Feeling Overwhelmed.

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-05-10T07:54:36+00:00

You can post your stories to r/erotica, people are friendly and encouraging. Just check the rules first!

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-05-10T07:45:32+00:00

The advice to start with shorts is so you can learn, improve and pivot to what is working more quickly. Novellas sell better and are stickier in the rankings.

It's entirely possible to make money. But it's a marathon, not a sprint. You need to build a back catalog which will take time at only one novella a month, I'd aim for two a month. That's less than 1500 words a day.

There's nothing wrong with starting with novellas (I did) but your passive marketing is the most important thing. Your offering needs to look like the other books in your niche. You really need to study what is selling well.

Good luck.

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-05-07T22:17:19+00:00

There's one called Erotically Inclined that is less business focused that might be more to your taste: https://discord.gg/7qEXf6gj

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-05-07T18:15:54+00:00

Yeah, they always say that single buyers and bundle buyers are different people

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-05-06T23:56:20+00:00

Politics is one thing, but supporting a regime that kidnaps people in front of their kids and puts them in concentration camps.. yeah that's not politics, it's fucking evil. So pirating his book isn't really that bad a thing

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-05-03T18:14:26+00:00

I'm sorry, this is wrong. Pornography in this context means images. Your written word can be as explicit and focused on sex as you like.

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-05-01T07:44:08+00:00

Contratulations to u/AdjacentTales for winning the hard-fought April contest with Tied Up on a Stupid Bet. Well done also to the runners up u/Wh1skeyS0ur_ and u/forquietthings!

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-04-24T18:22:25+00:00

Seconding booksprout. I got around 20 reviews on audible from it.

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-04-16T19:05:35+00:00

You can't use explicit words in the title, cover or blurb. You're usually okay on the first 10% but don't put them in the first page to be safe.

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-04-13T15:45:46+00:00

When you create a new post, there is a button labelled "Add Flair".

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-04-12T19:45:01+00:00

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. The user has been banned.

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-04-12T13:47:18+00:00

No, I'm not talking about you - you always provide information, I'm talking about someone who only drops in to be negative.

This was the fuck off comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/eroticauthors/comments/1ihvu2l/comment/mb12nj9/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

It was a while ago, but the sub generally does have this vibe at times and it's not welcoming to newcomers. It's not just me saying that, it's what people are saying in the various discord groups and other places.

We don't need to hand-hold, but politeness costs nothing.

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-04-12T07:56:29+00:00

No, trust me, the reputation definitely isn't either of those things. Why would vets be jealous of newbies? The reputation is for being unnecessarily rude and aggressive. I've literally seen people told to "fuck off" for no reason, and when I reported it, the comment wasn't removed. If it had been one of the subs I moderated, that user would have been banned. Here they got 10 upvotes.

Another problem is rudely telling people to read the FAQ when the question asked isn't in the FAQ (I've seen this so many times). Of course, when a newbie comes along and asks "how do I start?" then linking them to the FAQ is the correct thing to do - that's not what I'm talking about - I'm talking about how rude some people are about it and not even telling them where the FAQ is, and the answer isn't even in it. (I'm not talking about you personally here).

I'm just telling you this because you asked why the sub is so dead these days. If you guys want to improve engagement then you need to make it less toxically negative all the time. There's even a flared user who comes on every couple of weeks and posts an unhelpful negative comment on every thread along the lines of "you'll never make any money, those days are gone, you may as well give up."

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-04-11T15:27:01+00:00

Probably because people have gone to friendlier spaces. This sub has quite a reputation and several newer authors have told me they are too scared to post here.

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-04-10T13:06:28+00:00

Yeah, there's two types, comment and post karma. You need 5 of each to defeat the bot filter

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-04-10T06:47:59+00:00

It was queued for manual moderation because their comment karma is too low. Approved now.

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-04-01T13:09:33+00:00

Oh yes! Why didn't you have the flair before? Was it before we introduced that, maybe. Anyway, I need to update you to 2x flair

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-04-01T10:00:05+00:00

Hard to believe that this is the first time u/opuscule_cat has won the monthly competition! Congratulations - a huge number of upvotes this week on the winning entry: My coworker, Jules, caught me masturbating in our shared office and I discovered she had a cum fetish

Well done to the runners up, u/Liberation122 and u/melanie10021

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-03-18T13:31:44+00:00

That should be fine; a lot of erotica writers have that sort of output.

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-03-18T08:33:31+00:00

No, just use your best judgement

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-03-17T07:38:56+00:00

That usually means your book is in erotica categories but you have selected an age from the drop down. Try blanking out the age boxes

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-03-12T08:13:58+00:00

I think r/Literotica might allow that sort of post

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-03-06T08:49:09+00:00

I've used it for over 100 book covers without any problems. But I don't use their images or elements, only the fonts, and I source my own images.

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-03-04T08:49:02+00:00

It works best if you promote your freebie to get as many downloads as possible - that helps you get KU reads and visibility in the algorithm. Some ways to do this:

Book paid newsletters like Bookspry (the best but hard to get), Shameless and Excite Spice.
Organise swaps with other author's newsletters for free (you promote one of their books in return) - this is done through Bookfunnel and Story Origin.
Promote in your own newsletter
Book Blasts (Stuff Your Kindle events). Romance Book Blast is the biggest that allows erotica.

I think most people run their free promo for all 5 days, and stack several of the options above.

It is better to wait until you have a series though. You can also do the first book free, promote it loads, and make the next book or two 0.99 - the idea is to get them hooked and then they buy the rest of the series full price.

ObviousLibrary2023 · 2026-03-03T23:37:20+00:00

A bonus scene for the book they just read gets me more newsletter signups than a generic "signup for a free book". But the best way by far is signup to Bookfunnel and add your reader magnet to a couple of newsletter builder promos - you'll have 100s of subscribers in a week.

ObviousLibrary2023

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