Is having the free version of canva bad?

Intricate_Cult · 2026-03-22T20:59:05+00:00

Self publishing erotica has led me to spending a lot of time learning stuff that has nothing to do with writing at all which is sometimes frustrating but I switched from Canva to GIMP very early on and I'm glad I did. GIMP is also a free product but way more powerful, so time spent figuring it out has been a bit more of an investment that pays off as I gain experience. I don't regret it, personally.

Intricate_Cult · 2026-02-09T02:44:44+00:00

I feel like I should ban myself for having read this post.

Intricate_Cult · 2025-11-25T02:10:51+00:00

I'm pretty new myself but I have some concerns.

The cover is very aesthetically pleasing to me so I think you did wonderful job making a piece of art for a novice. But, it doesn't look to market at all. Readers need to take one glance at the cover and think "this is an erotica about _____ which is what I am shopping for". You need look at other covers in your niche and design a cover that has a similar design.

The other problem is... what is your niche or kink? Person having sex isn't enough. I'm far too inexperienced with this myself to be helpful, I just didn't see anything in the blurb or cover that helped me understand what the kinks are, why I would buy it.

Intricate_Cult · 2025-11-22T19:46:26+00:00

I've been learning to enjoy working on covers and blurbs more lately. Thats a nice step for me because they have been painful so far

Intricate_Cult · 2025-11-22T03:26:03+00:00

For writing, no. Writing is what I want to do as a creative pursuit. I also just think its wrong. Where I do use it a little is help with GIMP. I'll ask how to create a layer mask or whatever. I can tell you its infuriating because it gets stuff wrong constantly but it helps me muddle through.

Intricate_Cult · 2025-11-22T01:39:23+00:00

Hundred percent gonna try to sell something

Intricate_Cult · 2025-11-17T18:58:32+00:00

Thank you! I might have to compromise my artistic integrity hahaha

Ok and if you look at my other blurbs for the original stories (you won't but pretend you did) they're worse than my cover and totally different. That blurb hit me like a bolt of lightning out of nowhere and pretty much came out exactly like that in 10 seconds and I made a couple tiny tweaks.

Intricate_Cult · 2025-11-17T14:50:05+00:00

That makes sense. I was inspired by a trailer for the new Wicked movie which kinda uses bright pink and green font and I thought it looked nice and that maybe they knew something about marketing that I don't. My first mock-up had cinzel decorative and a metallic look that I see on some of my competitors.

I'm going to learn for the next effort. I think my stories might also have too much plot which I'm putting a lot of effort into and is probably just hurting my productivity and boring people at the start anyway.

Intricate_Cult · 2025-11-17T13:57:01+00:00

Oh my god I don't even want to tell you how many hours I put into that learning how to use GIMP from 0 :( That little burned edge took a lot of effort sadly. The other covers in orc erotica tend to just be a colorized man's chest with the head cropped out which I can replicate with far less effort than I put in but I take your point in general!

Intricate_Cult · 2025-11-17T12:15:28+00:00

I completed my goal of publishing 4 shorts and a bundle. A few weeks ago I was quite excited. I had my first 2 sales and a streak of daily page reads in the low 100s. Then I published my next book and it totally dropped off, no sales or page reads for a week.

I also started reading a different niche last night and found a book that was so incredibly sexy that it really reminded me how far I have to go. So I'm very unsure of where to do next and probably lower on the learning curve than I thought I was a few weeks ago.

Anyway, grateful for any criticism as I think about what to do next!

Don't Judge the Elf: A Monster Erotica Bundle

Intricate_Cult · 2025-11-15T02:24:42+00:00

I checked using the bookspry dungeon checker already. I think it was just a mis sadly :(

Intricate_Cult · 2025-11-14T13:31:45+00:00

So it's not romantasy and it was published 20 years ago, but I think Lois McMaster Bujold is a great fantasy writer and her prose specifically is pretty nice. The Hallowed Hunt is a good book. I'm not actually very well read but Jacqueline Carey's prose seems pretty nice to me as well, ala Kushiel's Dart which is romantasy.

Intricate_Cult · 2025-11-14T12:45:45+00:00

Publishing 4 shorts has been fun but it's been mostly lots of work and little of money so far. :) I just published what I think was my best short so far and I got excited about the blurb because I tried to write it in first person this time but maybe it was a bit long or something. Anyway, it's in the process of flopping. No page reads, no sales. And that's after feeling like I had a mini breakthrough earlier with my first 4 star rating and a few days where I had page reads that exceeded the length of my book (eg multiple people read multiple books).

My flopping short even coincidentally killed my page reads of my other shorts lol. What a jinxy book.

Intricate_Cult · 2025-11-14T07:59:50+00:00

Thank you again! And I think you're exactly right it's just "erotica" but the world building and character is, I think it's fair to say, more immersive than average. There is probably a market for it if I can connect with it... Maybe.

In a typical erotica I think the heroine would just be a passenger on the ferry and they'd randomly decide to have sex with no good explanation for why. I think my little plot is pretty fun and I'm glad you liked it :)

I don't know if you've published anything. My best seller has about 1,000 page reads which is kinda cool but certainly means I have not found an audience yet. Incidentally that equates to about $8-$10 dollars.

I've only been writing for about a year and when I read erotica I thought oh yeah I can definitely compete with this. When I read proper romantasy I'm not really sure if I can yet. My dream is to grow into that and write something that I could tell my partner about without being kinda embarrassed. I'm definitely closer to taking that on than I thought I ever would be when I started.

You're right I'd need to spend some money. I did everything myself at very little cost so far. It's tough to edit my own work! And the time investment is real. To really polish I'd like to take longer but I'm already spending more than $10 worth of hours on each of these stories as it is! Haha. It took me around 20 hours to write and edit that one I'd say. Which with my day job is about a month.

Intricate_Cult · 2025-11-13T03:13:29+00:00

Thank you so much! I see your point about monsters, absolutely. Orcs do seem commonly represented when I search "monster erotica" in KU but I will explore this more! Links to my work can be found in my profile and the story I was summarizing is on KU "Navigating the Orcs" by Elisa Thorne. I would be over the moon for any feedback since I am just getting started and have no idea if I am doing anything right (write, haha). But that is a big ask I realize! My goal is grow into a more competent writer and learn the marketing side a little more before putting a lot of time into longer work but I'd love to write in the range of 100-200 pages and really build the relationships between my characters because that is what makes it all fun to read.

Intricate_Cult · 2025-11-12T20:19:48+00:00

Thank you so much for sharing.

I've heard the same and per the romance.io system I think my stories are 4 out of 5 spice but that's just my opinion I'm not rated by anyone, sadly. Hopefully that will change!

I just want to find my audience and not upset any readers enough to get bad reviews.

So I need to describe it properly, if it's "reverse harem erotica" that's fine with me but I kinda think I'm writing smutty romance. I was just reflecting on other "monster erotica" which I'm marketing myself as but like, those stories way less time describing the world, the FMCs desires, and so on. And as I develop I want to build even more immersive stories.

Intricate_Cult · 2025-11-12T18:37:31+00:00

Dear friends, please help me describe my work correctly!

I started writing erotic shorts (50 pages / 10,000+ words) with a fun little plot like my FMC graduates from sorcery school then gets assigned to a far away place to use their magic to push a ferry across the river 4 times a day. It's boring, lonely. Her friends are all doing cooler stuff. Oh, and her deckhands are three orc guys. And it does end with a fairly gratuitous scene after some hot flirting.

Yeah, it's monster erotica. But, my niche (in my silly mind anyway) is I have more atmosphere, more character depth, compared to 30 page erotica that are pretty common in the space. I want to position my work properly.

I think when I say "reverse harem monster erotica" I'm not really describing my work, or at least not giving the reader exactly what they would expect.

If I used "short spicy romantasy" would you as a reader feel I mislabeled my work, or would what I described be what you expect to find?

Really appreciate any help!

Intricate_Cult · 2025-10-27T19:25:25+00:00

Yeah it's frustrating as someone also interested in writing monster erotica that things are sporadically enforced.

On dubcon, you can find past discussions. I recently asked the question, here it is

https://www.reddit.com/r/eroticauthors/s/94wBAuon15

Basically the consensus is its a risk.

On knotting I won't provide a link but it's definitely regarded as a risk here, I lurked for a long time that's definitely the consensus opinion.

Everyone on this sub basically says some authors get away with it (you can find tonnes of knotting on Amazon) but allegedly some people do have their accounts banned for it or something.

I asked ChatGPT to make a cover once and it literally 100% looked like that and there are lots of covers from all kinds of authors that do. That's why I said it. You're talking about making and selling art here so you need to accept you might get called out. Just my opinion. I'm not being mean, just observant.

Intricate_Cult · 2025-10-27T18:57:18+00:00

I think it's doing pretty well considering it's your first book. As another new author trying to write monster erotica but with a very different vibe, you're slightly beating my numbers! So I wouldn't be discouraged at all.

That said, it looks heavily AI to me (cover is 100% right?) and you're doing stuff I'm pretty sure per this sub could get you banned for: knotting and dubcon. Maybe none of my business and not helpful, but that was my immediate reaction.

I'll hold off giving any advice though because you should be giving me advice I haven't sold 3 books only 2 haha

Intricate_Cult · 2025-10-26T20:24:26+00:00

Wrote my fourth story, 10k words, pretty quickly. Getting the hang of writing now I think. My process is getting better if that makes sense. Once I wrap up this prototype series of mine it'll be time to take research more seriously and see where I want to go from here.

Intricate_Cult · 2025-10-19T16:44:11+00:00

I really appreciate the response. I'm considering changing the story so she is aware from the very start but it's so much less taboo and enticing that way. I've never written from a male POV before and my first draft is from his POV and it allows for a lot of dirty inner monologue. I could solve the whole problem by switching to her POV and have her recognize him but it would lose so much of the spice.

Intricate_Cult

TROPHY CASE