Be a Guest Writer
Would you like one of your stories to reach 1900 subscribers?
Each Friday, I would like to publish a new (or not so new!) fellow erotic writer in my publication, with a short interview to introduce themselves.
All part of my evil plan to turn the whole of Substack into erotica…mmahahahahaaa
I’ve done it a few times. Here’s an example so you know what it would look like:
Do get in touch, and we can sort it out. You don’t need to be a paid subscriber or anything like that.
I will make it free for all, so that the most people read it (I average about 1000 views of free stories). And feel free to already have it on your own page, free or not.
I’ll start it with the interview and have links at the top and bottom to your page and even any other specific stories; important if the story carries on.
I won’t do too much editing and won’t publish it if I think it’s really bad, of course. But I’m sure it’ll be great! But I will change small things to make it more readable, such as shortening the length of paragraphs, which is easier when reading on a phone etc.
The questions will be:
Tell us a little about yourself…
What are your stories normally about?
What inspired you to write erotica?
How much of what you write is from lived experience?
Writers included so far:
FAQ
- Thank you to Velvet Lure for giving me the idea to add a FAQ section. I have been writing the same thing in answer to DMs about being a guest writer, so it makes a lot of sense, but don’t feel you need to read all of this long section. Just scan it for your queries and get in touch.
a) Tell us a little about yourself…
…isn’t a question. I know, but I think it was Forged Desire who suggested it as an extra, so that it covers everything the other questions might not.
b) Do I have to answer all the questions?
Nope, but I think readers love that part of this to get to understand, as a writer or reader, where the erotica comes from. That personal connection can help a lot.
c) Can I make up my own questions?
Of course! If there’s something that these questions don’t cover, then I’d love to hear more about you.
d) How will it be clear this is my story and not YourSecretNeeds?
I will have a link directly to your page in the post after the introduction and before the questions. Like this…
And within my introduction, I will mention your name, here it is, and so the link is there as well. Plus, I have just realised that I can add you as an author and take away my name as an author at the top as part of the by-line, so it will appear under your story’s title, see YOURSECRETNEEDS below:
e) Why are you doing this?
Do you want the altruistic or selfish reasons first?
Ok, altruistic first:
I have a large subscription base now and wanted to give something back. I have been putting up very new writers and writers that have been here a while, and it does seem to help. I haven’t found a negative to it yet. I came across the idea when looking up something else on Substack info pages, and I thought, ‘wow, I really could do that now and not feel I was taking advantage of people’. It could give a lot of writers an early boost or a chance to reach out to new audiences when they seem to have reached a limit.
Selfish:
I want to make myself read more erotica, so I have, of course, been reading the authors who have gone up here. I can only write so much, and yet I want to get up four or five new stories a week. Therefore, this does fill a Friday nicely! Plus, it probably doesn’t just get the other writers more readers but also, I think, gets me more readers. It adds greatly to the variety of my publication. And I’ve really been enjoying working with writers to get their work up here.
f) Are the stories ever behind a paywall?
No, always free to reach the biggest audience for your stories, and so I won’t directly benefit from your work. However, if you have that story behind a paywall already on your own page, then don’t feel you need to change that. Readers will come across your work in different ways, and I never want to put people off paying for that!
g) Can I put links to my other stories in the post or even outside of Substack?
Yes to both. I wouldn’t want to put up so many that it becomes cluttered, but I think you should put up two or three at least, especially if this story is part of a series. So, yes, Amazon, Smashwords, and other Substack stories or a link to your About page, whatever you feel might be helpful.
h) Can the stories be about anything?
Yes! Just about. Obviously, there needs to be a bit of an erotic element to fit the bill, but then you probably won’t have read this far if you weren’t writing that!
It can be poetry or something experimental if you like.
The subject matter can be anything. And while I would like not to have to worry about censorship of content, there are obvious areas that don’t get published on Substack. That’s not me saying that, I’m very liberal with it, but I don’t want to get banned! If you’re not sure what might be ok, then I think it’s best to read the more taboo writers here. I can check, of course, as well. Like Zatanna Dark for example.
i) How do I choose what story to give you?
Probably your best, or at least the story you think will most likely bring you more readers, your most popular one.
j) Does it have to be a new story?
Nope. Most that I have published so far have been stories already published in some way, either on Substack or elsewhere. However, very happy to have new ones too.
k) Can I publish the same story on my page?
Yes. I have no ownership over your story, so you should also have it on your page, I think.
l) How do I send you the story?
It’s actually easiest if you’ve already got it up on Subsack because then the formatting is already in place. Sometimes stories emailed to me aren’t that easy to sort out when transferred to Substack.
m) Do I need to provide the picture(s)?
I can use what you are already using, you can give me some, or I can choose the pictures myself. I even made up the title for one of them! That is up to you. I use sexart.com for most of my photos because it already had the age verification on its page before it was made a legal requirement in the UK - I’m liberal about the content of fiction writing but not about internet access for kids! (I know, I know, they’ll find a way around it better than we would, but you’ve got to at least try!)
n) How long would it take to see my story published on your page?
I think it could be about a month at the moment, but I am hoping to get to a point of having stories set up 8 weeks in advance. Although it might be much quicker at the moment. I think I should have just answered this question with ‘I don’t know’!
o) Do you put the guest writers in a special section on your publication page, along with the links?
No. In a way, I’d like to for my own convenience, but I think it is more important that when readers coming to my page look for the kinds of stories they want that they find what you’ve written because that’s what they want to read, rather than who wrote it.
I am sure there are more questions I could add here, so if your question is not answered, then DM me, and I’ll add your question to this post as well!
Hello. Long stories? Multi-chapter stories? Quite a lot of my interest lies in why my people do what they do, how they deal with sometimes unusual (but often sexual) situations in which they find themselves. Who they are matters to me, not just their erotic lives, which are nonetheless varied and (I hope) exciting to read about.
Given that I am ending my erotica Substack soon to focus on my novel and just one publication (The Fictional), I'm game. Going out with a bang. So to speak.