What's gone wrong with porn?

[ecchi]

Originally Posted by Bill

I'm curious ecchi, who do you figure buys those ebook things?

Nowadays all the accounting is done for me by a third party (A1 Adult eBooks) and I have no buyer statics other than which books sell, quantity of sales and what website makes the sales (which, thinking about it, is a bad thing). But when I started out selling eBooks I was selling them on eBay so had better feedback. Back then the majority of customers were men, however I did also get a reasonable number of women customers and a few couples. I never took any age demographics.

Originally Posted by Bill

I think of erotica as being mainly for a female buyer.

Yeah, but eBooks don't have to just be "erotica", they can (and mostly are) hardcore porn. Most of the books I sell are bondage. This is because I discovered way back in the 1990's that bondage sells better than "vanilla" porn, a hell of a lot better. For example, I convinced one of the authors whose bondage work I publish to do a non-bondage teen porn book. He has never forgiven me for doing so. He makes good money from the bondage stuff but feels that the time he spent writing the teen porn book would have made him more money if he had got a part time job flipping burgers for McDonald's instead!

However that said, some women do like bondage too. When I was selling via eBay I had a reasonable number of regular women customers for the bondage stuff. And the writers whose bondage work I publish include two women and a group of co-authors who include one woman in their group. Also the most sadistic person I ever knew was a woman. She was a lesbian, and way back when I was younger and more innocent she shocked me by telling me that although she preferred women-on-women porn, she was also turned on by man-on-woman porn provided the woman was being raped.

[Bill]

a woman after my own tastes, lol.

I find myself wondering why surfers would buy ebooks rather than join a paysite with stories.

The recurring thing maybe, avoiding an unknown future cost, preferring a fixed cost for the expectation of a certain experience.

In bizop, ebooks were all the rage - probably still are.

[ecchi]

Originally Posted by Bill

I find myself wondering why surfers would buy ebooks rather than join a paysite with stories.

EBooks sell in the same way real books sell. If you were after a particular Harry Potter or James Bond book, you would buy that book (either hard copy or Kindle), you would not go and join a website publishing Witchcraft or Spy stories. Same with eBooks. If someone sees an ad such as the one below and likes the book they buy that book, they don't go and join a website full of bondage fiction.

Originally Posted by bxy

Ecchi, Bee-Tokens parent sight is Bondage Tokens, let me highly recommend them to you. Highly Recommend! I do seriously think you would find another income with them.

Thanks, but last time they looked they wanted 50% to process each payment and they did not have facilities for running an affiliate scheme. 50% is ridiculous and not having an affiliate option is also a deal breaker.

(Screen grab of an example of an eBook ad - reading it through reminds me what a hack I am!)

[housekeeper]

Originally Posted by ecchi

Most of the books I sell are bondage. This is because I discovered way back in the 1990's that bondage sells better than "vanilla" porn, a hell of a lot better. For example, I convinced one of the authors whose bondage work I publish to do a non-bondage teen porn.

Fans of domination, bondage, are loyal, sub niche categories do very well.

Is it safe to say the popularity of ebooks can be linked to the rise of tablets and smart phones?

[ecchi]

Originally Posted by housekeeper

Is it safe to say the popularity of ebooks can be linked to the rise of tablets and smart phones?

I have not noticed any improvement, however that may be because the "economic downturn" is counteracting it, and in reality my sales both improved as tablets/smart phones became popular and at the same time decreased because people were economising on luxury items like porn books, so stayed about the same.