Legal Setup

[Erotica Jane]

Originally Posted by ecchi

A couple of other points I did not mention the other day:

Firstly: Another advantage of Smashwords is that they sort out an ISBN for you. I had never bothered with this before, but I have since discovered that some online booksellers won't touch your book without an ISBIN, and I do get a few sales from them, even for the erotica (in fact more for the erotica than the mainstream stuff). Plus, you kind of feel like a "real" author once you get an ISBN.

Secondly: You are going to find getting affiliates an uphill struggle. You will note that JR said about me "....with all of his around here." This is because I never miss an opportunity to mention my affiliate program, so everyone here knows about it. But if you look through their sites you can work out which are my adverts by the fact that they are not there. As far as I am aware, only one member of this board has ever used my affiliate program. And even then it was the one for the books I publish for other people, not my own books!

I did wonder if the reason was simply that there is a long time member of this board, who has been here longer than me and is a personal friend of several members, who hates me and used to troll my posts. It may be that being his friend most people listen to him and avoid my program. However I think it goes deeper than that because:

I have also mentioned, several times, how I make the most money on my adult free sites. I don't quote sponsors with ref code, so I don't benefit from this advice, I simply mentioned (on several occasions) how I make more money from non-adult products than adult products. However, again as far as I am aware, no one has taken that advice. They prefer to continue to only try to sell paysites, a model which is dieing on it's arse due to the amount of free porn out there. In other words, they won't try something new, they just bury their head in the sand and mumble "the old ways worked last century, and one day they will work again." Getting existing webmasters to sign up for your affiliate program will be difficult! You may want to consider other avenues for affiliates. (For example I am currently testing pushing my program to Facebook and Twitter users as a way of monetising their streams. It is too early to say if this is working, but you need to think of things like that if you want it to succeed.)

I'll be going with Smashwords, too, and before I lay down a few ideas about my plan, I must first say: thank you so much for all of your kind help. I'm no stranger to IM, mainstream, have frequented many boards, and for many years, and to receive such extensive and professional assistance - right off the bat, having just joined the board - is an unexpected and sincere delight. I do hope you'll stay in touch (message me for email address, if you like); it'll give me a chance to return the favour. Speaking of which: I love your setup, will most assuredly be promoting your works, too, the minute I'm a little more organized in adult.

Okay. Original plan first.

How does one potentially make a killing by writing and publishing erotica? Well, few Cliff Notes:

- Investigate genres;
- Designate a genre open to market penetration;
- Write / outsource a novel / collection to satisfy demand;
- Associate the same pen name with each work in that genre;
- Concentrate on series novels;
- Use the Amazon KDP platform;
- Set price to $0.00 initially;
- Submit to free e-book locations;
- Boost interest from promotional platforms;
- Thus, generate engagement, ratings, reviews;
- Set price to what the market can tolerate for maximised profits;
- Take action on your marketing plan.

Cliff Notes, many aspects left out, but essentially a solid plan; and followed, rinse, repeat, for a decent length of time, it should yield very stable income results. However.

However, this is the problem with KDP, and Smashwords, and every other similar ebook publishing and syndication outfit: the grossly long waiting period to receive your royalties.

And that problem requires a solution.

This was mine:

- Purchase a relevant keyword domain;
- Develop a professional website (Wordpress CMS);
- Add a growing collection of free genre-erotica;
- Flash, Short, Novella, Novel;
- PDF downloads;
- Infuse with SEO articles for long-tails (blog);
- Social media integration;
- Above, backed up by growing relevant social followings;
- Encourage user-submitted original content;
- Blog posts, flash, shorts, novellas, novels;
- Monetize with CPA offers

The obvious advantage to the above system being this: no waiting around for annoying-ass payout periods, that often amount to us drumming our fingers for 3 months or more. CPA networks tend to have payout periods that, as you know, range from 7 days to 60 days, tops, but already being a member of many CPA networks, including those that pay each week, I could cut down the waiting period of KDP and Smashwords by almost 1200%.

Time for another however.

The above system is a great one, in theory, and backed up by a tried and tested business model: sharing free ebooks in return for traffic growth, a component of which would be viral.

However.

Where Greenguy is literally green; I am green in this sense: the adult industry. I wouldn't know where to begin sorting out the legal side of the plan above. It requires me to organize so many legal areas that are beyond my knowledge and my budget. Which leaves me with Smashwords or KDP, and I'm leaning more in the direction of the former. Neither of which are ideal, and neither, I think, will earn me as much as the original plan might have done, but - I'm obviously intent on doing everything 100% legally, and KDP or Smashwords would seem to be the best route to doing so. For me. Right now.

Once again - I can't thank you enough, Ecchi. I think it's terrific that we both appear to have a similar model, or a similar model in mind in my case; so pleased I found this board, and received your very kind and very helpful advice. It goes without saying:

[Greenguy]

Originally Posted by ecchi

Ooops, I owe you an apology....

I probably should have said I only read the 1st paragraph of the thread

Originally Posted by Erotica Jane

(I really want to use a certain smilie on the right there, and with it, a reference to a scene in Wayne's World, but cool, Jane, be cool, LOL.)

[JAI-LING]

This is a great thread. Learned a lot. Welcome to the board, btw, Jane.
Wishing you all the best here. Great group of rabble rousers and old geezers like me here.

[Erotica Jane]

Originally Posted by Greenguy

That would be it, LOL.

Thank goodness the producers didn't take my suggestion and go with the third installment, Wayne's A Woman, where he gets a sex change and does this instead:



Double:

!!

Originally Posted by JAI-LING

This is a great thread. Learned a lot. Welcome to the board, btw, Jane.
Wishing you all the best here. Great group of rabble rousers and old geezers like me here.

Thank you! This board rocks. Just the right mix of naughtiness and knowledge; two of my favourite things!!

[ecchi]

Originally Posted by Erotica Jane

Which leaves me with Smashwords or KDP

That does not have to be "or", you can publish on both (I've not done so, simply because I've had a few problems with their system, but most Smashwords authors also publish on Amazon, Smashwords even encourage it). However do note that KDP will give you the option of using them exclusively, avoid that. Although they make it sound like a good idea, the only people I know who are satisfied with this service are people who think of Amazon as "God", and are flattered by the fact that Amazon sell their book. Once you go "exclusive" you are killing all other markets, so effectively by offering you an exclusive deal they are offering you the opportunity to make less money!

Also, if you are worried about the long lead time before you get any money, be sure to ask Smashwords for their letter to send to US IRS as soon as you sign up. I did not do this until I had money owing, and it takes a bloody long time to get done. Best to do it so that it coincides with the first three months, rather than add months on top of that!