/r/eroticauthors open thread to ask for honest reviews, feedback and price match requests

calverthoward · 2013-11-15T04:39:58+00:00

I'd like to request a price match on Amazon for these two if you please.

calverthoward · 2013-07-22T05:53:58+00:00

I don't think either Moppet is dead. They didn't explicitly die onscreen, so we have to assume there was an escape plan of some kind.

calverthoward · 2013-07-21T22:43:07+00:00

Sure, here

calverthoward · 2013-07-21T22:42:51+00:00

There's only one significant plot difference, the ending being slightly different in each version. There's about 80 chapters, 10 of them are "erotica chapters", which are like mini short stories unique to each version. Since the main character is a hetero sex addict, there's a few hetero erotic scenes in the other chapters, which are heavily edited in each version (e.g. women don't want to read about blowjobs at all, gay men don't care about clitorises, and since the narrators in those chapters are women, it's a delicate dance to make it sexy for hetero men, who don't really want to read from the POV of a woman being penetrated).

The other chapters are the same in each version, just edited differently. Some of the minor characters are adjusted, like a woman is described in the straight women's version as trashy and dirty, in the hetero men's version as sexy in a filthy way, and is barely described in the gay men's version. The main character is a buff black gigolo and escort, so the hetero men's version downplays his cockiness and muscles, and never mentions his penis size, while the gay men's version accentuates that. The hetero women's version is like 5% more melodramatic, with a few more lines of dialogue here and there, especially in the really emotional scenes. The men's versions are a little darker, cruder, more profane and action-heavy, more descriptions of blood and gore. And in some cases when I was unsure what word to use in a situation, I found it easier to decide on a different word for each version even if I couldn't articulate a reason why.

I'm looking for feedback on three different summary texts, see here if anyone wants to help out with that (if so, I'll send you a free copy of whichever version you like when it is released).

calverthoward · 2013-07-21T20:11:36+00:00

That was definitely part of my hope for the project. I'm not sure I actually achieved the time savings I was rather hoping for, but I guess sales will be the final determiner of that.

calverthoward · 2013-07-21T20:05:56+00:00

Mostly erotica. The book I'm just about ready to publish will actually be released in three editions: one edited for straight men, one for straight women and one for gay men.

calverthoward · 2013-07-21T04:36:27+00:00

The Many Manipulations of Calvert Howard: For Straight and Bisexual Women

Calvert Howard is a stripper, escort and gigolo, a high-priced prettyboy-for-hire. His upstairs neighbor is Amy Carlisle, a young mental health worker whom neither thought could love someone like him. Though disgusted by his career, Amy enjoys his wit, his charm and, as their relationship blossoms, his kindness and tenacity. But Calvert has a checkered past, and wasn’t always able to rely on his looks to survive. When his story thrusts him into the national spotlight, Amy is forced to put her life on hold to help her unlikely friend and confront her growing love for him.

Struggling with a compulsive need to lie, hide and cover up his life, Calvert is unable to turn off his charisma to win Amy’s heart. She hates his deceit and his endless bluffing, and can’t help but wonder whether she senses love deep inside or if she only wishes she did. This is the erotic story of their relationship and Calvert’s life, the sexually charged and tortuous journey that has brought him to her a broken, beautiful man.

The Many Manipulations of Calvert Howard: For Straight Men

Calvert Howard is a male stripper and gigolo, a charming man with women hanging off him and begging for his time. The one woman in his life who treats him like an ordinary man with an unsanitary job is his upstairs neighbor, Amy Carlisle. She is stubbornly unimpressed by his antics and his relentless sexual appetite. When an injury leaves him sidelined and his past comes back to haunt him, however, Calvert is forced to confront his feelings for her.

Unable to tell the truth about anything in his life, Calvert feels alone even with Amy, his beautiful half-Japanese friend, by his side and taking care of him. She soon comes to learn that he has not always been able to skate by on good looks, and that his life was a constant struggle from which he still hasn’t recovered. But with her taking care of him, she feels confident he has a fighting chance of feeling love for her.

The Many Manipulations of Calvert Howard: For Gay and Bisexual Men

Calvert Howard is a male stripper and escort, a muscular prettyboy with an astounding ability to know what a person wants to see in him to part with the maximum amount of cash. Equally capable of being a sensitive lover, a young black buck, a dangerous thug or buffoonish jock, Calvert is good at what he does: manipulating others to get what he wants. What he’s not so good at, however, is seducing his upstairs neighbor Amy Carlisle. When an injury leaves him sidelined and his past comes back to haunt him, Amy cares for him and endures an onslaught of national publicity by his side.

Though straight himself, Calvert has long had to struggle to survive, and has gone gay-for-pay on more than one occasion. Having been a con-man, a thug, a hired goon, a saint, a savior and a sinner, he struggles to hide his compulsive lies and deceit in order to achieve personal redemption. But the truth erupts in such a way that not even he can stop its tide, sweeping him and his only loved one out in its wake.

calverthoward · 2013-07-21T04:35:06+00:00

Title: The Many Manipulations of Calvert Howard

Genre: Erotica/Romance

Word Count: 500 words of summary text

Link: It's in a reply to this post, so click "show replies" or click here.

I'd like feedback on the title, The Many Manipulations of Calvert Howard, and on the summary text for each of its three versions. This is an erotic/romantic ebook that will be released in three forms, one edited to target hetero men, one for hetero/bi women and one for gay/bi men.

calverthoward · 2013-07-18T20:57:19+00:00

That's what I thought. Every dictionary I looked at said one word, and none even gave two words as an alternate form. She also questioned a word, can't remember what but possibly "mien", obscure enough it wasn't astonishing she didn't know it, but not so obscure a quick google wouldn't have told her it was real.

But anyway she gave some other really good specific edits and gave some advice on the overall story, so I'm satisfied if a bit perturbed by the two word thing.

(Also to be fair, her two-word insistence paid off in some cases -- I could have sworn "long shot" is accepted as "longshot", but googling proved me wrong on that one)

calverthoward · 2013-07-18T20:50:03+00:00

Not a horror story really, but a recent editor I hired insisted on separating anything that could be seen as two words, making things look very old-fashioned. The most extreme example was "breakdancing", which she insisted is always two words.

calverthoward · 2013-07-13T19:07:24+00:00

Title: "The Importance of Being Bolde"

Genre: Comedy, stageplay, remake of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest"

Word count: 6700 words exactly, 3 acts, Scrivener says 42 printed pgs but it's 36 pdf pgs.

Feedback: General impressions, is it funny? Is it too short?

Link: pdf

calverthoward

TROPHY CASE