This may be one of my longer posts, so hope you all bear with me…it’s been a while since I posted an update, and have a LOT to cover!
Ever since I started this “journey” writing erotica 20+ years ago I have believed in transparency, even if it was not beneficial to myself. Whether it was a delay in an ETA of a story’s release, a change in focus from one story to another, or something entirely different, I have wanted to keep you, the fans, informed.
Over the years, as things have evolved, much of what I do has been in response to you, the fans. I have always promoted discussing and listening to your suggestions, taking many to heart. A core of you do this regularly, exchanging ideas and suggestions via e-mail concerning story directions, focus, and offerings on Patreon, and hope that will continue. Some of you just want to chat, which is fantastic. I definitely want such interactions and feedback to continue!
I have reached another milestone in my ‘writing hobby-slowly-turning-career’ and wanted to share my thoughts and dreams, my hopes and aspirations. ;)
The very first milestone I ever undertook was making my writings public. That was a huge first step, placing my twisted perversions out on the ‘internet’ for anybody to rip apart. After a few years of posting on USENET and the Alt.Sex.Stories boards, I moved to a more formalized posting on Literotica. Eventually, based upon comments from Literotica, I formed my blog in order to keep everybody up to date. And recently, latest expansion into this world—which to my surprise has hit off fairly well—is my Patreon site.
All of these changes/additions have been at the suggestions of fans, many who have been with me for many, many years! For that, I thank you, and for those that support me through Patreon, you have even greater thanks! Patreon has definitely given me more incentive to put time aside to write, whereas before I could go for MONTHS without doing so.
Since then—even before Patreon—people have suggested publishing my stories. At first I was reluctant, because I did not know if I had anything to offer that was not offered on Literotica. But after all the input by other people, I am moving to a new era—self-publishing my stories. I have decided is YES, I will be self-publishing my stories.
So here has been what has been going on this past month…
First I have been doing a LOT of research…talking with other people who self-publish (both ‘regular’ books as well as erotica), reading online posts and forums, and pouring through the various publishing sites on how to submit, what they offer, and any rules/restrictions they may impose.
My initial foray will be through Amazon. Their Kindle Direct Publishing program is the easiest and quickest way to get something published. I don’t have to deal with purchasing ISBN numbers for each version of a book—Amazon has their own internal number they assign, and other things like that which make it ‘easy’ to self-publish. Even the formatting, for the most part, is much easier, as there are tools specifically created for their publications.
The first book I will be releasing will be a revised version of Good Girl Gone Bad, slightly different from what had been posted on Patreon. It is undergoing a final edit by a few friends privy to my erotica tendencies, LOL.
My plan is to release both a text-only version, and for those who are interested, an illustrated version. Good Girl will be a three-story set—Good Girl Gone Bad, Good Girl Gone Badder, and Good Girl Gone Baddest. ;) I am expecting the first book release to occur sometime towards the end of summer (I’m only about 25% in to the 3D images and want to release both together), and hopefully release a book each month.
What this means is the next chapters of other stories—Lapdancing Girlfriend, Annie Babysits the Kids, and other miscellaneous stories—will be temporarily on hold until those are completed. My goal is to eventually self-publish those stories as well, but they need a more involved rewrite to make them “book” compatible. For example, many story chapters have a several page blurb on what occurred before, which I had done due to the timespan between releases. In a book format all that rehash is unnecessary. Also, over the years many of you have pointed out discrepancies or questions needing to be answered which would “flesh out” the story more, so those will also be updated.
Due to the additional aspect of self-publishing, I will be changing around the Patreon rewards (some of you may have already noticed some folder name changes) to include the self-published material. I want the rewards to be commensurate with the support, but rest assured—nothing will be REMOVED from the rewards, I will only be adding additional ones.
For example, I am thinking for Tier 1 will provide “deleted scenes” from the illustrated versions of the books which may have been removed for one reason or another and did not make the final cut for the illustrated version. In some cases images may be too similar or redundant others I rendered, others may not be needed to move the story forward, etc. As everybody who is a supporter has access to the Tier 1 folders, people might be more interested in getting the full book or a higher Tier of support ;)
Tier 2 I am thinking to provide DRAFT versions or proof-of-concept images as well as the draft versions of stories I am working on to publish. This will give people a good idea of the storyline, as well as how the whole writing process develops.
My idea for Tier 3 is to offer the text version of a self-published story FREE as a show of thanks for support, while Tier 4 will make ALL self-published stories—both the illustrated and text versions available.
If anybody has other suggestions or changes, let me know! I want the amount of support you provide me to have a valuable return in investment, so speak up!
Anyways, that is what has been going on!
