What's the best way to get my erotic stories published?

I figure there's a big market for it nowadays, particularly with "Fifty Shades of Grey" hitting big. I have a lot of stories, and have submitted a few to an online erotic fiction site. They've all gotten great reviews.

• Lesbian, gay, or straight?

• I don't think there's much of a market for paid erotica, with all the free stuff online. "Grey" is an exception. Twenty billion fan-fiction stories are posted online, and one made some real money for the writer.

• The stories are actually gay erotic fiction, not fanfiction like "50 Shades..." Although I am in the midst of writing a Beecher/Keller "Oz" fanfic story.

  OP

• I thought this was a comedy post before I clicked on it...

• [quote]I don't think there's much of a market for paid erotica, with all the free stuff online. You would be wrong. There are many authors who make steady income selling erotica. There is a customer base (mainly women) that appreciates well written quality erotic fiction. Here is a reddit thread done by someone who made the decision to start publishing erotic fiction. The answers she gave might be helpful for you OP.

  http://www.reddit.com/comments/115nz4/c6jjk7w/%3Fsort%3Dbest

• Become the weekend sex slave of the guy who publishes porn, don't know who they are but I'm sure you'd have your pick, the question is, are you cute enough or have something they want besides your porn.....

  anon

• Oh shit are we inundated with fat girls again? PLEASE leave!

• LOL I am a cute male in my mid-thirties. And thanks, R5.

  OP

• Make it into an Ebook and then sell it on Amazon and Barnes&Noble

• Replies in this thread about a great deal of erotic fiction (especially fan-fiction) being available for free online is true, but that doesn't mean there isn't a market opportunity in publication. I don't know if it has to be especially well-written by literary standards (I mean, no one's calling Fifty Shades or even Twilight a towering masterpiece), but it does have to hit all the right buttons, so to speak. OP have you looked into self-publishing on sites like Amazon? I get the sense digital self-publication is significantly cheaper, with lower barriers to entry, though at the same time that means you have to do a lot of the publishers' work (promotion and marketing being the main one) yourself. No matter how well-written your stories are you have to develop a brand and a following, promote your work via word-of-mouth in targeted reading communities, etc.

• Oh please, R8. No one buying it. You write fat girl.

• Thanks for the advice, R10!

  OP

• [quote] Cough, cough

  R9

• You too, R9!

  OP

• Thanks OP

  R9

• Use your real name and picture, OP. There is a very strong market for slash erotica written by men. Women will buy your stuff because they'll assume it is more authentic. At present, 99% of slash is written by women (a lot of it horrible). Several authors use ambiguous pen names or initials to obscure the fact that they are female.

• I'm sure the majority of m/m slash is written by women, but not 99%. I recall reading an interview with Annie Proulx where she said that after Brokeback Mountain was made into a movie, she received thousands of letters from gay men who'd written alternate endings, sequels, and tons and tons of sex scenes. She was basically saying "I'm touched that this story means so much to you, but please stop sending me your badly written slash fanfic." lol

• Good ides, R16. I've had responses from men and women on the erotic fiction website I've submitted to. I've gotten everything from "Great story! Can't wait to read more!" to one guy telling me he was reading one of my stories at work, and had to stop because he got a hard-on.

• That's "Good idea"...

  OP

• Holy shit you are SUCH a woman, op! No fucking way you have balls, there is just no fucking way. So just admit it and let your sisters here tell you how great you are and creative and all that other bullshit you tuna-fish do for each other.

• Self-publishing or publishing digitally through online outlets like amazon or ellora's cave are options. I know of women who make good livings doing this. Then there are yaoi writers, like Alex Woolfson, who publish by donation. That is, they publish a page of yaoi online per X dollars of donations sent. Woolfson has also worked through kickstarter and raised over $20,000 in one month to start the process of publishing a book. Don't expect to begin your career through kickstarter, though. Woolfson has a huge following and a known, high-quality product. Expect to write to a largely female audience. If you can do this well, you can make shitloads of money. Straight women love this stuff. They're also a larger audience than gay men, so you'd be a fool to ignore marketing yourself to them.

• I am most certainly a man, R20, but you are quite amusing. Thanks R21. Women have given me great feedback on my stories as well. I was shocked that they were that into stories of two men fucking.

• Peterortica's been done.

  Mr.%20Peuterschmidt

• Men read erotic fiction? I thought only fangurls and fraus did that. Can't you just look at porn?

• Chick thread.

• Ever heard of Nifty.org, r24?

• Who pays for porn? What a silly idea.

  anyone%20under%2025

• Just write some bad fanfic based on a popular movie series that has lots of delusional, obsessed fangurls. Then you'll be rich like me!

  E.L. James

• To coin the phrase, Just Do It.

  http://tombacchus.blogspot.com/2012/10/cocksucking-dick-snorting-hedonistic.html

  Tom%20B.

• R24, OP never said he reads erotic fiction or that he will be targeting a gay male audience. He's writing it to exploit a growing trend and get rich. Good for him. And yes, women WILL pay to purchase the good stuff. I have followed several amazing authors and purchased their work. Writers start off posting for free at on-line forums and the good ones quickly build a following. The bad ones are "politely" ignored. They don't get negative feedback, they just don't get any. But good writers get gushing praise and their work is shared--going viral within several fanfiction communities. There is always a lot of excitement in the discovery of a new author who can actually write. It's like finding a needle in a haystack--that's how much bad shit is out there. Anyway, once you build a fanbase, it's time to publish and charge a fee for your work. The good authors are like drug dealers, giving you a "taste" of their latest work (a chapter or two) and then charging a fee to purchase the rest.

  Discerning%20slash%20fan

• That sounds great R30. Like I said, I've gotten wonderful comments from people on the erotic fiction site I submitted some of my stories to, and it's totally encouraging. Most of all, I love writing erotic stories because it's fun. I think I'm going to go for it.

  OP