When I closed in on finishing my erotic novel, everything I did from writing, to design, to creating a launch team, and marketing, was designed to make the most of a difficult situation.
I’m highly aware of the dearth of quality erotic work out there, in fact, that’s one of the reasons I wanted to contribute to the genre (hopefully some quality work for a change). But it’s not easy to stand out.
My debut novel “Dominatrix Boss” began as an exercise to prove that I could complete a novel. I knew it would be fun to write and that I could keep going long enough to finish it.
But I also wrote the novel from a different perspective than most in the genre. As someone who is actually in the BDSM community, and as someone who has actually experienced much of what goes on in the novel, I was in a position to counter much of the poor-quality or simply uninformed content that’s out there.
I have an advantage that many writers who place BDSM in their novels do not. I’ve lived this stuff.
So, my first piece of advice to stand out from the pack is to know what you’re talking about.
I’ve noticed that much of the erotic work out there is not even novella-length. I’ve seen erotic ebooks under 15 pages in length. That’s a short story, not a novel!
While I was writing my book I was highly focused on getting over 100 pages in length. I could have written double the size, but about halfway through the book, I realized that I had two or three stories with these characters, and everyone suggests publishing a series of novels, so I made the decision to split the story.
Therefore, try to present an erotic book with some volume to stand out.
If you take a good look at the Amazon marketplace for erotic novels then you’ll see a bunch of poorly-designed covers, thin descriptions, and no reviews.
I knew that to stand out I’d have to have a good-looking cover (I tried to make it look as close to a major-release as possible. I do design work and I’m an artist, so I did a lot of reading on the subject and did the illustration and design myself.
If I had the budget I might have paid an artist to paint an illustration for me. The next best thing is for me to improve my own art and do it myself. I realize that most people don’t have that option. Pay an artist, or a designer if you can afford it.
I also decided at the last minute to have a series of illustrations for all the chapter headings. I wanted it to be special and stand out from the pack, and I knew that most erotic books wouldn’t have that.
Before I launched the book I reached out to my audience and asked them to help me promote my book in exchange for a review copy. It worked fabulously! They really stepped up and helped me get the message out during my launch.
They also helped encourage readers to leave a review. After about two weeks in release, I had five 5-Star reviews! I would love to have more, but that’s about five more reviews than most erotic novels have unless it’s done by a celebrity or major author (I can’t compete with Anne Rice, for example).
Reviews are so much more important than anyone knows. Well, authors know because they are on the front lines, but trust me… reviews are huge.
If you like an author, particularly if they are independent or new to the business, please leave a review on their work. It can absolutely make the difference between obscurity and being able to make some money on a project. Besides buying the book in the first place, reviews are the next best thing.
Your review could help that author to write another book. No kidding.
Finally, none of this matters if you don’t deliver the goods inside the covers.
Put your blood sweat and tears into your work. Get it edited by someone who knows what they are doing. And make sure it’s as good as it can be before sending it out to the world.
That launch team had a lot of good advice on the book after they read it. Some of that advice led to changes in the book. The next time I do this I’m going to get it to beta-readers and the launch team a little earlier (but not too early, you’ll lose your momentum). Then I can make the most of that advice.
The bottom line is that no matter what you do to stand out, if the readers don’t like the work, you’re in trouble.
