Before we get into this episode. I need to make it very clear that erotica is a totally different beast from writing romance. They are two very distinctly different areas of fiction. I say this because I don’t want people who would otherwise mock romance in particular to get confused. They are two very different styles of writing and entertainment. But, I decided to include them in this episode because I feel like they are somewhat sex work adjacent and I wanted to offer an additional idea on how to make money online. Like many people who write romance, I started reading them when I was around 12 or 13 years old. Now in retrospect, GenX was reading some disturbing sh$t, but I truly fell in love with Harlequin romances in particular and still enjoy the old books that I find in thrift stores. A couple of years I decided to finally put my love of romance into the form of a book and that one random decision has made me over $15,000 in passive income and accounting since 2018. I do want to mention that I stopped working on romance books March 2020 until July 2021 as living through a pandemic really killed my creativity. That said, I still earn income from my non-fiction and fiction books every single month. Even though I haven’t focused on this revenue stream for more than a year. In this episode I’m going to talk about how to make money online writing erotica and romance and why you shouldn’t second guess self-publishing.
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Photo Credit:
“Photo by Dainis Graveris on SexualAlpha” with a clickable link to: https://sexualalpha.com/
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If you’ve told other people about your writing dreams and they put them down and discouraged you I created this course and space to nurture your writing dreams. My goal is to help you get your books done, connect with a supportive writing community and hopefully make some money along the way. Go to: https://michelleismoneyhungry.com/ebook-course to buy the course.
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Show Notes:
- There are many of you listening right now who are probably surprised that I write romance. I stopped actively sharing this even though romance writing has made me over $20,000 in both book and course sales since 2018.
- That basically passive income really helped change the trajectory of my online business and allowed me to make some choices within my personal finance career that I wouldn’t have been able to do without that passive income coming in.
- Why did I stop talking about writing romance and switched to just talking about the non-fiction books that I’ve published. At the time I just got tired of the lack of respect around that genre of literature.
- I got tired of people making awkward and quite frankly disparaging jokes about me writing romance and I didn’t feel like I should have to explain that it was something that I enjoyed, something that made me money and I loved helping other people do the same.
- Because of my romance income I was able to fire bad freelance clients, develop a course teaching other people how to write ebooks and during a global pandemic that passive income was one of the ways I was able to keep financial wolf from my door.
- I learned that you could use a skill set in a number of different ways and that as long it made money-who freaking cared. In fact, every since I started making money with ebooks I’ve received monthly payments every single month since July 2018. Some months were thousands of dollars and other months enough for a happy hour in Denver. But, I’ve earned money every single month.
- One of the area focus that Michelle is Money Hungry is leaning into is sharing how to make money online in order to optimize your time and help my readers and listeners add an online stream of income into their lives.
- If you’re listening and you’re doubting that people read self-published erotica and romance works-you’re wrong.
- Kindle Unlimited and other online reading platforms exist for a reason.
- At this point I read almost solely self-published romance fiction.
- Why do I love self-publishing so much?
- Self-publishing allows POC and other underrepresented groups to share their narratives and stories.
- Self-publishing has a low barrier to entry. You just need an inexpensive Chromebook or PC such as a Dell or Hewlett Packard. The PC being a better choice.
- At least 80% of my fiction reading is self-published and around 50% of my non-fiction reading is self-published.
- Never forget that Romance is the most popular fiction genre specific to book sales.
- Romance readers are VORACIOUS readers. I read romance almost daily.
How to Make Money Writing Erotica
If you’re too embarrassed to even read that header, hold on until we get to the how to make money writing romance. Erotica is popular. It truly is and it is likely that there are a number of readers out there for your work.
- Be a fan of the genre. It goes without saying that you need to actually be reading erotica in order to know what people are actively reading.
- Become a member of different erotica reading spaces. You can find them on Facebook and do your research there.
- Be clear about the different genres in the space. See which one appeals to the readers you would like to attract.
- Do some research around the genre. If you’ve read 50 Shades of Grey that’s in the erotica space. There’s The Wedding Date (which could also just be considered a romance) or any book by Maya Banks. And read self-published stories on different platforms.
- Be mindful about who you tell about your writing journey. Not everyone will respect your interest in the space and may mock you. Don’t let that happen. Join communities with other erotica writers.
- Focus on writing your story. Figure out which writing process works best for you. For some people having daily writing goals works best for them. For other people setting a weekly goal is a better strategy.
- Believe in your story.
- Last year I watched a number of interviews with women who lost their jobs during the pandemic and were able to take care of their families by writing erotica. Basically, unapologetically make your money and you don’t have to tell other people about it.
How to Make Money Writing Romance
I’m going to share some additional tips that build off of the tips for writing erotica.
- Be a fan of romance. I LOVE reading romance and I read a ton of different genres.
- Don’t let other people talk you out of writing in a genre that you love. If people can fall in love with Vampires or werewolves then it’s likely what you’ve dreamed up will work too.
- Write in proven niches…with a twist. Those proven niches are proof that people are already buying content in that space.
- Always have a way to take notes for your book ideas. The best ideas happen at the most random times. I have a notebook by my bed, with me at all times and a note app on my phone.
- Have fun with the process. You may write one book and then decide that the genre isn’t the right one for you.
- Be clear about your goals. My romance books are written with the goal of showing Black women, in particular, being loved and in all of the normalized romance stories and tropes that I grew up reading.
Some Final Thoughts
- Self-publishing is not a get rich scheme, it requires focused sustained work but can pay off in ongoing passive income.
- Self-publishing erotica and romance can be a lot of fun.
- Connect with other writers in the space. They will uplift you and support your journey.
- Don’t let anyone project their doubts onto you. Basically, know who you should share this interest with.
- Regardless of what you’ve heard-you don’t have to spend a lot of money on your books in the beginning. Just like with all of my online projects, I started with a tiny budget because I was paying off all of that unsecured debt that you’ve heard me talk about in other episodes of the show. My budget? It was basically $50. I needed a nice enough cover for the book and I paid for editing software. Now, I invest more money into my projects because I have paid off that debt and feel comfortable investing more into my business. By the way, that book has made me $20,000 because I started on my writing journey with it.
- I do want to quickly share how 2020 impacted my books and my course sales. I should mention that I publish both non-fiction and fiction books. The two non-fiction books that I published in February 2020 were the following:
- Why Now is the Time to Visit Denver. It really wasn’t.
- How to Host an In-Person Event. Yikes-those didn’t happen. At all.
- I had a romance series that was set at the Olympics…those didn’t happen either LOL!
- So, what did happen. I decided to stop working on my books until my creative energy returned. It took until the end of July 2021 for that to happen. Interestingly enough, people purchased my Olympic series romances and I’m now starting to market and sell the Denver book and In-Person event book. In fact, at the time that I’m recording this episode I’m flying to Nashville the next day to attend Podcast Movement.
- What I learned from this experience, sometimes your book idea may not work during the moment.
- I realized that authors should ALWAYS be marketing their backlist of works. I actually didn’t do this for the past year but plan on marketing my previously published works moving forward.
- I decided to also stop selling my Make Money with Ebooks Course for the past year after doing a mini beta launch testing out a subscription model. I offer office hours and I realized two things last year:
- It was going to be challenging to show up for myself, let alone supporting my authors in the way that I wanted to.
- The subscription model is not ideal for that course.
- That passive income made a difference to me before the Pandemic and was incredible helpful during 2020. I knew that I had money coming in each month. Even though I put my book business on hiatus.
- If you’re a person of color or part of a marginalized space-write your books. By the way, you would be surprised by who will read and support your work. Your stories should be told and there are people out there to support them.
- I use a pen name for my romance work. But, I’ve also created an online platform that uplifts POC romance authors and other authors that write works featuring at least one character of color. If you’re a fan of romance feel free to reach out to me for the details.
Make Money With Ebooks
If you’re inspired to say “yes” to your writing dreams, don’t forget to join the Make Money with Ebooks writing community. I’m excited to work with authors again after a year long hiatus (with the exception of the tiny cohort that I worked with last summer).
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I spend a lot of time at coffee shops working on my content. In fact, coffee shops helped me make it through the first year of the pandemic. I love supporting these small local businesses whenever I’m able to. Buy Me a Coffee is a quick and easy way to support my work and support a local business as well. Thanks so much and I’ll shout you out as well.
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