When I upload my eBooks to Amazon Kindle, one of the first things I do is enroll them in KDP Select. This allows me to give some away free on 5 days each period of 90 days. This is a fantastic feature, because it increases readership of my novels tenfold, and the spin-off is many more sales for hard cash of my other novels.
Naturally, I let as many people know as possible, through Twitter, Facebook, and my mailing lists, but I still needed more. That is when I found the Author Marketing Club.
They feature FREE KINDLE eBooks every day, by sending out an e-mail to thousands of readers, inviting them to visit their Website and select the novels they wish to download for no outlay.
I recommend that you learn more about this and visit their Website at: AuthorMarketingClub.com
They also have many features and free downloads for members, one of which is a link to other Websites offering to advertise your free Kindle days…so go there now!
I just can’t believe how much improvement modern covers have made to the sales of my books on Amazon Kindle. I’m a long way from being a bestseller, although it is amazing just how many copies are downloaded when I offer them free! The results speak for themselves:
Sales have almost doubled with new covers!
What I tried to do earlier was match the cover to the plot, but now I learn it is better to match the cover to the genre. This is what first attracts the reading public to a novel. After that, if you can add part of the plot to the cover, all well and good, if not there is always your summary blurb to drag them inside the book.
The “Click to Look Inside” feature on Kindle is really good, because it allow readers to not only see how your story begins, but they can actually read a chapter or two and get the feel for your writing. When this appeals to them, a sale usually happens.
All my novels are priced at less than a Dollar, or a Pound, Euro etc., because I want to get readers this year. I figure the more readers I get, the more followers I’ll have in the future.
You can check out the new covers at the following link:
Please let me know what you think.
For years I earned a living writing business articles and features for the media, because that was my job and I was very good at it. A few years ago I turned my expertise at writing for business into writing erotic-fiction, and was surprised at the results.
It was in 2004 when I first launched Her Gift Of Love
The Website made just enough sales to pay for a great night out about once a month, but it was obvious from the start it would never provide a living. Discouraged, the writing for my second novel hit a brick wall. The problem was that in 2004 whatever social media was available was aimed at business connections, not erotic romances!
Then new Websites selling eBooks like Cyberread, Mobipocket and others began to appear, and publishing the book online with them began to show results. Encouraged, I rushed my second novel, Love Is On The Rocks
Encouraged, I started more novels just as the eBook Readers started to appear and become popular. When Kindle launched in the UK, I decided to add my old and new novels to their directory. This included Her Fall From Grace which has a very steamy first chapter.
Over the next few months, the trickle of royalty payments developed into a stream, but were still a long way from becoming a river, so the order for the new Porsche had to be put on hold. It was then I read an article by Joe Konrath, who in January of 2012 earned over $100,000 in just 3-weeks for self-publishing eBooks on Amazon’s Kindle platform.
Click here to read his article and get motivated!
You must read that article, and many others he’s published about writing and self-publishing your novels. The man is a hero, and tells you just the way it is, with none of the BS you get from other so-called writers who publish books on how they sold a million eBooks, but if you read their slim book, it contains nothing you didn’t already know.
Joe Konrath, on the other hand wrote and published a comprehensive 1100-page manual on the subject: The Newbie’s Guide to Publishing (Everything A Writer Needs To Know)
You should read that eBook from cover to cover, and next year this time we’ll all be millionaires!
Erotic Romance and Erotic Literature are taken to be acceptable writing with passages that arouse the mind of the reader, while pornography is seen to be smutty sex scenes to arouse the body, according the the volume of pages on the subject available on the Internet.
Writers, publishers, and readers see each of these two genres as distinct from the other.
- Erotica has artistic merit, while pornography has none
- Erotica has charm and grace, while pornography is uncouth
- Erotica is a high class of literature, while pornography is low class writing
- Erotica is within the law, while pornography is often censored, or outlawed
- Erotica may enlighten and enrich the reader, while pornography can degrade
In summary, the consensus of online opinion appears to be that erotica is literature, but pornography is rubbish.
There is a school of thought, however, that considers there is no rational, or objective difference between erotica and pornography. The vast majority tend to say it is a subjective matter, and each reader will have varying perception about a passage of writing, and decide whether it is erotica or pornography.
When discussing the topic with somebody they often say something like, “Oh yes, I read erotica and find it exciting and arousing, but pornography is for perverts looking for a quick thrill.”
With the plethora of self-published writers uploading their erotic fiction to Websites like Amazon Kindle, Sony, Apple, Barnes & Noble, etc., the invisible distinction between the two sexual literature genres is blurring to the point where people are beginning to say, “Does it matter?”
My personal opinion is that erotica must have a substantial plot than encourages the reader to continue turning the page…
What is your opinion?
In my novels, I like to include considerable amounts of narrative and description to carry the plot forward. I also feel it necessary to ‘set the scene’ and let the reader get a feel for the story, before getting to the more steamy parts. Each one of my novels is a complete story, and not simply a succession of sexual activities.
It would appear, from looking at my sales on Amazon Kindle, many if not most readers of erotica fiction are more interested in those steamy parts of the story, rather than the actual plot. It is an experience similar to those modern films that are built around action and have very little plot to substantiate the story.
There is not doubt that the cover you select for your novel is important, and can have an impact on a person’s decision regarding the book. If the cover does not intrigue them, they’re unlikely to read what the book is about. The second most important feature in presenting a novel for sale is your summary of the plot. The keywords that have brought the viewer to your novel in Amazon must be linked to what you write about in your summary.
If your keywords include ‘lust, femdom, erotica, etc’ it is weakening your pitch to the reader to start off in your summary by saying that the novel is a love-story between Jack and his school girlfriend Joan. You need to get right to the meaty parts of your book in the first sentence.
The final and perhaps most important point of all, is that if your first chapter of an erotic romance can be read online, to give the visitor an idea of your writing and your story, then the chapter needs to get right into action. I have posted 4 novels on Amazon, and only 1 has a sexy first chapter. Guess which novel outsells the other combined sales of the other three novels.
I would like to know what you think…
It is great to see an erotic novel topping the New York Times bestseller list for eBooks. Fifty Shades Of Grey is also at the top of the charts at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
This massive novel, at over 1000 pages, has also started a fad in the USA for silver-grey ties, as worn by the protagonist, Christian Grey, in the book.
The question I must ask about this fad, is whether the wives purchasing the ties for their partners feel they are in bondage to him! Perhaps they just enjoy sadism and masochism, and wish to get involved in it at home.
The author, Ms. E L James is reported to be well-pleased with the sales of more than 100,000 in Kindle alone, and I can believe it – I’m sure we’d all be pleased to bank that royalty cheque
Check it out here:
I start by creating two main characters, usually of either sex, and then putting them in an interesting situation. This last point is most important, because if they’re in a mundane lifestyle, the story is going nowhere, fast.
Once the couple start interacting, the fun begins, because I just let them get on with it. The characters actually come to life and what they say and do next decides how the story will continue.
This doesn’t mean that the story rambles, because one soon loses readers that way. What it does mean is that as the writer I am not sure what each character is going to say or do next, although I may have an ultimate objective knocking around. Thus, the characters create the route through the forest of plots and sub-plots, while I gently guide them towards the climax.
Does this work?
Well, 85% of my readers come back for all my novels, so something is working. Check it out for yourself at my publisher’s Website.
rilbury 