Got the write stuff? Sorry, just couldn't resit working that groaner in. Seriously,
I'm happy for you. After reading what you have to offer I might even be more happy
for me. There's nothing quite like the warm glow of finding a new author that inspires
my imagination.
Most readers at one time or another have the urge to try their hand
at writing. The biggest stumbling block is self-doubt. If you have something to say,
sit down and write it -- stop worrying about what other people have to say. If you find
the experience rewarding, write again and again and again. As long as you're having fun
nothing else in the world matters.
When you've finally written that story there are several choices ahead.
You can simply put it up on a web page and hope other people find it or you can post it
to Usenet. Each has it's advantages and disadvantages but fortunately you can do both if
you wish.
Usenet publication is the simplest and probably the most rewarding. First
set up a mail account on Hotmail or Yahoo.
Unless you really want the world to know exactly who you are, I suggest you set up the
account using a pen-name. I also suggest you pick something unique. There is only
ONE
BitBard on all the internet. If I go to a search engine and type in
my name, I'm only going to get references that involve me in some form or another.
An explination of story codes can be found here.
I'll stress the importance of handles again because it is important.
Go to Dejanews and search on the handle you want to use.
Make sure it hasn't been used before. An even better place to go is Old Joe's Metaguide.
Dejanews goes back only as far as 1996. Joe's tracked erotica authors long before that.
I myself started my publishing career as "Sandman" and discovered belatedly, that there
was another Sandmann. There wasn't a huge amount of confusion, but I didn't like
stepping on another author's turf so I went through the laborious (and I do mean laborious)
process of changing my handle.
Before you send make sure you've copyrighted the story and also make sure
you note distribution rights. The copyright protects your rights, the distribution rights
tells people what THEY may do with the story. Do you want other people to be able to post
it to usenet as time goes by? Then say something like "Reposting allowed." If you don't then
say "Do not distribute without the permission of the author.". Regardless of what your wishes are,
posting in the method described on this page gives permission for your story to be permanently
stored, and available on the alt.sex.stories.moderated archive and on dejanews. A full
discussion of author's rights is a subject beyond the scope of this brief article. The best
way to label your story is to observe how other authors label theirs.
The average Usenet author can expect 15 feedbacks from readers, but don't
treat this number as gospel. The actual number you recieve depends on story quality, seasonal
factors, and tons of random things like how many people are reading Usenet that week. Thousands
upon thousands of people will read your story without ever commenting on it. Whether from
a need for anonymity or from years of non-interactive entertainment no-one can say, but
the fact remains that on Usenet and the Web the best you can hope for is 15 feedbacks per story
(sometimes more, sometimes less).
Within a week or so, your story stands a good chance of being reviewed by one
of the many reviewers (As listed on my Links page). A review is
a great way to see how well you're doing and how you can improve. When you're consistantly
getting the highest marks, Celeste's "Top 20" lists (A ranking of the twenty best stories
published each month) will let you know how you stand with your peers.
In my opinion, Usenet is a peerless resource for meeting other authors and
getting feedback from the population at large. It's a community of readers, writers, and
reviewers that together have fostered a wonderful and fun environment to publish in.
Web publication is another matter. The first thing you're going to discover
is that to get feedback people are going to have to find you and for that to happen you've
got to be indexed well. If you manage to get on Yahoo or other adult story indexes then
you're going to discover that (gasp) your $20.00 dialup account does *NOT* include hogging
all of your ISP's bandwidth transferring stories. You can expect to be told bluntly, and
in no uncertain terms, to remove your site.
If you're on a larger site like AOL or you have a free site on Tripod or
GeoCities, you're still existing at the sufferance of the webmasters. If they're having
a bad day when they notice you, you could suddenly find your site shut down. For hassle free
web space, you DO have a few options.
www.pair.com specifically allows for erotic story sites
in their policies (though that same policy disallows hardcore images so if you set up shop
here you'll have to do it tastefully). They charge between $5.95/mo (100 megabytes per
day of usage) and $29.95/mo (400 megabytes per day of usage). The authors on this service
have without fail, praised pair's reliability, speed, and support. I've researched hosting
sites on the net extensively. There simply is not a better value for hosting services in
existance today.
www.asstr-mirror.org offers
FREE
web hosting to erotica authors. You can't beat the price or the service (These guys love
erotica as much as I do). This server is housed from a university so it has a tendency to
go down for a week or so durring semester changes. For this reason I recommend them primarilly
as a mirror site. You simply do not want to go through all the hassle of getting indexed on
the search engines to have them remove you because ASSTR went down durring the semester change. So
have the search engines point to your regular site and have your regular site link to
ASSTR if the user thinks the site's loading to slowly. An application for an ASSTR account can be found
here.
When you post your story to Usenet you should make sure your website
address is somewhere in the post. After all, if people read your story and like it, you
certainly want them to be able to read your other stories right?
The web also has author communities, though I have not found these as
appealing as the community on Usenet (this is my personal preference, your experience may
of course differ significantly). The Erotica Readers Association is
really mis-named and has many, many resources for erotic authors. Mary Anne Mohanraj
has some great information for artistic types. And finally Adriana has
a mail-list for authors who like to swap stories.
So as you can see, there's a pretty large infrastructure out there to help
you get established as an author. So large in fact that it might seem intimidating, but it
isn't. Really. Without fail, the people you'll be sharing your writings with are a really
great bunch.
If you have ANY questions, E-Mail
me and ask. I may not know the answer, but it's a sure bet I'll know someone who does.
I look forward to seeing you on the net!
