How long should erotica be to make money on Amazon?
That’s one question I hear from people pretty much on a daily basis so I wanted to take some time to answer it and hopefully help some people out.
A lot of people seem to think you can’t make money with short stories, so they write long novels (10,000+ word count books).
And I get it…novels and romance are some of the most popular books on Amazon.
And I think 50 Shades of Grey really popularized this trend.
After all, no one would want to read a 3,000 to 5,000 word story right?!
Well that’s where some people are wrong.
After spending 5+ years writing erotica on Amazon, I have learned that there is a market for books of various lengths…from 1,500 words to 150,000 words!
There’s obviously a market for longer stories. BUT there’s also a market for shorter stories too.
Now, I always tell beginners to focus on short stories (3,000 – 6,000 word range) for two main reasons:
1. They are easier! You need time to master your craft before moving on to longer stories
2. It’s easier to write short stories to test out a niche.
Okay, let’s talk about each in more detail…
Short stories are better for beginners
As a new author, there are a ton of things you need to master aside from writing such as:
If you mess up on one of those things, your sales could really suffer.
How would it feel to spend 20 hours writing a 50,000 word story and to have the book not sell any copies because your keywords weren’t optimized?
It would suck big time!
In fact, it is soul crushing…
Instead, wouldn’t it be much better to invest 3 – 4 hours writing a 4,000 word book?
That way if it doesn’t sell, you didn’t waste much time or effort and you can move on to something else that might make more money.
Now, I’m not against writing long stories – far from it actually. I’m just a big proponent of focusing on shorter stories until you learn the basics.
And trust me…you will make A TON of mistakes when you are first starting out.
When I first wrote erotica, I made a ton of mistakes like using Amazon’s book cover creator and even royally screwing up my keywords.
When you are first starting out, it’s smarter to focus on SHORT stories until you master the basics.
After you master the basics (like what I mentioned above), then you can start writing longer stories.
We need to walk before we can run!
Testing niches
Another reason to write shorter stories (at least in the beginning) is to test niches.
Think about it like drilling for oil.
Do you want to spend all your time and money drilling a BIG hole in one area?
NO!
That makes no sense!
You want to drill small holes in LOTS of places to prove there’s oil there first.
After that, then you can invest in more resources to develop the areas where there’s proven oil!
It’s the same thing with your erotica.
You want to write short stories to find a niche that works and is proven to make money BEFORE you invest in the time and effort to write longer stories.
How Long Should Erotica Be – Final Thoughts
To be honest, there is no set “length” on how long erotica should be in order to make money.
I’ve made money from stories as small as 1,500 words and large as 10,000 to 15,000 words in some cases.
What matters more is getting your basics down and mastering the fundamentals.
With that being said, I would definitely focus on smaller stories (at first – based on the two reasons I touched on) until you master the fundamentals.
After that, it’s up to you to decide whether or not to “graduate” to longer pieces of work.