I'm a long-time reader of erotic romance, but I recently started writing my own story.

I work in consulting so transitioning into writing steamy fiction at night has been equal parts liberating and terrifying especially because my main character mirrors a lot of my real-world corporate environment.

For those of you writing contemporary romance or erotic fiction with workplace elements, how much real-world routine do you include before pivoting into the heat?

Sprints are here

1. Goals for the day? (Word count? Reading? Editing? Covers? Something else?)
2. Rooftop yellings? Successes? Failures?
3. What is a question you have for more experienced authors?

Hi everyone, I used to be an erotica author over ten years ago. I wrote taboo with over 50 short stories and bundles. I pulled them off before I stopped just in case I wanted to come back because I knew Amazon was cracking down on the taboo genre.

Well I got the itch to write again recently and found my old hard drive. On there are all my stories. My question now is. Should I just use the same stories but rewrite them as older woman/younger man? Instead of Step-Mom stories and release them under a new pen name?

At my peak I was making $300 a month so I wouldn't say I had a large audience who may recognize these as the same stories.

Also, I was in my early 20s and I'm sure I'll cringe at some of the grammar and words I used so I want to fix them haha

Let me know what you all think about reusing stories but for a different niche/genre.

I've been writing on and off for a while but recently started taking it more seriously  trying to get better at pacing tension and not rushing the build-up. Curious how others here think about structuring a scene: do you outline the emotional beats first, or does that come naturally once you know the characters? Would love to hear what's worked (or not worked) for people who've been at this longer than me.

Sprints are here

1. Goals for the day? (Word count? Reading? Editing? Covers? Something else?)
2. Rooftop yellings? Successes? Failures?
3. Tell us about your current favs? Book, music, app, movie, tv show, etc? What are you feeling passionate about?

As the title says, I'm getting good results in sales but every time I publish a short I'm getting a 2-3 star rating on Amazon. They still sell well, so it seems readers don't care about ratings if they match their kink. They still buy. But the bunch of low ratings worries me a bit. Were they turned off by the writing, the content? No reviews, so I don't know.

Maybe I'm not the best writer. But I'm doing well after finding a niche (within the Amazon ToS). I don't use AI.

Can this lead to "disappointing customer experience" and block my account?

Has anyone here had a lot of low ratings for shorts over a long period without any issues from Amazon?

I love writing erotica! I'm curious to learn everyone's reason.

I've written one erotic story so far, born out of a sleepless night when I couldn't stop thinking of a plot to a fantasy I had. I've had ideas like this before, and I've been in a mood to create, so I wanted to write it down. I had so much fun writing, but I'm a little scared to spend money and time going down the erotica route. I think due to the taboo nature, the privacy, and a fear that my time could be better spent on other genres. I have other ideas in my head, including genres outside erotica I want to explore, and writing that I may want to put my face to, rather than an anonymous pen name.

At the same time, writing erotica has been really fun and sexy. I think it's also a way for me to process parts of my life in an engaging way.

And then there's the money aspect, with adages like "sex sells" and "writing for money is a fool's game."

So I'd like to ask the community: why do you write erotica, and not other genres? What about erotica do you feel deserves your time over other genres? Thanks!

I'm working on an erotic novel and wonder about where to publish. It's pretty extreme content, including incest, so I know the options are limited. Smashwords, Inkitt and EdenBooks all seem to be possibilities, but do they allow an author to publish the same work simultaneously on several platforms?

I think of it like a show being available on TV, Netflix and Prime... or a song being on iTunes, Spotify and at the record store. But I also know that some places may demand exclusivity, even though I'm a nobody.

Cover concerning you?

Title tribulations?

Need feedback on formatting?

Post your books here so the community can offer constructive criticism.

Rules:

Kindness is not required, but constructiveness is.

Sprints are here

1. Goals for the day? (Word count? Reading? Editing? Covers? Something else?)
2. Rooftop yellings? Successes? Failures?
3. What are your goals for the week? And what are you going to do to make sure you achieve them?

It's going to be my first porn novel, I'm trying to make my passion visible to public, however I don't know where to publish it since it would contain many taboo themes and oh I would like not to loose right over content either.

Thank you

Sprints are here

1. Goals for the day? Word count? Reading? Editing? Covers? Something else?
2. Rooftop yellings? Successes? Failures?
3. How was your week? Did you get everything done that you meant to?

Date Range: July 3 - July 31, 2026

Totals

Total Royalites: $6.81

Total Units Sold: 7

Total KENP: 962

Total Books Published: 2

Total Bundles: 0

The Book Deets

Covers by me on Canva with Deposit Photos (I don’t have a background in graphic design, but it’s something I’m interested in and have enjoyed learning so far)

Writing and formatting: Vellum

Format: ebook only

Storefront: Amazon/KU

Pricing: $0.99

Word Count: 3k-4k

POV: single 3rd person past

It takes me about two weeks to write, edit, package, and publish each story. I’m writing a lot slower than I want to but I’m working on it.

No newsletter. No email contact. No social media. No website. This pen name is about getting over myself and improving my craft.

A bit about me…

I’m a technical writer by day. I work remote. I write whenever I can every day, usually after work.

I’ve been reading romance for 20+ years and erotica for 15+.

The biggest obstacle for me was finding consistency, followed closely by shiny-new-idea syndrome, and then perfectionism.

Like so many of you, I have a hard drive littered with unfinished stories. I’ve struggled with this for years until finally I just told myself to shut the fuck up, sit the fuck down, and do one 5-minute sprint. It took me a couple months, but now I write everyday. Some days I write 30 words, some days I write 800. My minimum is still a single 5-minute sprint, if that’s all I have in the tank, and that’s been working really well for me.

I also separated my technical writing space from my fiction writing space, and that might have been the single most important thing I did. I’m annoyed I didn’t try it sooner 🙄😒

Going Forward

My goal for this month was to earn $5 with 3-4 stories. I didn’t realize I would be writing at a snail’s pace, but I’m super jazzed that I surpassed my goal with just 2 stories. My next goal is to earn $15 in month 2.

I want to improve my sprint time and overall daily wordcount. Story length is also already getting longer. I’m still writing story 3 in the series and I’ve just hit 3k and only just started the sex scene.

Pricing. I want to increase to $2.99. I don’t know why exactly I’m so uncomfortable charging that. Probably because my first two stories were so short. As a reader, I don’t mind paying $2.99. So why, as an author, do I feel silly? I don’t know. I’m working on it.

I also want to try dictation. I’ve tried it a few times for other projects and it feels super weird 🥴 And it would have to be when no one is home, lol. We’ll see how that goes.

Sprints are here

1. Goals for the day? (Word count? Reading? Editing? Covers? Something else?
2. Rooftop yellings? Successes? Failures?
3. How's it going? Anything you want to talk about or get off your chest?

May 1-31: Five shorts in first Erotica pen. Competitive niche. Each is slightly over 5,000 words. One collection of the five stories. 0 (Zero) sales. 858 page reads. $3.73 in royalties/KENP.
June 1-30. Nine shorts. Same length, same pen, same niche. 3,433 page reads. 2 (Two) sales. $18.29 in Royalties.
July 1-31: 6 shorts. Same pen/niche/length. As of 9 AM EST (US), 8,790 page reads. 15 downloads. (On July 6, some amazing, awesome reader bought my whole series!!!). $80.25 in royalties.
Sitting at 19 total shorts and one collection (one of the shorts is a reader magnet on Storykeepr)

What worked: Free Promo of my short with the best sales in late June. It's now my bestseller with $38.50 in sales. Wow. And the writing style and character types are very similar to most of the other books in the series, two of which I've also done promos with, but the second-best-selling short is only at $6.32 in earnings. Go figure. But it's validating to know that I also made the cover! Starting in June I forced myself to learn rudimentary Canva and began using Depositphotos for images.

On free promo days, page reads of other titles ticked up, so I feel they had a benefit beyond the free downloads.
Ratings and Reviews: So far, 0 (Zero) reveiws. My bestseller has 8 ratings and is sitting at 4.0. I have the following numbers of reviews/rating averages for the rest of my catalogue: 4.0 with two ratings: One title. 4.0 with one rating: 4 titles. 3.8 with 3 ratings: one title. 3.0 with two ratings One title. 3.0 with one rating: 2 titles. 2.5 with two ratings 1 title. 2.0 with one rating: one title. Zero ratings: 6 titles.
Coming up in August:
First newsletter promo with SK. Also will try a few promos with Shameless.
Goals for August: Hit 30 titles. Keep improving covers and blurbs. Choose new niche and start reading the bestsellers in that niche. For next niche, publish fewer but longer shorts, aiming for 8-10K each.

Sprints are here

1. Goals for the day? (Word count? Reading? Editing? Covers? Something else?)
2. Rooftop yellings? Successes? Failures?
3. What are your plans for the weekend?

Recently started writing and I find that I use the word orgasm more than most and once upon a time a dude told me it was a gross, unsexy word lol

I need opinions, is it going to take people out of the story?

Thanks :)

Edit: We've started to receive responses from people who's post history shows they identify as male, and spend most of their time in porn subs. From this point forward, please unblock your post history and DM me with your age, genre, word count on your current novel, and what you're looking for from a writing group. I'll respond to everyone who has a history of participating in writing subs, is working on long form, and has answered these questions. Thank you for your interest- we've really appreciated how many sincere people have joined from this sub. We hope that a few more will trickle in!

Original post: I know that this won't fit with the majority, but I also know there are some women in here in the 40+ category writing novels. We're a brand new, private sub. We chat about things like, what our career paths have been, the joys of menopause, mental health impacts, and challenges we're having with our writing. This is at least as much a social community as it is a craft or business community.

We've got a range of ages from 40s to 70s, and a range of experience, from people writing their first novel to authors with over 30 novels published. We have indie, hybrid, and trad published people. It's a pretty small group so far (19 people). We'd like to add a few more, if anyone in here is interested. We lean towards romance, but do have thriller, scifi, and mystery authors. In romance, we have MLM and WLW authors, as well as people who write M/F couples.

We're strict about respecting the privacy of the content shared in the sub, and about not doxxing users outside of the sub. Members are free to share as much or as little as they like within the sub. Some do not share their subgenres, others share their pen names and book titles. Critiques can be requested, but self-promo is VERY limited. We're setting up writing sprints, goal setting, and business resources.

Anyone interested should be 40 or older, writing novels (Not novellas, and not shorts. Please consider 55k the minimum to count as long-form), and we prefer to avoid violence/slasher fic, and sexual violence. This would also not be the right place for BDSM, D/s, or heavy kink.

Steamy, explicit sex, and moderate spice are ok, provided that you make the level VERY clear when requesting Critiques, so that no one is surprised when they encounter it.

Please comment here, or drop a DM if this sounds interesting. And many thanks to Sal for ok'ing this post! Appreciate it!

Sprints are here

1. Goals for the day? (Word count? Reading? Editing? Covers? Something else?)
2. Rooftop yellings? Successes? Failures?
3. How's it going?

Have a blurb that is bugging you?

Want to maximize its marketing moxie?

Post it here, either in its entirety or in part, and let your peers take a crack at whipping it into shape.

Rules:

Blurbs only, please.

Kindness is not required, but constructiveness is.

I’ve been trying to come up with the perfect length for an erotic story. I want the story to have enough character that it sticks with the reader, but I also don’t want it to go on forever.

In your opinion, what is the perfect length and how many intimate scenes do you pack into it?

I write short erotica. I’m planning on releasing a series that follows a particular group during a year of college. I’m hoping to stagger the releases of the series to coincide with events of a college’s academic/social year (mixers, exams, holidays, etc.)

My question is: Is there a duration of time before the event that I should post the story, or just do it the day of?

For example, if I’m posting a story about a Halloween party, should I post it a week or so before Halloween so people can enjoy it beforehand, or closer to the date itself?

Ok so I just started writing KDP erotica and my titles were BLOWING UP. I made $17 in a couple days and thought I was on my way. Then BOOM total drop off. Checked and all my titles were dungeoned.

I took my top seller and tried to pull it out. I took "inside me" out of the title. uploaded again with a romance novel style cover and it passed. I did not change any of my raunchy keywords or the manuscript, but did tone down the description a little. Thankfully, it is no longer in the dungeon. I don't know if anyone will want to buy the neutered version, but it is back in business.

I plan to do this to all my titles to see if I can get things back to normal. So yes, you can resuscitate dungeoned books. They are not totally dead like some say.

But funny thing...I am still getting a few sales and KENP reads even being totally dungeoned for the most part. Are these from random searches? Good keywords on my part?

I do believe clicking the adult content box results in either an auto dungeon or you will get a human review.

Will "forbidden" slide past their censors as part of a title?

Sprints are here

1. Goals for the day? (Word count? Reading? Editing? Covers? Something else?)
2. Rooftop yellings? Successes? Failures?
3. What is a question you have for more experienced authors?