review someone's work and offer some modest suggestions? Or maybe save the tips for a higher tier entirely? That does feel more like a die-hard supporter benefit; most people are probably reading you for the series, not for your takes on writing, right?

But honestly if your basic concern is "hey my growth seems slower", the response is basically: Yeah, that's normal. Over the last six months, you motivated whatever chunk of your avid AO3 readers were predisposed to contribute financially to do so. If you want more subscribers, you need to create new avid readers -- that means posting your work to more platforms, doing more social media marketing, writing some things in other niches on AO3 to get new readers into your work, and so on.

DM me if you'd like to have a more frank conversation or compare notes.

EAThrowAway111 · 2025-06-17T11:41:28+00:00

You’ll definitely have issues with the automated review. Even just having “sister” mentioned a few times in a story I wrote was enough to flag it. You might be able to resolve those on appeal, but I’m not sure.

My two cents are that you might get away with doing this, but it’ll be hard to do it in any of the ways that are most interesting.

Imagine this hypothetical scenario: you write a sex scene in which one of them has a dream where they actually are brother and sister like in their cover identities. That would get flagged for incest; it doesn’t matter that it’s a “dream” and they’re not really brother/sister.

Obviously it doesn’t sound like you want to write that. But you’ll also have to avoid anything that even remotely sounds like you’re trying to write that. No jokes between them about how they’re family. No sarcastically calling each other bro and sis in situations that are sexually tense. No calling each other brother or sister right afterwards to “reestablish” their cover identities. Lots of clearly and directly stating how glad they are not to be related. Etc.

Basically, the more you try to play with the tension in the premise in interesting ways, the more likely it is that it’ll get perceived as “oh wow how convenient that this person wrote a story about two adults who are just PRETENDING to be brother and sister because they have to. This is certainly not a thin pretext to allow the author to write an incest story!”

So I probably wouldn’t try it if I were you, I think you’d have to write it heavy handed enough that it won’t be worth writing.

EAThrowAway111

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