Hardcore Erotica Writers: What is your best selling 'theme'?

Just like anything, they're only good sellers if:

The book is well written, the cover is good/appropriate to the book, the editing is done, there's some way to reach the proper customers.

Personally, I don't believe most people do well writing something that isn't interesting to them, ESPECIALLY in erotica.  If you're not "feeling it" (so to speak), the reader won't be either.

All the sub-genres you mentioned do very well, but Breeding is the name of the game for me right now.

My Tuskmen monster breeding series and babysitter breeding titles are easily my top-selling books. Black Babysitter 1&2 are doing terrific numbers.

On the other end of the scale, I have several Femdom stories, but they never get much traction. There's a much higher demand for M/f than F/m, which is a shame since I enjoy writing those the most. But you gotta go where the money is...

Are you planning to write some Erotica, Op?

It is so random for me and I am just spinning my tires, but it's fun.

Rayna Corday said:

All the sub-genres you mentioned do very well, but Breeding is the name of the game for me right now.

My Tuskmen monster breeding series and babysitter breeding titles are easily my top-selling books. Black Babysitter 1&2 are doing terrific numbers.

On the other end of the scale, I have several Femdom stories, but they never get much traction. There's a much higher demand for M/f than F/m, which is a shame since I enjoy writing those the most. But you gotta go where the money is...

Are you planning to write some Erotica, Op?

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Please excuse my ignorance, but what is "breeding"? I mean, I know its definition but I have no clue what breeding stories are about.

ShortySmalls said:

Please excuse my ignorance, but what is "breeding"? I mean, I know its definition but I have no clue what breeding stories are about.

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Breeding fetish involves characters having sex with females for the expressed purpose of knocking them up, usually ending in potential conception. It could be a monster carrying off a fair maiden to help repopulate his dying race, or an infertile couple looking for a surrogate.

Its popularity likely stems from the fact that the stories (lightly) explore the consequence of unprotected sex -getting knocked up- something more vanilla erotica stories don't often touch upon.

Girl is deliberately impregnanted and "bred" as part of the story.  Or as the goal of the story.

It's important to remember that no matter what you write, how explicit the cover is (naked people touching), and how much you stress certain elements in the blurb, someone will still 1-star you for too much sex.

Dalya said:

It's important to remember that no matter what you write, how explicit the cover is (naked people touching), and how much you stress certain elements in the blurb, someone will still 1-star you for too much sex.

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I have been trying so hard to get a 1-star for too much sex, but I can't seem to make it happen. I even wrote a story that had a 300-word build up, 3000-word sex scene and a 300-word story wrap up and nothing! It sells, but alas, no bad review.

David Scroggins said:

I have been trying so hard to get a 1-star for too much sex, but I can't seem to make it happen. I even wrote a story that had a 300-word build up, 3000-word sex scene and a 300-word story wrap up and nothing! It sells, but alas, no bad review.

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Isn't that what they're supposed to be? I mean ... the wrap-up is probably unnecessary ...

Dalya said:

Isn't that what they're supposed to be? I mean ... the wrap-up is probably unnecessary ...

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Well, most of mine are buildup, sex scene, story, sex scene, story, sex scene, wrap-up. Dropping the wrap-up would be wonderful. I always thought it was necessary. Lord knows I'm not the best weaver of adult yarns there ever was. Have I been doing too much work?

You know, this explains a lot. My wife just wrote an erotic short and I mentioned that the story just ended right after the "action" scene. She looked at me like I was crazy, nodded slowly and went back to work.

Rayna Corday said:

All the sub-genres you mentioned do very well, but Breeding is the name of the game for me right now.

My Tuskmen monster breeding series and babysitter breeding titles are easily my top-selling books. Black Babysitter 1&2 are doing terrific numbers.

On the other end of the scale, I have several Femdom stories, but they never get much traction. There's a much higher demand for M/f than F/m, which is a shame since I enjoy writing those the most. But you gotta go where the money is...

Are you planning to write some Erotica, Op?

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What is m/f & f/m? Are they points of view?

Rlyon said:

What is m/f & f/m? Are they points of view?

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The upper and lower cases indicate the sub and the dom. Capitals refer to doms and lower case refer to subs. So, a M/f story would have a male dom and a female sub. F/m the opposite. And then M/m and F/f and maybe M/F screaming fight with a side of M/f/m/F/F/m/Ffffmmmm.

*no one's told me all this, I've just figured it out after a long time hanging around erotica places. SO I COULD BE WRONG but am pretty sure I'm not.

Hildred said:

M/f/m/F/F/m/Ffffmmmm.

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I did that once. it was messy.

There's a much higher demand for M/f than F/m, which is a shame since I enjoy writing those the most.

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Agreed. I have an erotic romance with strong female dominance themes. It hardly sells. Too bad, because I really like writing that better than male dominance.

Hildred said:

The upper and lower cases indicate the sub and the dom. Capitals refer to doms and lower case refer to subs. So, a M/f story would have a male dom and a female sub. F/m the opposite. And then M/m and F/f and maybe M/F screaming fight with a side of M/f/m/F/F/m/Ffffmmmm.

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That's correct.

And actually, I find that a) it is hard to find M/f stories where the characters don't end up switching roles somewhere along the line and b) it is even harder to find M/f stories where it isn't just one more "damaged dom" meets "bratty sub". Hence the reason I had to write my own.

vrabinec said:

I did that once. it was messy.

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Ha!

Rayna Corday said:

Breeding fetish involves characters having sex with females for the expressed purpose of knocking them up, usually ending in potential conception. It could be a monster carrying off a fair maiden to help repopulate his dying race, or an infertile couple looking for a surrogate.

Its popularity likely stems from the fact that the stories (lightly) explore the consequence of unprotected sex -getting knocked up- something more vanilla erotica stories don't often touch upon.

Click to expand...

Thank you for clarifying! That's what I was thinking but wasn't entirely sure.

The one general rule I've picked up on so far is that kink sells a heck of a lot better than vanilla. If hardcore erotica doesn't have some kind of a hook to it, people don't seem all that interested.
Billionaires and BDSM still seem to be doing well in the wake of 50 Shades. My erotic shorts that consistently sell the best tend to be the BDSM, M/M, and paranormal ones. Also stuff with "daddy" in the title is often a good bet.
But yeah, make sure you're "feeling" it. The best way to write a kink is to understand what makes it so sexy to readers in the first place.

My series always start nice old m/f but part two got to f/f/m then the third was f/f and F/f/f and f/f/m/m/m and then all hell broke loose so I just put "orgy" in the keywords.