it's Shakespeare! It's explicit erotica! New Shimmer is both!!!
May 13, 2017 2:37 PM   Subscribe

What kind of folks would enjoy reading explicit erotica based on Shakespeare, or taking place in interesting historical settings? And where can I find those people and share my work with them?

First, I want to acknowledge the wonderful variety of answers I have gotten over the years from this forum. You guys have helped me plan menus, solve relationship issues and in one outstanding case, prevented me from getting electric shocks on my hands at the warehouse store. So thanks! And now, for something completely different. How shall I market my porn?

Here's the deal. I've been writing explicit stories that I think are pretty good... better than what's generally available on the Kindle store, at least. I just posted the first series (link in bio if anyone wants) and to my surprise, even got a few buyers already, although I haven't done any promotion yet. The series I just put up is erotic versions of Shakespeare stories, and I'm going to be putting up some more soon that are explicit erotic fiction set in historical locations (places/times I have already done lots of research on for other projects.)

So now that my first books are up for public consumption, I want to build my brand (specifically, get ratings and reviews) by getting my work out there, and I'm perfectly willing to do free giveaways, etc to do it. I feel like there must be readers who like explicit smut AND would enjoy it mixed up with cliffsnotes of literature or history.

But where should I look for these folks, to give my stuff to them (for now)? I looked at one erotica site (erotica-readers I think) and found the subject matter a bit beyond my comfort level. I'd thought my own stuff was hard core, but now I realize that it's comparatively pretty tame compared to some of what's out there. (The folks in my stories are adults and they're ultimately fine with what's going on!)

I'd say the level of my stuff is similar to the Anne Rice Beauty series, if you remember those. It's about half M/F and half M/M (and other combinations of multiples... I don't know if it was a mistake to jumble them all up together. Guess I'll find out. It's not my fault Shakespeare has all kinds of stuff going on!)

Anyway! Where on the Internet are my readers, do you think?
posted by fingersandtoes to Writing & Language (11 answers total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Do you have a Tumblr? Tumblr will be all over this.
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:25 PM on May 13, 2017 [2 favorites]


Best answer: AO3. It's not specifically for porn, which may help you feel more comfortable if you've been put off by what I hesitate to imagine are the visual stylings of more "hardcore" sites, but there certainly is a lot of it.
posted by praemunire at 3:50 PM on May 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Seconding AO3. Speaking as someone who could definitely be in the "reader of Shakespearean erotica" zone - I wouldn't think to look for that on Amazon - and on the odd occasion that I pay for erotica, it's always by authors that I already know and trust.

If I were looking for that sort of thing, I'd hit the fanfic sites, or cruise fanfic tags on Tumblr. (Or, a decade ago, Fanfiction.net and LiveJournal.)
posted by okayokayigive at 3:56 PM on May 13, 2017


Best answer: You might look at Jillian Keenan's work (Sex and Shakespeare) and fans.

She is kinky (which may not be part of your writing) but I don't think that aspect is necessary to connect with the writing and fanbase.
posted by pantarei70 at 3:59 PM on May 13, 2017


Best answer: Most of the romance/erotica review blogs have a place you can submit your work for review consideration. Many of them also have weekly or monthly "pimp your work" threads to comment on. (Additionally, most of those blogs will take ads for books.) Smart Bitches Trashy Books is my personal favorite, and this seems directly up their alley.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:07 PM on May 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I concur with the other commenters that readers at AO3 are likely to welcome Shakespeare-themed erotica and similar work -- but what no one has mentioned is that AO3 is aggressively non-commercial. I don't know how you're hoping to connect with readers, but I do know that mentioning any kind of moneymaking on the site (availability for fiction commissions, work for sale, links to Patreon, and so forth) in any way that can be interpreted as wanting people to give you money for something is against their TOS and will get your work or at least your money-related endnotes deleted.

(The workaround I have seen people employ, if you can call it that, is to link to their Tumblr in a way that has absolutely no mention of money -- "hi, I'm x on Tumblr, come squee with me about Shakespeare!" -- and then that Tumblr has, say, a sidebar with links to Patreon or Amazon or whatever.)
posted by sineala at 4:23 PM on May 13, 2017 [4 favorites]


Best answer: If you are looking to sell your work, I too was going to tout Smart Bitches Trashy Books, as well as Dear Author and Heroes and Heartbreakers - the last is a bit more mainstream but does cover erotica.

If your goal is for eyeballs and you are indifferent to money, then AO3 is a good choice.
posted by rednikki at 8:34 PM on May 13, 2017


Best answer: AO3 is a great site. If you familiarise yourself with their tagging system it will help you get more readers.

Their Shakespeare tag is SHAKESPEARE William - Works; if Shakespeare is a character, here's the tag for that.

As others mentioned, if you link to a Tumblr, you can also post sample paragraphs on your Tumblr with links to places where people can buy the full story/stories.
posted by Pallas Athena at 6:27 AM on May 14, 2017


Best answer: If you're in the Goodreads author program you can do giveaways and other promotions.
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:14 PM on May 14, 2017


The other thing no one is mentioning here is that the attitudes of people on AO3 and Tumblr are likely to be very dismissive of efforts to profit off something thousands of fanfic writers already do for free — ie, the reaction is likely to be less 'yay where can i buy this?' and more: Outsider discovers fanfic, acts like they invented something great, sells it. Yawn.
posted by bookshop at 10:17 AM on May 16, 2017


Best answer: Tumblr is full of professional authors linking to their purchasable content-- Diane Duane and Ellen Kushner, among others. Pretty much every artist on there has a link to their redbubble or society6 or suchlike. There absolutely is support and understanding that creators are doing real work and deserve to be compensated.

However, there's a recent wrinkle involving Tumblr itself making posts unsearchable if they contain links to outside sites, so probably best to put your buy-stuff-here links in the sidebar of your blog.
posted by Pallas Athena at 8:08 PM on May 16, 2017


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