Forum: Author Hangout

My wife had been wondering why I was spending my evenings on the computer, and what the heck I could be doing for so long. I explained to her the premise of A True History Book One, cleaned up the first five chapters of it, and let her read it. She's one of those people that considers all erotica 'porn'. That's fine.

I mentioned to her that I'd decided, after much discussion on here, about putting some of the stories up for the tip jar (that's what I call Bookapy.) Her response was, 'Well, sex sells.'

Last night I had my spreadsheet up on how many copies of all three books have sold, and mentioned that the three books have now hit more than one million downloads on here. She already knew that Book One had won two awards.

She told me, "Good job."

Yay!

Did reading the first 5 have any effect on her attitude of all erotica being porn?

My 90-year-old mother has read all 33 of my books, despite both the sex and the occasional incest scenes. But then, she's a pretty voracious reader. My brother has made a collection of signed copies of each book, but gave up reading them years ago. He's not quite as voracious a reader. My ex has read a couple (though honestly, I can't remember which), though she's not quite as comfortable with the content.

Having someone in your corner helps, as does having a beta-reader, as it's helpful watching them read, so you can check whenever they put the book aside and see what made them put it down (i.e. disturbed them enough to take a break). That information can often be vital in determine how readers often perceive the actions on the page, often interpreting it differently than the author intended.