There are numerous publishing formats available these days. However, Amazon is still king, and it is easy to publish on Amazon. In the past, you needed a mobi file to upload a manuscript to Amazon, but now just about any type of document will work.

Kindle Create

Even though you can upload a .doc file or even a .pdf, I prefer to use Kindle Create, which is a free program that you can download to your computer. The program allows you to see what your book will look like on different types of reading devices (phone, tablet, and computer), click on what your book looks like, and click on the table of contents. Kindle Create also prepares a polished looking document.

Calibre

Another program that is free to download on your computer is Calibre. I also use this program at times to produce a mobi or pdf file. If your document is extremely large, then Calibre is a better choice than Kindle Create which tends to produce an error message when working with large files.

Amazon Author Account

Once you’ve prepared your document for download, you will need an Amazon Author Account. It isn’t complicated to open an author account. After following the steps as set out by Amazon, you will be directed to your bookshelf.

Bookshelf

Your Amazon Bookshelf will allow you to create a new eBook. There are several different functions on the Amazon eBook publication site. However, I will only detail the aspects that you must include to have your book published. You will need the following things identified before publishing – book title, subtitle (if necessary), author name.

Book Description

The next section that you need to have prepared is a book description. This is the snippet that will be visible to readers searching for a book to download. As a result, you should write something that summaries your book and would entice someone to want to download or purchase the document. I would recommend looking at book descriptions for other books in your chosen genre to see what they have listed.

About the Author

Many people like to include an about the author section in the book description. This is a small snippet of information that lets people know a little bit about you. It is not necessary, but it can help people connect with you.

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Keywords

Another section on the Amazon publishing program is the keyword section. These words are to be reflective of the content of your books but are not a part of your book’s title or category.

Categories

You can choose two categories for your books to be found in. The two main categories for erotica are erotica and erotic romance. There are also other potential categories that you can have your book added to. However, you will need to contact Amazon KDP Customer Service.

Copyright

Before you can scroll down to the bottom and save your information, you need to indicate whether you own the copyright for the manuscript. This should be answered as yes.

Ready to Publish

The next section asks whether you are ready to publish or set for pre-release. If you are prepared to publish, then you need to “click” the ready to publish button and save the information.

Upload Manuscript

Now, it is time to upload your manuscript. Here you will upload whatever format you’ve chosen for your book. Again, you can upload numerous different types of documents to Amazon.

Upload or Create Cover

Next, you will upload or create your own book cover. Unless you know what you’re doing, you should have a cover made for you.

Preview

Once you’ve uploaded your manuscript and your book cover, you will have the option of previewing your book. You can scroll through the book and look at each page to see if there are any errors. Making changes prior to publishing is important.

If everything looks good, then you are ready to move to the next section. The bottom of the page has an ISBN section, but you don’t need to add anything there. Instead, scroll to the bottom of the page and hit save and continue.

KDP Select

If you want to have your book available for Kindle Unlimited (KU) subscribers and receive money for pages read and participate in free or countdown promotions, then you must “click” yes. There isn’t a lot of money in KU pages read, but it is worth it for erotica. A lot of people who read erotica subscribe to this service.

Pricing

In the past, an erotic short story would typically go for $2.99. That is not always the case now. You will still get pages read, but you might not get as many sales at that price point; unless you are a top known author. As a result, you might be better off putting your book in for the 30% plan and price your book at $.99. It isn’t much per book, but you are more likely to get sales at this price point.

Other Sections

Again, there are other sections, but these are the necessary ones. Now, you’re ready to scroll down and “click” publish. Yes!

In the next 24 to 72 hours, your book will be available for purchase, and you are a published erotica writer.

To learn more about each of these sections, click on the book below and write your first erotic short story!

Don’t forget – Grab the companion workbook for your step-by-step guide!

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Alexia Chase

https://alexiachaseromance.com

#writeeroticshortstories #startpublishingtoday #sweetromance #dirtysex #happyeverafter #quickreads #shorteroticstories #erotica #contemporaryromance #eroticsex

When preparing a manuscript for publishing, several components need to be included. In this chapter, I’ll explore those required components.

Book Title

You will need to identify a book title that is the appropriate fit for your manuscript. Think of something that is a catchphrase from the book or summarizes the theme of the book. Don’t get too cute. People haven’t read the book yet, so they aren’t going to get adorable or quirky titles that you think are funny.

Book Cover

When designing a book cover, you should scan through books in your genre. Are other authors using faces? Bodies? Couples? Clothed or unclothed models? Symbols? Vector images? Dark backgrounds? Light backgrounds?

Once you’ve identified a feel that fits with your genre, then consider how you could use that concept with your book cover. If you are comfortable with designing your own book covers, then there are YouTube videos and programs that can easily be used to make your own covers and save you money.

If you are uncomfortable with designing your own covers, there are people on Fiverr that can do a decent job with designing covers. Or there are numerous sites available that sell pre-made covers. However, those take forever to go through and may not fit your book perfectly. I prefer to find a stock image that matches my book and have a Fiverr designer to make my covers. The most important thing is that for erotic short stories, I would not spend a large sum of money for a top book cover designer. It isn’t necessary.

Images

When selecting the picture for your book cover, it is recommended that you spend a little extra money and get a stock photo plan. There are a wider variety of images to choose from and the images are better quality. Not to mention, you will have less likelihood of ten other people in your genre using the same image. With free photos, you will find numerous people having used the same models for their covers.

Title Page

On the title page, you will need to type the title of your book, author name, and year of publication.

Publisher’s Page

If you are your own publisher, you can put down the same information as the title page and yourself as the publisher. Additionally, you can make your own publishing company name if you would like to have a more professional look for your book.

Copyright Page

All professional quality books should include a copyright page. This page directs the reader not to copy, duplicate, or use your property as their own. There are examples of copyright pages online, or you can have an attorney draft one for you.

Table of Contents

If you are using a Microsoft Word document, you can use headings for your chapters to develop hyperlinks. These hyperlinks will allow your reader to click on the different chapters or sections to switch to that location in your book.

This can be helpful if the reader wants to go back to a specific area in your book and re-read the information. More importantly is if they’re going to your author page for your contact information or the review page to leave you a book review. The table of content’s function is under the references tab of a word program.

Excerpt

Next, you will want to include a page with your book excerpt. The book excerpt should be approximately two to three paragraphs of your story where the action or intensity is beginning to heat up between your characters.

This passage should entice the reader to want more. If you publish on Amazon, a reader can download a “free” sample of your book or click on the “look inside” feature. When a reader gets this free portion of your book, the excerpt should be a part of that sample. By including a tantalizing excerpt, you can pique the reader’s interest and get a sale.

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Story

Now’s the place for the good stuff. Your manuscript should go here. Each chapter should have at least the “number” of the chapter and “chapter” listed at the top of the page. After these words are typed, then you need to “click” on the “heading 1” tab on the home page, if using Microsoft Word. This allows the chapter to be a hyperlink and can be automatically added to the table of contents once the book is complete.

About the Author

After the conclusion of the book, you should add a section about the author. This doesn’t need to be extravagant. A small blurb about you and how to contact you is sufficed.

Book Review

The last thing that must be included in your book is a request for a book review. As Indie authors, we need book reviews like drug addicts needs their fix. Without social proof that a book is good, there won’t be any sales. Moreover, please review the books of your favorite Indie authors. They’ll love you for it.

Event those negative reviews can be helpful. They can assist you in improving your future writings, give advice on how to update the current work and re-publish, or provide insight to another author hoping to avoid the same pitfalls. Most importantly, it let’s future readers know what to expect and how to spend their money and time wisely. Because we know both money and time are the most essential commodities.

Click on the book below to learn all you need to know to write your first erotic short story!

Don’t forget – Grab the companion workbook for your step-by-step guide!

Buy Now!

Alexia Chase

https://alexiachaseromance.com

#writeeroticshortstories #startpublishingtoday #sweetromance #dirtysex #happyeverafter #quickreads #shorteroticstories #erotica #contemporaryromance #eroticsex

There are many different types of erotica. There is straight, anal, oral, sex toys, virgin, daddy, older woman/younger man, bondage, gay, ménage, harem, reverse harem, kidnapping, and countless other categories of erotic stories. The scenarios are endless once you start thinking about them.

However, if you did your background work, like you were supposed to, you should know what you won’t do and stick with it. You will feel better about yourself in the morning. No one wants to do that walk of shame at 3 a.m.

In my opinion, there are five main types of erotic stories.

Happily Ever After

The first type is happily ever after. This is the type of book that I focus on. I will always prefer the “ah” factor over the “shock and ah” factor. With a happily ever after book, whatever character configuration you’ve dreamed up, the characters will fall in love and ride off into the sunset together – unless they’re vampires and then you’d better keep them in the moonlight.

Happy for Now

Happy for now is the next type of erotic story. This storyline is where the characters are content with the sex acts that they’ve engaged in, but there is no long-term commitment desired or achieved.

Serials

The next type of erotic short story is the serial. These stories are those where the characters complete “episodes” in a longer story arch. They are more like television shows where the same characters participate in multiple sequential books.

Prequels

Another type of erotic short story is the prequel. People hate prequels unless they know about it ahead of time. Don’t trick people into reading a short story to get another part of the story later. It’s rude and will leave you with no fanbase.

Fetishes

The last category is fetishes. These are the bizarre types of situations that some people find erotic. Examples of these situations include – animals, aliens, urinating, defecating, incest, dressing up as animals, dressing up as babies, pregnancy, orgies, bondage, slavery, and kidnapping to name several.

Now, this does not mean that a specific kink can’t be used in a different type of erotic story and turn into a happily ever after. For example, bondage is one of the most popular kinds of fetishes that has been seen in happily ever afters in recent years. However, I don’t want to be reading a happily ever after where the dude is wearing a diaper and sucking on a bottle or the gal for that matter. Not going to happen.

To further clarify, if the sole purpose of the short story is to focus on the kink and has no romance or character development, then the goal of the book is the fetish. And, to me, most of those books are kind of cringeworthy.

Which Will You Choose?

So, what will be your focus? Will you choose one type of storyline or mix and match? The only problem with changing from happily ever after to pure fetish is that your fanbase can get angry and leave nasty reviews. Granted, people don’t leave a lot of reviews, but if they are mad enough, they will.

To learn more check out the below book on how to choose the best pen name for your erotic fiction!

Don’t forget – Grab the companion workbook for your step-by-step guide!

Buy Now!

Alexia Chase

https://alexiachaseromance.com

#writeeroticshortstories #startpublishingtoday #sweetromance #dirtysex #happyeverafter #quickreads #shorteroticstories #erotica #contemporaryromance #eroticsex

Writing erotic novellas or novels is not something I’ve done yet. That isn’t to say that I won’t because it is a possibility in the future. However, there are several reasons why I haven’t written a more extended piece yet.

Short Story Fun

I’ve discovered the fun of writing short stories, and they are quick and to the point. You don’t have to worry about as much character growth, angst, or story arch. With a short story, the more straightforward – the better.

Quantity – I could write a bunch, upwards of seventy-five to one hundred, of them puppies in one year versus five tops if I wrote full-length novels.

Accomplishment – The sense of accomplishment from writing so many books in one year is fantastic. So many people get stuck writing a novel and never publish the damn thing. I know. It took me twelve years to publish my first contemporary romance and twelve days to post my first erotic short story. There is nothing like the sense of accomplishment of producing numerous works and getting them out there to others to read.

Satisfied Readers – With a short story, the highest compliment you can get is that they wished there was more to the book. Or that they didn’t want it to end. With a novel, you might hear that you should have cut a bunch of it out because it was too dull.

Quick Reads – People don’t have a lot of time anymore. There is so much to do. Netflix, Hulu, cable, kids, work, hobbies, and spouses. With a short story, they can get more bang for their time. Whatever bang that is. Fifteen to thirty minutes may be all a busy mom has before bed.

A novel might take her a week to read, and she won’t get the full enjoyment because she had to put it down twenty times.

Erotic Novellas and Novels

That doesn’t mean there isn’t a massive market for erotic novellas or novels because there is.

Strength of Storyline – However, you need to make sure that you have strongly developed characters, a good storyline, growth of the characters, and an attention-grabbing plot outside of the sex scenes. That can be a lot of work when you’re first starting out.

If you choose to write an erotic novel, I recommend you hire a developmental editor to point out the weak areas of your manuscript. You can be too close to your work to see the forest for the trees. I have a wonderful developmental editor for my contemporary novels. When I can’t figure out why in the hell my hero is doing what he’s doing, she can figure it out for me. Thank God!

To learn more check out the below book on how to choose the best pen name for your erotic fiction!

Don’t forget – Grab the companion workbook for your step-by-step guide!

Buy Now!

Alexia Chase

https://alexiachaseromance.com

#writeeroticshortstories #startpublishingtoday #sweetromance #dirtysex #happyeverafter #quickreads #shorteroticstories #erotica #contemporaryromance #eroticsex