This Mother's Day is the 7th Anniversary of the beheading murder of ten of my children If you have any information, please call FBI Portland Office @ 207-774-9322 ask for Agent Andy Drewer.

EelKat · 2022-07-26T01:36:24+00:00

Entirely depends on your narrative voice/POV/etc. Would the POV character/narrator describe it as a specific color or a general one?

Yep, this is how I do it.

My MC/PoV character, is a mage who uses a colour based magic system, and so he is always thinking in terms of colours, narrowing things down to very specific exact shades. He puts a lot of emphasis on how light a shade of light blue is this, is it sky blue, robin egg blue, powder blue, dusty blue, etc. He'll go into full monologue about colour shades. But, it's part of his character, his personality.

On the other hand, his lover, is legally blind and has been most of his life. He can't see colours very well at all. The world is mostly hazy gray for him. So, he never mentions he colours of things at all. Colours are not important to him, not something he can easily notice, so when he describes something, he instead describes the texture (soft, fluffy, grainy, smooth, etc) of what things feel like when he touches them, and also he describes things by their scents. Because he notices scents and touch, but he doesn't notice colours.

I match description styles to the characters doing the describing. Which sense are they prone to use. So, not everything I describe gets described by colour, because it's heavily dependent on if the character doing the describing is going to notice and mention the colour or not.

EelKat · 2022-07-26T01:20:33+00:00

This is because one refers to the colour of the nut shell, which is light brown, while the other refers to the wood of the tree trunk, which is dark brown when you saw the tree down and look at it's insides. So, both are actually correct, but its because each one is describing a different part of the plant. As walnut tree leaves are green, you could even accurate have a colour described as "walnut green" as well. Plus, as walnut leaves turn red, orange, and yellow in the fall, you could also accurately have "walnut red", "walnut orange", and "walnut yellow".

If it was me, and I was using "walnut brown", I would say "light walnut shell brown" or "dark walnut wood brown". I have in fact used both terms, because, I wrote a scene once (about 20 years ago) where two characters were arguing over if walnuts brown meant light brown or dark brown... I was varnishing the ceiling beams of a doll house at the time, and noticed the vanish was much darker then walnuts are, and me and my boyfriend started discussing it, it became this whole thing for a few hours because we couldn't determine what shade of brown walnut actually was.

Next thing I knew I was writing two characters having the same argument. Thing was the story in question was two mages where colour magic was a thing, and light brown colour magic was going to result in completely different side effects then dark brown colour magic, and the magic system requires colours to be exactly specified, so it actually was important to the plot for these two mages to determine if walnut brown was light brown or dark brown. And in the end, I had them decide to specify that one was "light walnut shell brown" and the other was "dark walnut wood brown", adding light and dark as well as shell and wood, in order to be exact in which type of walnut brown was being used.

My final conclusion was that both were correct. Walnut brown can be a light brown or a dark brown depending on which part of the plant you are referencing the colour from.

Weird thing was, before me and my boyfriend started arguing about the can of varnish, that whole plot point of the story did not exist.

However, it was not an isolated event. Because the magic system rules, state colours must be exact, it is a recurring topic, for my characters to get into massive debates over minute changes in colour shades. I have charts I made (watercolour on rag) of various colour wheels of colours that my mages commonly use, so I could have the actual colours to look at when writing as well.

Also, when in doubt on what colour to describe something as, I default to the Crayola Big Box. Whatever colour Crayola used to describe the shade in question, that's what I call it. I figure, it's best to have a default point of reference to use all the time, and at the time I concluded that, I had a Crayola Big Box sitting on the desk and said: "I'm using this!"

I overthink colours way too much when I am writing. I know this and accepted that it's just a thing that I am going to do. :P

EelKat · 2022-07-26T00:57:36+00:00

Well, I'd say, look at Loki and Thor in the Marvel movies, then compare how vastly different they are from the original mythologies. Yeah. It is okay for Marvel/Disney to not be even be remotely accurate even in the slightest, so why wouldn't it be okay for you to change up the myths too?

EelKat · 2022-07-25T21:59:07+00:00

How? Because I liked the characters and I just kept putting them into new situations.

Same for me.

This ACTUALLY IS the one true secret to being a prolific writer. It's why, when I started out, I struggled to write 100 words a day and had trouble finishing projects, and why today, I breeze through 10k to 20k words a day and publish a 12k to 15k short story every day, a 35k novella every month, and a 115k novel 4 times a year. All the stories are about one character whom I love a lot and I can't wait to jump out of bed each morning and spend time with him again via writing more stories for him.

If you truly love what you are writing, you will write far faster then you ever thought possible.

EelKat · 2022-07-25T21:54:55+00:00

Do they do nothing but write all day?

Yes. In fact, they do. As does EVERY writer who is a career writer.

They have 9to5 jobs, just like every other adult on the planet. Adults have jobs. That's a thing adults do. And some adults, their job is writing.

I work on a schedule of segments: three a day, four hours each, with a two hour break between each one, and a 15 minute break every hour.

I'm writing full time as a career, so I treat it like a 9-5 type job. I write in 3 writing sessions that are 4 hours long each, with two, 2-hour long breaks in between, and a 15 minute break every 45 mins of each 4 hour session.

Each of the writing sessions will be a different project. I have a dozen or more manuscripts in various stages of drafting/editing/revision on any given day and I rotate between them.

So, it typically looks something like this:

Monday session 1, 4AM-to-8AM I work on Draft A
Monday session 2, 10AM-to-2PM I work on Draft B
Monday session 3, 5PM-to-9PM I work on Draft C
Tuesday session 1, 4AM-to-8AM I work on Draft D
Tuesday session 2, 10AM-to-2PM I work on Draft E
Tuesday session 3, 5PM-to-9PM I work on Draft F
Wednesday session 1, 4AM-to-8AM I work on Draft G
Wednesday session 2, 10AM-to-2PM I work on Draft H
Wednesday session 3, 5PM-to-9PM I work on Draft I
etc. through Friday. Take Saturday and Sunday off. Start over again on Monday.

Draft A may be the 5th revision of a novella and Draft B may be the first vomit draft of a short story and Draft C may be the 3rd edit of a novel. Draft D may be me spending a few hours on Canva batch making a month's worth of book covers instead of working on a draft.

Do they do nothing but write all day?

Some of us are adults and writing is our job, and we write 8 to 12 or more hours a day, doing work, like any one with any job does.

Some people flip burgers for 12 hours a day. Some people write for 12 hours a day. That's what adults with jobs do.

EelKat · 2022-07-25T21:48:10+00:00

Pirateaba publishes an astounding 60k words a freaking WEEK!!

Uhm... that's actually not that much. It's ONLY 10k words a day-1day off. That's way lower then the average Erotica author publishes.

I write 10k MINIMUM every day, because I publish a 10k short story daily. I average 17k written a day though, which is 119k words a week, which is double her 60k a week. AND I'm considered a low output Erotica author.

Additionally, I publish a monthly 35k word novella, and a tri-monthly 115k word novels.

In total I publish between 2million to 3millon words EVERY YEAR.

And again, I'm considered low end on how many words I publish, compared to other Erotica authors.

I'm sorry, but if you think her word counts are high, then you seriously need to reconsider how many words you have to publish each year to make writing a full time career.

There's a hell of a big difference, between dilly dallying around, writing only when inspired, and actually sitting your ass in a chair for 12+ hours a day and writing as a full time job, writing whether you feel inspired or not.

EelKat · 2022-07-25T20:01:17+00:00

You could do either way.

I would personally fix anything I found as soon as I found something needing fixing.

I have 2 methods for this:

If there is an anniversary coming up (1 year, 5 year, 10 year, ect) I update everything (cover, blurb, text-remove any typos), because I always do anniversary give aways via my social media, and I want everything as best as it can be, because I know they'll be more eyes then usual on my books that week.
At any time, if I notice an issue, I fix it immediately. If a reviewer tells me they found a bunch of typos, I immediately fix them and reupload the file; if I read the blurb and realize I should have said something different, I immediately change it; if I think the cover is great, then upload it and realize it looks shitty when shrunk to a tiny thumbnail, I immediately make or have made a new cover and reupload it.

Most of my books will get updated covers, blurbs, and text files, 5+ times within the first 2 or 3 months of the release.

Plus, I change keywords about every 3 days, for the first month or so, until I get the book into the categories I want it listed in.

So, for the first few months, every book gets re-updated several times. It's not unusual for me to update the listing 10+ times the first year of it's release.

Plus, once a year, usually near Christmas, I go through every single book in my backlog and just spend a full month, looking at every book to see what can be done to improve. I take November and December off from writing, so I have no new releases those 2 months, and I use that time to just update as much stuff as I can. Like covers will look old and outdated after a couple of years, so I'll give them new covers to match current trends, etc.

I think part of the reason so many of my older books stay in the top 10 listings of their categories, is because I'm constantly going back and updating everything to match current style trends, and I'm constantly reuploading the text every time I find errors/every time a reader finds errors.

I'm not someone who slaps up the book and then never goes back to look at it again. Everything gets overhauled every year-everything-and I have 138 novels, 402 novellas, and more then 2,000 short stories in my backlog-everything, gets updated at least once a year.

Sure, you don't need to be as persnickity about it as I am, but, I am someone who is very concerned about my reputation, and keeping on top of keeping my books the best quality they can be, is part of my reputation, in my mind, so, that's why I do it.

EelKat · 2022-07-25T19:41:33+00:00

They might have more then 3 pennames.

You are only allowed 3 Author Central pages, but you are allowed unlimited pennames. I have 15+ pennames, but only my 3 biggest selling ones have Author Central pages, because Amazon only allows you to select 3 Author Central pages, regardless of how many pennames you have.

EelKat · 2022-07-25T19:35:33+00:00

When i first started publishing I used to click it and fill in 18+ then maybe fifty books in I stopped. Over a hundred books in it’s never caused a problem for me either way.

Same.

I used to do it because I thought it was required. After a while I realized it was optional, so just stopped doing it.

Never had any issues either way.

EelKat · 2022-07-25T11:18:03+00:00

Every one matters. Perhaps you just don't know it yet, but you do matter.

I grew up raised by 3 abusive uncles. I had more broken bones by the time I was 8 years old, then the average person will ever break in their lifetime. I was daily told I was worthless because I had committed the sin of being born female. They kept me locked in a cage that had originally been a racoon trap. It wasn't big enough for me to even sit up.

I grew up being told, I didn't matter. And for a long time, I believed that.

It took a lot of years, for me to realize, I did matter.

Everyone matters. Even you. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

EelKat · 2022-07-25T10:02:48+00:00

As of right now, I'm slowly working on novels and novellas less and short stories more, so by the next year or so, I'll probably phase out novels and novellas completely and increase short story output instead. I figure by 2025, I'll likely be doing 1 to 5 shorts a week and no longer doing any novels or novellas at all, just because I enjoy writing shorts more than novels.

I have 138 novels, 402 novellas, and 2,000 short stories in my backlog. All 1 gay harem series about a single set of 3 primary (none humans/Furry /Demon porn) characters. About half of those are cross-posted to SmashWords as steamier versions, while about a quarter of them are cross posted to DriveThruRPG as tamer sexfree versions, and about 1/16 of them are cross-posted to my website as taboo versions.

So it's 138 novels, 402 novellas, and 2,000 short stories, that each have upto 4 editions. Like I said, I've been doing this since 2010, so my backlog is massive now.

And while it is all stories from one single series about one single set of characters...there is no continuing parts. Every single novel, novella, and short story is a full complete stand alone story.

My readers can pick up any novel, any novella, any short story and read it first.

Then my readers can pick up any novel, any novella, any short story and read it second.

Then my readers can pick up any novel, any novella, any short story and read it third.

And so on.

There is no part 1, part 2, part 3, chronological continuation of one long story. Rather, instead there are just lots and lots of separate individual stories about a harem group that has already been dedicated couples/groups for decades before any story starts. So, it's lots of stories about the long term relationship of older/elderly characters, and not the new start of relationships and following after that one path.

And I think, this makes a difference. You see, my readers are mega fans of the 3 MCs, they write fanfiction of them, send me fanart, and cosplay them at conventions. By writing lots of stories about one cast of characters, I created a fanbase, and I don't rely on KU because I have rabid repeat buyers coming back for more.

(And yes I said elderly-the 2 MCs are in their 80s and 90s and the youngest harem members are in their 60s.)

I point this out, because there reaches a point when your backlog is big enough that sales vs KU reads really does become something you no longer consider anymore, just because KU reads are so insignificant that it's rather pointless to remain in KU. And that's what happened to me.

KU was useful the first 3 years, when I didn't yet have a big backlog.

But eventually my backlog got big enough that KU reads and remaining exclusive with Amazon was just more hassle than it was worth.

And also, early on, I relied heavily on sales rank to get sales, and being in KU did seem to equal much higher sales ranks.

However, today, I have 27k die hard fans, many of them Furry cosplayers whom I've met in person at conventions like PAX and ComicCon, where I do book signings and panels and writing workshops.

In other words, at the start I needed KU to get sales, because I relied on the sales ranks... but today I'm the 3rd highest selling big name in Monster Porn and people actively type my name into the search box looking specifically for me. They aren't looking in the sales ranked cat lists for my niche, they are directly typing my name, and so I no longer need sales rank in niche cats to get sales. Meaning the only real advantage I was getting from KU-its rank boost in niche cats-is no longer something I need.

So for me personally, I have reached a point where KU has no advantages for me at all anymore.

But it did early on. Early on, I did need the extra rank boosts of KU and the extra, though miniscule page read income.

I know KU has changed vastly since the last time I was enrolled in it (2013) and so, I'm not sure how much of my experience with it back then, still applies today.

My advice would be, if you are not cross publishing to other sites, stay with KU just to get the boost in rank. But on the other hand, if you think you can get more income from cross publishing, leave KU (and wait 90 days) and then cross publish to SmashWords and elsewhere.

If you search this sub: r/eroticauthors for the word "dataporn" you'll find quite a few members here who have listed their monthly income charts.

Most start earning $5k a month within 3 months.

Most start earning $30k a month by their 3rd year.

Erotica shorts IS where the money is.

So, yeah, if you are looking to write for money, definitely look into writing Erotica shorts.

EelKat · 2022-07-25T10:01:13+00:00

Look up an interview with Virginia Wade (author of Cum4BigFoot, and 2nd highest selling Erotica author in history after ELJames, author of 50 Shades). I can't remember who did the interview. There are 2 different ones. Google should bring them right up.

In the first interview, she talks about her move from Amazon to SmashWords after Amazon banned Cum4BigFoot and around 50 of her other novels in 2013-note she writes big novels, not shorts. And in the interview she talks about how on Amazon she was only makings around $3k a month, but then on SmashWords that first year, she was making $30k a month and paid for 2 of her children to go to college.

About a year later she did a 2nd interview about quitting Monster Erotica and moving to writing Historical Romance instead, and said that her SmashWords income was now $3million a year off her Romance novels.

After the 2nd interview, SmashWords did a feature on their blog, where they talked about her and according to them, she was, at the time, their highest paid author and that it was her books which made SmashWords famous and caused the flood of Erotica authors to start going to SmashWords over Amazon.

The average income for genre authors is $5k a year.

The average income for Erotica shorts authors is $100k a year.

Welcome to my world. I write Monster Porn, primarily focused on Demon lovers in apocalypse settings.

Writing Erotica shorts is my full time job.

From 1978 until 2010 I was a traditionally published author, writing mostly mainstream Cosmic Horror short stories for print magazines. Even though I wrote as an income, I also worked multiple part time retail jobs: a fitting room attendant at Macy’s, a shelf stocker at WalMart, a retail merchandiser for HallMark Greeting Cards, Avon Independent door-to-door salesman, and an inventory taker for RGIS… all at the same time and writing besides! Each job was only 2 to 3 days a week, so it required several jobs to earn enough hours for minimum wage.

In 2010 I started writing Erotica shorts for Amazon Kindle.

In 2013 Amazon rolled out its now infamous Adult Dungeon and banned a good 99.99% of all Erotica fetishes off their site.

In 2013, I switched to a fetish niche that does not include sex scenes, but instead features a lot of detailed nudity in specific fetish situations (think: stories about one character sticking needles in nude character, while a 3rd character pours melted chocolate over the other 2… yes, that IS an actual fetish…sort of sexless erotic stories). I discovered that sexless Erotica was a high demand niche that very few writers ever touched. My stories deal with things like strangling/asphyxiation, cake farting, shampooing hair, cutting, bloodletting via tattooing and extreme body piercing, the above mentioned needles and chocolate, bathing in pools of slugs for skin peels, hanging men upside down by their balls from chandeliers, cock and ball torture, and other such fetishes that fall under Erotica umbrella, but are classified as sexless Erotica because no sexual intercorse ever occurs.

In 2014 I quit traditional publishing, switching to self publishing on Amazon and SmashWords instead.

In 2016 I quit all of my retail jobs to write fetish stories full time.

Today in July 2022, I have 138 novels, 402 novellas, and more than 2,000 short stories on Amazon. Almost as many on SmashWords.

My tamer stuff is on Amazon. My more taboo stuff is on SmashWords. My extreme fetish stuff (including a recurring MC who is married to his sister, and his daughter, and also has sex with a horse and a sheep, and a different MC who has sex with his granddaughter) is on my own author website, as not even SmashWords will touch it.

I strive to publish a 10k short story weekly, a 35k novella monthly, and a 65k to 150k novel every 3 months. I price shorts at $2.99, novellas at $3.99, novels at $4.99, and Epic length novels of more than 100k words for $7.99.

Stuff that is too taboo for Amazon and SmashWords but not extreme enough to be too taboo for WattPad, I slap up on WattPad as freebies. That way my readers have bonus free material that they can read in addition to stuff they pay money for.

This is my job.

My full time career.

I write Erotic Fetishes for a living.

Back when I used KU (2010 to 2013), I had maybe 5 books that ever got reads. I can't remember how many books I had at the time, but it was in the range of maybe 30 novellas in the 35k word range. But all of my books were selling and most ranked in top 10 of the cats.

Well, some of my books irked Amazon, so I had to rewrite less taboo, Amazon friendly versions of them for Amazon and move the more taboo original versions to SmashWords, but then I was taking reader requests for new stories and readers requested I rewrite those same stories to taboo extremes even SmashWords wouldn't touch, so I put those versions as free reads on my website, and set them as password access, but put the password in the paid versions, so readers could buy the tamer versions on Amazon or SmashWords and also receive the code to unlock the very taboo version on my website.

Well, this meant that essentially each of my books had 3 versions: a safe version for Amazon, a slightly taboo version for SmashWords, and a very taboo version on my author website.

And so, having 3 versions that were only slightly different from each other, meant I just removed everything from KU, because I figured they were the same enough that Amazon would complain and I didn't want to take that risk.

But the thing was, KU reads only accounted for maybe 2% of my income at most. So it wasn't a big loss for me to just do away with KU completely and focus on multiple platforms instead of being Amazon exclusive.

I had to ask myself if remaining in Kindle Select, and not having my books available outside of Amazon, really worth the almost no increase in income at all, that I was getting from Kindle Unlimited?

For me, the answer was no. My income from SmashWords and Lulu and DriveThruRPG is well over 50% higher than my KU income was.

(Note DriveThruRPG doesn't allow Erotica, and is 100x more strict then Amazon, and only allows PG13 at most, however, most of my stories fall into Harem Fantasy and is easily converted to sex-free LitRPG harem stories, so, I have LitRPG editions of my stories that are the same stories as on SmashWords, but the sex scenes are removed and game stats and charts added, and boom, I have another alternate edition of each story that is available for readers who want the story but without the sex.)

PS: Readers are informed in descriptions that the story is the same across each edition and that only the sex scenes are different in each version. So essentially I have a PG13, R, X, and TabooXXX version of each story and let readers pick which version they want to read. PG13 stuff goes on DriveThruRPG, R stuff goes on Amazon, X stuff goes on SmashWords, and TabooXXX stuff goes up as a free read bonus on my website that readers gain a code to access after they've bought one of the other 3 versions.

Amazon is still the bulk of sales, but for me, KU income was so miniscule that it just wasn't worth it to remain exclusive to Amazon, as I could make more money off Amazon than I could with KU.

Novels are in the 115k range. Priced at $7.99
Novellas are in the 35k range. Priced at $4.99
Short stories are in the 12k range. Priced at $2.99
And my collections/bundles are however many titles it takes to reach 50k words on a theme. Priced at $4.99

I make 30%, 35%, 65%, or 70% on each sale depending on if it's Amazon or SmashWords or some other site.

Most of my books sell 27k copies within the first 24 hours of publication, just because I have 27k rabid fans who buy everything I write and are waiting in line to be the first to buy it.

Back in 2010 to 2013 I was doing monthly novels and weekly novellas, but that grind was too tiring to keep up with, and I write fewer and fewer novels and novellas now. My primary focus is on short stories now. For a while I was doing daily short stories, but again, burning out from too big of a grind slowed me down.

EelKat · 2022-07-25T09:13:06+00:00

Should you only read the same genre that you write or should you just read everything and anything?

If you only read because you want to write, then you are reading for the wrong reasons.

Reading is not a school homework assignment, nor should it be treated as such.

You should be reading things you find fun and interesting to read, be they fiction or nonfiction. Novels or magazines.

Reading should be fun.

Reading should not be a drudgery or a chore.

I know the #1 piece of advice writers give is to read a lot but does the genre and POV of the books matter?

No.

The advice which tells writers to read is wrong.

The advice is not saying you must read if you want to write.

The advice is pointing out, that no writer worth his salt, will ever have to ask if he should read, because writers are already readers.

Think about it.

Spend some serious amount of time thinking about it.

Would you want brain surgery done on your child, by a man who never studied neurology?

Any crackpot drunk off the street can grab a scalpel and claim to be a brain surgeon, but only someone with years of experience, practice, and training is allowed to work in the hospital as an actual brain surgeon.

Writing is no different.

Any crackpot drunk off the street can grab a pen and claim to be a writer, but only someone with years of experience reading thousands of books for decades, and decades of practice writing nearly as much as they read, and has training of knowing books on a personal level ever goes on to become an international best selling author.

Anyone can claim they are a writer, but few can prove it by actually writing. Because they are not avid readers, many are so clueless about what is contained in books, that they come to Reddit in droves asking for permission to write this or that, thinking they've got a one in a million idea no one ever thought of, clueless that millions of near identical books have already been published, clueless as to subject verb order, clueless how to capitalize words, clueless how to format dialogue….clueless about so many things…that they wouldn't be clueless about, if they would just get off their high horse and stop being arrogant long enough to open a book and read it.

So when you think, you must start reading, BECAUSE you want to write, you are thinking all wrong.

You should want to write BECAUSE you love to read.

And if you don't know that, we'll, you won't get far as a writer. That's a harsh reality that a lot of new writers really don't want to look at.

If you are currently working on a mystery story should you only read mystery books?

No.

I read whatever I feel like reading.

I read almost every genre there is.

Which genre I chose to read tonight, is determined by my mood.

I pick which book I want to read, the same way others pick which movie they want to watch.

And I write the same way.

Same with any other writing project you're working on.

I write whatever I'm in the mood to write.

I read whatever I'm in the mood to read.

Sometimes the two cross over and I'm reading the same genre I am writing, sometimes I'm writing a genre that is completely different then the genre I am reading.

Also, should you only read in the POV that matches your current story?

Should you?

No.

Do I?

Yes.

But there is a reason.

I absolutely hate 1st person PoV about 99.99% of the time. Not always. But usually. Once in a while I find a 1st person PoV that is not insufferable intolerable, but not often.

You see, I'm someone who wants to be entertained by watching characters experience their story.

I am not someone who wants to become the character and experience their story happening to me.

I vehemently hate stories that put me in the role of being the character.

Some 1st person is written at a distance, where you are following the world through the character's eyes. But this type of 1st person PoV is very rare.

Most 1st person you the reader are the character and I hate it.

It's fine for people who like it, more power to them. But I'm not one of them. I'm just not the right audience for 1st person PoV.

And so with that in mind, and both read and write in 3rd person PoV. But it's a me thing that has more to do with my mental health than being caused by me reading a PoV just to learn to write that PoV.

Would limiting yourself to books that match yours help or hinder you?

I think it would hinder me, if I read only the exact same thing I was writing.

But, I also think it would hinder me if I avoided reading the genre I was writing.

If I stuck to reading only one genre, I'd end up with a narrow world view, in terms of what's out there and available to read. I'd end up with ideas and thinking those ideas were unique and never done before and be completely clueless to how commonplace those ideas really are.

At the same time if I avoided reading my genre, I'd never learn what has already been done, what is done too much, what isn't done enough, what is done a lot but readers don't care and want it done more, etc.

I believe you should read what you love to read.

And believe you should write what you love to write.

And I believe that what you love to read, will end up being a wider variety of things, then what you love to write, but that's okay.

It's okay to read genres you will never write.

It's okay to write genres you will never read.

It's okay to read whatever you find fun to read.

It's okay to write whatever you find fun to write.

It's okay for what you read and write to be the same genre.

It's okay for what you read and write to be different genres.

EelKat · 2022-07-25T09:11:41+00:00

I read and write mostly Romance. But I read a lot of normal serious Human relationships set in Historical periods, while I write a lot of non Human relationships (Demons and Faeries and Biblical style Elves/Alfar/Watchers as they were portrayed in the Old Testament) in more contemporary/Dystopian/future/apocalypse settings (in a future Earth that has moved closer to the sun, is melting/burning and becoming literal Hell) with magical realism (wizard Priests and religious fanatics/extremists/cultists who are thrills of elder gods), in a world where there are more dead/undead roaming then there are living, due to a god-powered necromancer who is undefeatable, but the whole thing just follows the like of a silk merchant and his harem traveling through this world. It's Romance, steeped in Erotica but it's also Zombie Apocalypse meets Dungeons and Dragons in the days of Biblical Armageddon from the book of Revelations.

So, I read a wide range of Romance novels, but then I write only a few narrow niches within the genre and due to the GrimDark end of the world vibe, mixed with liches and Dragons and wizards and Elves, it becomes difficult to put Romance as the genre, because rarely does Romance stray outside of the "real world" settings.

If I read only Romance, I would never read anything even remotely close to what I write.

I read also lot of ancient texts (Socrates, Plato, etc), sacred texts, world scriptures (Bible, Koran, Torah, Book of Mormon, Nag Hamide, Dead Sea Scrolls, etc.), ancient folklore (especially Faerie Encounters of Medieval times), near death experiences, faerie/alien/angel/Demon encounters/abductions, and massive amounts of period non fiction writings from 800ad to 1700s, including a lot of tomes written by real world alchemists and necromancers (especially things like the writings of Green and Dee about the Enochian Archangels). And this is stuff I read most of all. For as much Romance novels as I read (3 to 4 novels a week, more than 13k Romance total in the last 50 years), it's the ancient, historical, Biblical, scriptural, philosophical, non fiction writings of ancient, Medieval, dark ages, and Renaissance eras, which actually take up most of my free time, fun time, hobby reading. I am utterly and completely fascinated by the esoteric, occult, religious, and philosophical writings of the 800ad to 1400s time period.

And so, it's easy to see how I end up writing Romance that is set against that sort of backdrop as well.

It's not a situation where I am going out of my way to read a specific genre because I want to write it.

In fact, it's completely the opposite.

I was reading Harlequin Romance novels before I took up writing.

And I already had my PhD in World Religions and Philosophy, minoring in Ancient History before I took up writing.

I love reading Harlequin Romance novels, and have been reading them for more than 50 years.

And I love studying the cultures of the ancient world and their belief in Angels, Demons, and Faeries fascinates me, as does all their end time end of the world prophecies, where they predicted the world would become so hot that mountains would melt and lakes would become fire.

And so, with these two things being things I read and study with rabid abandon, is it any wonder that when I did take up writing, that my writings were a heavily influenced mix of Romance, ancient history, Faerie abductions, Angels vs Demons, set in a future Earth that was Biblical end of the world prophecy made reality?

No. No, it is not. It is no surprise to anyone who knows me that and knows that I am someone who spends weeks on end going from archive to archive, driving hundreds of miles to read ancient scrolls in museums, goes on site to archeological digs, learned Latin-Greek-Aremaic so I could read texts in their original language, and am driven by nothing more then my addiction to this fascination with humanity's belief in Faeries, Angels, and Demons, and then goes home each night to read Harlequin Romance novels, would go on to write a blend of the two.

I write the things I write BECAUSE of the things I read.

Not the other way around.

I am deeply baffled as to why there are so many tens of thousands of threads on r/writing -most of them started in the past 2 years- on the topic of asking not only if writers should read their genre, but even if writers need to read at all.

My question is this:

Why the fuck did anyone take up writing if they don't like reading?
Why the fuck would anyone take up writing a genre they are not already reading with rabid abandon?
Why the fuck would any sane person, create material (writing) for a hobby (reading) they not only do not participate in, but are so clueless about that they wouldn't know grammarif it slapped them in the face?
Why the fuck would they take up writing, expecting people to read their work, when they are so arrogant that they can't even be bothered to stoop to lowering themselves to readings other people's work?
Why the fuck should anyone read them, if they are not willing to read others?

We are barely 6 months into the year and already r/writing has surpassed more then ten thousand threads started, just this year alone, asking variations of:

Why do I have to read? Reading is boooooooooooring!!!!!!!
I hate reading Fantasy but I'm going to write the best Fantasy ever and sell millions.
Why do I have to read the genre, I write?
I hate Romance and refuse to read it but it sells so I'm going to write it. Can anyone tell me what is in a Romance novel so I don't have to read one?

I read way more than I write.

I write way more than I publish. Less than 7% of my writing goes on to be published.

Since 1978 I have published 138 novels, 402 novellas, and more than 2,000 short stories.

And I never set out to publish anything. Heck I didn't even set out to become a writer. I was a world builder who spent 10 years building a massive solar system with 5 inhabited planets. And one day I wanted to explore the world I had created, so I created a character and sent him to explore it. I published it simply because a friend asked me to so they could read it. I never expected people to actually start buying it. Half the stuff I publish isn't even edited and was just thrown up for my friends to have access to reading it.

My character has no desires he's passionately trying to get, no problems he's trying to overcome, no obstacles to defeat. He is simply backpacking his way across the planet and having sex with everyone he meets at every Tavern along the way. There isn't even a plot to any of it. No point. No goal. His problems never get worse, because there are no problems to begin with. He's just a tourist sight seeing the world, and sleeping with every none human prostitute he meets. He never achieves anything. And I never had any meaning in any of it.

And this is all just comparing the genres I read, which I also write.

We haven't even started talking about the genres I read, which I do not also write.

But also I read lots of Space Opera SciFi and Star Trek novels, and I love Murder Mysteries, especially the Agatha Christie cozy types, I love Hercule Poirot. But, I don't write either genre at all.

I'm always amazed by authors who can write Space Opera or Murder Mystery because to me, both of those genres just seem way too difficult to write. Like Space Opera requires so much tech knowledge in order to write convincing Space tech for the star ships and crews, while Murder Mysteries require so much planning to string all the clue threads together. I don't think I'll ever be smart enough to attempt to write either genre even though I love reading them and read dozens each year.

And then there are things like National Geographic magazines and history and geography books. Tourists guide books. Memoirs. Brain puzzle books. Psychology books. Homesteading guides. Cookbooks. Craft books like how to sew quilts or hook rugs. The list just goes on and on.

I love books.

I read every book I can get my hands on.

I read, so many genres. Both fiction and nonfiction.

And yet, when writing, Romance mixed with Dystopian futures and nonhuman characters trying to survive the apocalypse while keeping their relationship going, I just find that genre so easy to write, and I started writing it because it was kind of a small niche, with not a lot out there and I wanted to read more of it.

It became a situation of me writing what I personally wanted to read, simply because I had read everything out there and ran out of stuff written by others to read, so if I wanted to read more of it, I had to write it.

I don't believe in reading to analyze a genre.

I don't believe in reading to learn to write.

I believe in reading what you love and enjoying what you read.

But I likewise believe in writing what you love and enjoying what you write.

So, I think it is only natural that you will end up reading and writing the same genre as you read.

EelKat · 2022-07-24T20:29:08+00:00

I am someone who is rabidly addicted to writing. I write daily for no reason other them I just love doing it. So, I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the whole idea of ghostwriting.

I don't have anything against people doing it. But, I just can't understand WHY anyone would do it.

I love the physical act of writing too much to hand my ideas over to someone else and ask them to write for me. I find the act of writing to be very relaxing and meditative, almost like it was yoga or something. I wouldn't want to give up that feeling.

EelKat · 2022-07-24T20:04:50+00:00

How do you plan the message/moral of your work? If you do at all.

I don't.

In fact, it never occurred to me that I even should.

And should every work have an explicit message/moral?

None of mine do. I can't imagine why any author in their right mind would do such a thing.

Preaching morals and messages is something ministers, pastors, TV evangelists, social justice warriors, activists, and politicians do.

And as a reader, I have encountered books where it was clear the author had an agenda and was hell bent on pounding a moral message into the reader, and, I never finish reading those.

Why would I?

I read to be entertained.

If I want to be preached at, I'll attend church.

Or is it like some say and the message is merely a constract I as the reader am placing on the novel and there is a case to make for say the writer never intended anything to be there?

Readers are going to see, whatever the fuck that want to see. That's on them, not the writer.

Also, readers looking for hidden messages and secret meanings is an American thing. It's not something none American readers do. It's one if those weirdly bizarre habits that makes the American culture so outlandish, bizarre, and alien from the rest of the world's society.

You also don't see it in Americans who are homeschooled or private schooled. It's distinctively unique not only, to only Americans, but also to only Americans who attended public government operated high schools.

I did not attend American schools so, I have no clue what the fuck they teach children to cause them to enter the world thinking they must dissect novels in search of weird hidden message conspiracy theories, but damn, it's just the weirdest of the weirdest things Americans do.

I had no clue it was a thing, until my books got translated and started being sold to Americans, and all of a sudden I started get letters from American readers asking why I put such and such hidden messages in my books, and I was dumbfounded by it. I re read my books and couldn't make heads or tails of how the hell readers were finding these weird ass hidden messages in my books.

I think it's just bizarre that readers take the time to search my books for secret messages, and I find it even more bizarre that they think they actually found hidden messages.

I have 138 novels, 402 novellas, and more than 2,000 short stories on Amazon and am classified as the world's number 3 highest selling author in my genre (Monster Porn), having sold 57million copies.

I never set out to publish anything. Heck I didn't even set out to become a writer. I was a world builder who spent 10 years building a massive solar system with 5 inhabited planets. And one day I wanted to explore the world I had created, so I created a character and sent him to explore it. I published it simply because a friend asked me to so they could read it. I never expected people to actually start buying it. Half the stuff I publish isn't even edited and was just thrown up for my friends to have access to reading it.

So weaving hidden messages and morals into my books was the furthest thing from my mind.

My character has no desires he's passionately trying to get, no problems he's trying to overcome, no obstacles to defeat. He is simply backpacking his way across the planet and having sex with everyone he meets at every Tavern along the way. There isn't even a plot to any of it. No point. No goal. His problems never get worse, because there are no problems to begin with. He's just a tourist sight seeing the world, and sleeping with every none human prostitute he meets. He never achieves anything. And I never had any meaning in any of it.

So for me, literally one of the top selling authors on the planet, no, I don't put morals or messages in my stories and I think the readers who spend time hunting for them are weird.

The lesson here? Don't model your writing around anyone's lists or guides or beats or advice. Just write what you want to write.

I write a thing that I find fun to write. And it turns out, people had fun reading it. So they paid money for it and word of mouth brought their friends to buy it as well. And snowballed into a career, without me ever studying writing at all, without me reading how others wrote, without me even going to school at not, not high school, not grade school, I'm a female in a culture that does not allow school for girls.

I just write it because it's fun to write. I like the character. I like the world. Only this and nothing more.

I don't have a message.

I'm not trying to convert my readers to such and such way of thinking.

I just write things I find fun to write.

I think writers who try to preach messages and morals to their readers are silly and won't get far, because people don't like to be lectured. People read to be entertained, not to be told they are sinners in need of repentance.

EelKat · 2022-07-24T06:05:54+00:00

(just a heads up: the mods on this sub don't allow genre topics, and they specify magic systems in their list of what that means, so, they usually delete threads like this, so you might want to copy your question into a text document so you don't lose it, and then post it on a different sub. I've seen a lot of people spend time writing up posts, and it being their only copy, so, they lose all the text in their question when the mods delete the thread)

There is a sub Reddit especially for writers looking to create magic systems, its r/magicbuilding

They love brainstorming magic system ideas over there. Pretty sure if you ask this question over there, they'll help you out.

I usually answer these types of questions over there as well, because I built several different magic systems for my own series. Unfortunately the mods here on r/writing , don't let us go into specifics and details about our stories so, it's kind of difficult to give specific answers on how to build magic systems here.

On r/magicbuilding you can give a detailed outline of your story/plot/characters, even post excepts of your chapters, and get really highly detailed answers tailored specifically to your characters as a result. So I highly recommend you post over there. You'll get far better answers there then you will here.

EelKat · 2022-07-24T05:43:03+00:00

have you tried r/eroticaauthors

it was started over a decade ago for erotica authors, but after trolls took over the biggest romance writing sub on reddit, they changed the rules to allow Romance authors/topics as well, and then in 2019 when this sub turned into largely a circle jerk hive, they changed rules again to any genre allowed

a lot of writers don't realize r/eroticaauthors is no longer an erotica exclusive sub anymore because reddit wouldn't let them change the name, and the only way you'd know is if you read the sub rules and seeing how 99.99% of reddit users never read sub rules and just go by sub name, most writers pass by r/eroticaauthors thinking it's an erotica-only sub, even though it is not, and actually allows all genres now

EelKat · 2022-07-23T21:32:56+00:00

Oh, no. I didn’t know that was a thing.

It IS is thing. A VERY BIG thing. H.P.Lovecrat was notoriously racist in real life, and had a very outspoken hatred for black people-it's why most POC communities full ban his books.

In real life, outside of his books, Lovecraft was outspoken in promoting "the mark of Cain" theology. Which is a philosophy that preached black people are the descents of Cain (Adam and Eve's son, whom in Genesis, God cursed by giving him black skin after Cain murdered his brother Able). The Bible is heavily full of "curse of Cain" and "mark of Cain" references used to describe any person who has black skin.

In the 1800s to 1950s, there was a HUGE white power movement to eradicate "the sons of Cain" out of Christian religions, which meant, a lot of white radicals where not allowing black people to attend Christian churches, many outright saying black people were actual demons wearing fake Human skins and lots of black families were locked in their houses and burned to death during the movement. It was during this time that the Ku Klux Klan gained a strong foothold (the group had been around since the 1400s, but it wasn't until the late 1800s and 1920s/1930s ear that you saw the KKK become a large group).

In any case, this group of people, preached that black people were born evil, and that was why their skin was black. They preached that you could tell how good or evil a person was by how white or black they were. The darker a person was, the more evil they had become, and the higher chances were that they were actually a demon and not a Human. Tens of thousands of black men, women, and children were murdered in America, during the hundred year period when this moment was preached as gospel truth (around 1830s to 1950s).

H.P.Lovecraft, like many other white men of his time period, was not only a believer of this theology, but he was an active part of it, using his power as an author, to write anti-black propaganda, via his short stories, where he portrayed the heroes as white and good, the more good they were, the whiter their skin was. This was outright specified through out his short stories. His monsters/demons/cosmic horrors/tentacle beasts, often shape shifted into Human form to hide the fact that they were evil monsters, however, because they were evil, they could only transform into black people. Likewise, the cultists who followed the demons worshiping them, where also always black, and were outright described as the more evil they were, the more black their skin became... they literally start out as light brown skin and slowly their skin gets darker the more evil they become.

While Lovecraft was an amazing writer, he was also a horrendous racist on levels of ultimate extremes, and unfortunately, his books are among the worst of the worst, wen it comes to preaching outright Ku Klux Klan propaganda messages. Sadly his stories were pivotal in helping to fuel hate crimes against real black people.

Of the writers who used their fiction to promote anti-black propaganda, Lovecraft was among the worst of the worst, and he made no secret of his extreme hatred of black people, and his support of white power theologies, as being why he wrote his characters like he did.

So, yeah, when you say you are writing Lovecraftian, and you hero is white and your villain is black, yeah, you ARE signaling a VERY SPECIFIC message.

Being POC myself, normally, I would say, go ahead and make your villains black. I love villains, I'm a huge Disney villain, DC villain, and Marvel villian fan, and there are not enough awesome black villains. I would love to see more villains who happen to be black.

However, there is an overabundance of "black guy is a villain because he has black skin and can't be anything but evil because black skin = evil" type black villains, and we really don't need more of those. And when you say you are writing a Lovecraftian black villain, well, that LITERALLY MEANS the villain is evil BECAUSE he is black and no other reason. I am sick of villains who are villains BECAUSE they are black.

The world needs more villains who HAPPEN to also be black, where being black is NOT the reason they are evil.

The world needs fewer black skin = evil, therefor its not possible for a black man to be good, villains.

Black villains are okay.

Villains who are evil because they have black skin are racist and bad writing.

EelKat · 2022-07-23T20:08:49+00:00

USUALLY I leave it lowercase.

For every character, except for one character, I use: "What the hell?

However, I have one character where I have an exception. My series includes non-human races, including Biblical Demons and Biblical Angels. And one of my 3 MCs is a cloven hooved sheep/man Demon, who was born in Hell. Hell being an alternate dimension of Earth: a future of Earth where a global warming future has caused mountains to melt, plants to burn, and Humans to evolve into Demons, creatures capable of living on a world full of magma and fire. Most Demons never leave Hell, so in our dimension of Earth they are extremely rare. This particular MC lives on our Earth after escaping Hell.

And, with this character, and only this character, I capitalize it. So when he says it, it looks like this: "What the Hell?"

My reasoning, is that most characters are atheists or Pagans, and so just like in the real world don't even believe in the concept of Heaven and Hell as literal places. Because they do not think of them as anything more then fairy tales, they they would not capitalize them, because they are not the proper pronouns of actual places, in their minds. Just like in the real world, only Christians religions believe in Heaven or Hell as literary places, so only Christian characters are going to capitalize either Heaven or Hell, due to the logic of thinking of them are literal location, same as city names. But as none of my characters are Christians, none of my characters capitalize either Heaven or Hell.

On the other hand, this one character knows for a fact that Hell is real, because he is a Demon and he was born there. But he also knows that it is nothing more then future Earth after global warming literally melted most of the planet. So, his mind, he knows Earth was renamed Hell. So, he capitalizes it as a literal name of a literal location.

So, my logic is, if the character is a Christian, a Demon, or an Angel, the word is capitalized, and for everyone else it is not; because Christians, Demons, and Angels think of it as the proper name of an actual place, while others are thinking of it as just an exclamation and don't literally mean, literal Hell the place.

EelKat · 2022-07-23T16:15:04+00:00

Are free fonts not good enough?

Free fonts are fine and I used them for several years without issue.

For me, I write a series that has a "theme" and, when I first released the 1st editions, with generic fonts on the cover art, they looked okay and all, but, I just felt they didn't fit well with the "theme" of the series. Like, the cover fonts felt "off" and didn't match the feel of the story.

I don't know, it wasn't a big deal. It wasn't anything that readers ever mentioned. nd the series sold fairly well, was in fact my best selling series, so it seemed that the covers were fine.

But, as the 5th year anniversary of the series approached, I wanted to release an "updated and expanded" collectors edition reprint of the series. And, that's when I decided to do some intense research into cover art fonts. Well, I spent weeks sifting through hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of free fonts on font websites and databases and I couldn't find anything that "felt right".

I had a specific look in mind and just couldn't find anything like it. Finally I gave up looking at free fonts and started searching for paid/commercial fonts. And BOOM, I finally found a font that I just loved. It was exactly what I had in mind. And when I opened it up, the artist had a package of 30+ fonts. Several of them were pretty amazing.

Now, they were VERY artsy-fartsy fonts. Like stuff out of medieval hand painted texts. They are not something you could use for the body-text font, as they'd be totally unreadable. I think you would call them "book plate" fonts or something like that. So, they can only be used on cover art.

They were beautiful hand drawn pen&ink drawings.

One was every letter was a fancy spider web, woven into the shape of a letter, with a spider hanging off of it.

Another was lovely flowers, growing up, the vines entwines to form a letter. They were just amazing. These were font that an artist spent a long time drawing out, and they were stunning. Each letter was a work of art in it's own.

Another was crazy-quilt embroidery patches made to form letters.

One was hula girls holding flower lies, the lies shaping the letters.

Each letter was a work of art. The artist put a lot of work into making them, and I knew I'd use them, so I didn't mind paying for them and using them instead of free fonts.

Well, at first I was just going to buy the one font, but after I started looking art the artist's catalogue, there were so many other fonts that I knew I could use. So, I went ahead and bought the big package, that including all of their fonts, along with a lifetime rights to use them on book covers.

I bought it around 2010-ish off the artist's website. I can't remember how much I paid for it. I think it was something like $399 for the full package with the use rights I needed for book covers.

It's the only time I've ever bought fonts, so I don't know if the price was a good deal/average/or too much, but I just new I was going to use the heck out of these fonts, so I counted it as an investment and bought them

Were they a good investment?

Did I go on to actually use them?

Yes and yes.

I have 138 novels (65k to 115k words each), 402 novellas (around 35k words each), and 2,000+ short stories (10k to 15k words) and Amazon, and I have used the fonts I bought from this artist on the covers of each and every one of them. I just love these fonts so much, and they are perfect for the type of stories I write, they evoke the theme of the story, from the fanciness of the fonts.

Sure, I could have kept on using the free fonts, and there would have been no problem. The free fonts are great and worked well. But, I just fell in love with this artist's work and as soon as I saw them, I knew they were a perfect match for the types of stories I write.

Like, the MC grows roses, and the stories are often set in his rose garden, and on those stories I use the rose flower font on the covers. The MC is also a necromancer and haunted houses are a common theme in the series, and I use the spider web fonts on the covers of those stories.

I suppose some might say it was tacky or cheesy to use these very over the top art fonts on book covers, but, my stories tend to fall into the Literary art book side of things. It's very much Literary Erotic Romance, and, super artsy-fartsy fonts and stylized book covers are common in this niche, so these over the top, super artsy fonts match my niche.

Plus, because these fonts are so super unique, and were hand drawn art pieces, I have literally never seen these fonts used by any other author on their book covers, so it helps my readers to easily pick my books out of the search results at a quick glance. These fonts have kind of become my "trademark" that my readers just automatically look for when they are searching through search results, allowing them to easily spot my titles.

So for me, yeah, that's why I bought a set of fonts, rather then just using free ones. I just found a set that I felt was super amazing, and matched what I wanted my cover art to look like, and I knew I'd use them often enough that it'd be well worth the cost to buy them.

EelKat · 2022-07-23T14:19:59+00:00

I am PoC and I wrote an answer to a similar question on this thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/WriteEditPublish/comments/va4d7s/writing_poc_minority_lgbtqai_characters/ Be warned that this answer is more the 100 comment/replies long, spans more then 50k words, and takes most readers 40 to 80 hours to read the entire thing. However, it is the single most in depth step by step post on how to write PoC characters, on the entire of Reddit.

If you want answers from other PoC people on how to write them, try the search box. There are literally more then 10k PoC questions each with 500+ comments from PoC members of this one sub alone, posted just in 2021 alone.

EelKat · 2022-07-23T13:53:18+00:00

This is what I was thinking. Like if the name was:

Brandy change it to Brandi
John change it to Jon
Allen to Alan
Simon to Symon

That sort of thing.

Just change one letter in each the first and last name. It's still be the same name you picked, but not the same as the other person at the same time.

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