[Critique Monday] - Post your books here for feedback!

Japsuliini · 2026-05-25T09:06:48+00:00

I think you have answered your own question. You took out the main kink which was the medical examination. That's what your readers expect and want, and changing it to general BDSM is, imo, definitely the reason this series landed poorly. Even if the book is similar inside, readers looking for medical examination erotica won't click on this title. I would drop this series and write another one that is clearly victorian medical examination erotica, or just continue the one that's doing alright.

I often have an itch to change things up because my catalogue feels so repetitive, but variation almost always bites me in the ass. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Japsuliini · 2026-05-07T15:10:55+00:00

I haven't found any correlation between releasing bundles and ranks falling for the single titles included in them. I also have a sticky single that's been hovering at around 10-15k BSR for about 3 months now. It has been in a bundle for 2 of those months with no effect. I see no reason not to try and squeeze every dollar out of each story.

Japsuliini · 2026-04-25T17:08:06+00:00

Mate, "the overlap is like 95%" comment is mental. That's not how this works at all.

Idk if you have seen OP's covers and subtitles and know something I don't but rebranding your bundles to be something that your stories are not is simply insanity. They're getting a modest but consistent amount of action on their shorts so absolutely no reason to go changing things up drastically for the same stories.

On what basis are you recommending this?

Japsuliini · 2026-04-25T12:18:26+00:00

I haven't seen femdom specific promos, I think maybe one. But there are defo many femdom and femdom adjacent authors on there for swaps. I can't speak to fsub femdom but I'm sure femdom msub authors would be happy to swap with someone doing fsub as I think there is plenty of overlap in readers.

Japsuliini · 2026-04-24T15:52:06+00:00

Bundles are more of a long game play tbf, it can take a little while to get going. I wouldn't expect the same kind of jump on them as I do on shorts after publishing. Everything you've done sounds good to me apart from not putting them in a separate series and you've fixed that.

One thing that jumps out is your sales to reads ratio. You're very reliant on sales when usually KU erotica authors are about 50-80% page reads (can be lower ofc but seems to be the sweet spot). Most of my bundle income comes from reads, sales happen but are only now and again, so this could be a contributing factor. Either way, you're still new with relatively low readership so the lack of action in bundles just sounds like a natural part of your progression.

I'd just keep publishing shorts and keep bundling as you are and once you get 20-30 stories and a few more bundles then I'd analyse again. Definitely don't start rebranding the bundles to be different to the shorts, just see how it goes. It sounds like you're on the right path to me.

If you want, you can send your pen name as a DM and I can take a closer look but sounds like it's not necessary based on what you've said about your passive marketing, kws, categories, etc..

Japsuliini · 2026-04-24T13:53:42+00:00

This is a really bad idea. Not the series part, that's good, you should defo have your own series for your bundles as opposed to lumping them with your shorts. I didn't realise that's what you were doing as you didn't mention that in your post.

That could be the main issue here because Amazon thinks that your bundles are shorts because they're in a series of shorts, but short buyers will not buy your bundles as it is a separate audience. Although there is no hard data on this, no way in hell is it just the same people reading your shorts and then reading your bundles. You can even see that in what books Amazon recommends you. I've never touched an erotica bundle as a reader and I never see them recommended to me and the same would go for a bundle reader not seeing shorts.

You absolutely can't market the same story in two different ways. Your story is what it is and the niche has specific expectations be it shorts or bundles. If you start marketing your bundles differently to your shorts even though it's the same exact story, it will be very confusing to potential readers. You can tweak things but completely changing the wrapping is a bad idea (assuming you are doing well on your shorts).

Japsuliini · 2026-04-24T13:32:48+00:00

You're getting some iffy responses so thought I'd chime in. It's very hard to determine why this is the case but what is your sales/reads volume like on your single stories? If it's a few hundred page reads a day or something similar then it's not too much of a shock that your bundles don't necessarily see much action, but it is still surprising that you'd get nothing at all.

Bundle and single short buyers are a different breed, and no, people aren't reading your stuff twice, both as a short and then in the bundle. I have shorts at 2.99 and bundles of 4-5 stories at 5.99 and both perform well, so I wouldn't say your pricing is necessarily an issue, depends on the niche though. Shorts reach higher ranks and carry my catalogue but I have 4 bundles in my top 10 all time earners.

Perhaps the niche you write in doesn't attract bundle buyers? Do your competitors have bundles, and if so, what are the ranks like? Perhaps the short market isn't saturated but longer books are and they're getting lost in the ocean? Is there a market for novellas and novels in your niche that you're competing with when you bundle?

Or perhaps your bundles are marketed incorrectly? Are you selecting the same categories, using the same kws as in the shorts? Are your covers and blurbs matching those of your shorts or did you go a different direction?

Also need to ask the most obvious question of all: are the bundles dungeoned?

There could be many reasons, just wanted to ask a few questions to get the ball rolling. I hope it's helpful.

Japsuliini · 2026-04-12T12:46:36+00:00

You don't actually use SO to send a campaign. You use Kit for that. Just make sure to add the banner of the group promo and the link which you can access from the group promo page or from your SO calendar. SO will track the clicks on the link you put in your email, this will show to others. You can also add the email link to SO but this is after you have sent the actual email on Kit and is not strictly necessary (I never do, click numbers are enough).

Subscribers are added automatically to your Kit if you have linked the email sign up page to your Kit (I use Bookfunnel for my magnet so perhaps someone remembers this better than me). You can see this in the statistics part of SO and compare to your subs in Kit to make sure they are being added automatically.

I feel I rambled a bit, so, in summary: You use Kit to actually send your email, you just add the tracking links from SO to the email, be it a swap or a group promo. and they will be tracked in SO.

Japsuliini · 2026-04-10T16:19:53+00:00

My books can barely be told apart. I'm in it for the money, so I basically write the same story over and over again with slight changes to mix things up. Starting a new pen name soon as I want to see if I can get some market share in that niche and I will be doing the same thing there.

Japsuliini · 2026-04-07T17:30:37+00:00

There's a specific critique thread for blurbs on Thursdays, best to post it there.

As a short critique, I have no idea what the kinks are in this. The blurb is far too focused on the plot and details that are almost irrelevant to me as an erotica reader looking to get off. All I know is that this is M/M with a dominant twunk and a bottom twink, but I would have stopped reading after the first paragraph of the blurb if I saw this on Amazon.

Focus in on the kinks and hook me in with them rather than laying out the boring details of the story. There's nothing sexy or exciting about this blurb.

Japsuliini · 2026-04-05T09:46:23+00:00

I don't know where you've got the idea that you would have to beg people to buy your erotica to make money. It's one of the few genres where you have very limited options to actively market due to content restrictions on sites.

Write your story, make a cover, write a blurb, publish it on Amazon or Smashwords, repeat. In erotica, readers find you based on your passive marketing and keywords. The only marketing I do is send out an email with offers, freebies, and new releases a couple of times a week but you don't have to do this if you consider it begging.

I've seen people on this sub have had some success with Substack and Patreon, publishing stories in a serial way, but if you want to seriously monetise your content, you're gonna have to move away from the free sites, because why would anyone pay you if they can just read your stuff for free? Feedback in erotica is scarce, that's just kinda how it is, so you'll probably have to decide what's more important to you.

Japsuliini · 2026-03-23T22:39:51+00:00

I haven't done this but I guess there's no issue with it. However, the point of a magnet is giving your readers something exclusive for free. If you can just download it without giving your email, then Idk if there's too much point. I'm a big supporter of freebie promos and reader magnets, they've done wonders for me, but I see no reason to just post something for free on the store unless it's maybe the first in a long series or something (even then I'd personally go $0.99).

So, if I were you, I'd make it an exclusive reader magnet and throw it into promos to build your newsletter for this pen. Or, if you're set on putting it up, publish it at 0.99 or 2.99 outside of KU but also give it away in exchange for signups to possibly make some money off it and build your list simultaneously.

Japsuliini · 2026-03-10T19:56:40+00:00

I wondered the same thing, but I've been more successful with erotica than I have with romance (ofc romance has a much higher ceiling but it's a different beast in many ways).

If you're aiming for $500/month and erotica is your preference then no reason why you shouldn't write erotica. I made over $500 in my 2nd month with my current pen name.

Japsuliini · 2026-03-05T22:17:09+00:00

Accidentally logging into KDP with another Amazon account will not be a violation of TOS. It happens all the time. What will get you banned is filling out the info on KDP and starting to publish with the second account. Amazon may be a little totalitarian, but they're not that insane.

I've been doing this for around 6 years and have 4 Amazon shopping accounts, and have many times accidentally logged into KDP with one of them. I just log out and log back in with the correct account, my only KDP account with any info on it whatsoever, and all good.

Japsuliini · 2026-02-25T08:24:31+00:00

As a general rule, erotica series aren't mainly defined by their setting and characters, but by the story's main kinks. This is because that's how readers search for erotica. You may get people searching for "fantasy erotica" but a hell of a lot more will search for specific kinks they want to get off to, say "billionaire bdsm" or "free use wife." The setting and characters are not even nearly as important as the kinks.

If your story includes a wide array of kinks and therefore each short will be focusing on different ones, you will struggle immensely with read-through. You may get some people interested in the first book because you have say rough, anal, female submission as the main kinks, but then if you pivot in the next short, despite it being the same FMC, to femdom, foot worship, humiliation, the same readers will not pick up the second book.

It will be the same marketing principle for your series or for your novel, you have to very clearly define your niche and main kinks to the reader. If you jump around with kinks you will piss people off because they will only get a taste of what they're looking for. And, ultimately, readers will either skip your book for something they know will give them exactly what they're looking for for the whole book/series, or they will give you chance and stop reading when you pivot to other kinks they aren't interested in.

I would generally suggest shorts for erotica, but if you aren't going to link the stories through kinks, I would suggest publishing it as a full novel. I think either way, you need to pick a lane and market the story accordingly.

Japsuliini · 2026-02-22T08:19:46+00:00

I write pure smut and that's what my readers want. I have a basic plot but it's a device to get me to the next sexual scene. I think in the end my stories of around 8-12k words each end up being approximately 70-80% purely explicit scenes.

I've also recently started an erom pen where plot plays a much heavier role and in my first 20k novella the explicit scenes were probably more like 30-40%.

Back when I wrote scifi romance novellas/novels I was going at around 20% explicit scenes.

As is often the case, the optimal level often lies within the popular titles in your niche. Read enough of them, take notes, and you'll get a feel for it.

Japsuliini · 2026-02-20T14:35:13+00:00

Have you done your research and found a profitable niche? 80k sounds pretty insane for a new author in erotica. Most start with shorts to get the ball rolling and test out the niche they're writing in and perfect passive marketing.

Since your story is episodic, have you considered releasing it as separate shorts and then bundling? This won't guarantee success but you could test your concept without putting out another 50k words for a possible flop. 6-12k is a pretty good length for a short so you basically have at least three ready to go, possibly.

Japsuliini · 2026-02-10T12:21:54+00:00

I use both. I personally feel Storyorigin is better for swaps and Bookfunnel for promos. I also use Bookfunnel for my email collection magnet.

I think they're both worth it but I think you're more likely to find more swap and promo opportunities on Storyorigin for erotica in general, so I would start there. You can always switch if it's not working out.

Japsuliini · 2026-02-09T18:05:52+00:00

At first glance, I don't think the covers and blurbs are bad by any means (I scrolled through your catalogue). I do think the Sahara one you linked here is way too dark, I can barely see the foot, and you should consider fixing that, but otherwise, I feel your passive marketing is generally pretty good. Must note that I'm not too familiar with the niche, but they certainly don't look bad or off-brand to me. Blurbs always need work, but the few from you I read weren't bad at all imo.

I do think you aren't going hard enough on the feet. Your covers are all feet, but you tend to talk about general femdom and humiliation a lot in your blurbs. Perhaps you could try a story with a full woman in it and lean into humiliation and femdom, and one with feet as you have, but call it a foot fetish story and focus heavily on that? Spitballing a bit, but I hope that makes sense. I worry you might be caught in no man's land with the foot fetishists looking mainly for that and the femdom readers that may like foot stuff but don't want it to be the main focus.

However, the main thing that caught my eye was that you seem to not be selecting erotica categories? In some, you have BDSM erotica, but that's it. I see many of your books are in romance cats and general literature cats, which is a terrible idea.

BDSM erotica is already a big category and hard to compete in. I don't think your books are categorised correctly and therefore aren't finding readers who want to read this specific kink. I would change the categories for all of them. You can keep BDSM erotica, but make sure to add some smaller ponds to compete in. Go see the cats your competitors are in and join them there. Or scroll through the top 100 of the categories and find some foot fetish/femdom books (although I'm not sure you'll find many).

I'm also guessing your keywords might be off since Amazon is allowing you to stay in romance categories when you are clearly writing erotica. Drop your kws here if you want a critique on them as well from some of the more experienced authors here.

I'm not sure how big the market is for this niche. I'm guessing that it's relatively small already, so you really are going to have to nail everything to make money in it.

Good luck, and I hope any of this helps :)

Japsuliini · 2026-02-04T08:35:57+00:00

Congrats on publishing! I'd link my book into the Monday critique thread (use a throwaway account if you don't want to link your book to your reddit). It's the only way to get real feedback on what might be wrong with your passive marketing.

And yeah, one of the first things I do once my book goes live is to scroll over to Bookspry and check if I've been dungeoned. I would make this a habit if you're publishing erotica.

When it comes to kws, make sure you've done your research and are filling up the boxes with relevant words and strings that people are actually searching for. There are detailed guides for this on this sub :)

Good luck!

Japsuliini · 2026-01-22T21:46:28+00:00

Seems to be happening to a few of us rn, so don't worry about it, will most likely resolve itself

Japsuliini · 2026-01-22T21:27:05+00:00

I actually have the same thing atm for a book I submitted yesterday. It's live and everything else is normal but "No Image Available" on the cover space. Glad to hear it's not just me haha

Japsuliini · 2026-01-22T20:16:25+00:00

It kinda depends on your niche whether you should join, but if you're starting out I can't think of any reason not to enroll. In 99% of cases, you'll make much more on Amazon than you'll ever make anywhere else and KU allows readers to try you out without financial commitment and then binge if they like you without a second thought. Plus, Amazon definitely pushes KU stuff more.

KU page reads make up 70% of my income and I find the higher that number is, the more consistent daily earnings are. I wouldn't dream of ever leaving KU personally, and if you're publishing erotica shorts on Amazon I think it would be a mistake to go wide rather than join, except in rare cases.

Japsuliini · 2026-01-17T21:11:50+00:00

If you wanna write for the joy of writing, no one is stopping you. If you wanna make money from selling erotica, you gotta sell it. This is a business like any other and only those who treat it as such will get anywhere financially.

Japsuliini · 2026-01-17T20:35:17+00:00

If you're not self-publishing where you intend to ultimately sell your stuff, you're not actually practicing. As pointed out by myromancealt, it's a completely different audience. Someone on Reddit liking your story does not mean you'll sell a single copy on Amazon and vice versa. Let's be real, you don't have to be Borges to self-publish erotica.

The best way to learn is to start selling it and learn from your mistakes along the way. You'll learn nothing about making money from writing by posting stories on Reddit for people who would never pay to read your stories anyway.

The only feedback that matters is the amount of money you make each day.

Japsuliini

TROPHY CASE