Looking back after my attendance at the Erotic Authors Association inaugural convention, several things became apparent to me. First off, the long time authors (hereby referred to as the Old Guard) started out with the desire and drive to write just like the new guard does but after time, changes must occur in how they proceed.
The new guard is driven by desire to write and make money, real money. And as Jean Marie Stine posted on WriteSEX, Erotica (and erotic romance) are the top selling genres in the e-book format. For those of us writing in either or both of these genres, this is great news. The problem comes when new publishers are constantly opening their doors, older publishers are dying off OR taking crap for submissions and hoping to polish them. Then your competition becomes stiff. And what we're left with is the trouble some readers (primarily your undeveloped audience) don't know about quality. Meaning, some authors just suck and can't be fixed or edited to a point of publication but some publishers still put out their work anyway, so you're stuck having to compete against them, lose potential sales and wonder what next to do.
The answer comes from the Old Guard lessons, combined with new guard marketing techniques. First things first. This is erotica so we have a built in audience. Stats at Amazon back that up. Second, this is writing, so it must be treated like a business. You are your own boss. This isn't that hard for most career authors becuase they already set schedules to write, edit, promote, email, and if there is time, sleep and eat. The extension comes from the business part.
Do you have a plan for your career? Are you looking at your career as being solely an author? Or, like me, are you an author that caters to a certain audience (erotic romance in all sub genres) AND caters to being the Author Expert via WriteSEX, panels geared towards WRITERS at conventions as well as being the focus of panels geared towards READERS at the same conventions?
Before I came onboard officially to Sizzler Editions, Jean Marie and M. Christian had a chance to meet and talk and lo and behold, she convinced him to work for Sizzler. Chris is a well known master of the literary erotic word with a good past behind him, but his career had petered out slightly, needing a kick somehow to resurrect it. I can only speculate but I imagine personal problems were the culprit. They often are for numerous writers.
Having worked with him for WriteSEX I learned a few things. While I'm old guard to most of you, he's even older guard than I am, if only by slightly a few years. He's worked with some big names in the business and had done his time to get where he was before his career was interrupted, but the VERY MOST IMPORTANT THING I've learned about him is that he's a team player. Even in his business focus, for both Sizzler Editions, WriteSEX and his career, he's got a plan. He treats his writing like a business that will make him a profit.
Let's scale back a bit and take another author (I frequently pick on) of mine. Margie Church. She's only been writing what, two years maybe? I believe she's over at Noble Romance but she also released her BDSM romance The 18th Floor through my Sizzler Intoxication line. She's done her best to learn the SEO stuff, give her career the boost it needs and treat her writing like a business from the start. While no one can predict the future, especially in this business, I believe she'll go far.
So, while we're going to sex up this blog a bit, once I take over and officially launch the erotica corner (or whatever Tina has in mind for a name) it's business. The difference is that we all get to come to the blog wearing our hottest lingerie, lower the lights a bit and talk about writing smut like grown adults who aren't afraid of making money writing sex.
It's a lot of work but then again what's the adage? Something doing is worth doing well.
Buy Light and Shadow - a Total E-bound Release - Will Stefan get Katalin's submission and heartor will his business mindset cause more problems?
Sensualities - An Erotic Collection for all
I prefer pornography that is written to pornography that is visual. And you're right...there's a lot of bad writing out there, especially in the erotica books. Writing erotica well takes a lot of talent and skill. It's not just about detailing what goes where...not by a long shot.
ReplyDeleteSascha, thanks for another intelligent post :o)
ReplyDeleteAnd you can call your erotica feature what you will :D
Thanks Michael, it's NOT an easy gig. Writing is a skill that can be learned but it's also a Craft some of us are born naturally with. Regardless of whether you have the gift or not, the desire to write is important but looking at the monetary aspect makes a difference in HOW you write. I'll be the first one to say "I'm a hack writer" because I write what sells. I have the luck of being able to turn stories and ideas about things I enjoy and themes I want to work with into money making stories, but if I couldn't or didn't, I'd have a very difficult career.
ReplyDeleteI consider myself a new author. Even though age-wise you'd probably put me into the old guard. But my desire is not to write to make money. My desire is to write for the joy it brings me and my desire (here's why I'd put myself into the "new" category) to use the abundance of technology we didn't have even fifteen years ago when I started, to connect with new and different audiences. Yes, making money from your writing is a nice goal but don't let it become the focus. Keep feeding what started you writing in the first place--the emotions it brought and then everything else will fall into place.
ReplyDelete~Georgia Jackson
If you're a career author it IS the focus. The line blurs a lot and some of us do things we're not always proud of but for those of us who have no alternative to any other industry, this is our passion.
ReplyDeleteIf you're a hobbyist, why not get paid, and get paid well for your passion?
The difference when a dollar amount is attached to a book or story is pretty huge actually. The artsy language may disappear, leaving the story in a state the author may not intend, OR something else of greater beauty may come out. Money and art are funny like that but if you don't need the income from writing, what's it matter, really?
Oh, what I also neglected to mention is that there are people that can take the guesswork out of writing and let you write with more abandon than someone like me. As previously stated, I take a hardline business stance on my job and passion.
ReplyDeleteYou have to decide ultimately what do you want out of your writing. Is it a hobby, or a career? If it's a hobby you can drop it, but if you can't drop it and you get the junkie shakes (or in my case I actually get MORE violent) when you can't write, the answer is clear.
Excellent!
ReplyDeleteIn this climate, we need to hear more about authors who take writing as a career.
Sascha, I had a look through your websites--I see you are now offering a class online. It would be perfect for Writers Digest. Pitch it to them.