A couple of weeks ago I posted about the Erotica Readers Survey created by erotica writer and marketing whiz Amelia Bryant. After getting into it and answering all of the questions myself, I decided I wanted more answers. So I went to the source of all this wondering about erotica and chatted via email with Amelia, the survey seductress.
What prompted you to put out this survey?
A variety of things, from both a personal business perspective and something for the industry in general. Being a newcomer to the erotic writing fraternity I wanted to get a handle on what the market actually wanted and seeing what I can deliver to it. The old marketing adage exists: ‘make what you know you can sell, rather than struggling to sell what you’ve made.’
But in overall terms, there seemed to be a dearth of decent data concerning the erotica market. Who buys erotic stories? What are the demographics and psychographics? How engaged do readers want to be with writers? With so many questions relatively unanswered, or at best based on anecdotal evidence, there was a clear need for data obtained from sufficient numbers to shed some light.
Many erotica writers are doing this either as a second profession, or making a huge jump into the unknown and putting all their hopes on it. I’d like to see everyone doing well – and given my marketing research background was definitely the best person in the erotica writing community to initiate this project. When I was considering whether to enter the fray, there were a few kind souls on a discussion forum who were providing step by step, blow by blow updates on their progress from the very beginning. It was a great introduction. The survey results can hopefully give something back in return.
What trends are you noticing in erotica?
Firstly, as the survey hasn’t been live for long, I’m still quite a way off from getting into the nitty gritty and having enough survey completions for any worthwhile analysis. The more responses the better, and need around 1,000 full completions. That’s still a long way off, and am busy promoting the study to increase the response rate. As things aren’t likely to change too much over the next few months, I may keep the survey open for a longer period. But more – much more responses are needed!
So with the above caveat firmly in place, the main trends I’ve personally noticed have generally been with the aid of my marketing head (I’ve worked in marketing for around 14 years) rather than the purely erotic. Probably the biggest one concerns cover design and it’s something I’ve already highlighted in my blog. With ‘Fifty Shades‘ exploding in bookstores, nobody could help but notice the distinct lack of semi-naked torsos or garish fonts ‘gracing’ the cover. Compare this with the plethora of erotic stories found online which tend to feature exactly that. And then sure enough, a whole gamut of erotic books are on the shelves, all following the minimalist or abstract designs with a healthy dose of black on the covers. Funnily enough, there’s no sign of any semi-naked bods on those covers, either!
What intrigues me is the decision-making behind all this. After Fifty Shades, did other publishers do proper research to ascertain people’s reactions and attitudes to these types of cover? Or was it just a case of “Well, it’s not done EL James any harm, let’s do it too!” It’s like the music industry. Somebody discovers Nirvana: they start doing really well. Before you know it there’s 100 grunge clones trying to be the same thing to make record companies some money.
From an aesthetic viewpoint, I think it’s refreshing seeing some elegant design elements employed. But as erotica’s popularity propels such books onto the mainstream bookstore and supermarket shelves, everything is beginning to look rather ‘samey’ – a bit of abstract or minimalist design with a big dollop of black. Will erotica soon be referred to as the ‘black cover section’ ?
Are writers keen to listen to what readers want or are they more likely to write their smut as they desire?
This is where the ‘make what you know you can sell’ notion takes centre stage. Writers – whether they like it or not – also have to be businessmen and women, and good marketers. Writing is only half the job. Conventional marketing rests on the principle of knowing what your customers (and/or prospects) want and supplying that, to mutual benefit.
That said, writers need to have passion for what they’re doing. We’re not simply manufacturing and marketing something inanimate like toothpaste. Writing is a personal process, conceiving ideas, character and plot development, dialogue etc etc. You spill your guts out putting each story to bed.
So there needs to be a middle ground. Yes, listen to what the market wants. And if you can provide it, great! But it can’t be something which is alien to you. If you’re not interested in gay paranormal gang-bang erotica don’t try writing it just because demand for those stories is healthy. You need the passion and the knowledge to succeed. You’ll never please everyone, so know your strengths, stick to what you’re good at, and focus on building share in that particular segment. There’s absolutely nothing stopping writers from asking customers what they like, what they don’t like and whether there’s any room for manoeuvre in relation to your own comfort and knowledge zones.
Are erotica readers easy to put into categories or are their needs too diverse?
Readers can be segmented in so many ways -gender, sexual orientation, age, (erotica) purchasing habits, favoured erotica subjects, etc. I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into the data and seeing the similarities and contrasts between the different groups.
I think it’s also important to simply step back and think about our own wants and desires and how fluid these can sometimes be. Readers may suddenly get turned on by something they had previously been indifferent to. Now they can immediately go online and find erotica that caters to this. It might just be a temporary thing, a whim. But they can still act on it. I think it was Delilah Fawkes who said it, that MOOD at any particular given time will very often be the deciding factor in what gets read (and hopefully bought).
After collecting this information, what are your plans for it?
Firstly, some of the main findings will be available for all to see on my blogsite. I hope it can shed some light and provide some guidance or reassurance for writers. Secondly, the findings will also be a good PR vehicle for erotica. If some decent column inches can be secured in the media – and let’s face most of them love this sort of stuff – hopefully the genre as a whole will benefit. Maybe there’s enough data and material to merit its own book!
