Farewell, erotica side hustle
Lmao not that it ever got off the ground but I kept thinking someday . . . Someday I'll find the motivation to overcome the weird writer's block that only seems to afflict me when it comes to smut . . . Who cares if it's a couple of years down the line, right??
And then D2D started charging an annual fee. For all accounts that make LESS THAN 100 DOLLARS annually. I'm not interested in paying 12 dollars for the privilege of someone maybe buying a book someday when y'all are already taking a commission!
Anyway, I've delisted the one short I actually finished and I'm planning to put it on AO3 along with a couple other things. At least that way I'll get some damn kudos!! I'll be keeping this page just so anyone who wants to chat can find me (I'm always open for comments or concrit!). And maybe having a separate horny AO3 will help me stretch my orginal writing muscles. One can dream . . .
In conclusion: *shakes fist* Damn you, D2D!!
This is a real bummer, but thoroughly understandable.
My royalties so far this year total $14.85, and it feels highly likely I won't top the $100 threshold, despite making 27 sales so far.
I experimented this Smashwords Sale period with only discounting the novellas and not making the short story free like I usually do. This was in part because making my best-selling item free when it's normally only 99c anyway (and I'm almost certainly going to have to give up $12 in fees) didn't seem worth it.
On the one hand, someone did end up buying the short story for actual money, and I made all of 40c on it. On the other, I haven't made as much money as March, where I sold 17 units, obviously most of them the free one. The month's not over, but I think it's fair to say all that happened is fewer people read my work overall.
I am in the process of setting up an Itch.io account, which I understand is better payment for authors, but I doubt they will publish Oviposition. Nowhere but Smashwords does anymore.
It is all... very silly and deeply depressing.
Oh gosh, so sorry for not seeing this till now and that does sound deeply depressing :( It really feels like Smashwords is penalising authors for not being successful enough. I hope itch.io works out for you! What one really needs is a platform like AO3 (in terms of reach, functionality and permissiveness) to sell original fiction 🥲 I sure hope someone makes one someday!