Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I earn a commission at no expense to you. Affiliate links are marked with the asterisks (*)

You’ve heard that you can make money writing erotica, and that you can do it fast. Is that really the case?

You may have heard that you can make a lot of money writing erotica. This is something that has been said for years.

We just have to look at how popular smutty books* are. If you don’t believe me, take a look at BookTok. So, it would suggest that you can make a lot of money writing erotica.

While you can, it’s not as simple as putting it out there and immediately selling your books. There is a lot of work that goes into this. Here are my tips to make sure your books sell.

Writing erotica is becoming popular

Watch out for this saturated market. There are a lot of people out there who are dabbling at writing erotic novels as a way to make a side income. Just like a lot of ideas that are out there to make money online, this is one that is promoted as “simple.”

You need to find a way to stand out in the market. This isn’t always that easy, so you need to find a niche that is underserved.

We’ve all read or heard about fanfiction that has been turned into original works. Yes, there are a lot of fantasy erotica books out there. Then we have the dark romance that is full of smut and sometimes not the best plot.

A lot of authors have found a niche that worked for them when they first came into the genre. They then built their audience, and now they can pretty much put a book out there and it is sold immediately. You need to find your niche. Don’t look at everyone else. Find something that makes you stand out for the right reasons.

MORE: How much should you save in your kids’ college funds?

You need to promote to make money writing erotica

If you really want to succeed, you need to promote yourself. Marketing is a strong part of building that initial audience and making it possible for people to find your books. This means getting on social media.

It doesn’t matter if you’re not comfortable with it. No, you don’t necessarily need to put your face to the marketing. It helps a little more, but it is possible to do everything under a penname and without your real face. However, people want to take a look at the authors they’re enjoying the books of so they know if they spot you to get a book signed.

You’ll also want to set up an email marketing list. This is a great way to get into people’s inboxes when you have a new release.

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other sites aren’t necessarily going to promote you. There are issues with promoting erotica. So, you need to do it yourself. Or you need to find others who are willing to do it.

The story needs to be good

You can’t just throw anything out there. Just because you write some smut* doesn’t mean that it’s going to sell. A lot of people still want a bit of a storyline to go with the smut. In fact, you’ll see a lot of comments about how the smut was great but the plot was terrible, and this can sometimes take people out of the actual smut.

So, you need to make sure you actually have a story. This is the bit that can stop people from writing erotica. After all, it means that there is some work to do.

I know AI is growing in popularity and skill. The problem is that it’s not perfect. You can’t use ChatGTP to create the perfect story—even if there’s a plot, you need to watch out for it being copyrighted content! The best thing to do is to write the content yourself.

You could hire a ghostwriter to do it all. There are some of us out there who will do it. Of course, you then need to factor that into the amount that you make.

In most cases, you’re not going to make a fortune so that you can quit your day job. At least, not right away.

You need to keep writing to make money writing erotica

Once you stop writing, the money stops coming in. Sure, there will be people out there who still buy the odd book from you, but they won’t consistently buy. They need to see that you have something new.

This means you need to keep writing. Remember that this is work. Your passion will become your job as you start seeing success and making money. If you don’t have the drive and passion to keep going, then it’s probably not something for you.

The good news is erotica is one of those genres that is pretty easy to keep writing in*. The plot lines tend to be the same. You just change locations and names, and you have something new. Think of it like all those Hallmark movies that follow the boilerplate for storylines.

MORE: 7 tools I use daily to help with working from home

Do you need help to make money writing erotica? Get in touch to see how I can help you.