Words Per Hour, What It Means

When you look at your efforts as a writer from a financial standpoint (And you should, as an indie author), you can very easily get both excited and depressed. The fact of the matter is that even out of the 1-2% of the people who -want- to write that actually end up publishing something, a very small number turn into bestsellers. That is one part of the depressing news about being an indie author, or any kind of author, really.

The next bit of depressing news is that, for 99,9% of us, making a living off of being an indie writer is work. It's a job. You don't just sit down and make 100k a year from releasing your first novel. That's just not how it works. Unless you're extremely lucky.

The good/exciting news are that regardless of the above, it is very possible to make a living as an indie writer. If you have written, finished and published something, you are already on track. Now you have to stay on track. You have to have work ethic. Being a writer is not about a dreamy life in Paris cafés or seedy bars. All that comes after you've written.

No, the good news is that you can make it happen. You, and no one else. As long as you have a work ethic and keep writing and releasing, you are moving closer to your goal, if that goal is to be able to make a living off writing.

Let's, for the sake of argument, say that you release 2 works a month. Could be short stories, novellas, even novels. You price them at 2,99$, and you sell 5 copies of each. 10 copies a month. You earn roughly 2$ royalties per copy, so in other words, you earned 20$ the first month. Not impressive, but consider that those shorts stay on the market and sell, on average, 5 copies each per month.

Next month, you release another 2 shorts. Now you earn 40$ a month. In other words, once the first year has passed, you will have 24 works out there and be earning 480$ a month. Remember, this assumes no irregularities. You can certainly sell more than 5 copies a month of a given work, especially as you become easier to discover and perhaps even build up a fanbase. You improve as a writer, and you could end up selling far more. This is a -baseline-.

At the end of the second year, again assuming no irregularities, releasing 2 works a month, you'll be up at 960$ a month. Again, perhaps not impressive, but you're starting to get up there. Year 3: 1440$/month. Year 5: 2400$. By the time you're here, you're earning 28,8k$ a year. Not glorious, but certainly something to live on.

Remember, what you've written is for life, assuming you keep moving with the times and take advantage of new platforms, perhaps branch out into audio or the like. While income will slowly drop off over time, your books never stop existing. You are building up a solid livelihood here, income you can take with you into your senior years as well.

So, writing can be something that starts slowly, but remember: With work and dedication, it's possible to write for a living. Oh, and... Year 20: 115200$ a year. Again, assuming no swings back or forth. If you've been writing for 20 years, I would be extremely surprised if you had not managed to build up some sort of name for yourself. Consider the impact that could have. The number above still assumes you make 10$ a month for each story out there. It doesn't take into account any possible big sellers you might have, or popular works that never have a breakout, but consistently sell 25 copies a month, or anything else.

And here's the "best" part. You can do this even if you're not a prolific writer. Assume your average work is 5000 words. 2 of those a month means you can write as little as 330 words a day. For me, that's about 15-20 minutes of writing. So, if you're thinking about getting into writing but have children, a job, whatever, ask yourself: Can I set aside 20 minutes a day for this? If you really want to write, you'll find those minutes somewhere.

For those wanting a far more in-depth view of this topic, have a look at Dean Wesley Smith's blog post on the topic.

The Merits of Writing Erotica

As I'm sure everyone who isn't dead or in a coma knows, erotica isn't really a publicly accepted genre in spite of the sheer number of sales dwarfing entire other literary genres. The focus on sex is seen as lesser, as sinful, while horrible acts in books not classified as erotica get away without even a mention. Is the graphic rape and murder in a crime book any less sexual because the book isn't classified as erotica?

Up until recently, I have been blessed with friends who either don't care about these general societal views, or don't share them. What people I don't consider friends say is not something I usually care about very much, unless it impacts me directly. As such, I managed to more or less be free of the stigma associated with erotica. But, we must all eventually face these things.

Someone I considered a friend started talking to me about what I write, and then presented the typical snobbish opinion about what writing anything sexual is. A lesser form of the craft of writing. Not up to the standard of "regular" genres like Fantasy, Sci-fi, Mystery or whatever.

"Well, fantasy has their big standards, see Tolkien etc. But erotica is young or not published in the same way as the others, so it's new and exciting. And ... you'd probably gain more writing standard stuff. Gaining a good base, you know. Getting to know the more established forms."

Beyond the simple (And make no mistake, very annoying) snobbery, there are several misconceptions in this statement. Since I feel like it reflects a decent part of why people think writing erotica is somehow lesser, I decided to address it in a blog.

1) Erotica and standards

Erotica is a much-maligned genre that major publishing houses don't want to associate with. Only select publications touch it, and those cannot keep up with the real demand. And as we all know, when there's a need, someone will try to meet it. This has resulted in a tremendous amount of erotica written that never comes near the selection process that publishers have in place, by authors who have little to no idea about how to write compelling literature.

Regular publishers get a LOT of submissions, and around 2% of submitted work makes it through. Have you ever read a published book you thought was kind of bad? Chances are, you have. And that was considered in the top 2%. Such a selection process, especially these days with the internet and eBook markets blooming, was never standardized for erotic works. This means that the 98% of work that never would've seen a publisher is now free to be spat out for all to see.

What does this mean?
- There is a lot of sub-par erotica out there.
- This has nothing to do with erotica as a genre, and everything to do with its circumstances.

2) Erotica is "new and exciting"

Erotica is as old as, or older, than any other currently accepted genre. Erotica is not a sign of the current downfall of our society, or something that has come about because sex sells right now. The first erotic works appeared thousands of years ago. Hell, there have been archaeological finds from ancient Egypt suggesting that there was the equivalent of a Men's Magazine in those times.

What does this mean?
- Erotica is as old as language and writing.
- Sex is a part of life, and always has been. It is frequently shamed and hidden away, but never disappears.

3) Erotica and Writing Development

The assumption here is that erotica is a less advanced, less fulfilling, and less difficult genre to write. The underlying insult to both the author and reader, here, is that anyone could write "He cums in her cunt" and it's instantly worth buying as erotica because writing erotica is easy. As I'm sure anyone who has read some selection of erotic works can tell you, that's simply not the case. Writing erotic work does not mean that shifting perspectives, lacking basic grammar and spelling or a complete lack of sensible plot development become excusable.

The fact of the matter is that in order to write good and great erotica, the writer has to know just as much as the writer who focuses on Fantasy, or YA. Characterization does not become less important because you don't fade to black. The structure, plotting and dramatization of the events in your story do not somehow become easier to write because you have two (or more) character doinking at one or several points in the work.

What does this mean?
- Good erotica sexual elements to enhance the story.
- Erotica is just as developing for a writer's skills as any other genre.

(Fan)fiction Friday 4: The Bodyguard, Ch. 3

Awakening

Tags: [Oral] [Breath control] [D/s] [Large cock] [Multi-cock] [Noncon] [Light bondage] [Immobilization] [Inflation]

For the most part, Cercea had remained still while Nahla was passed out. She did lean down to run her tongue over one of her cocks now and again, having to suppress a girly giggle as she did it. Even now and again, she ran a small hand over her bodyguard’s now more relaxed face, glancing left and right along the bank of the river, but otherwise staying where she was. Nothing was near. It was dark by now, but nothing dared come near. Everything here could feel that something dangerous was at the river. Cercea almost laughed. This body was the perfect disguise and hiding place. Shame he was only able to come out and control the body under certain conditions.. But it was manageable nevertheless.

Nahla’s eyelids twitched, and immediately Cercea sat still, smiling downwards at where Nahla was lying. The changed woman could not actually see Nahla due to her four eighteen inch cocks being in the way, but she would know when Nahla woke up. “Time for fun!” was the sentence that rang inside Cercea’s head.

Gradually Nahla struggled up through layer upon layer of unconsciousness, finally arriving in Azeroth once again. Her lips hurt, her neck and upper body were pounding with a deeper, more worrying pain, her wrists were hurting due to being tied, and once she opened her eyes, she knew it had only started. She saw the bottom side of one of Cercea’s huge cocks, seeing part of another above the first. Nahla felt Cercea’s small hand caress her cheek, a surprisingly gentle touch, considering what had happened earlier.. How much earlier? She had lost her sense of time while passed out. It was dark, but for how long had it been?

“You were a good sport, Nahla,” purred Cercea’s soft voice, “But we aren’t done just yet.. Before we start, I’ll give you a minute to look up at my cocks, take in how they look from your position, because I promise you it will become a familiar sight to you unless you want to die.”. Cercea held still for an entire minute. Nahla was not necessarily following her command, but she was not actively struggling either. She knew when she was beaten, or perhaps she was merely waiting for what was coming. “Now, Nahla my dearest, this can be easy or hard for you, the decision is entirely yours. I can hardly wait to see just what your reaction will be..” almost whispered Cercea, before moving backwards from her bodyguard’s position on the ground. One hand clasped Nahla’s neck, the other reached up and angled one huge dick down at the elf’s mouth. Cercea pushed forward. As expected, she met resistance. She planted her hands at Nahla’s lips and unceremoniously forced fingers into the other elf’s mouth. With the same unnatural strength she had shown earlier she pulled Nahla’s teeth from each other and pushed the head of the large cock into Nahla’s warm mouth, slowly releasing the elf’s teeth again. At this point, she knew there was no danger. Nahla could not possibly inflict any serious harm on her rock hard meat, but if she tried she would soon find it to have been an exceptionally bad decision.

As Cercea had expected, she felt Nahla’s teeth make feeble attempts at biting into the thick cock lodged in the slightly larger elf’s mouth. With a slight sigh, she took a hold of Nahla’s neck and kept the elf still. “I’m going to show you what happens when you choose the hard way, Nahla. Whether you choose the hard way or the easy way, I’m going to cum in your belly until I’m empty. Let’s see if this doesn’t give you the inspiration you need to be more cooperative..” said Cercea is a satisfied tone, not even finishing before she had to mumble a few words under her breath. Immediately, Nahla became limp, laying splayed slightly on the ground. She had lost control of her muscles, even her lungs, unable to even breathe in, scream, bite, claw, and twitch or convulse as the much too large cock began pushing into her throat. She felt the dull pain in her neck come over her again in waves as the thick futa cock was forced deeper into her, her neck once again bulging to an obscene size. With her cock hilted in Nahla’s mouth once again, Cercea pulled about an inch back and began thrusting very fast, small thrusts into Nahla, keeping this up for about thirty seconds until she got the overwhelming sense that Nahla would lose conscience again if she kept it up much longer. With a satisfied roar, she let the floodgates open, powerful bursts of thick, milky-white sperm blasting into Nahla’s stomach with no hindrance possible. Cercea’s body trembled for a full twenty seconds, roughly holding her bodyguard’s face against the hilt of the cock as she pumped cum into Nahla. Almost as quickly as she had exploded, Cercea pulled the cock out of Nahla’s abused body, and let her regain control of her body with a wave of her hand.

Nahla gasped, coughed and almost lost conscience because her body wanted and needed to do so many things at once that she could not get air. With her charge sitting above her patiently, Nahla coughed, gasped for air for two minutes, feeling the huge load of cum splashing about in her stomach. Finally, she regained her composure somewhat. Unwilling to give Nahla any time to formulate some form of defense in this first encounter, Cercea leaned slightly further forward and pushed the head of her second, huge cock into Nahla’s mouth. “Do yourself a favour now, dear..” whispered Cercea as she carefully slid an inch more of throbbing meat into Nahla’s mouth, pulling back again, starting up the same short, small thrusts she had used before. She never felt even the start of a bite this time, though she did hear some cock-muffled sobs coming from Nahla, a clear sign of the pain wracking the bodyguard’s body. “See, this is much nicer.. And much easier.” said Cercea, caressing Nahla’s cheek gently, scooping up a drop of blood running from the elf’s ruptured lips.

Cercea held herself aloft slight above and behind Nahla on her two hands, simply thrusting the head of her second huge cock in and out of Nahla’s mouth, her breath finally beginning to get labored. “Now relax, this won’t take too long..”, whispered Cercea, taking a far more gentle grip of Nahla’s neck than before as she forced her cock into the elf’s throat and further still, enjoying the sight of Nahla’s neck bulging as the pulsing cock made its way deeper. Cercea sighed with satisfaction as she felt Nahla’s lips around the base of the large cock, pushing back and forth a little to rub the head of her first and lower placed cock against Nahla’s skin. Cercea gave a few, relatively hard thrusts and then leaned her head back, a few interrupted sounds coming from her open mouth as the second huge cock sent a second explosion of sperm into Nahla’s already well-filled belly. Cercea relaxed finally, after the twenty-seventh spurt of cum, pulling the cock out of Nahla quickly, holding the elf’s head as she coughed, holding her stomach with one hand, gasping for breath and from the pain in her neck and upper torso.

“There there, Nahla.. We’re halfway. You’re being very good.” said Cercea gently. She decided already then that she would not do anything more to Nahla today, once she had finished what she was doing now. She did not want to wreck this new toy when she, after all, had shown a spark of hope. She might become useful, perhaps her mind could be twisted to serve the purpose.

Cercea sat lost in thought for a little while, absentmindedly caressing Nahla’s neck, holding the elf’s head gently with her other hand. She was momentarily distracted, but the raging hardons would not let her sit idle for too long. Images of a possible future drifted past her eyes in a sensual flurry. Cercea wiped the head of her second cock off on Nahla’s right cheek, and then got into position again. The third huge, hard cock started pushing past Nahla’s lips. The halfway unconscious bodyguard could not understand it, but it seemed almost as if her captor was being gentle this time. She wrote it off to lack of sensibility in her abused body. At this point she had given up, all she hoped for was to, somehow, survive this ordeal, then turn this monstrosity in to be dealt with by the Priestesses. She thought of what would happen to this strange girl, whether she was demonic or a corrupted Night Elf did not actually matter. Nahla was being much more cooperative than Cercea had ever hoped for. The woman stayed almost completely still while Cercea slowly and carefully pushed her third dick in and out of Nahla’s mouth. She let herself prolong the pleasure this time around. Nahla could breathe the entire time, as Cercea stretched her body sensually, driving her cock in and out of Nahla for more than fifteen minutes. Finally she stopped, caressing Nahla’s cheek as she spoke “It is time, dear.. You’ve been good, so I will as well.”.

Cercea pulled back, sat down on her heels and grabbed the third, at this point almost pulsing cock in both of her hands. She was unable to reach all the way around it, but still jerked herself off for around a minute, until she started being wracked in pleasure. With surprising ease, she pushed the thick cock down just as the girl’s thick cum started pumping from it, landing directly on Nahla’s face and upper body. Cercea kept jerking the huge cock as cum flooded Nahla’s face, flowing down and onto the ground, forming a small, sticky-white pool on the ground. Cercea kept still with her head angled to the right for a while, admiring the thick and slowly flowing streams going down the sides of Nahla’s face with a small smile, then, slowly and deliberately, leaned forward and took a long lick from her bodyguard’s forehead down to her lips. Cercea used her tongue to probe Nahla’s lips apart, pushing some of her cum into the apparently still slightly resisting elf’s mouth. “Come now dear.. You’ll grow to like the taste of it, it’d be best for you if you did, at least.” whispered Cercea in Nahla’s ear before leaning up again.

“I want you to scoop some up with that sweet tongue of yours and drink it, Nahla.” said Cercea in a more commanding tone. The bodyguard stayed still. It was one thing to give up the fight and hope to live, but completely different to surrender so completely as this command suggested. She gritted her teeth, ignoring the pain for the moment as her thoughts raced. Meanwhile, Cercea gathered some of the flowing cum with a finger running over Nahla’s cheek and pushed it towards her lips. As the finger neared, Nahla’s jaw relaxed a little. Cercea gently pushed her finger in between Nahla’s lips, pushed them apart a little and then rolled the cum into the bodyguard’s mouth, leaving the small finger in there as well. “Lick my finger clean, dear, then swallow..” said Cercea in a purr, gently placing her other hand on Nahla’s neck to be sure she felt a swallow. Cercea felt Nahla’s warm, moist but hesitant tongue on her finger, smiling to herself as the sticky white sperm was cleaned off her. She felt Nahla’s mouth contract in a swallowing motion, then felt it continue down the elf’s throat.

“That was very good, Nahla dear. Now the last of this..” whispered Cercea, once again raising herself over Nahla. She had a little trouble getting her fourth cock placed against the bodyguard’s lips, as the three others below it obstructed things somewhat. After a little rubbing and sighing from Cercea’s side, the fourth thick dick was pushed gently into Nahla’s mouth. “Be good now, okay? I want to do a little more than before, but I don’t want to hurt you.” said Cercea as she pushed the throbbing cockhead into Nahla’s mouth. “Breathe in, dear.” mumbled Cercea, waiting five seconds before she put a little more weight behind the fourth of her huge cocks to go into Nahla. She sighed as her other three, lower set cocks bumped against Nahla’s shoulders, reached forward to guide them upwards to rub along the elf’s soft skin as the fourth large cock drove its head into Nahla’s throat. Cercea held it there for a few seconds, thrusting back and forth gently a few times before pulling back to Nahla’s mouth. The elf coughed and sputtered, but her body twitched only instinctively. It was surprising how cooperative she was, really, thought Cercea as she once again told Nahla to breathe in, only to plunge into her throat again. This continued for upwards of ten minutes, until it became clear to Cercea that while Nahla was given some recuperating time in between each push into her throat, this could not continue. She reached down and caressed Nahla’s cheek, then took a firm hold of the elf’s neck and agonizingly slowly drove the huge cock down the bodyguard’s throat and deeper still, towards the cute little belly splashing with cum already. Once Cercea felt Nahla’s lips press against her pelvis, having taken her to the hilt once again, she pulled five inches backwards, then let out a relieved gasp as she rather brutally pistoned the large cock in to the hilt again, twitching as her fourth load of cum began exploding into Nahla. For the first time in a while, Nahla started struggling again. Her belly was full already, but now she felt a seemingly unending load of Cercea’s sticky stuff being pumped into her stomach even more forcefully than the other two times. It felt as if she was going to explode, but there was nothing she could do, stuck with that huge, hard piece of meat deep in her, except to feel her body straining and trying to cope as Cercea trembled in pleasure, finally seeming to relax, the waves of cum dying down.

Cercea pulled out of Nahla, holding the elf’s head almost in a motherly gesture, caressing her cheek and pointing to her now bulging stomach. “See, dear? You took all that, just for me..” whispered Cercea, almost beaming down at Nahla. Where her usually flat stomach was, a bulge now was, about the size of half a football. Nahla could not have seen it without Cercea holding her up, her body so taxed that it was a wonder she even managed to stay awake.

Cercea ran a hand through Nahla’s hair and whispered something about sleeping, then things became dark. Nahla felt herself being lifted up and carried before she fell back through the many layers of consciousness she had fought up through earlier on. She welcomed them.