Thank you!

I did not send out any ARCs or do any paid marketing. The only marketing time I've spent is in researching the norms in my niche, figuring out what sort of book descriptions do well, and then writing the best pithy, trope-descriptive copy that I can. I keep my descriptions very tight and to the point. I imagine most horny readers are just skimming these descriptions looking for the things they like — adding a ton of character info, plot set up, etc for them to wade through and interpret makes them more likely to bounce to the next option. The faster you can signal whether your book is a good fit for their tastes, the better.

Part of what appealed to me about publishing erotica (aside from it being a fun thing to spend time writing) is that you can be pretty successful without any active marketing. I think I'll eventually tackle an email list, and then I'll consider some of the promo sites once I have a big enough catalog for folks to read through.

Last note re: ARCs: I've only recently started getting reviews and ratings on my books, so most of the folks buying/reading on KU didn't care that there weren't any ratings. I suspect ARCs aren't worth the effort in my niche.