Wondering what steps to take in order to succeed as a self publish erotica author?
Starting your erotica publishing business can be a daunting task.
There are just so many variables. You have to research stories, write the actual book, design a professional book cover, research keywords, and market your book!
And all of that can be super overwhelming for a beginner – and it was for me.
I have been writing and selling erotica on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing for a number of years now, so I want to share some quick tips for new authors to succeed.
Here are 5 steps to succeed as an Erotica author on KDP.
1. Publish consistently
One of the best ways for you to make money in this business is to publish consistently.
If you’ve read my blog or sign up for my email list, you’ll now that I stress this ALL the time.
All of the top authors in every niche and genre have one thing in common: they have a set publishing schedule.
Maybe they publish once a week. Maybe they publish once a month. But they have a set publishing schedule and stick to it like the bible.
I know keeping up with a publication schedule is insanely hard. I find it super difficult sometimes because life gets in the way. But if you publish consistently, you WILL get results.
One of my recent students (Jane) from the Erotica Academy Course recently hit $500 per month in income.
It took a lot of hard work, but Jane achieved it because she published consistently. Jane published a book a week for about 2 months and finally broke through the barrier (a lot sooner than me when I first started).
I’m not promising specific results obviously (like a dollar amount), but your income WILL improve if you publish consistently.
2. Pick your niche carefully
Niche selection is super important to your success. If you pick a niche that is too competitive, it’ll be hard to stand out.
And if you pick a niche that is too narrow, your audience will be capped.
So it is important for you to pick something in the godilocks zone.
Here are some quick tips for picking out a good niche.
First, there should be at least 1,000 – 2,000 books in the search results. Further, there must be active authors in that niche.
If you don’t see any recent books within the past 3 – 6 months, then the niche is probably dying down.
Third, you should check the sales rankings of the top authors. If they consistently rank under 50,000 or 100,000, you’ll know they are doing well.
3. Spend time designing professional book covers
Never judge a book by its cover, right?
WRONG! Forget about that adage right away!
Book covers are important because people are very visual creatures!
When they scroll through the search results in Amazon, they are looking primarily at the covers of the books and the book title.
So if your book doesn’t look halfway decent or at least catch their attention, it will be very hard to sell many copies.
I would recommend either designing your own covers or hiring someone to do it.
You can design your own covers with PicMonkey or Canva – both are great software that I use and are relatively inexpensive.
If you want to hire someone to design covers, I would suggest using Fiverr – you can get someone to design it for $10 -$30 bucks.
4. Keywords are super important
Selecting proper keywords for your books is important.
What in the world are keywords? Keywords are how customers find your book.
These are the words and phrases customers type into the Amazon search results to find books they want to buy.
It doesn’t matter how good your story is. If people can’t find your books in Amazon’s search results, no one can buy it!
As a result, spending some time researching keywords is important.
Here’s the best advice I can give you when it comes to keywords: Use keywords that customers search for.
Don’t focus on keywords that are obscure or that have no search volume.
P.S. if you want some help picking out keywords, check out my Keyword Templates.
5. Don’t forget to spy on the competition
This is one thing I don’t see a lot of new authors doing, but it can be a great way to make more money.
One thing I would suggest is to read up on your competitors once in a while.
This allows you to get some information about what is happening to the niche (as they do evolve sometimes).
Secondly, it allows you to get ideas from other people who are making good money.
Big businesses spy on their competition all the time. So, why shouldn’t you do the same to get ahead?
I have gotten so many good ideas doing this over the years!
Steps To Succeed As An Erotica Author – Final Thoughts
Overall, most new authors over-complicate things in the beginning.
Don’t focus on too many different things at once.
If you focus on these areas I mentioned, you will have taken the necessary steps to succeed as an erotica author.
Focus on the basics: (1) Publishing consistently, (2) Picking a good niche, (3) Design professional book covers, (4) Good keyword selection, and (5) Research, and you’ll be able to succeed in this market.