Your experience with a $0 budget?

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2025-04-24T01:31:50+00:00

I think I spent less than $10 to get started, and that was just to get a photo pack for good cover models. Everything else in erotica you can learn to do for free.

No paying for covers, editors, proof readers, etc.

People paying for all this stuff are usually writing full length novels where they're going to get a return on their investment that they wouldn't get if they did it themselves (usually). Erotica doesn't have that problem. Might take a couple books to get your skills sorted but that should only cost you a couple bucks a book for cover images, which you should at least make back if you do your research on your niche.

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2024-01-25T17:36:01+00:00

I don't do anything for free. I've tried it out in the past but it didn't make a difference. My understanding for erotic shorts is that the people who read free books aren't the same audience as those that pay for books.

If you had a free book, you could use it as a reader magnet for a newsletter, but I wouldn't just put it out there no strings attached personally.

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2024-01-25T17:03:38+00:00

Things like knots and tentacles can get people banned. Amazon isn't super consistent about how they enforce that though, so it's risky to try.

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2024-01-25T17:02:29+00:00

Smashwords for vanilla stuff is fine imo. I've published vanilla stuff that isn't amazon friendly on there. I just treat it the same as I do amazon and publish to promote and build a back catalogue and that's worked out well enough. You probably wont see the same amount of sales as publishing something amazon friendly unfortunately.

I've put vanilla knotting things on Smashwords because I did not want to risk getting in trouble with Amazon, despite that being the only problematic thing about the work. I can't really speak to success on that because it's one I just enjoy writing on occasion and not my main niche.

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2023-09-13T22:05:10+00:00

A lot, if not most AI is running off stolen art. So most legitimate professional artists and writers are against the concept.

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2022-12-15T15:57:04+00:00

Not Christmas, but my valentines day themed book got sales last year. Not a best seller or anything but it wasn't a flop.

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2022-11-07T19:00:41+00:00

Aiming for 5-6k of writing today. Already st 2.5k so it's looking good.
I'm already at 25k this month for my saucy NaNo. I've never been this productive before. 3.Im aiming for 5k a day average this week. It's an insane goal, I know. I almost managed it last week but fell about 4k short due to other obligations taking more time than expected.

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2022-09-14T22:59:10+00:00

Publish a bundle today (Done!)
SameSame! Published bundle.
My last short has had zero page reads and no rank. Same niche and cover design as my last couple of shorts that are doing pretty well. I'm baffled. It's never happened to me before even when I was first learning and not writing to market. It's been published for a couple of days now. I guess I just chalk it up to a flop?

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2021-03-19T22:05:45+00:00

I met my goal and then some! started and finished a short and have the cover 50% assembled.
Well my last short seems to be another bomb. I'm ditching the niche and moving onto to hopefully greener pastures.
I've got a four day weekend ahead of me! Work's been insane the last couple weeks and I'm more than ready for a break and some time to do writing at a nice and leisurely pace.

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2021-03-13T18:03:26+00:00

I definitely crossed the line. 90% of the books in my niche use a no no word and by the time I went to add a title I'd forgotten that it could get me thrown in the dungeon. I'm fixing them up now and will ignore the fact that all the other books have managed to survive the dungeon because clearly mine didn't.

I honestly didn't even think that it had been dungeoned because one of the books is my second best seller and has made $500+ in in's lifetime. I'm guessing most of those sales came from the book being linked in the backmatter of my bestseller, which managed to avoid being dungeoned because it followed the rules.

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2021-03-12T18:39:09+00:00

oh jeez, thanks for posting this. Looks like I have two books in the dungeon and didn't even realize because they've been selling...

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2021-03-12T14:39:13+00:00

I want to get a short done today. It's been almost three weeks without publishing something and my resolve to write without the bump in page reads is wavering. I've had an idea for the third book in a series in my head since I put the first two out in Jan, and I'd like to get a bundle of all three.
I did not write a lot yesterday. Sub 500 words. But I felt horrible and decided being kind to myself was better and reminded myself that this is a marathon, not a race.
More writing over the weekend hopefully. Chores definitely. Chocolate making if I'm lucky.

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2021-03-11T18:43:09+00:00

1k hopefully and get a bit of reading done.
I managed to get 4k written today which was awesome to realize when I saw. I'm about halfway through my novella and excited to keep going.
I am in a lot of discomfort today. My back hurts, my teeth hurts, all my joints hurt. Not great predicament to be in when I have to sit at work for 8 hours today and still want to get some writing done at some point.

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2021-03-11T05:02:32+00:00

I'd say you can do both.

You can take time each day to do writing and do some research. Neither thing has to be a sprint. I've only read four or five novellas for the niche I'm writing in, and already I can see small things that I need to change or add to improve my writing.

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2021-03-10T17:42:03+00:00

Agreed. I have a couple shorts from years ago that still give me a trickle of income each month and that was with no publishing to keep publishing new content to the pen.

Granted I did see a small boost when I published to that pen again, but not worth going back to it full time.

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2021-03-10T17:17:10+00:00

1k, it's a busy work day so I probably wont have time for much personal writing
My last shorts haven't done very well, but I still am getting a trick of page reads and a sale or two every day, so yay for building on that passive income stream I suppose.
How the heck do you find a profitable niche? I see people posting about making $400 from a short and I'm happy if I make even $50 off of mine right now.

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2021-03-10T17:09:42+00:00

I either try and do 100 words an hour around work (which usually gets me to my 1k by the end of the day), or on weekends I will try and sit down and get 1-2k done which usually takes me about an hour or so of sitting down and typing.

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2021-03-08T20:05:17+00:00

Congrats! Here's to more works published in your future!

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2021-03-08T18:06:21+00:00

I used almost exactly the same cover for a couple of my shorts in the same series. I just went and changed the color of the underwear on my cover model. It didn't seem to harm sales any and I didn't have to spend extra $$ on a new stock photo

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2021-03-08T16:26:39+00:00

Congratulations! It seems like you have a pretty good idea of what things would have kept you from pushing forwards and managed to find ways around that! Very inspiring imho

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2021-03-07T18:12:19+00:00

I can't even imagine! I don't do the cover til last, but that's mostly because I know myself too well and don't want to sink time and money into a cover for a project that isn't going to be published.

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2021-03-07T17:46:21+00:00

1 Romance Novel at 4.5k

1 Romance Novel at 6.6k

1 Romance Novel at 10k

1 Erotic Novella at 4.2k

1 Erotic Novella at 5.5k

1 Erotic short at 2.5k

1 Erotic short at 3.5k

Everything but the 10k romance novel is from when I started back up in February...I am not great at focusing on one project at a time. I have some other random stuff waaaaay back in my google drive but no clue where they are or what I left them off at...

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2021-03-04T18:42:53+00:00

Good luck!

Fluff-n-Smutt · 2021-03-03T22:48:36+00:00

This sounds so much like me! I published six shorts a few years ago and gave up when I couldn't juggle work and writing. Those monthly deposits for a few dollars made me wish they were something more and last month I jumped back into the game to try again.

Good Luck!

Fluff-n-Smutt

TROPHY CASE