SCAMAZON – Amazon “Kindle Unlimited” Scammers Netting Millions

 

How are scammers making millions off Amazon? (And off any author enrolled in Amazon’s KDP Select program?)

It’s easy. So say
digital entrepreneursscammers like Dave Koziel – who admits to outsourcing his material, he’s not an actual writer or anything. You see, all you have to do it just upload "books" stuffed to the gills with anything, even unrelated material (romance books, cookbooks, South Beach diet books, foreign language texts, any and everything you’ve got at your disposal) then use a click-bait link at the front of the book (something like “Click here to win a Kindle Fire!”) to take the reader directly to the very back. A German blog has detailed these tactics as well, although it seems the German Amazon store (much smaller than the U.S. one) is cracking down on this now.

Why does this method result in big bucks? Because of how Amazon has changed the way it pays authors enrolled in KDP Select. Authors know that when Kindle Unlimited was first launched (rather quickly and in direct response to other book subscription services that were just popping up like Scribd and Oyster) we were paid “by the borrow.” It was similar to a sale (on sales, we were paid 70% of list cost) except now we were paid out of a general fund instead of a set percentage. (Like a “pot” or “kitty” – a communal pool of money – except in this case, Amazon was the only contributor and authors the recepients.)

But Amazon changed that payment method from “per borrow” to “pages read.” Not pages written, mind you – but how many pages a reader actually reads.

Except, the problem with this method that’s recently come, shockingly, to light, is that there’s a loophole in the system. Apparently, if you put a link at the beginning of your book to the very back and a reader clicks it – the author is paid for all those pages. A full read. Even though a reader just skipped over them.

Remember when Amazon capped the KENPC count at 3000? This was why.

Except Amazon didn’t want us to know one important thing – they lied to us.

They have no idea how many pages a reader actually reads.

Let me say that again, just so you don’t miss it:

AMAZON HAS NO IDEA HOW MANY PAGES A READER ACTUALLY READS.

Wow. A little bit of karma coming back at you with these scammers, Jeff Bezos?

Because Amazon has been scamming authors in the KDP Select program all along.

They decided to pay us by “pages” read, when in fact, they can’t count actual pages read, and they can’t time how long a reader actually takes to read those pages (last time I checked, no one could read 3000 pages in less than two minutes…)

Oh, they can email me and my publishing company that I’m missing a “page break” at the end of my novel, or threaten to take my book off sale or label it problematic for typos (that may or may not actually be typos), or actually take my book off sale (which they recently did - Bear Necessities - just after a great freebie run, too, while it was on sale for $0.99 - thanks, Amazon!) because I provided bonus content in the front of a book instead of at the back – but they can’t actually count how many pages a reader reads in a book.

Yet… this is how they have decided to pay authors. Per page read.

See anything wrong with this picture?

I sure do – and it smells like fraud and class-action lawsuits to me.

How do I know Amazon can’t count how many pages a reader reads?

Because, if Amazon had a way to count how many pages a reader actually reads, a link at the front of the book that took the reader to the very back would result in two pages read.

Just two, not every single page in the book.

But as Dave Koziel and company have proven, that’s not what’s happening. There’s a little loophole in Amazon’s system. When a reader clicks a link at the front of a book that takes them to the end of a 3000 page “book” – it gives that author 3000 “pages read.” Not just two.

If Amazon had a way to count how many pages a reader actually reads, placement of the TOC (table of contents) at the front or back of the document would be irrelevant.

But as this post proves (and man, do I feel awful for author Walter Jon Williams– he’s out a hella lot of money because of Amazon’s knee-jerk reactions and lack of planning and forethought) Amazon has suddenly begun removing books with a TOC at the back of the book from sale. As usual, they decided to shoot first and ask questions later, and damaged legitimate authors in the process, as David Gaughran first pointed out.

If Amazon had a way to count how many pages a reader actually reads, placement of “bonus material” (an extra story or book along with the original source material, which many authors have started to do, including myself in the Kindle Unlimited program) would be irrelevant. You could put it at the front or back of the book, and it wouldn’t matter, because the table of contents tells the reader what’s where, right?

Except the truth is, Amazon is showing us through their actions – their cap on KENPC, their insistence that the TOC needs to be at the front of a book, and their recent email to me about “bonus” content not being allowed at the front of a book – that they have no idea how many pages are being read in any given book.

All they know is where a reader STOPS reading.

That’s all they can actually calculate.

That’s why a TOC needs to be at the front (because TOC defaults as the “start” point of a book, and if it’s at the back and a reader goes to the TOC, an author has just been given credit for a full read even if the reader didn’t read the book) and why they are no longer allowing “bonus” content at the front of a book.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, there are legitimate, non-scammy reasons to put a TOC at the back or bonus material at the front. The TOC (especially if a book is long or a boxed set) takes up valuable real estate in the “Look Inside” feature or “Sample” on Amazon. Placing it at the back avoids that issue.

And the logic behind putting “bonus” material at the front?

Well, this is how I explained it to Amazon in my letter to them:

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I had a very legitimate reason for putting the bonus book/content at the front of this title.

The last time I put a bonus book at the end of the book, I had reviews complaining that the original title ended at "50%" - and they thought it was much longer, because the bonus book was taking up real estate at the back of the original text.

In this case, I put the bonus book up front (and labeled it clearly on the title page and in the table of contents) so that when the reader finished the main book, it would be near 100% and they would understand they'd reached the end, and wouldn't feel "cheated” or “ripped off.”

It's easy to look at a Table of Contents (TOC) and navigate to the book they purchased.

You see, I was under the assumption that, since Amazon is paying us by PAGES READ, that you, at Amazon, actually had a way of knowing HOW MANY PAGES A READER ACTUALLY READ.

I assumed, since it would be fraudulent otherwise, per our contract in publishing with you, that since you were paying us by pages read, if a reader skipped over a book in the table of contents, we wouldn't actually be paid for those pages. So that putting bonus content at the beginning of a book would be no big deal, no harm, no foul.

Apparently, that isn't the case. And you never told us that. As a matter of fact, you, personally, (rep’s name redacted), lied to me and said that skipping to the end of a book would NOT result in a full-read. We emailed about this and talked about it on the phone when KU 1.0 was originally rolled out, and you assured me that yes, Amazon had a way of tracking the pages a reader actually read, with time spent on each page.

Turns out, Amazon hasn't been able to correctly count pages read since the very beginning, even though that's exactly how you're paying us. 

If you think this isn't fraud, and that there aren't authors out there already talking about a class action lawsuit, you'd be very, very wrong. There are a lot of wealthy authors out there who are beyond furious about this new information. 

I suggest you plug this leak as fast as you can and make some apologies and remuneration for it. 

And restore my book to published status immediately - and its rank as well, since you took it off-sale for a reason that shouldn't have been a problem or caused an issue if you hadn't lied to authors about your ability to actually count the pages you were oh-so-generously paying us less than half-a-penny for. 

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On my part, it was completely unintentional. I was directly told that skipping over content in a book would not result in pages read. But that was clearly a lie. I thought I was creating a better customer experience (kind of like Walter Jon Williams and his TOC placement) when in fact I was unknowingly using a tactic commonly utilized by scammers.

Unfortunately, it’s not the only scammer tactic I unwittingly adopted.

You see, I have a link at the front of my books in my table of contents (I happen to place my TOC up front, so I dodged that particular bullet) that leads to the back and a link to sign up to my mailing list. I incentivize signing up to the list by offering readers five free reads. I’ve been doing this for years.

The thing is, I had no idea that doing this resulted in a full read in Kindle Unlimited. Because Amazon specifically told me directly that “skipping pages” wouldn’t work – that they could count pages read – and linking to the back page would not result in a full read!

I've been "cheating" and didn't even know it was cheating. I wasn't complicit in a scam but I'll sure be blamed for it if they shoot first and ask questions later. (And as we know, they usually do…) Especially since I write erotica and I’m Selena Kitt. I’m guilty already by default. :P

The problem is, Amazon has been throwing the baby out with the bathwater by taking books off sale for having a TOC at the back of the book, or bonus content in the front. As David Gaughran first pointed out, real authors are being hurt by Amazon’s attempts to plug up a leak that shouldn’t have existed in the first place.

And I'm afraid it isn't going to end there, folks. 

Are links from the front of the book to the very back going to be next in Amazon’s line of fire? Could be.

The irony is, many people do what I do – put a link in the TOC to a mailing list with a free read to sign up. Many of those originally had their TOC at the back of their books – but now Amazon is forcing them to put their TOC at the front. In effect, forcing them to have a link now at the front of their book to their mailing list… which leads the back of their book, and would result in a “full read” if a reader clicks that link.

Doh.

I don’t know how Amazon will plug this particular loophole, but I know what I’m doing this week. *sigh* Time to reformat my Kindle Unlimited books and take out the link to free content at the back and put that content somewhere up front. It’s not “WIN A KINDLE FIRE” click-bait – it’s a legitimate offer – but I’m sure Amazon will see it differently.

It’s better to get out the way of a potential nuclear explosion if you know it’s coming than sit around and wait for it to happen – at least that’s my philosophy. And the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. So if Amazon’s reaction to this KU 2.0 problem so far is any indication, I’d suggest you follow my lead and clean up those “links to the back of the book” now before they nuke your stuff.

The thing is, all of this cleanup was preventable. There was no reason to implement such a flawed program like Kindle Unlimited in the first place. Amazon certainly could have predicted the original “loophole” in KU 1.0 that they attempted to close with KU 2.0.

Remember when short books were all the rage in KU 1.0? That was because every borrow that was read to 10% paid out around $1.30 each (well, at last count, the amount kept going down every month…) Erotica writers were hit hard when Amazon switched to the “paid per page read” scenario, because erotica authors have always written in short-form. What we were once being paid $2.09 (70% of $2.99) per sale for before Kindle Unlimited came along, then $1.30 per borrow for in KU 1.0, we were then being paid about $0.15 per read-through for in KU 2.0.

Ouch.

But the real scammers in KU 1.0 weren’t erotica authors, who simply benefited from the per-borrow payout by doing what we’d always done (writing short stories) – the real scammers put gibberish inside a book and made them so short that by simply opening the book on your Kindle, that first page would count as 10% of the book and result in a paid borrow.

Cha-ching!

Are you telling me Amazon couldn’t have foreseen that?

If so, I have some swampland in Florida to sell you.

Then KU 2.0 came along to “fix” the issues/loopholes/leaks of the “scamphlets” in KU 1.0. Amazon went to a “pay per pages read” scenario. It’s ironic that their solution to the money they were bleeding in the first Kindle Unlimited version was increased exponentially in the next one.

In KU 2.0, they weren’t paying out $1.30 a borrow to scammers who created their little “scamplets” and borrowed them in their little circles anymore. (Or to those nasty erotica writers who’ve always written shorts stories for readers who want to buy them… they clearly deserved to be punished for their dirty minds and “selling sex” in the first place, right?)

That’s great, but… before the KENPC cap was very recently instituted, the pages you could get paid for per-read were unlimited. Which meant that anyone could release a “book” of unlimited length in KDP Select (these scammers are putting garbage in their books – foreign translations, articles from Wikipedia, just words for words’ sake) then put a link at the front of that book that jumped to the back –  and voila. A $100 download in one click. I'm not kidding. I know authors who have told me they've seen these scammers bragging about getting that much per-read before the KENPC cap.

Even when they put the KENPC cap of 3000 on it, with the payout last month at $0.0041 per page read, that meant the maximum payout was $12.30 per download. Still not too shabby. Especially if you have lots of scammer friends to borrow your book and just click a link to read to the end - and push up your rank in the process.

KU 2.0 is far worse, in terms of scamming and money lost, than KU 1.0 ever was.

Guess you should have just continued paying out for those dirty erotica shorts, Amazon… :P

Amazon’s continued “fix” to these problems are like putting a Band-Aid on a bleeding artery. Because guys like Dave Koziel aren’t just making money off Amazon. He’s making money off selling this method to other scammers and telling them how to make money scamming, too. And the more they scam, the more money they take out of the “pot."

Check this link out. Apparently a 15-year-old mentee of Dave Koziel made $64,000 in a month. That's not a typo.

Do I think this kid wrote all those words? Not if he's following Dave's advice, he's not.

I'm posting a screen shot here, just in case the link gets removed. (You never know...)

Quoted on those images, Dave Koziel says: "A screen shot I got earlier from my mentee and coaching student @justin8600 For those of you who don't know what this is it's a report from Amazon that shows you your actual royalty payments from the Kindle store. Take a close look at these numbers and you'll see how much money he is actually getting paid this month from Amazon. Did I mention he's only 15? A lot of you may look at this and think it's fake. How can a 15 year old possibly make $70,000+ in a month online from selling ebooks on Amazon? The world is changing and fast. Opportunities are out there to make money and a lot of it! It doesn't matter how old you are, where you came from, what your circumstances are etc."

Authors and readers –  does this make you angry? It should. You’ve been lied to and cheated, not just by the scammers, but by Amazon. Primarily Amazon, really. Scammers suck, but we all know they’re exploiting a loophole that was created by Amazon's short-sightedness and could have been prevented by Amazon in the first place. The scammers are scammers - and they're providing a poor customer experience to be sure - but Amazon bears the brunt of the blame here, let's not lose sight of that.

If Amazon’s focus is “customer-centric” then their Kindle Unlimited program is a giant fail. KU 1.0 was called “Kink Unlimited” because authors (many who hadn’t started out writing erotica) jumped on the erotica shorts bandwagon and the market was flooded with them.

But KU 2.0 is now being called “Krap Unlimited” because of all of these crappy scam-books that claim to have great content, but really only contain a bunch of garbage and a click-bait link up front to take readers to the end, so the “author” of the book can get paid for all of those pages.

And when readers find these word-salad books, do they think, “Oh geez, a scammer, what a jerk?” No. They think, “Welp, everything they say about self-publishing and indies is true – their books suck!”

Thanks, Amazon, for perpetuating that myth.

And while the readers have to wade through crap (and boy, do they – I thought keyword stuffed titles weren’t allowed, Amazon?) authors are getting hit the hardest under KU 2.0. Not only are we getting paid less than half a cent per-word-read, these junk-books are forcing legitimate authors to split the “global fund”/pot with them. The rate we’re being paid per page just keeps dropping. 

Gee, I wonder why?

Let’s take a look, shall we:

• -6.32% = December rate decrease
• -10.72% = January rate decrease

We can thank the scammers for that.

And here are some more numbers for you.

Amazon claimed recently that pages read were up by 25%. But I know that I didn’t see a pages-read increase of 25%. Did you? I bet you didn’t. Want to know why?

Because those pages read were click-bait scammer reads, that’s why.

I can’t prove it – but other authors have speculated as much, and I believe they’re right.

Take a look at this graph. (Courtesy of my author friend, Michelle Keep - she's awesome BTW, smart as a whip, and writes great books - and provides amazing services to authors - check her out!)

Before November 2015, the pages-read increased steadily for months by about 100 million-ish a month.

Then, in November 2015, there was a 350 million pages-read increase from the previous month. A pretty sharp increase but we’d seen increases similar to it before from December to January the year before.

Then, between December and January, look at the huge rise. There were 700 million more pages read in that month. How do we explain that? Christmas rush? Hm. Maybe.

Historically speaking, though, the program increases pretty steadily on that graph – but it started spiking in November and continued to climb drastically—far more than it ever had before—in December and January.

Let's look at the actual numbers.

• From November 2015 to December 2015, the pages-read increased by 347,751,042. (about 350 million)
• From December 2015 to January 2016, the pages read increased by 716,220,032. (about 700 million)

Can Kindlemas account for this gigantic rise? Can we just chalk it up to Christmas growth?

Well, let’s look at the year before:

• December 2014 shows 1,154,321,678 pages read. (1.1 billion)
• January 2015 shows 1,402,376,812 pages read. (1.4 billion)
• Between December 2014 and January 2015, that’s an increase of only 248,055,134. (about 250 million)

That’s about 1/3 of the increase we saw between December 2015 and January of 2016 (which was an increase of 716,220,032 – about 700 million)

Historically speaking, this giant increase is suspect.

So let’s go back and look at this year’s dramatic jump.

• December 2015: 2,929,051,855 pages read (2.9 billion)
• January 2016: 3,645,271,887 pages read (3.6 billion)
• If we add those two numbers we get: 6,574,323,742 (6.5 billion) pages read

Now, just for chucks and giggles, let's subtract the “average” historical Christmas/Kindlemas jump (which last year we saw was about 250 million…) from that total. Or, hell, let's go a little further, let's add to that historical average and say we should have historically seen about a 300 million pages-read increase from Dec 2015-Jan 2016…

If we do that, we're left with a 763,971,074 difference.

There's that shocking, inexplicable 750 million pages-read increase.

For speculation’s sake, let’s say that huge page-read increase is actually the result of scammers. Just for argument's sake, let’s say they’re the ones who have caused this dramatic rise in pages read.

If you translate those pages-read into dollars (multiplying it by the last known pages-read amount Amazon paid out, which was $0.0041 per page)… that comes to…

About 3.1 million dollars.

That’s a lot of money. :o

Okay, I get it, I hear you - that maybe it's an exaggeration. Maybe Amazon did have a big jump in program growth this year, because they were pushing Kindle Unlimited around Christmas time and offering discounts. Okay, that's possible.

So let's account for that. Even if natural growth increased enormously this year – what if scammers accounted for just 1/3 of that 750 million increase in pages-read?

That’s still a million dollars out of the pot.

But that's not all, folks.

No, because not only are these scammers stealing money out of my pocket and every author’s pocket who participates in the KDP Select program, they are getting “All-Star” bonuses on top of it. Just to add a little insult to injury and rub some salt in those wounds.

Amazon awards All -Star Bonuses to its top-sellers in the KDP Select program. Some of those bonuses are $25,000. Scammers most definitely got bonuses last month - and legitimate authors who have gotten them all along for being top-sellers discovered that their usual pages-read didn't qualify. The bar had been set suddenly higher, and not by real authors, but by scammers.

And Amazon could have prevented all of this. They could have anticipated all of these issues - just as they could have anticipated the problem of erotica surfacing on children's Kindles and done something proactive and preemptive about that. But Amazon works like the pharmaceutical companies. They make a lot more money ignoring root causes and treating symptoms.

The question now is - what are they going to do about it? And is it going to hurt?

I'm afraid the answer to the latter question is "yes." As to the former one? Well, they'll treat the symptoms again, I'm sure. They've already screwed over legitimate authors claiming they now have TOC and bonus content issues in their books, whether Amazon was aiming at the scammers or not. We're collateral damage, as usual.

And frankly, I'm beyond angry. I'm appalled. I've become an unwitting participant in this "scam," because Amazon lied to me. Amazon informed me in no uncertain terms that skipping over content in book would not result in pages-read, but they lied.

How can I ever trust them again? How can you?

Whatever trust I did have (ha) has been completely decimated. I don't even trust their royalty reports at this point.

And you know what really sucks? Thanks to Amazon's deception, I've been cheating other authors without realizing it. I suppose, if I were in the Hunger Games (which is exactly what this whole thing feels like) I'd just end up dead. I don't have the stomach for this sort of zero-sum competition they've set up in KDP Select between authors. But like Katniss, I don't have a lot of choice, if I want to feed my family.

In the end, the worst thing of all, at least for me, is Amazon's stranglehold on the market. They've forced me into this horrible, socialist program of theirs where it is a zero-sum game - and I have to fight or die.

If you want to make a living at this, Amazon has created an environment where we're all getting in the same bread line and fighting each other for crumbs. We're all hungry. And getting skinnier every day.

(And OMG if one person in the comments says, "You're not 'forced' into the program! You have a 'choice!'" I will delete you so fast it will make your head spin like Linda Blair. We'll talk about Amazon's algorithms and how they weigh the visibility of KDP Select and the decreasing ability to make a living on any other vendor some other time, okay?)

Authors - when we were actually selling books, did we feel we were "cheating" each other out of dollars? Nope. Because we knew there was (arguably) an unlimited amount of dollars to be had. Competition in the marketplace is great - that's good for the ecosystem. But competition for a "pot" of something?

That way lies... this madness.

And that's all on Amazon.

They created this KDP Select monster. And remember that their whole company is run at a loss. In effect, Amazon is being subsidized by their shareholders. Authors keep complaining about Nook and Apple and Kobo and want to know why no other retailer is challenging Amazon for marketshare?

The real answer is, because they can't afford to - they aren't being subsidized.

And we, as a culture, have created the monster that is Amazon.

That, unfortunately, is on us.

Erotica Authors Pull-Out on Amazon KU – Time to Come To The Dark Side!

Erotica authors were
impatiently waiting for July 1, for a look at the new dashboard and the opportunity for a glimpse into the Bezos crystal ball at what they might be paid for the month of July, when the Kindle Unlimited changes took place.

Looks like the numbers are (kind of) in... and the outlook is rather dismal. Erotica shorts authors knew it was going to be bad. I just don't think most of them thought it was going to be quite *this* bad. Because it looks as if authors will be making about $0.0057 per page. That's slightly more than half a penny a page, folks.

This was every erotica shorts author's face when they heard this news:

But we're erotica authors. We are the most versatile, adaptive and scrappy bunch of people I have ever known. And if Amazon thought we were going to take this lying down?

Bwahahahahahahahahahaha. Then they don't know us very well!

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Introducing the #releasetherate campaign

The objective is twofold:

1. Get Amazon to tell us how many people are borrowing our books, without which our page counts are utterly useless

2. Get Amazon to tell us how much they mean to pay us - NOW. IN ADVANCE. No more of this, "Enroll your books, choose to go exclusively with Amazon, and we'll tell you later how much you'll make" crap!

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

1. Won't Bezos get mad at us? We might get in trouble!

Look, if we don't stop this ride now, we may never be able to get off. And this particular ride ends at welfare-ville. So let's not go there. There are plenty of erotica authors who have made a nice living from writing. And we are satisfying a very voracious readership. Why shouldn't they have books they want to read, too? And why shouldn't we get paid for them?

2. Why don't we just go wide?

That's part of the message we need to send. If you haven't already sign up for an Excitica Publisher Account, do that now.

3. You sound mad, calm down.

Yeah, losing 50-70% of my erotica shorts income? I'm mad.

What do I have to do? SIMPLE!

A. PULL YOUR EROTICA BOOKS FROM KU. Every book you leave in is telling them YES, CONTINUE SCREWING ME OVER.

Wait, what about my romance? I need to eat! Fine, leave it in, but if you have erotica get it OUT.

B. COMMENT, LIKE, SHARE THE FOLLOWING FACEBOOK POST & TWEET:

TWEET

FB POST

C. EMAIL jeff@amazon.com

Be polite, cordial, and clear. Keep it short and sweet and include the following info:

-We want to know how many individual people are actually borrowing our books

-We want to know how much you actually plan to pay us.

-If you followed through on pulling all your short fiction (I know not everyone can do it, seriously. Don't do something you can't afford, but remember you're getting paid like ten cents for a full read now anyway) mention this in the email!

D. ASK YOUR NEWSLETTER/FANS/FRIENDS/RELATIVES/PETS to email Bezos, too. The more emails they get the more likely they are to act.

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Here's a form email you can give to your readers:

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Hello, Mr. Bezos

I am an avid reader, and I am contacting you today on behalf of my favorite authors who participate in your Kindle Unlimited book subscription program.

Under the new reporting system, authors have no idea how many individual people are borrowing their books through KU. This is vital information and authors NEED to have it. Please amend the KDP reporting system to share this information, which you are already collecting anyway and shared up until July 1, with authors.

Also, authors have no idea how much to expect to be paid. The email they received today suggests the payout could be as low as $.0057 per page. As a reader, I want as many authors to keep as many books in the KU program as possible, and it would help if Amazon would tell authors how much they're going to be paid. It's not  fair that they have to guess and hope for the best when they sign up for KU and give up the fixed royalty rates they receive outside the program.

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TEXT YOU CAN USE TO SHARE WITH YOUR READERS

(and feel free to right-click and use the graphic at the top of this page).

Thanks go to Natalie Deschain and Cassandra Zara for spearheading this campaign!

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Help Authors Spread the Word – PLEASE SHARE!

Many of you know that I've been a HUGE proponent of the Kindle Unlimited program. It's allowed me to gain a broader readership and new fans who would have never discovered me without being able to borrow my books and take a chance on them through KU.

That said, you may not be aware that Amazon made massive, sweeping changes to the KU program starting today. Beginning today, they will only be paying based on pages read, rather than books borrowed.

This change has left authors in the dark regarding royalties since Amazon isn't telling us how many readers are borrowing our books or how much we'll earn for each page read.

How can authors make good business decisions without knowing how much money they are earning? The short answer is, we can’t. And that makes many of us question whether we should remain part of the Kindle Unlimited program at all.

That’s why I’ve joined #releasetherate, an author-led initiative with a simple goal: getting Amazon to release more information to authors. We’re not asking for much. We're asking for two small pieces of data that Amazon can easily produce that will help self-published authors make informed business decisions.

1.) Number of units borrowed per book -- Amazon has this data; they have been providing it to us since the Select program began. Why withhold that number now? The only reason is to confuse authors. Give us the total number of customers who have clicked the “Read for Free” button on our book’s sales page. Or, at the very least, give us the total number of customers who have read a minimum of one page of our book.

2.) #releasetherate – Authors are aware that Amazon has a ballpark rate-per-page-read that they are expecting to pay for Select and KU pages read in July 2015. We hope it's not the .0057 cents per page based on the June 2015 Select Fund and pages read, a rate that would decimate the income of many authors and make it impossible for us to remain part of the Kindle Unlimited program.

If you’re an author or reader who feels that Amazon should #releasetherate, please help us spread the word by sharing this post.

And if you’re as angry and frustrated about the lack of information being provided to authors, as I am, please let Amazon know by sending an email to jeff@amazon.com and letting him know that withholding basic business information from authors is making many of your favorite authors wonder if Kindle Unlimited is really the right program for them after all.

Selena Kitt 

Erotic Fiction You Won't Forget 

www.selenakitt.com 

LATEST RELEASE: Highland Wolf Pact: Blood Reign

Amazon's Midnight Booty Call to KDP Authors - Are You Amazon's Bitch?

Jeff Bezos' O-Face?

As an erotica author, every time I get a letter from Amazon's KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) in my inbox, I have a brief moment of panic. If you're a self-published erotica writer, I'm sure you know the feeling. When erotica authors get notices from KDP, it's usually the Amazon Book Team writing to tell you to bend over, because they're about to screw you in one fashion or another. Today, however, I received a very strange email from KDP - although I suppose it's no surprise, they're still asking me to bend over and be their bitch.

By now you've all read Amazon's latest PR move in the Hachette feud. I've kept my opinion to myself in this matter, for the most part - at least in terms of my blog - because I don't have a dog in this fight, a pony in this race, a chicken in this... well, you get the  idea, let's not beat a dead metaphor. I'm not a Hachette author and I've never been legacy published, nor will I ever likely be, nor am I (technically) published by Amazon or any of their imprints. Taking sides in this fight, to me, is like being the grass rooting for one of two elephants fighting overhead. Either way, I'm about to be trampled. But I'm an erotica writer in the self-publishing world, so I'm used to it by now.

Apparently, Amazon wants me to take up arms and protest against the horrible injustice being carried out by legacy publisher, Hachette. Amazon (seriously MIS)quotes George Orwell, they claim Hachette hasn't played fair, and essentially come across as a whiny girlfriend who thinks we should all get together and beat up some guy she doesn't like - a guy she's actually been cheating on us with all along behind our backs.

So Amazon is asking me to take sides - to specifically choose their side. Why should I do that?

Most self-published authors would jump if Amazon said how-high - and many of them will, in this case. I won't. I've heard the arguments of the Zonists. Yes, Amazon has given self-published authors a platform they never had before. Yes, Amazon has offered up their store/traffic to self-published authors, which is far greater than we could have generated on our own. Yes, Amazon markets self-published books, their algorithms/also-boughts drive more sales, and they process secure payments and hand us money every month. But they haven't done so out of the goodness of their hearts. They haven't done so because they truly value authors as content creators and want to invest in our collective futures.

I know, because I've been spending my own time actually helping authors, for years, before Kindle even came to the forefront - I started Excessica to help not only myself but other authors like me, who wanted a chance to run with the big(ger) boys. (At the time, it was a little outfit called Fictionwise - but they were the biggest dog in town!) I spent a lot of my own time and effort and money (when I could have selfishly been creating more of my own content, mind you, which would have made me far more cash in the long run) editing, doing cover art, formatting, uploading, marketing for other authors. I did it because I DO value authors as content creators and I DO want them to make as much as they possibly can from their own work (which is why Excessica only takes 10% - and we didn't take anything at all in the beginning.)

Does Amazon put its money where its mouth is when it comes to truly valuing authors as content creators?

No, I'm afraid they don't.

Amazon likes to say they support self-published authors, but what they support is their own bottom line. They use us when it's in their best interest (like when Amazon came knocking on my door, desperate to increase their numbers, asking Excessica's 100+ authors and 500+ titles to go all-in with Amazon KDP Select before it was first announced) and discard or discount us when it's not (who found out about Kindle Unlimited before it was unveiled? Anyone? Were you asked if your KDP Select book could be included? Of course not--they already had you
by the ballsunder contract in KDP Select for at least 90 days...)

Of course, that doesn't let Hachette off the hook. They don't support authors either (and, to be fair, treat them even more poorly than Amazon currently treats self-published authors). These are two giant corporations in the middle of a feud, and like all "feudalists," (ha) they believe we peasants/authors are around for their profit and amusement, to be used at will and tossed aside when we're no longer of interest. Ask any midlister whose contract has been cancelled how sympathetic Hachette is. Ask any erotica author whose account has been cancelled by Amazon how sympathetic they are to "their" authors.

Hachette has already pulled out their big guns, asking their authors to name-drop and get involved in this fight, and like trained monkeys, they've danced to Hachette's tune. Now Amazon is attempting the same trick--see, Hachette, we have trained monkeys too, says Bezos! In fact, our trained monkeys are even better than your trained monkeys - look how many of them we got to sign a petition! (And we didn't even have to take out a full page NYTimes ad to do it!) Amazon asked authors to CC them in their emails, I'm sure in part so they could tally up the number of responses and rub it in Hachette's face.

The fact is, Amazon is using me again. They want something from me that will pad their bottom line--and they're taking money out of the pockets of the very authors they're asking to support them! They tell self-published authors to ask Hachette to "stop using their authors as leverage" - while Amazon decides to use "their" KDP authors to try to leverage their own position in their little feud! This is Amazon-logic. It's the logic of elitists, of a 1% who think the 99% consists of stupid sheeple who simply do whatever they're told. Because if you follow this action to its logical conclusion, self-published authors are being asked to slit their own throats. I'm being asked by Amazon to tell a legacy publisher to capitulate, stop colluding, and lower ebook prices to reasonable levels. Why would I do that? If legacy publishing keeps their prices high, self-publishers benefit. We can easily, consistently undercut agency pricing, every time. That's a huge advantage. Amazon wants me to tell Hachette to lower prices so they can sell more books - so that Amazon can sell more books - and in the end, decrease my own piece of the pie?

Gee, Mr. Bezos, if you wanted me to bend over and take it, you could have at least offered me some flowers and candy! Maybe if Amazon had started by offering me a higher royalty, it might have softened me up a little? I mean, there are a lot of things, and I mean A LOT, that Amazon could do to sweeten things up for self-published authors. They could do them out of the goodness of their hearts. Of course, they won't. They could do them because they value self-published authors as content creators and believe they should receive a fair wage for fair work. Of course, they won't. They could do them because they want us to say "how high" when they say "jump." But, apparently, they feel they don't have to. Apparently they think they can yank up our skirts and give it to us whenever they feel like it. Amazon = alphahole? Not a bad analogy...

If you want me to put out, Amazon, perhaps you could, oh, I don't know...

1. Give self-published authors an Amazon representative. Every self-published author should have one - that's only fair.

2. Give self-published authors back the pre-order button. You took it away when you deactivated Mobi as a publishing platform and never gave it back. Now you dole it out to authors you feel are "worthy" of the pre-order button.

3. Allow self-published authors to join Kindle Unlimited WITHOUT exclusivity.

4. Give self-published authors something reasonable - say 60% of list price for borrows - in Kindle Unlimited.

5. Hachette got to pay for coop on Amazon to get their books out in front of the reader - offer the same thing to self-published authors. Why can't we pay to get our books out in front of readers too?

6. Hachette gets full control over their books - including choosing more that two measley categories for each book. (Or, in the case of erotica, just one!) Give self-published authors the same treatment.

7. Stop serial book returns. You give readers carte blanche, let them return dozens of books, and take money out of self-published authors' pockets.

8. Define your terms of service more clearly and make your policies and guidelines transparent.

9. Actually TELL us when you're going to start a program like Kindle Unlimited and ASK if we'd like to be included, rather than opting us in and telling us we can opt-out if we like.

10. Let us make books free at will. Let us price at whatever level we like. In fact, let HACHETTE price their books whatever way they like too. Let the free market be... you know, FREE.

Those are just ten easy things Amazon could do to sweeten up their relationship with self-published authors, to show us that they take us seriously as content creators. Just as seriously as they take Hachette and the other legacy publishers. Will they do them? Oh, maybe. Eventually. In their own time. But not because they value self-published authors. That, I'm afraid, is a delusion. Self-published authors talk about being afraid of biting the hand that feeds them, but what they really need to be worried about is being trampled underfoot of the giants fighting over their heads.

To me, Amazon's letter smacks of desperation. This is a midnight booty call, folks. Do we answer midnight booty calls? No - we have more self-respect than that. Don't we? I sure hope so.

Amazon's calling self-published authors to unite and that's all well and good, but in the end, we have to have a reason. Indies are independent. It's right in the name. Simply providing a platform for us to sell on doesn't cut it, I'm afraid. That's not enough incentive for self-published authors to rally around a retail giant asking us to cut our own throats in order to keep ebook prices down for consumers, while they pay their own warehouse workers minimum wage, cut off affiliates in states where they might have to pay sales tax, and an overall 6% effective tax rate.

Not that I think self-published authors shouldn't unite. I believe they should. And some day, there may actually be a good enough reason to compel most of them to do so. I doubt that reason lies in supporting Amazon's fight with Hachette. But if I were Amazon, I'd pay closer attention to the self-publishing community, because we're not playing peasant to their feudal lord and we only look like sheep. We're really wolves in sheep's clothing, every one of us, and we have quite a bit of bite, especially as a group. Amazon knows this to some degree - they're trying to activate that rabid capability to their own defense.

What Amazon doesn't want you to know, what they don't want self-published authors to wake up and realize, is that we have far more in common with Hachette and legacy publishers in this matter than we do with Amazon. I know this because I've been a small co-op publisher since 2008, and have been using Amazon as a distributor since then. In fact, through Excessica, I have more power than most self-published authors in fighting against Amazon's strong-arm tactics. Most self-published authors, even though they are, essentially, publishers in their own right (they simply have an author stable of one), have little to no power in negotiations with Amazon. Right now Amazon is dictating terms to Hachette. They can choose to play ball, or they can take their bat and mitt and go home. What are you going to do, when Amazon decides to change your publishing terms? When they want to tell you that you can no longer sell your book at $0.99? When they tell you your royalty rate is now 50% instead of 70%? Or 35%?

I know some self-published authors will rally around Amazon, afraid of biting the hand that feeds them, but I also know that many will not. Many authors will find Amazon's midnight booty call just as offensive and appalling as I did. And in the end, if we don't unite for Amazon, we may still combine our forces and use our powers for good. Amazon should watch their backs, because self-published authors may unite all on our own - some of us have already begun. The numbers Amazon is trying to leverage surely do exist - but I'm afraid they may not always come down on the side Amazon wants them to. Marie Antoinette threw bread to the peasants and told them to eat cake - before those peasants all grabbed their torches and pitchforks and decided to storm the castle. She ended up headless. In the end, I'm pretty sure the full force of united self-published authors is not an opposition Amazon ultimately wants to deal with.

~Selena Kitt~
www.selenakitt.com

Software That Does What Publishers Can't

There are three things that self-publishers can do that traditional publishers will never be able to. Do you know what those three things are? I’ll give you a hint, they’re things that will revolutionize the publishing industry.

Before I discuss those three things, however, let’s first discuss traditional publishers and the publishing landscape. 

A lot is said in the self-publishing community about the evils of the traditional publisher. They reject great books and then take all of the revenue from the books they accept. And this might be the case, but let’s take a second to understand why they act this way. 

Traditional publishers are in a very difficult position. In order for them to remain relevant, they have to do what they do better than their competitors. In order to be the best, they must hire the best editors, cover designers and publicity folks. In order to hire the best people, you have to pay competitive wages which allow their employees a standard of living that is at least on par with the best of their field. 

What that means is that publishers can’t just acquire any great book that crosses their desk. They can only acquire the books whose revenue is enough to make sure that their publishers and editors can continue to make the lease payments on their 2012 Audi A6’s. And I don’t say this in jest, this is a real thing. The best editors and publishers in the United States should be able to drive Audis. They work hard and do a great job, so why shouldn’t they? 

But what this means is that traditional publishers need to increase their odds selling a lot of books. Were you involved in a national scandal? Were you on a reality show? Then move to the front of the line. After all, publishers and editors have lease payments to make.

Where does this focus on profit leave the self-publisher? Actually, in a really great position. Why? Because there are advantages and disadvantages to employing a large team of egos. The disadvantage is that large companies move slowly. We have all seen this point in action when it comes to the book-to-shelf times of large publishing houses. But we can see another example of it when we bring up the topic of innovation. 

How much innovation have you seen from the traditional publishers during the last 10 years? Did anyone notice the new font they introduced in Bill O’Reilly’s last book? No? Well neither did I. That’s because there has been no innovation. We’re 7 years into the digital revolution and the great minds at the helm of the most successful publishing companies in the world haven’t introduced an innovation since glued binding. 

Well, my SnapChatting nephew probably doesn’t even know what a box bookstore is. And, while traditional publishers have been chasing after the next sure thing, self-publishers have been busy inventing things that traditional publishers could never think of.

Self-Publishing Innovation #1

Did you know that studies have identified the people who are most-likely to purchase your book? Did you know that traditional publishers already know who these people are and use it to their benefit?

Studies have shown that the person most likely to purchase your book is a person who has purchased one of your previous books. Traditional publishers know this. The reason why they place ads in the back of your books is because the person reading your book is a proven customer. And the reason why the ads in the back of your book are to books written by other authors is because publishers need to make their Audi’s lease payments. 

Traditional publishers need to redirect proven customers to the books that are most likely to increase their revenue. They might sell more of your book if they showed only your books, but they will make more money if they show someone else’s books. And because they show someone else’s book in the back of yours, does not mean that they will show your book in the back of someone else’s.

‘My Publishing Assistant’ is a suite of software that is designed to make self-publishing easy. ‘My Publishing Assistant’s Book Management’ plugin works with WordPress and allows you to automatically place links to your back catalog in the back of your books. This allows those who are most likely to buy your books to find your books. 

But advertising your book in the back of your other books is something that traditional publishers can do. They just don’t. Let’s discuss something that publishers can’t do. 

We all have our favorite digital bookstores. And if we could, we would probably buy all of our books from there. Readers are the same way. So when we add our back catalog to the back of our books, why not add links to the book at the reader’s favorite bookstore? If a reader bought your book on iTunes, why not have links in your book to all of your other books on iTunes?

Traditional publishers can’t do this because it takes too much time and they aren’t motivated to chase after every sale like you are. Digital publishers like Smashwords and D2D can’t do this because the one book you upload to them has to be generic enough to be distributed to all publishers. As a self-publisher, however, you can do this. And with software like ‘My publishing Assistant’s Book Management’ plug-in, you can do it quickly and easily. 

When your reader purchases your book on Barnes & Noble, the links in the back of your book will go to Barnes and Noble. When your reader purchases your book from Google Bookstore, they are just one click away from purchasing your other books from the Google Bookstore as well. And when you add in the Book Management plug-in’s ability to output books in ePub, Doc, Mobi, Pdf and html, you get an innovation in self-publishing that traditional publishers can’t match.

Self-Publishing Innovation #2

Do you know what one of the hottest trends in children’s book publishing is? It’s customized books. Kids get a kick out of seeing their name in print as the protagonist of a wonderful story. And why shouldn’t they. We read to be swept away on an adventure. And one of the fun things about reading is imagining yourself in whatever adventure or romance the protagonist is experiencing.

What if book customization wasn’t limited to stories under 1000 words? What if readers could customize full novels replacing the names of the characters with ones they know? What if your reader could put themselves and their favorite crush in the romances you’ve written? And what if they could change the novel’s locations to their city and the places they visit every day. How much would your readers be willing to pay you to customize your stories?

Could you imagine a traditional publisher every being able to offer this? Why not? The technology has been there for years. So why haven’t they at least tried? It’s because large companies move slowly. You, as a self-publisher, don’t have the same limitations. 

Soon, by using My Publishing Assistant’s website themes, you will be able to easily turn your catalog into a bookstore. And adding on the Customize Book plug-in, you will be able to take advantage of the fact that your books are digital. You will be able to quickly and easily turn your books into customizable books that your readers can buy. And you will be doing this while traditional publishers wait for the latest Bachelorette to deliver her non-fiction book on how to win friends and influence people.

Self-Publishing Innovation #3

I’ve already mentioned how valuable the space in the back of your book is. It is direct access to the attention of proven customers. And when you publish your book with a traditional publisher, they own that space. They could use it to advertise your books or the books of their favorite cash cow. But whoever it is, they will certainly be the ones to benefit.

Do you think that, on your own, you could ever get access to the ad space at the back of a bestselling book? No, you couldn’t. Why? Because it is a monopoly. 

If you published traditionally, could you ever be the one to reap the financial reward from the space in the back of a book you’ve written? Never. Traditional publishers employ a lot of people and that extra revenue is what helps to keep the juggernaut alive.

What if you could, though? What if you could sell the space in the back of your book? What if you could purchase space in the back of bestsellers within your genre? How valuable would that be to you?

Soon, by using ‘My Publishing Assistant’s Ad Marketplace’, you will be able to purchase ad space on the back of other books, while selling the space at the back of your own. You will be able to choose who gets access to your book and you will be able to ask for a flat fee or sell it to the highest approved bidder. And this will be a feature created by a self-publisher for self-publishers.

Could traditional publishers ever give you such access? Do you think that they would even if they could? And as self-publishers gain access to more and more innovative and effective forums of advertising, what do you think will happen to traditional publishers?

This article has only highlighted the innovations of one company focused on the arena of self-publishing. What happens when more self-publishers turn their creative minds on innovation? The possibilities are endless.

So, as traditional publishers chase after Kim Kardashian for her next literary tome, self-publishers will be changing the landscape around them. And for me, it isn’t a matter of which group will win the publishing game, because self-publishers have already won it. It might not look like it to them as they peer down from their New York offices, but it’s only because they can’t see here from there. 

Alex Anders,

International bestselling self-publishing author

Software developer at MyPublishingAssistant.com

The Long-Term Erotica Game

As a erotica writer, are you in the short-term game or the long-term game? Did you know there was even a difference? There is–an important one.

Even before the Fifty Shades phenomenon, writers were discovering that erotica was a gravy train when it came to writing. The fact that the erotica market supports selling shorter works for more money made it very appealing to writers looking to make a decent living. It also seemed “easy,” at least on the surface. You pump out (excuse the pun) 20-30 short titles in a few months, and you’re suddenly in the money, paying your mortgage with your royalties!

Since Fifty Shades, the erotica market has been literally flooded (excuse the pun again) with stories about billionaires doing naughty, wicked things to their secretaries. Mark Lefebvre from Kobo says “enhanced Romance” (which is code for erotica) sells the most on their ereader and when Mark Coker from Smashwords says “Romance is our bestselling genre,” what he means is erotic romance. When Mills and Boon starts holding erotic writing seminars, you know the genre has arrived.

I know several very mainstream writers–names you would easily recognize if I printed them–who have decided to get their hands dirty and supplement their “real” writing in their preferred genre (be it sci-fi, mystery, “regular” romance, horror or whatever…) with some erotica writing. I find it amusing that many of them, back when Paypal wouldn’t pay for that “smutty stuff,” self-righteously deemed it “too bad, so sad.” Some of them went so far as to say, “Serves them right for writing that nasty stuff!” Of course, their livelihood wasn’t at stake then. Now they have a dog in this fight. Now they’re writing erotica right along with everyone else, discovering that Amazon filters “certain” covers and “certain” content from their main search, that Apple bans “certain” titles altogether, that some smaller vendors deem “certain” subjects unacceptable.

Now these writers are discovering how erotica writers really get treated. Everyone reads it but no one wants to admit it. Erotica writers are excluded from certain blogs and groups because of their “content.” Erotica writers are the subject of snide remarks and disdain–yet lo and behold, they’re some of the biggest sellers out there. And now these writers know what it takes to write a good sex scene. Hey, wow, there is really more to it than inserting Tab A into Slot B! At least, there is if you want to sell well, build a brand, and actually make a living at it.

Which brings us back to the long vs. short term erotica game. Many of the people jumping on the erotica bandwagon are in it for the short term. They didn’t start writing it for the love of the genre—they started writing it for the same reason people set out to California in the 1850′s to pan for gold. Short-term erotica writers are looking to cash in, pay off some credit card debt or buy a few new toys, and ride it out until the wave crests and fades away.

Short term erotic writers are watching and following trends. Daddies? I can write about Daddies! Billionaires? I can write about billionaires! Werewolves? I can write werewolves! In fact, I can write about Daddy Billionaire Werewolves! Short-term erotica writers want to make short-term money.

Not that there’s anything wrong with short-term money!

But there are erotica writers who have been doing this for years, who do it because it happens to be the genre they fell in love with (like some writers fall for horror, or thrillers, or romance—it’s just where they “fit”) and it’s the genre they want to write in. These are the writers in the long-term erotica game. We’ve watched the market trend and change. Fifty Shades opened a few more doors for erotica writers, but the basic landscape hasn’t really changed.

The basics are still the same and will always be the same.

**Write a good story.
**Make it hot.
**Write what you love, what turns you on.
**If a certain trend is popular and it appeals to you, then go for it! But if you’re faking it, your readers will know.
**Your characters are real people, and if they don’t act like it, your readers will know.
**If you’re not that into it, your readers will know.

Erotica writers in the long-term game can take advantage of the short-term market, but please, don’t forget to look down the road. This is where you could really hurt yourself if you want to be in this long-term. Those who aren’t in this for the long-haul are near-sighted. Yes, you should pay attention to what they’re doing, but don’t necessarily model yourself after them. They aren’t thinking five, ten, fifteen years ahead.

Remember, if you want to be around and have readers in the future erotica market, you have to build a readership now. If you become some flash-in-the pan writer, spreading yourself thin with a hundred pen names and short, trendy titles with lots of cotton candy fluff but no real meat, your readers will go away dazed with the sugar-rush but ultimately unsatisfied. No one can live on cotton candy forever.

Writing what you love in any genre is important. Erotica is no different. Readers aren’t stupid, and they’re not reading erotica and erotic romance for any other reason than they read mystery or horror. They want something specific, and they want a writer to give that to them. They develop a relationship with the authors they love. Short-term erotica writers aren’t going to build that kind of reader base.

Long-term erotica writers will still be here, still writing, after Fifty Shades has trended and gone. And their readers will remember them and continue to seek them out. Those in the short-term game will have either moved back into their own “real” genres, or they will have found that writing erotica isn’t bringing them the cash it once did, and decide to do something else.

Those who love it, who are in for the long game, will still be doing it. They will be the writers of erotica’s future–as long as they remember not to fall into short-term traps.

Selena Kitt

Erotic Fiction You Won’t Forget

www.selenakitt.com

LATEST RELEASE: Becca (Daddy’s Favorites)

To Agent or not to Agent

Just when you think you know what’s going to happen in the publishing industry, everything turns upside down again. I spent the summer recuperating from a back injury, and when I came back to the world of the Internet I found something rather stunning had happened. My genre (erotica and erotic romance) had exploded. Apparently, the flood of erotica in the market went crazy after the success of Fifty Shades of Grey. And what truly amused me was that writers who previously shunned the idea of writing “that stuff” were now invading the erotica genre like panhandlers looking for sparkly stuff in the early days of the California gold rush.

Of course, there’s no recreating the organic success of something like Fifty Shades of Grey. It’s like trying to recreate Harry Potter, Twilight or The Hunger Games. Yes, wizard, vampire and post-apocalyptic fiction can and has ridden the coat tails of such bestsellers. But you can’t recreate the first, because the original had an x-factor that the later copycats couldn’t capture. It’s like cloning – you can get a facsimile, but it’s never going to be the same.

That said, apparently my name has been bandied about this summer, after the popularity of the James’ series, because I’ve had not one, not two, but… well actually it’s now more than three, agents approach me in the past month or so with the promise of, “You could be the next EL James!” First of all, you’re assuming I want to be the next EL James. You’re also assuming I want to be traditionally published. Two pretty big assumptions.

I’m not sure I want to do either. Do I really want to open that door? Most of the agents have approached with the caveat: “I know you’re doing well on your own…” so at least they know the score. I’ve got 100 titles out there with my name on them and I’m pretty close to a million ebooks sold (if I haven’t passed it officially already… I still have to run the numbers) in the past two years. "Pretty well" is a bit of an understatement, I think.

I always said, “I’m glad I write erotica, because no agent is ever going to approach me with a ‘too good to turn down’ offer from traditional publishing.” I was so sure of this fact, especially given that everyone from Amazon to Apple to Paypal wanted to get rid of the stuff.

Then Fifty Shades of Grey became a runaway bestselling series.

Derp.

Now I’ve got a decision to make. To agent, or not to agent? I know all the arguments for and against. I think we all do. But self-published erotica and erotic romance authors are heading toward traditional publishers in droves. Sara Fawkes recently signed with Amanda Hocking’s agent and he got her a book deal with St. Martin's. Maya Banks just signed a 7-figure deal with Penguin for a three book series.

Publishers are now banking on erotic romance.

Whhhhaaat!? Really!? Have I entered the Twilight Zone?

I’m leery, I admit. I’ve heard so many horror stories about traditional publishing from authors who have jumped ship to self-publish. But there are authors (like EL James or Amanda Hocking) who have decided to go the other way, from self-publishing to traditional, and they’ve had good success.

The fact is, I have a three-book series based on Under Mr. Nolan’s Bed waiting in the wings. It was a huge seller for me in the days before Amazon decided to ban "certain types" of fiction, and although its ranks have never recovered there, it’s also the book that spurred people to run over to Barnes and Noble to buy it and clock in record sales (over $100,000 in a month!) last year. It’s also my “most requested” book in terms of a sequel. It's different while still tapping into the erotic romance genre, it's controversial, it's already got an enormous following of readers who want to read a sequel and it's hot--in short, it has huge potential.

Now I have to decide… do I want to self-publish it? Or give it to an agent?

What would you do?

 
Selena Kitt  
Erotic Fiction You Won't Forget
www.selenakitt.com

Top Ten Myths About Erotica Writers

TOP TEN MYTHS ABOUT EROTICA WRITERS

1. We're sex experts.

I can't tell you how many emails I've received over the years asking for sexual advice from readers who were sure, since I write about sex, I must have the answers they're looking for. While I, personally, do happen to have a degree in psychology, I'm not a sexual therapist and don't profess to be one. I've made my best attempts to answer questions, always with the caveat that I am not an expert. Writing about FBI agents doesn't make thriller writers qualified to guard the president and writing about sex doesn't make me qualified to tell you how to do it.  

2. We’re nymphomaniacs.

I'm sure a few of us are, but for the most part, no. I'm not having sex on every surface in my house twice a day. I'm a sex writer, and not a sex blogger, for a reason. I write about the sex lives of imaginary people, not my own. While the two may cross on occasion, that line is blurry and indefinable. The reader doesn't know which part is mine and which part belongs to the character. Don't get me wrong--I like sex. I wouldn't be writing about it if I didn't! But I'm not a nymphomaniac or a sex addict by any stretch of the imagination.

3. We're all gorgeous.

 Right. Sure we are. And all those pictures erotic authors put on their Facebook profiles are really them. We're all busty, nineteen-year-old nubile beach bunnies who love sex and writing about it in our books, just for you. And if you believe that, I've got some unicorns for sale... The fact is, I've been to gatherings of erotic writers and we're all pretty normal people. You'd never spot one of us in Target and think, "I bet she writes erotica!"  

4. We're immoral.

This is so not true. Most of us have very solid values and beliefs. Morality is a touchy subject, but the fact is that erotica writers do have morals and we're usually very clear about what they are. I wouldn't commit adultery, for example. I happen to take my marriage vows very seriously. They're sacred to me. But I also think that marriage can take place between a man and a woman, or a woman and a woman, or a man and a man, that the only thing that makes it a marriage is that sacred commitment. I think most erotica writers are probably more liberal in our moral beliefs than non-erotica writers, but for the most part we're not immoral or even non-religious. I know many Christian erotica writers, believe it or not. And many more who are spiritual and believe in a higher power.  

5. We're ashamed of what we write - that's why we use pseudonyms.

We usually use pseudonyms to protect ourselves from judgment, yes, but not because we're ashamed of what we write, but because other people are. I know some erotica writers who use their real names, and good for them! Most of those don't have children, or have children who are grown. There is a stigma in our culture about sex, unfortunately, but the labels pasted on an erotica author's forehead say far more about those applying them than they do about the writer. I'm not ashamed of anything I write, but I do go out of my way to protect my family and my children from any possible fallout from religious or anti-porn zealots. I also know that because there is a myth that erotica writers are gorgeous, immoral nymphomaniacs, many people believe we want to have sex with them, and some have even sought me out to tell me so. Writing under a pseudonym doesn't insulate me completely, but it provides another layer of protection from that sort of thing.  

6. We only write erotica for the money/attention/titillation ________ (fill-in-the-blank).

This may actually be true, for some erotica writers. But for those of us who have done it a long time, who have a bit of longevity in the genre, I don't think we set out to make a million dollars, or gain fame and fortune. Like authors in any other genre, we had a story to tell, and we told it. It just happened to involve human sexuality instead of vampires or CIA Agents. (Okay, I admit, sometimes those things mix... sometimes in the same story!)  

7. We only write erotica to pay the bills so we can write our more "meaningful" books on the side.

 I don't. I think I put a great deal of "meaningful" into my erotic work, and I hope that most erotica writers do the same. I think the good ones really do. Do I have another pen name for mainstream work? Yes. Do I consider it better or superior to the writing I do as Selena Kitt? No, I really don't.  

8. We condone doing everything we write.

This is a big one. I don't condone incest, underage sex, unsafe sex, rape, nonconsent, public sex, threesomes, group sex, eating uncooked beef or fish, driving at unsafe speeds, or any of the other things I may write about. This is the stuff of fiction. It's a fantasy. So if my characters don't put on condoms, please don't send me hate mail about how I must want everyone to get herpes. If my characters are exploring sex with a sibling, and you think that's sick, remind yourself that these two people are not only not really related--they're not real! I'm not saying you should go have sex with your brother. I'm just saying that reading about a sister and brother having taboo sex can be a hot fantasy. It can also open the door to an exploration of their feelings and the issues that come up if something like that did happen. As a writer, I admit, I like edgier topics. Not everyone does. But just because Stephen King likes to write about evil clowns doesn't mean he would condone the Shrine Circus having a "kid killing" act in their show. Let's keep it real. Or, in this case, not real, but fiction!  

9. We're ruining marriages and relationship with our "mommy-porn."

I heard a great quote from Dr. Phil the other day. He was talking about the EL James Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon and someone basically asked him this question--was this mommy-porn ruining marriages? His response? If reading a book ruined your marriage, it was already over. In my experience, most of my readers write to thank me for revitalizing their sex lives. Husbands write about their wives' new reading habits. Wives usually say, "My husband doesn't know what hit him after I read one of your books!" As far as I'm concerned, I'm having a more positive effect than a negative one.  

10. We don’t care if young children see our books, we just want the money.

This is really not true. I have called for, time and again, clear and consistent boundaries from the companies who carry my books. I'm fine with an "erotica" section that is adults only. I have kids, too, and I don't want them seeing or reading things they shouldn't before they're ready. As a parent, I know that I'm ultimately responsible for that, and I can guarantee you that my children won't ever stumble across a "Selena Kitt" book by accident. But I can't police every parent's child, only my own. For now I have to rely on parents to keep their children safe, and maybe that's the way it should be. But it doesn't mean I'm not horrified at the thought of an underage person reading my work, because I am. I don't want it to happen, and I wish parents were more responsible about keeping tabs on their kids, and that businesses were more receptive to giving parents controls that allow them to do so.

Selena Kitt
Erotic Fiction You Won't Forget
www.selenakitt.com