Writing a Writer's Profile

From Canterbury Christ Church Uni's Victorian Women Writers' project.

Reading stories online is a great way to safely explore sexual pleasure (especially with the guidance of review blogs like my Feminist Erotica). Why not take it a step further and write up some of your own fantasies to share? 

It is a lot of fun posting your personal fantasies in the pseudonymous public realm. People often respond enthusiastically, perhaps helping you realise that you are not weird or kinky; there are many ways to play at sex and probably whole communities out there who share your particular likings. You can post a story on a site like Literotica, or find a community forum which shares your pleasures, like Lipstick Fetish, or Brawna. You may even get a review on my other blog.

In this blogpost, I'll consider some of the anxieties which may go through your mind about posting explicit sexual material online. I'll look at how to set up an online pseudonym and how to use social media to promote your writing. 

Romeo and Juliet on fanpop

I first started publishing with a spiced up romance novel. I wasn't worried about people stalking me for a romance, especially in the wake of Fifty Shades. However I set up a pseudonym as I thought my daughter might want to choose to tell friends what her mum was scribbling away at, rather than have the other kids rush up to her going: "OMG! Your mum is an online writing slag!"

I was glad of it when I started to develop more sexually explicit writing, as I could use my pseudonymous profile to go on Facebook Groups (I joined a Romance group - they were really lovely) and erotica writers' Chat Rooms (they are ... wild!). As I got more established and gained confidence, I often gave information which could lead back to my real person. I had come to realise that while I sometimes got random messages proposing activities which I wasn't in a position to engage in (being on a different continent to the messager), it was very unlikely that my colleagues on the Chat Room would turn up to stalk me on the schoolrun. They are all keen writers of sex ranging from mild erotic kissing to pornographic gang bangs, and many claim to be Dirty Old Men, Slags, Trollops, etc, however they are usually highly respectable people themselves in Real Life and would not dream of hassling a woman, especially one with a small child in tow. In fact, I had a great deal of personal support in some difficult situations from my fellow writers. 

I have met some of my online friends in Real Life. Most are very courteous friendly people. One or two are not people I would trust with my address, not that they don't mean well but they don't have the same sense of social boundaries which the rest of us have. I've learnt to be rude and outright refuse to give my personal details when pressed for them just because I get a 'feeling' about someone. It feels awkward but such risks are not worth taking.

 

From Punch

OK, enough of that! You should not expect to find online erotica writers' websites full of predatory types, singing: "Once aboard the lugger and the girl is mine," or "Have some madeira m'dear". However, you should approach such websites with caution since it isn't always worth putting on your CV that you can toss off (so to speak) a quickie (so to speak) involving handcuffs, a dastardly Chief of Police and several paragraphs of purple prose fore-play in black satin sheets. 

How to set up your profile.
First you need a name. It's worth giving this some thought, as it will be like a brand. Would Ferrero Rocher be as successful if it was called Nutty Tit-bits? Would Nutty Tits have a certain appeal? What kind of audience would Ms N. Tits appeal to? 

Once you have your name, it's totally easy to set up an email address. You simply go to your chosen provider and become NTits@hotmail or NuttyT@gmail or NuttyTits69@yahoo, whatever works best for you. 

When you have an email address, you can set up an account for your new persona, using your email address, at any of the online publishing sites: Literotica, Smashwords, Amazon, Brawna, Lipstick Fetish, etc etc. (See here for my blogpost about where to publish your hot stuff.)

While you are sorting this out, bear in mind that Smashwords pays using Paypal, so you may want to also set up a Paypal account. This must be in your real name but Smash are cool dudes and make no awkwardnesses about paying from your pseudonymous author's earnings into your real life Paypal account. (Amazon pay into a bank account, and are really inefficient about it, and make you do a lot of blah about taxes too.) Whassat? Oh yes, you can sometimes make money with dirty stories! although it's quite hard to do this, as there is lots of porn ... I mean artistic stories of a delicate nature, freely available on the net.

Giving your profile some exposure
If you are very keen about your writing, you may also consider using social media to let fans know when your latest Hot Hot Hot chapter has been released. Facebook, Twitter, you can set up accounts for Ms. Tits on all of these and regularly update to keep your work in the public's eye. 

Bear in mind that I said regularly there. Going onto Facebook befriending people you have never heard of, chatting to them and asking them to Like your latest book page is actually hard work. If you enjoy it, and have the time, go for it. I personally made a lot of friends on Facebook as Naoko Smith, and got onto the Romance group which was a really good experience. But it was very time-consuming to keep up. I have never managed to get into Twitter, although I know I should for the purposes of circulating my blogposts more widely. 

The account I do find useful is AboutMe. It works like a tiny calling card. It's really easy to set up a profile on it. It updates itself.  I find it very handy to send people the link so they can check all my up to date work at one quick go. I can list the online stories I want to highlight, and it automatically loads the link to my latest blogposts. The visuals are easy to manipulate in order to make yourself a pleasing little online presence. You can work to increase your profile in the About Me community too, but I am not very good at that. I just use it to showcase all my work in one place.(AboutMeNaokoSmith here.)

So-o-o there you have it - the ABC on how to pop your fantasies up online, while still appearing demure in Real Life. (Seriously, I heard that's how the other parents used to describe me! ROFLMAO!)