I grew up in the 1990s in an era filled with fads.
You had Beanie Babies, Pokemon, Tamagotchi, and a whole lot of other products that are discontinued or no longer popular.
One day they were hot and making their owners a ton of money!
….and then the next they disappeared from sight. Pretty interesting stuff, right?
So, how in the world does this relate to erotica?
Well, erotica is somewhat similar.
Some of the niches go through cycles. Some of them are hot for a while and then turn cold.
Now, a lot of erotica writers like to focus on these trendy niches.
Personally, I don’t like how some of these niches die out after a while. Instead, I like to focus on erotica niches that will always be in demand.
But how do you tell if an erotica niche is dying?
Well, hopefully, I’ll explain it do you in this post!
Sales Start Declining…
I have been writing erotica for more than 3 years now and the number one thing I always recommend new writers do is be consistent.
And by that, I mean stick to a publishing schedule (whether that’s one book every week or one book every month) no matter what.
Being consistent will really help your sales.
But if you see your sales start to decline over a 2 – 3 month period DESPITE keeping your publishing schedule on track, the niche might be dying.
I recommend waiting at least 2 months to come to this conclusion because I’ve seen some pretty big changes in income on a month to month basis.
Similarly, if you see a downward trend in your author rankings on Amazon Author Central, there is a good chance the niche is slowing down.
These are the two primary ways I use to identify “dying” niches.
What To Do With A Dying Niche?
So what happens if you think your niche is dying?
Should you just “pack it up” and go home?
No!
Even though a niche might be slowing down it doesn’t mean you still can’t make decent money from it.
One thing I suggest doing is bundling some of your older books.
Bundling just means packaging your stories at a discounted price.
This allows you to monetize older books that might not be selling well anymore.
Secondly, you offer free book promotions to try and get readers interest in your catalog.
The idea behind this is to sell them on your backmatter. I’ve had varying degrees of success using this strategy.
And if your niche is truly dying, it may be time to try and research another niche to write in.
Final Thoughts
Overall, identifying whether or not your particular erotica niche is dying isn’t an exact science.
No one really publishes market sales data for these categories.
But if you see (1) your sales decline even though you are consistently publishing and (2) a decline in your author ranking, then there is a good chance the niche is on a down swing.
If that’s the case, start bundling some of your older books and potentially start researching other niches to write in.
And if you have any more thoughts on this topic be sure to let me know!