Angie, glancing at her own multiple folders of links, plus her more recent del.icio.us account

The trick is convincing them that there are m/m stories worth paying for when they're used to getting all they can read for free. [wry smile]

Why, Angie, whatever do you mean? *blinks innocently* It’s not as if I have a gigantic folder on my harddrive filled with fanfic links or anything…. *g*

Angie

Ie. when menage slowed, M/f/f was introduced. When that started to flag, there came M/M/F, (but the M/M part was light) and when that started to flag it went to M/M/F., heavy on the M/M. And when that started to flag, straight M/M. And when that starts to flag there will be… something else if this pattern is pursued.

Or… the publishers were resisting going straight to m/m where there is, IMO, a strong, fanatic readership. Just have to watch out for the m/m market getting glutted with crap (okay, I think the glutting started about 6 months ago).

Actually, the reason may very well be a function of epublishing’s ability to turn on a dime. Used to be in the days of rapid growth that if the customer service got multiple requests for a certain story types, the call would go out for say, Menage, M/F/M, BDSM, Vampire, M/M. Whatever it was. Many authors would submit stories written to those requests and they would be published. This could all happen within a couple months. If they sold well, more get submitted and published. Think of it as a big wave gaining momentum. Many of the initial sales would be hefty because of the curiosity factor, but then, if the sales dramatically dropped off, the publisher would say, “no more this and that, We need this now.

FWIW- Not all experiments were successful. M/F/F is a prime example of something requested that had a brief curiosity run, and then the sales were so bad the publisher flat out said no more of that, leaving many authors holding stories with no place to go.

Publishers and authors discovered along the way they could use the curiosity factor to prolong momentum of a sub genre of sexual preference. If the sales start to drag, the publisher might call for, or authors might decide to add something more to the mix. . Ie. when menage slowed, M/f/f was introduced. When that started to flag, there came M/M/F, (but the M/M part was light) and when that started to flag it went to M/M/F., heavy on the M/M. And when that started to flag, straight M/M. And when that starts to flag there will be… something else if this pattern is pursued.

Short term, I’m assuming this type of marketing worked well. However, I don’t think the model has stood the test of time for the simple reason it was premised on “always something new” to drive sales. In a general business sense, the model relied on the effect of short term titillation rather than a long term growth plan. It also, because of the emphasis, moved the product offered away from the broadest sales points of the market (The customer base the business was built on) to the much smaller fringe points.

I don’t think this was the plan. I think it was an inadvertent side effect of utilizing a dynamic that worked. And while there’s no reason for an epublisher to lose any customer base they currently have, I do expect to see them moving stronger back into the larger market in the near future. I just makes sense that they would. Which means likely more traditional feeling erotic romance for those that like contemporary, historical, comedy, paranormal, etc is probably on the horizon. (my guess because it makes sense) The nice thing about epublishers is that they can move very fast to meet reader requests and they can do it very well at the same time, which should work out happily for everyone, whatever their reading preference.

I can't see where I or anyone else here stated non erotic writers aren't as good though.

No one has that I’ve seen, Lauren. I wasn’t claiming that you or anyone had, honestly. No offense intended.

Writers, like all other product- and service-providers, are at the mercy of market trends. Making money doing what we love means giving the public what it wants. I’m hoping along with a lot of other people that e-book buyers’ tastes will soon start to diversify more. It would be a dream come true, for e-publishing as a whole, if authors could realize the same income from other genres and subgenres that they currently get only (or largely) through hot-hot-hot romance.

If that were to happen, I guarantee there would be an explosion of variety and quality in e-pub offerings!

I said:

Authors build readerships by telling stories people like to read. They might be unexpected stories, but it's not all about the volume and combination of pink parts that counts.

The point is – this business is more than how much sex you put in a book. It’s about building your name, building your readership, growing your reputation. And, it’s also about a lot of luck. What time of year your book comes out. Who publishes it. What other books are out around yours. Your cover. What the weather is like even.

Ebooks are a niche, just like other publishers have niches. What makes someone choose an ebook over something they can buy in a bookstore? Usually it’s about availability of a certain kind of story line. For instance, level of sensuality. Readers can buy regency romances at their local grocery story so it makes sense sales of regency ebooks with lower levels of sensuallity don’t sell as well as ebooks. It’s not a matter of menage werewolves being better than sweet regencies, it’s a matter of what sells to what audience and why.

I can’t see where I or anyone else here stated non erotic writers aren’t as good though. I think sales are market driven. And sometimes not even that, sometimes it’s an idea of what the market wants. That’s a reality. Some really excellent writers get rejected every day while not so excelent ones get contracts. Again, another reality.

But I think that saying that all it takes to sell well is writing a good story is not entirely true. Certainly most authors. me included, think that the stories that they sell are good stories. At least I hope they do. :) I personally do not write, craft-wise. any differently when I’m writing an erotic story than I do when writing something non-erotic. And of the feedback I’ve gotten from readers/reviewers, the majority of the most positive and favorable has come about books that are non-erotic.

And yet my erotic titles far outsell the non. Again, yes, probably at least in part due to the current trend. But I honestly don’t think that it’s because my non-erotic stuff isn’t written as well or isn’t as appealing. (I know no one said that directly.) I think that the readership simply isn’t there at the moment.

I want to voice my opinion, though, because I think that there are many times when an author who writes non-erotic ebooks gets the message that they’re not selling because they’re just not as good a writer as those who do write erotic romance, and I can’t bring myself to accept that as a constant truth.

And each author will have her areas she does well in and others not so much. Anya Bast kicks butt with her fantasy erotics, for instance. Mine? If they’re classified as paranormal they do great, if they’re classified as fantasy, they do well but never come to be my top sellers.

I write erotic and non and I have to say my quickies are not my big sellers. My M/F werewolf with relatively no kink, very story heavy plus novel, Ascension is my biggest seller ever and continues to be. Yes, next in line are two menages with some mild boytouching but really, they’re all novels with a lot of story.

Also, my Chase Brothers series from Samhain are not erotic and they sell really well. I just don’t cotton to erotic = great sales, non erotic doesn’t. Authors build readerships by telling stories people like to read. They might be unexpected stories, but it’s not all about the volume and combination of pink parts that counts.

Still? When I write sex, the sex is part of the story and in some cases, the sex does drive the plot. If I use kink, I use it for a reason. Sex is a really rich plot device.

with a thin plot thrown in

Would Sir care for a mint?
I can’t, I’m stuffed.
But Sir… it’s wafer thin.

What happened to the preview box?

Hey Teddy, that comment was very Monica Jackson-like of you. *g*

Karen, one of these days I am going to make a graphic like the Bevets card on Fark.com… for just for her.

KZ, I think the issue is that many of the die hards, those who used to buy and gobble up every single erotic romance out there… AREN’T. Yes, there are plenty who do, but the number isn’t as big as it used to be, and part of that problem is quality, and for some readers, the lack of choice. Choice as in more than just paranormal, vamps, shifters, M/M, menage… or all of them wrapped up in one, with a thin plot thrown in and little attention paid to characterization, etc. There are plenty of readers dying for more contemps, more comedic romances, more historical.

From some of the grumblings I’ve seen or been told from some erotic romance authors, sales are down.

I’ve heard rumors from trustworthy sources in the know that as many erotic romances aren’t being bought from NYC.

I seen rumblings on sites that a year ago were very ebook friendly that ebooks just aren’t what they used to be…or in some cases, they are exactly what they used to be, not evolving, not improve. Growth, and I’m not talking dollars, is essential. Craft can never stop improving. When it does, readers get bored…or at least, this reader does.

Yes, that hot stuff sells. But erotic romance is a trend. Those who write quality can survive the fall out when the next trend hits. I don’t see erotic romance disappearing, but I do see it leveling…and I think that’s already happening. And after it levels, it will drop off. That is the way a cycle works.

Those who see it coming and prepare for it can avoid being part of the fall out. That’s my thinking of this post, as an author. Staying with, even staying ahead, of the trends would be wise on the author’s part and not just banking on what’s selling today will continue to sell tomorrow, next month, next year.

Regarding plot-thin quickies can make money, my thinking would be that a plot-rich quickie would bring even more~and it wouldn’t be a book that shortchanges the publisher, the author and the reader that shells out the money.

I have a few books completed that NY has passed on. I know there are readers out there that would enjoy them. I ponder, from time to time, giving them to an epublisher to see if they would sell. What holds me back?

Commercial and capitalist as it sounds, it’s that I know they’re not going to make me money. I’ve watched my own figures. When one Quickie written for EC earns more in two weeks than five books that are non-erotic do in a year+ of release? Yeah. That gets depressing and discouraging.

And I do have to say that some of what constitutes good writing is subjective. One person’s keeper is another’s wallbanger. There are books I cannot see the appeal of for the life of me but there are readers that love them. Which brings up what I see as a major strength of epublishing: variety. Epublishers can afford to offer more variety, something for every taste. An ebook can be profitable without selling as many copies as a print book would have to sell to break even.

Really, I think epublishing and print/big NY publishing are very complementary.