I am currently writing the 3rd book in my trilogy, and I have a question (that I haven't wanted to ask on the main boards because I don't want to deal with all the bullshit about romance. It's cool if I ask it here I hope. My MC in this one is an erotica writer. Her love interest is a contractor who has a great sense of humor and tells great stories. He reads what she's working on, tells her she's doing it wrong, and she tells him to fix it then, if he thinks he can do better. So - part of the arc in their relationship is writing this erotica story together. I'm struggling with whether to put chunks of it in this book - or to write the whole thing and then release it as a bonus after the 3rd. Any opinions?
Hmm. *strokes beard* I think the latter. Stories within stories seem kind of gimmicky to me, and I think releasing it as a bonus could be a great marketing tool. But I'm also seeing a scene where she reads his work and they start acting it out.
That was my thought as well. And I'm not sure I have the chops to pull off the story within a story well, so I'm fairly certain it would seem gimmicky. I do plan to have them act out a scene - which can be done with just a short excerpt of what he's left for her to read, and (hopefully) increase interest for the stand alone erotica. The couple of people I've mentioned it to have been wishy washy about it. One said she hands down wouldn't read the erotica - which is weird because she read the second book (she's a beta) and she loved it and there's a lot of sex in it.
I think one of the best things about self-publishing is that you can play around more with releasing things in non-traditional ways, so I think having it as an independent story would be great. You could put little bits of it in the first as teasers, and then glue it all together in the separate book. I'd suggest having them both ready to release at the same time, for sure - as a reader, I doubt I'd want to wait!
That's a good point. I will have them both ready to go at the same time. Thank you. I'm the same, and I feel like an ass for having 4 years between books, but... life. Hopefully life will be kind and I can stay on track now.
I'm in agreement with Bayview about having them both ready for release at the same time. I'd be up for that. I love those add ins that a lot of self publishers do. By the way, you're a new to me writer and I hope you don't mind, but I just stalked your blog. You're books sound up my alley, so I think I might have to do a bit of shopping later and a read.
Thank you, and that's definitely what I'm going to do. I like them too. Stalk away (though I'm not very entertaining, you'll see)! I am glad they seem like something you'd like, and I appreciate that very much.
