The Business of Writing About Sex: November 2014

Welcome to the second month of pulling back the curtains on the reality of sex blogging and writing (from one writer’s perspective, of course). Most writers, bloggers, and websites won’t share their numbers – for their own reasons. I have nothing to hide. I don’t have a huge following (although it seems pretty big to me), but I have amazing readers and followers. We are small but we are mighty.

The month of November had some improvements over October – holy hell, a bunch of new subscribers and followers – and a few drops (no new release so less book sales – typical for me).

I don’t share these numbers to make anyone feel bad or good about their site. I’ve achieved these numbers with a lot of effort and dedication mixed with an absolute love for my readers and the written word – especially the kinky, erotic written word. No shame, y’all, no shame.

So…here are the numbers for November.

Sex Blogging

A Sexual Being

• 26 posts
• 10,060 views
• 12 new subscribers (this doesn’t include “followers” on WordPress only those who entered their email address in the subscribe bar)

Masturbation Monday

• 4,207 views
• 3 new subscribers (again this doesn’t include followers on WordPress)
• 47 posts shared by various bloggers

Sex Bloggers Unite Triberr Group

• 11 members
• social reach of 15,353

Erotic Book Sales

Paid – this includes The Adventures of Sir and Babygirl, Sir and Babygirl: Bound by Love, and on Amazon only, The Visitor and The Big Game

• Amazon – 47
• iBooks – 1
• Barnes & Noble – 4
• Kobo – 1

Free – the only free titles I have are The Visitor and The Big Game

• Smashwords – 75
• iBooks – 8
• Barnes & Noble – 25
• All Romance – 148

I have stories in two anthologies – Erotic Fantasies and Masquerade. I don’t have access to those numbers at my fingertips so I’m not including them.

To recap:

My views on the site were slightly better than last month even with fewer posts. Masturbation Monday slipped a bit, but part of that has to do with Thanksgiving and the other part I blame on missing a Monday when I was too sick to promote and share the posts.

My book sales were lower than October, but I didn’t have any new releases (other than Masquerade, and I don’t have those stats but I know we sold a ton and gave a bunch away for free).

My social media followers:

• 4 new Facebook page likes – I spend more time socializing on Facebook through my profile than on the page, so this is no surprise
• 154 new Twitter followers – slow and steady growth is very cool
• 162 new Tumblr followers – proving I’m not the only kinky freak out there

My Two Cents

Ok, so this is the part where I impart some sort of knowledge I’ve gleaned over the years as a marketer and a blogger. This month, I’d ask all my blogger and author friends to do one thing on your blog: be yourself. This comes a lot easier for the blogging the community. Regardless of your topic or the way you express yourself, most of you are genuine in whatever facet of your life you’re willing to share. But for those who wish for more views or more followers, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you have to write to please every follower you have. That’s not true. If you stay true to who you are and show a bit of yourself every once in a while, people will respond. To my author friends, there’s nothing wrong with cover reveals, new releases, interviews and the like, but as an author, part of your marketing and advertising is branding you, the author. Every once in a while, slip in a post about your writing process, a day in the life of a writer, what inspired this story or that novel. (You don’t have to reveal your entire sex life like I do, unless you want to. If so, rawr!) Give your readers the opportunity to get to know you. If you grow a following that likes you as a human being, you’ll create a loyal following of people who are willing to help you succeed as a writer – just ask the Kinky Fuckery Crew (my street team). I couldn’t have imagined the amount of people who would volunteer to pimp me out upon request. (Well, I could, but that would be for sexual favors, not book sales, lol.)

Anyway, there it is – the reality of one sex-blogging, erotic-writing, full-time writer. I don’t know how I compare to other writers or bloggers but I know some do much better while others have lower numbers. I don’t really care. All I know is that I have some of the most loyal, generous, caring followers around – and I adore you all.

I think next month, I’ll start including a word count for my erotic writing, too. That would be a cool number to see. What do y’all think?