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Making money online is the goal for a lot of people. Just how can you do it? Can you make money writing erotica?

You want to make money writing. More specifically, you’d like to do it writing fiction. Now you’re looking at all the options, and you heard once that there is a lot of money in writing erotica. Just look at how quickly 50 Shades of Grey took off.

Is there money in this? Are there any rules to follow? It’s not as easy as just writing and that’s it. There is a lot of work and effort that goes into writing erotica novels and short fiction. Here’s everything you need to know.

Erotica is becoming a saturated market

Once upon a time, it was very easy to make money writing erotica. It didn’t even have to be good. Again, just look at 50 Shades of Grey! This is because there was more demand than supply.

Things are changing, though. Due to the success of 50 Shades of Grey, more and more people are writing and publishing erotic fiction. It’s not all good fiction, but that doesn’t seem to matter. The market in both self-published and traditionally published fiction is getting saturated.

There is now more supply than demand. That leads to authors not making as much. If you want to succeed, you need to make your name known.

It’s all about promotion to make money writing erotica

The best way to make money is to get yourself out there. And no, not like that! you need to make sure your name is known in the erotica space. Readers need to see your name and immediately know your book is good. Just look at authors like Meghan Quinn and T.L. Swan. It’s worth noting that they are romance authors, but their books can get a little steamy.

You don’t need to be all about “getting to the good stuff.” People aren’t just interested in that. They want the character development and they want to know the other person. So, you need to find a way to pull people in with your promotional content to make it feel like they can be part of the story.

It’s important to network with other likeminded authors. Twitter is a great place for this. You want to work with other authors for joint promotional tactics. Don’t view other erotica authors as competition.

It can be hard to make money via Amazon sales at first. Search engines and book publishing companies are focused on the more family-friendly terms, and we all know erotica does not fit that at all. So, it can mean that your books don’t quite get the promotion that you’d like naturally. You need to work hard at it yourself. If you don’t want to do consistent promotion, you’re not going to find success.

MORE: 4 signs you’ve found a publishing scam

You need to keep writing

This isn’t a genre where you can just stop writing and keep making money. It’s not a passive option. You need to keep writing if you want to make money writing erotica.

If you’re self-publishing, you’ll want to get a new book out weekly if you can. More than that is even better. At first, your writing isn’t going to be great. You’ll get better at it, though. As you do, more people will know your name and will start buying your books.

If you are aiming to be traditionally published, it will take a little longer to get the first one out. You’ll then need to work with the publisher, and you’ll probably need to publish something every few months or so at the very least.

There are going to be times when you’re writing two separate stories at the same time. You need to learn when this is happening and then work them into their separate entities. Write daily and you’ll start to gain a schedule and practice.

You don’t always need to write erotica. Maybe you write erotica under a penname and write another genre under your real name. You can make the most of this to help see which genre is working out better for your financial goals. Whatever you do, though, stick with it. It’s going to be slow, but consistency will pay off.

MORE: Can you make money writing fiction?

Are you writing erotica? Is this something you want to get into? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Get in touch to get help with writing, whether you want to make money writing erotica or start in another genre.