This week has been a bit of a mess for me personally dealing
with things at my “evil day job” as a veterinarian. The details of that will be
discussed on my blog Not Enough Time in the Day soon. Right at the moment I’d
like to talk about something that still has me reeling. On May 15th
an author decided to publish on another blog how she had to compromise her
principles and her “art” in order to make money. How did she do that you
ask? Well, she “sold out” by writing
erotica.
Yeah, you read that correctly. She stated she SOLD OUT to
write erotica and low and behold she made a hell of a lot of money. Is she
happy that she’s found a niche for herself and her writing that also pays well?
No. She’s lamenting that she invested so much time and money into her “baby”
urban fantasy series that tanked compared to her one erotica novel. She even went so far as to say that her
erotica novel not only paid her the big bucks, but did it never having broken
through the Amazon top 100.
Really? Check again,
chica. Smooth marketing strategy ticking
off all the erotica/erotic romance authors and readers. Not only did you get
free publicity, your erotica novel cracked the top 100 and the top 20 in a few
categories. Then when the blog owner pulled your post? BAM! Even more publicity
and twitter firestorm. Way to go!
I shocked you there didn’t I? You all thought I would be
pissed off and naming names, basically turning from The Vixen to the Bitch in a
few nanoseconds. Well, I did see red when I first read it and I’m still upset
she basically called all erotica and erotic romance authors sell outs. Then I read her blog again…ten more times to
be exact and then laughed. You see, she’s
laughing all the way to the bank while many of us are pissed she added herself
to the large list of authors who treat us like unwanted stepchildren. It’s bad enough we have to deal with it from
authors not in our genre and subgenres, but when it’s one of “our own,” the slap
stings all the more and cuts to the bone.
Why on earth would you trash the very genre, authors, and
readers who made you all that money? It’s
got nothing to do with “compromising your principles.” It’s all about the money
for this author. She called her
best-selling erotica novel trashy. If she feels it’s so bad, why write it in
the first place? She came right out and
said she did it to appeal to the market. There’s nothing wrong with that, but
when you trash that market after you succeed in it, you end up making yourself
a pariah.
I see things a bit differently here than several of my erotic
writing friends. This particular author
is upset that her CHOSEN genre didn’t pay off the way she wanted it to so she
jumped ship and found her true calling.
THAT’S what she’s upset about.
Not the fact she has to write erotica/erotic romances to make money but
the fact she’s GOOD AT IT! So to draw
attention away from the fact her urban fantasy series wasn’t the smash success
right out of the gate and her erotica was, she turned to snarky comments and
jokes at the expense of herself and the rest of us who write “the trashy smut.”
What I do take offense to is being dumped into a group of
people who’ve compromised their morals and principles to write what I enjoy
writing and reading. By whose moral code
are we comparing ourselves to? Not mine. I’m not compromising one damn thing to
write what I want to write. Yes I do so under three different pen names, but I
don’t make it a secret that all three are me, Tammy aka The Vixen. When I first started out, Tammy Dennings
Maggy WAS my real name, but I’ve since remarried to the fabulous Mr. Vixen. So
if you’re friends with me on Facebook, you’ll see my last name is different
there. I write poetry, erotica, erotic
romance, YA, sweet and mainstream romance and mainstream fiction. In order to
keep some of them separate from each other, I found it necessary to have
multiple pen names. I need to keep the adult themed material separate from the
YA, and I wanted to delve into M/M and ménage. So with all those ideas in my
head, Lia Michaels and Stephanie Ryan were created to help with telling those
tales.
Does that make me a sell out for wanting to write in
subgenres that make more money than M/F contemporary erotic romance? NOPE. I
love to read books in all of those genres so it’s only natural for me to want
to write in them. When you write what
you love, it shows and you WILL find your audience.
One last issue I had with the now pulled blog post is the
implication that all you had to do as a writer was crank out the smut and you’ll
be rolling in the dough. You see, the
market is absolutely FLOODED with books now thanks to the ability to
self-publish. Many of these books truly
are trash with very little to no editing, are poorly written and simply awful
to read if you can get through the first few chapters. Just because you add in a sex scene and
vulgar language doesn’t make it erotica or an erotic romance. Fortunately for the readers out there, there
are many more novels and short stories that are true gems. Some of which get
buried under that garbage so it’s up to us to help sort it out.
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| Join my street team |
How do we do that? We
stop the attacks on each other and slamming of adult genres. When you find
books you’ve enjoyed, pimp them out. Help the author get the recognition they
deserve for their work. Visit their author pages, blogs, Goodreads and tweet
about them. Join their street teams if
they have one. You can get many extra perks for helping the author promote
their work and you get first dibs on sneak peeks and new releases. Oh and did I
mention there is always fun swag to be had by all?
What can you do as an author to get your name out there?
Open up dialogue with those who are visiting our pages, join blog hops, make
friends with fellow authors and LEARN FROM THEM. Don’t make yourself a pest by sending direct
messages and private messages to people begging them to “like” your pages and
books on Amazon and Goodreads. The most
annoying, rude and disrespectful thing you can do is post your links on other’s
walls without permission. If the only
contact you’ve had with the person is that they accepted your friend request or
started following you on Twitter, you should NEVER send those kinds of
messages. Get to know the person a bit
as an online friend. Let THEM decide if and when they want “like” your pages
and visit your blogs. If you do
cultivate those friendships, you will get yourself a vast group of fans and
promotional buddies.
I know many folks have taken classes on how to use social
media for promoting. Unfortunately, those teaching those courses have
encouraged people to do exactly the opposite of what I’ve recommended
above. Their techniques may show you some
results, but in the end all it will get you is “unfriended, “unfollowed,” and
blocked from any further contact with those you’re trying to reach. Don’t send out mass emails to everyone on your
contact list either. One of my pen names
received one from an author that was a forwarded message from ARe letting all
of us know her book was now available on that site. It wouldn’t have been an issue if I was
friends with this author at any point in any group. I’m not sure where she got
the email for my pen name at this point either.
Did it make me want to check out her work? No. I did go
searching to see if we were connected at all and when I found out we weren’t
through myself or my other pen names, I put her on my SPAM email list and will
probably think twice about connecting in the future with her. I’m sure I’ll
change my mind about that at some point, but for now I have to cut out the
clutter.
As for the author who started me off on today’s diatribe I
want to say congratulations on your success in the genre I adore. Your book is
sitting at #16 in erotica and #205 in the paid Kindle Store. At 99 cents a pop,
I think you’re doing remarkably well for “selling out.” ;-)
~The Vixen
Learn More About The Vixen
Tammy Dennings Maggy is a multi-published poet and erotic
romance author with Siren and Sassy Vixen Publishing. Her writing explores many
facets of romance from ultimate betrayal to finding your soul mate. Her poetry
serves as a companion to her novels and has inspired entire series all on their
own. Tammy and her alter egos Lia Michaels and Stephanie Ryan make up the core
authors at Sassy Vixen Publishing and together they've created the shared world
series Temptations Resort. Look for the first books in that series to come out
later this year.
Now happily married to her own Muse and soul mate, she
continues to live her dream and act as secretary to all her characters
demanding to have their stories told.
Check out:
Tammy's Website
Tammy's Blog
Tammy's Books on Bookstrand, Amazon, Barnes
and Noble,Smashwords,
and iTunes
Friend Tammy on Facebook
Like Tammy's Facebook Author Page
Friend Tammy on Goodreads
Friend Tammy on Pinterest
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