A Year in the Rear with the Gear - One Year of Publishing Erotic Fiction

First image in my gallery.

A year ago to the day, Leona D. Reish appeared with Daemonique I: The Darkest Desire. Back then it was ‘vol.1’, a mess of formatting and with a different cover piece. Not to imply I know what I'm doing now, but my blog posts back then sure a mess, too.

A day later, Smashwords’ read an ebook week kicked off, so I pushed to release a second book that got in on the 7^th. Seeing that come around again now brings back a lot of memories. I was really very easily disheartened back then when nothing really happened through that first week with its sale event going.

In some senses, I’m just as easily disheartened now, and certainly still learning. I'm aiming to tie up current projects before I really start on anything new, since now I've a better understanding of things, I don't have to be so scattered about it. So we'll see how things go. As much as they change, I think they're going to stay the same.

Sat in a different corner of the room, at a different desk, though, things have really come a long way. It's really been a year, huh...

For sake of index-browsing scroll fingers, the rest of this post is pretty long and getting put behind a pagebreak. First year anniversary though, should probably celebrate or something. 

Christmas at a military base with a disembodied brain.
My kind of fun.

I have no title for all this madness.

You know, I never thought I'd have a use for the "Suddenly: Madness" tag again, nevermind so soon, but I guess I should have seen it coming.

In some ways I suppose I did see it coming, if only vicariously. Independent publishing has proven to be a real Pandora's Box, made no better by how much storefronts have just jumped on something that looked sparkly and popular without putting half a day of effort into their interface.

WH Smiths is offline and Kobo sabotaged itself to appear like it, by proxy, was being a social justice warrior of the modern age and correcting heinous crimes, too.

It's okay though, Kobo. Don't worry, WH Smiths, it was impossible to find shit on your storefront anyway. Zero options for keyword searches, genres not even listed on the book's page? Though I guess if you're going to half-ass providing a service you should also half-ass fixing your mess and just take the whole storefront offline.

So basically, they're suffering the repercussions of their own greed, now. You don't just open gates on a global scale and expect no one you disagree with to come in. You don't accept running a platform of this scale and be surprised when you're incapable of controlling it. I've said it for however many years running, probably at least ten after watching Serial Experiments Lain, but a lot of the people responsible for these things don't seem to be ready to handle a digital age.

It's frustrating, but at the same time I can't help but default to laughing at it. You have to, really. You can't let everything weigh down on you too heavily at face value, because you're gonna carry that weight.

The box is open and the ride cannot be stopped, so there's no fear of that it will. That's why I haven't even touched on Amazon's reaction to these recent events. For a wonder, they've been much more controlled and effectively reasonable about it. I say effectively in emphasized italics because of course this happening at all will never be a nice, good or straightforward thing that people can just bounce back off or feel comfortable being around. Consider though, that if they handled it as awkwardly as Kobo, none of anyone's books would be available until they did the sweep they've done. That would be utterly ridiculous.

Also consider how they've handled it. As an author to have to deal with the ADULT Filter which is likely now gone in place of putting the offending title on Draft and contacting you, I honestly prefer this method, if not what's caused them to go into a refreshed search for offenders. This way, there is open contact over the issue. That was one thing sorely missing from their old system which may as well have put most people's work back on Draft status. If there's at least some open dialogue, I can appreciate the effort.

I was affected by it as many have been, and had Becca's Birthday Wish pushed back to Draft with a mail about what I need to do about it. Perhaps what wasn't as clear as could be, and led back to knowledge garnered from having dealt with their trial-and-error system in the past, but after tweaking the synopsis to remove the word Daddy, it was accepted, published and sold once again. I still need to re-submit the CreateSpace version but that isn't so important.

Unless they hate money or something, I'm expecting Kobo's poor excuse for a storefront to do the same once it's done with handling the damage control as poorly as they handle the storefront in general, so I might be down a book that needs republished with more neutral wording. We'll see.

Moral: Persevere and flow with the subtle changes in the current. Also WH Smiths can go fuck itself.

Now, I have real writing to get back to finishing now available here as if nothing's on fire, because the only thing that will let your publishing die is your resolve. Now to start running through the All Hallow's End specials.

A Question of Fear

I just had a thought, while finishing off some touches to my next release and pouring over plans for October, and it stuck me as something I could really branch out and interact on, and so I have a question for you all. As October is known for Halloween, I'm going to be doing a series of suitably themed stories throughout the month.

More than just paranormal or costume play, I do that throughout the year. What I'm looking to do is work on more of a darker angle on actual horror erotica to suit the month. I have a good number of ideas, kinks and scenes in mind, but it begs the question; What are you afraid of?

What little creaks in the dark makes your skin crawl and mind race? I've always said erotica is a very intimate and powerful genre that works its way closer to the core of people, but what about when it touches on the darker things down there? The sort of things people never want to be plucked, yet can't help but be morbidly fixated to letting it happen, as if they're now captives of their own desire.

Aside my own plans, it'd be interesting to hear the sort of things others, for lack of a better way to put it, wouldn't want to see. Not just sexually, that's a matter for my writing to spin into an erotically charged scenario that can't be put down, I mean fears in general.

I'd love to make this project a touch more interactive and personal in places if I can, and then perhaps that broader, more intimate closeness to home will make the stories a little more powerful than they could be through my work alone. An author exists by grace of readers, so for all I'm a very reserved and quiet person I thought it'd be fitting to put this out there and circulate on that strength that others who take an interest create.

A rant on morality of content in erotica (Becca's Birthday Wish)

Well that's been annoying. My latest book's published fine just about everywhere, no problem, no ADULT filtering. All's well and good... UNLESS! For once, Smashwords has been the more restrictive of places and I think just a little over-sensitive. They seem to think implication that someone under 18 could but didn't have sex, in their words "exploring such things" is unacceptable. 

Now I don't want to give them too much crap about it since I can understand where they're coming from and they are keeping open review dialogue with suggestions to add clarification that all characters are over 18. If it was Amazon I'd probably just get some rejected marker and have to ask some obscure email address why and they'd just go "Because it's unsuitable. We are able to offer free shrugs". I do like that Smashwords cares, but maybe a little too much this time. 

But maybe it just got a bit risque and scary, all these age numbers flying, it could get pretty crazy and try to fly something under the radar, right? Sure, but not here. Underage sex isn't publishable and I'm never going to try to, between people of the same age range or whatever. The point was to acknowledge that it does happen, and can be a very serious thing to young adults, but that peer pressure to participate in any sort of sexual culture isn't necessary to be seen as attractive or whatever. You'll find someone you love and want to have sex with at whatever age and they'll be worth the wait, but perception of time and age is different when you're younger and "everyone's doing it". 

The moral was very anti-underage sex exploration.

That's where things start falling apart here though, and what's bothered me enough to go on a rant about it. Ideally the fixes I've done are enough since I'll admit there was a couple other button presses that needed fixed too, and I don't know how I missed those, but all in all could have made it look a bit suspect. So far, I've just removed the age number from the synopsis and made a patronisingly obvious content warning that there isn't any sexual content involving minors (and won't ever be), just reinforcement of proper morality. 

Otherwise, I know it might not be the best avenue to make a moral out of it but it was a simple plot device rather than some grand crusade I was looking to devote a message to. And no, I'm not really writing to 'educate' and change the world but when you're open to writing sexual lifestyles and morals, you kind of expect to have the freedom to write "it's okay to not be pressured into having sex early" and not get it brought to questioned for being unacceptable. You expect it to make people smile and appreciate the modesty of the advice. The key point is not everything in (my) erotica is written for sole purpose of sexual gratification just because it's erotica. There's purpose, plot and feelings behind actions and plot drives that people think should be censored for sanctity through silence, as if "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" really means no evil will occur.

This really isn't a world of rainbows and wish fulfillment where cute buzzwords that people "need" will herald enlightenment and world peace. I might be being slightly hyperbolic about it all but really, I'd have expected other places to shoot it down faster if it was actually an issue of suspect content. Blargh ranting, I should be writing 17th century sisterly incest instead.

Bonus moral: Teach and practice sanity and equality free of any form of impersonal discrimination at your discretion. Don't expect something else to do it for you.

Sometimes you have to stop thinking to really think about it.

While working away on the next story challenge (size play), I had a bit of a possibly obvious revelation about Soulflame, my recent sisterly incest release. I was saying and thinking "the next volume might not even have incest, I'm not sure yet". It was as much part of a discussion about serialised volume releases, so I'll take a moment to explain what I'm doing with those too and how it came about to thinking about what I do with Soulflame.

Essentially, volume releases like Daemonique, A Boy's Secret and now Soulflame are episodic, serialised releases. You get a hit of content here and now, get to decide whether you like it, stick with it and get a new hit as soon as it's available on essentially prime releases or come in later and pick it up in bulk for a longer read. When I reach a sense of arc finality, there'll be more options for picking up the title all at once in a single sort of omnibus edition. The charm is knowing that neither way is 'right' for everyone, so being able to provide both is great for readers and myself alike.

Bunny Hole, in retrospect, is essentially episodic, but much more an enigma wrapped in a mystery. Okay, more of a petgirl project of using a story challenge for exposure before, rather than after heavily editing it. I like what I've learned from it, and I'd like to go back to expanding on it soon, but still. Comparatively  my expanded story challenge Shibari Shower hasn't done so well due to getting slammed under Amazon's childish, in no way child-proof filter. If you like bondage, steamy shower sex and lesbians, check that one out. It's a little hard to spot on Amazon because apparently BDSM is a "bad word" now. 

Don't get me started, seriously.

This is what brings me to the thoughts and discussion I was in on about serialised releases, though. Using Soulflame for reference, I said:

"next volume might not have PI in it at all, I'm not sure yet. People that don't mind can enjoy the full development in both books as and when released and people who don't want incest can start in 2 with light understanding of what happened in 1 and just miss some of the impact and character development."

but recently I thought hang on, really... 

I can write as many damn things as I want. What's to stop Soulflame being purely historic incest in varying tones and situations and taking what I have for non-incestuous plot and putting that into a different, new series title? Soulflame has had a pretty positive reception so far, why should I have to just dabble here and there when I can really drive it and cater? Why restrict when...

I can write ALL THE THINGS.

Yeah. Revelations hurt when they walk up and smack you, but the creative freedom of authoring is really something you don't always appreciate straight up. Maybe a bit dauntingly so, but maybe I'm just sleeptalking again since I've been working on putting together another world setting for my next story challenge.

Amazon and the ADULT filter

Right, I've hinted at this a few times recently but not really had the time, inclination or energy to make a point about it. Now that I've finished writing my latest release, that I'll talk about later, I want to take a moment to talk about this ADULT filter and how it may affect you. Yes, you, reader or writer.

First of all, to find if you or an author you like has filtered releases, put the author name into Sales Rank Express. Any title with ADULT next to the name has been filtered. Make a habit of checking an author's profile page and searching from 'Kindle Store' instead of All Departments. If you only take one thing away with you from this post or stop reading now, keep those things in mind and try them out, please.

The ADULT filter is something Amazon has been in the process of using at their unspoken discretion for over a year, now. The filter sounds like what it should do is filter adult content, and I've certainly seen enough estranged responses to a similar article posted by the Daily Mail that think it's doing a great and positive thing to protect minors and people that may be offended.

It's not. 

Smashwords has an adult content filter. Google has multiple levels of adult content search result filtering. It's not a difficult concept to implement, and you can generally rest assured that every site and company with the potential for showing some sort of adult content has it behind a warning. Considering everything erotic is posted under the erotica category, it's rather self-sufficient on censoring against minors.

Except it isn't hidden at all. What Amazon has is by no means an actual adult content filter, but an inconsistent mess of what essentially comes down to money-grubbing and abuse. It doesn't make the content any more hidden from minors or people that could be offended by it, and infact for those that browse and buy on a Kindle device, the filter won't affect them in the first place since search will default to 'Kindle Store'. So those unsupervised children with a Kindle and wifi connection will still be directed straight to every adult title.

Why? How? Because what the ADULT filter does is removes the offending content from the All Departments search. That might not seem a big deal in and of itself, but that means more than it may seem. Unless you know of this issue, chances are you just use the All Department search and it certainly brings up some results, including terms that are considered "bad words" and for the most part filtered. It's actually been hard for me to replicate that this filter even existed, sometimes. Since there are some results, people don't think anything is wrong.

Update: Was recently asked about examples, so updating this here, too, but I've also made a newer post clarifying the inconsistencies better, along with e-mail correspondence. 

The bad words include alot of general kink things. In no particular order; Breeding, Pseudo-Incest (including family words), Gangbang, Creampie, BDSM, Rough, Monster, Ménage and likely more as they go around randomly filtering about half of the results for words they come across and dislike. Even if those words are part of popular mainstream accepted erotica. You'll still find some results in the "All Department" search, but not all results.

To get around that, search in 'Kindle Store' where all these filtered titles will show up as if there was nothing wrong with them. Regardless of whether you're of legal age to view them or even want to view erotica in your search results. The filter isn't there to protect you or anyone.

It also removes books from the "Also Bought/Browsed" section of unfiltered books. So you won't get recommendations or pairings. For customers and authors alike, that hurts visibility and fractures the community regardless of where you search from. Why? Because Amazon doesn't like your cover, or the extraneous information you put in the title, or perhaps the content. But they won't reject it like they say they will, because that would mean rejecting free money. They will, however, hide it off at the back so they can still rake in the royalties from something they think is offensive trash that they don't want to be associated with selling.

There's nothing adult about it. There's nothing protective about it. This is the most pathetic, childish excuse for double-standards and abuse of monopoly I've ever had the misfortune to be insulted by association to. I'll admit I may be a bit brash and hard with the language here but I really can't get behind and respect their methods in any respect. Amazon aren't going to grow a pair and raise the bar on standard of what they accept or keep open dialogue with authors the way others do. That would cost them money they can still make by giving half-service, accepting everything and then deciding whether or not they like it.

I imagine the process looks something like this.

The times of our lives.

For however many years it's been out, it's quaint to think that self-publishing is still kind of in its infancy. I say this after some weird issues with Amazon that have been making news, but more immediately due to a response I got from Kobo Books regarding why Daemonique vol.3 is still "in progress" for near a month now. So bear this in mind if you're publishing with Kobo.

"The reason why your book has not yet been approved for publication might be that you have extraneous information in the title field.

We have recently started insisting that authors remove information that belongs in the synopsis from the author name and title fields. The general rule of thumb is, if you wouldn't put it on the cover, it doesn't belong in these fields."

Now I don't have a problem with that in itself. Kobo's category selection is fairly generous anyway so title tags aren't as necessary as other places where it's all under > Erotica. What did bother me was that book had been "Publishing... Your eBook will be in the Kobo store soon!" since April 19th and they made no attempt to alert me to this change in principle or have any sort of open dialogue. There's nothing on the 'new book' page, no header text asking for exact name, no feedback notes on the dashboard. Just the promise that it'll be done "soon!" Checking in on the process again I found an email address for just this problem and asked about it to get the above response about three days later.

Comparatively, Smashwords' dashboard will show "pending review" and then if it needs amendment will tell you what. It'll still show on their site and be available for purchase, but for premium catalogue and shipping to other channels, it has to fit that criteria. But they do keep that open dialogue with authors, and their dashboard isn't a horrid mess of hiding everything from you, either.

It's just funny how ad-hoc and inconsistent some of these distributors are with this new function of independent publishing. They all want in on the profits and craze of it, oh boy, of course, "ebook sales are the future!" just gloss over who provides the content, but they don't seem to know how to handle it now that content isn't being provided by some stiff publishing company. Ease of access to distribute makes the world a scarier place.

The things you create are no less legend.

It's funny how things important to writing can come and go. I've never really had a case of writer's block, I know what I want to write and I have several projects backlogged in concept. That's fine, but sometimes I think I push for things a bit more than I should, or have the mind or mood to write at the time. Like I can't do it justice or it feels bigger than I have the strength for.

I don't know if it's a problem, I'm just rambling a bit because I can and had an interesting sort of flow to the night. First off, it's funny sometimes when you go to do something that should be good and end up agitated and disappointed by it. That put a bit of a stopper on the writing flow for a bit. So went to scroll up through the sporadic add whatever to it music playlist I have and went as far as some tracks I haven't played in a while. Improved the mood somewhat, hearing them on my lovely new headphones.

Made me realise something though, and something everyone that writes or just reads should hold to. These characters you create or enjoy become as much a part of history and legend as any other, if within their own niches and circles among the writers and readers. This may just be the residual appreciation of characteristic aged history from my last story challenge talking but I think it's a nice thought.

Not to say they shouldn't be put through the worst you can deem appropriate or never lost, heck I started Cinders of the Soul on the premise of a sister lost in an era where there'd be next to nothing in support for her, but really appreciating what's developed and created is something easy to forget. I say that because it just came back and hit me while browsing music and realising I'm essentially creating the thing I wanted to try sometime but couldn't grasp where I would pull things from. I can't say much as to why or what for at this point since it's all very much stickynote level concepts and reminders, but one of those things I felt like writing about.

Maybe I'm putting too much into the train of thought I have, or thinking too wide from more common concepts of character and series worth and how the erotica medium is generally used but I don't know. I'm a hopeless romantic that looks to create things big enough to overwhelm and challenge my own strength and sole confidence, so it worries me that the ideas are somehow too involved for erotica, but I don't know.

I don't think there are really necessarily any boundaries or real lines where erotica as a genre tool must be set aside for what you want to write, or that it's essentially too cheap for a concept to run. I just worry trying to go so far with things will miss its mark too widely for being unexpected or irregular. Suppose it comes down to delivery, and there'll be a moral in here.

Somewhere.

Profiling Profiles

Not nearly as important as my short story posted below this, but just a quick pointer that I updated pages a bit to add a better profile, including ways to contact me, where to find me on Twitter and where to find my publications. The default 'Full Profile' on the right was effectively just my Google+ bit, which didn't really cover it, so that's been replaced, ironically, with the profile/circles button.

I'm also in the process of prodding around with setting and finding things I can do like adding the Twitter feed, so don't be alarmed if something's drastically changed mid-browsing or looks completely different. Some changes have to be saved to be properly tweaked, and so far I think I like this layout more.

Okay but for realsies what's next?

Yeah, I got a bit distracted and ran off on a tangent with the last post, but really I think it was something more worth saying than a vague idea of my plans anyway. To some extent I just needed to write it for myself, too.

Well, I've been busy with a number of things, both erotic and not, but it is a constantly running thought. Next up is a story challenge piece I'm still debating how to shift into published erotica. Really I could post it up free for sake of exposure to what I can do since it's written and posted free for sake of challenge and fun, so it can't hurt. Keep an eye out for that section on the blog, if I figure out how to better manipulate pages, I'll certainly have something fancy worked up.

The story challenge itself is essentially 6k words maximum with theme of 'corruption,' with optional 'madness' and ' inclusion of vial(s)'. Pre-edit it's come in at 6018 words but the previous months story challenge needed about 500 words cut off it, and editing tends to add or subtract about that much. I know where there are sections I can take a decent amount off anyway, so that's fine.

It's an interesting piece though, in some way spread a little thin but I like to think I work with using that thin coat well, leaving more things in the early story open to imagination and filling in. As well as that, just that what's been done to the character allows for quick and hard anal with some implied voyeurism I leave the reader to fill in the part of right there without draw of foreplay and suchlike that I might usually employ. Then it just goes all sorts of different places of crazy till effectively fading to black in the middle of a relatively pretty hardcore scene I won't spoil. It cuts there just because I can, but also because once I have the premise of it down, any additional narration of it would just be repetition best left to the imagination. It wasn't going to be ending any time soon, either.

You'll see what I mean when I get it edited and sorted out. That leads into my next point nicely too, as figuring out and managing things like this blog's layout and what I can actually do with additional pages is an interesting thing that can just devour an entire evening, so I try not to mess with that right now, but things could certainly get changed up.

Beyond that, I have several volumes worth of plans for Daemonique, at least a second for A Boy's Secret, and a number of other things in mind.

So what's next?

What's next is a good question, but firstly I hope everyone enjoyed the Smashwords read an ebook week if you were able to take advantage of it. I've seen some spikes of interest and I really hope people enjoy what I have to write and offer. It's something I've kept at for years in one form or another and something I really enjoy being able to apply. More to the point, writing erotica is an amazing and wonderful thing, for how intimate and effectively private a thing it is, it draws up far stronger sensation. I can understand this is in part why it's still shied away from and subverted on places like Amazon with what's essentially seedy back-alley basement shop service on the author's end.

I'm going to ramble on a bit about why erotica is great.

At some point it stops being typing and more becomes breathing.

So I'm going to ramble a bit here, because I can. And it's related to writing, which is what this is all for.

Basically.

I raised the question on Twitter but between the text limit and not wanting to gush overtly into the back of my next book - that's a privilege reserved for readers - I thought I'd bring it here, if only for my own posterity. It's been quite interesting to write this next publication, because at first I had certain aspects and points in mind that were going to be laid out along the way with the self-assurance of that this is my fiction, I can bend the genre and concept of 'contemporary' normality into as much flare of fantasy as I can get away with justifying. With that in mind I set off on writing, editing and turning it into a publishable work.

Yeah, this is going to ramble on a bit without making much sense.