aelemercier

[aelemercier]

These are some really interesting insights.

I've always assumed that - at least for queer A/B/O - the draw is much the same as writing slash: a safer platform to explore things like gender roles without the baggage that comes with them from my every day life. I love writing regular BDSM (queer), but exploring the A/B/O space has been unexpectedly rewarding for me because of the Spec elements, both for world building and relationship building.

Do male omegas experience elements of our world misogyny? Do issues with pregnancy and motherhood change when men are suddenly experiencing it? (do female alphas experience toxic masculinity?) And as someone who's nearly-trigger levels of repulsed by het pregnancy because of IRL (and personal) issues, mpreg has let me actually explore how making bebbies could be hot and rewarding in a romantic relationship.

(Though also - as a person on the ace-scale, I also love heat/sex pollen tropes because _I_ can't fathom being "uncontrollably horny" for someone in normal circumstances hahaha. And knotting's definitely a fun smut kink.)

tbh the reason i don't really vibe with A/B/O much is bc i find the central conceit much more interesting without the speculative elements. i like dom/sub dynamics, i like characters being so horny for each other that they have a hard time acting normal in public, i like characters struggling with this tension between who they think they ought to be in bed versus what comes most naturally to them, BUT I tend to find these elements much less interesting when they're hard-coded into the setting like that.

i'm sure i could write A/B/O fic that i'd enjoy if i wanted, but i've never bothered bc i prefer to attain that type of relationship dynamic through characterization and that carries less weight if it's also incorporated at the setting level. all A/B/O really has to offer me is some light furry flavoring and i have other, more interesting ways of doing that, too

[aelemercier]

Steamy new bdsm smut!

"When professional dominatrix Darren Quinn is given the opportunity to take the stage and perform with his husband and submissive Miles at an exclusive BDSM New Years party, it's the perfect opportunity to show off for their new submissives, poly couple Tristan and Leander. But as their relationships grow deeper than playtime, will the opportunity to make the beautiful and alluring Leander into a submissive showpiece make Darren re-evaluate his feelings for Leander? And are all four of them ready for the steamy future that might hold?"

GET IT: https://books2read.com/u/bWA22q

"A Submissive Performance" is a 18,000 word kinky m/m BDSM love story with multiple steamy encounters, dom/sub play, "daddy-kink"-style brother role-play, kinbaku bondage, exhibitionism, multiples, swingers and switch hitters and forming intimate connections with the best kind of found family.

[aelemercier]

New Smut App

My feelings are still mixed about Radish, mostly because all their tags are so overrun with trashy het romance that it's hard to find The Gay Shit(TM). But the coins system lets you basically read for free if you watch some ads.

It's positioned as being great for bite-sized reading - commute, read on the can, in line at the bank or whatever.

Anyway - I've got three stories ongoing up there currently if anyone wants to check out the platform and throw me some coins haha. SAMPLE: https://radishfiction.com/writers/13945

[aelemercier]

Weekend freebie!

Want some hot BDSM omegaverse MPreg smut? Get a freebie from my trilogy, with the other two books at $0.99 for the next 48 hours!

GET IT FREE on Kindle

[aelemercier]

Stuff your (box) e-reader!

The first book in my Omegaverse sex magic romance erotica series is FREE today! :D (With the rest of the trilogy at a $0.99 countdown deal)

If you like kinky, earnest poly romance with a slutty little Alpha who likes it both ways this one's for you!!

FREE: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D8SYNH7Q

[aelemercier]

Discount Bitches!!

If you haven't yet read "The Bitchelor" by @simonaniles and myself, it's on a countdown deal on [Kindle USA] and [Kindle UK]!

The sooner you buy the cheaper it is! :D

A HILARIOUS, STEAMY GAY REALITY TV POLY ROMANCE. Against his better judgment, Captain Harrison Pearce, Jr, has allowed his surrogate daughter to talk him into starring on her reality TV show, "The Catch", with its first all-male cast. Now the new queer Mr. Catch has been thrust into the spotlight - and the stresses of reality TV - with eleven men vying for his favor. Soon, Harrison finds himself torn between the affections of the handsome Lord Patrick Montgomery, muscle-daddy Sebastian Cruz, and beautiful, troubled Adrian Fisher... all with their own secrets. Can Harrison find the courage to own up to his feelings before he misses his chance with all three... or worse, his potential-boyfriends all run off with each other?

"The Bitchelor" is a 27,000 word love story filled with erotic polyamorous encounters and comedic show-business shenanigans, where finding love in multiple unexpected places might just lead to happy endings and ratings gold.

[aelemercier]

"Take some smut to the beach" sale!

Have a Hot Smut Summer with 25% off some of my top titles on Smashwords! :D :D :D

DILF Island: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1566561

The Curse of the Bear Prince: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1548540

Unscripted Desires: A Porn Star Romance https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1551441

Plus, the Polyamorous BDSM Stories: https://www.smashwords.com/books/byseries/108030/series

[aelemercier]

via @duckprintspress

No, I think this is pretty normal? POV character choice is based on what suits and serves the storytelling. Now, if by fic they mean FANfic I could see some of these applying more frequently....

(you could argue "I don't decide it just happens" is this answer, aka "the muses decide based on the story". It's a very pantser/gardener answer.)

[aelemercier]

The second part of this Omegaverse Sex Magic duology is now live! The balance of gripping adventure and kinky fuckery is really *chefs kiss* in this one, if I do say so myself! <3

GET IT: https://books2read.com/omegainsurgence

Dominant Omega Seb Averon has finally found the mate of his dreams in Prince Colin: an Alpha who yearns to submit to him in the bedroom. But Seb's family still suffers under the rule of his sire, the abusive Master of Breice... and he wants Seb back. As Seb and Colin grow their magical abilities through exploring their deeply kinky fantasies, can they each find the strength and surrender needed to overthrow the Master and save Seb's family before it's too late?

"Dominant Omega Insurgence" is a 46,000 word queer dom/sub romance with multiple erotic encounters, featuring BDSM, size kink, kinbaku, multiples, submissive Alphas, dominant Omegas and versatile/switching, with heat and knotting kink and learning that trust is the sexiest kink of all.

Read as a steamy stand-alone, or as Book 2 of "The Prince's Mate" in 'Omegaverse Sex Magic - a Fantasy series".  

Heat level: 5

[aelemercier]

How to Edit an Over-Length Story Down to a Specific Word Count

One of the most wonderful things about writing as a hobby is that you never have to worry about the length of your story. You can be as self-indulgent as you want, make your prose the royalist of purples, include every single side story and extra thought that strikes your fancy. It’s your story, with no limits, and you can proceed with it as you wish.

When transitioning from casual writing to a more professional writing milieu, this changes. If you want to publish, odds are, you’ll need to write to a word count. If a flash fiction serial says, “1,000 words or less,” your story can’t be 1,025 and still qualify. If a website says, “we accept novellas ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 words,” your story will need to fall into that window. Even when you consider novel-length works, stories are expected to be a certain word count to fit neatly into specific genres - romance is usually around 80,000 words, young adult usually 50,000 to 80,000, debut novels usually have to be 100,000 words or less regardless of genre, etc. If you self-publish or work with a small press, you may be able to get away with breaking these “rules,” but it’s still worthwhile to learn to read your own writing critically with length in mind and learn to recognize what you do and do not need to make your story work - and then, if length isn’t an issue in your publishing setting, you can always decide after figuring out what’s non-essential to just keep everything anyway.

If you’re writing for fun? You literally never have to worry about your word count (well, except for sometimes in specific challenges that have minimum and/or maximum word counts), and as such, this post is probably not for you.

But, if you’re used to writing in the “throw in everything and the kitchen sink” way that’s common in fandom fanfiction circles, and you’re trying to transition only to be suddenly confronted with the reality that you’ve written 6,000 words for a short story project with a maximum word count of 5,000...well, we at Duck Prints Press have been there, we are in fact there right now, as we finish our stories for our upcoming anthology Add Magic to Taste and many of us wrote first drafts that were well over the maximum word count.

So, based on our experiences, here are our suggestions on approaches to help your story shorter...without losing the story you wanted to tell!

Cut weasel words (we wrote a whole post to help you learn how to do that!) such as unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, the “was ~ing” sentence structure, redundant time words such as “a moment later,” and many others.

When reviewing dialog, keep an eye out for “uh,” “er,” “I mean,” “well,” and other casual extra words. A small amount of that kind of language usage can make dialog more realistic, but a little goes a long way, and often a fair number of words can be removed by cutting these words, without negatively impacting your story at all.

Active voice almost always uses fewer words than passive voice, so try to use active voice more (but don’t forget that passive voice is important for varying up your sentence structures and keeping your story interesting, so don’t only write in active voice!).

Look for places where you can replace phrases with single words that mean the same thing. You can often save a lot of words by switching out phrases like “come back” for “return” and seeking out other places where one word can do the work of many.

Cut sentences that add atmosphere but don't forward the plot or grow your characters. (Obviously, use your judgement. Don't cut ALL the flavor, but start by going - I’ve got two sentences that are mostly flavor text - which adds more? And then delete the other, or combine them into one shorter sentence.)

Remove superfluous dialog tags. If it’s clear who’s talking, especially if it’s a conversation between only two people, you can cut all the he saids, she saids.

Look for places where you've written repetitively - at the most basic level, “ ‘hahaha,’ he laughed,” is an example, but repetition is often more subtle, like instances where you give information in once sentence, and then rephrase part or all of that sentence in the next one - it’s better to poke at the two sentences until you think of an effective, and more concise, way to make them into only one sentence. This also goes for scenes - if you’ve got two scenes that tend towards accomplishing the same plot-related goal, consider combining them into one scene.

Have a reason for every sentence, and even every sentence clause (as in, every comma insertion, every part of the sentence, every em dashed inclusion, that kind of thing). Ask yourself - what function does this serve? Have I met that function somewhere else? If it serves no function, or if it’s duplicative, consider cutting it. Or, the answer may be “none,” and you may choose to save it anyway - because it adds flavor, or is very in character for your PoV person, or any of a number of reasons. But if you’re saving it, make sure you’ve done so intentionally. It's important to be aware of what you're trying to do with your words, or else how can you recognize what to cut, and what not to cut?

Likewise, have a reason for every scene. They should all move the story along - whatever the story is, it doesn’t have to be “the end of the world,” your story can be simple and straightforward and sequential...but if you’re working to a word count, your scenes should still forward the story toward that end point. If the scene doesn’t contribute...you may not need them, or you may be able to fold it in with another scene, as suggested in item 6.

Review the worldbuilding you’ve included, and consider what you’re trying to accomplish with your story. A bit of worldbuilding outside of the bare essentials makes a story feel fleshed out, but again, a little can go a long way. If you’ve got lots of “fun” worldbuilding bits that don’t actually forward your plot and aren’t relevant to your characters, cut them. You can always put them as extras in your blog later, but they’ll just make your story clunky if you have a lot of them.

Beware of info-dumps. Often finding a more natural way to integrate that information - showing instead of telling in bits throughout the story - can help reduce word count.

Alternatively - if you over-show, and never tell, this will vastly increase your word count, so consider if there are any places in your story where you can gloss over the details in favor of a shorter more “tell-y” description. You don’t need to go into a minute description of every smile and laugh - sometimes it’s fine to just say, “she was happy” or “she frowned” without going into a long description of their reaction that makes the reader infer that they were happy. (Anyone who unconditionally says “show, don’t tell,” is giving you bad writing advice. It’s much more important to learn to recognize when showing is more appropriate, and when telling is more appropriate, because no story will function as a cohesive whole if it’s all one or all the other.)

If you’ve got long paragraphs, they’re often prime places to look for entire sentences to cut. Read them critically and consider what’s actually helping your story instead of just adding word count chonk.

Try reading some or all of the dialog out loud; if it gets boring, repetitive, or unnecessary, end your scene wherever you start to lose interest, and cut the dialog that came after. If necessary, add a sentence or two of description at the end to make sure the transition is abrupt, but honestly, you often won’t even need to do so - scenes that end at the final punchy point in a discussion often work very well.

Create a specific goal for a scene or chapter. Maybe it’s revealing a specific piece of information, or having a character discover a specific thing, or having a specific unexpected event occur, but, whatever it is, make sure you can say, “this scene/chapter is supposed to accomplish this.” Once you know what you’re trying to do, check if the scene met that goal, make any necessary changes to ensure it does, and cut things that don’t help the scene meet that goal.

Building on the previous one, you can do the same thing, but for your entire story. Starting from the beginning, re-outline the story scene-by-scene and/or chapter-by-chapter, picking out what the main “beats” and most important themes are, and then re-read your draft and make sure you’re hitting those clearly. Consider cutting out the pieces of your story that don’t contribute to those, and definitely cut the pieces that distract from those key moments (unless, of course, the distraction is the point.)

Re-read a section you think could be cut and see if any sentences snag your attention. Poke at that bit until you figure out why - often, it’s because the sentence is unnecessary, poorly worded, unclear, or otherwise superfluous. You can often rewrite the sentence to be clearer, or cut the sentence completely without negatively impacting your work.

Be prepared to cut your darlings; even if you love a sentence or dialog exchange or paragraph, if you are working to a strict word count and it doesn't add anything, it may have to go, and that's okay...even though yes, it will hurt, always, no matter how experienced a writer you are. (Tip? Save your original draft, and/or make a new word doc where you safely tuck your darlings in for the future. Second tip? If you really, really love it...find a way to save it, but understand that to do so, you’ll have to cut something else. It’s often wise to pick one or two favorites and sacrifice the rest to save the best ones. We are not saying “always cut your darlings.” That is terrible writing advice. Don’t always cut your darlings. Writing, and reading your own writing, should bring you joy, even when you’re doing it professionally.)

If you’re having trouble recognizing what in your own work CAN be cut, try implementing the above strategies in different places - cut things, and then re-read, and see how it works, and if it works at all. Sometimes, you’ll realize...you didn’t need any of what you cut. Other times, you’ll realize...it no longer feels like the story you were trying to tell. Fiddle with it until you figure out what you need for it to still feel like your story, and practice that kind of cutting until you get better at recognizing what can and can’t go without having to do as much tweaking.

Lastly...along the lines of the previous...understand that sometimes, cutting your story down to a certain word count will just be impossible. Some stories simply can’t be made very short, and others simply can’t be told at length. If you’re really struggling, it’s important to consider that your story just...isn’t going to work at that word count. And that’s okay. Go back to the drawing board, and try again - you’ll also get better at learning what stories you can tell, in your style, using your own writing voice, at different word counts. It’s not something you’ll just know how to do - that kind of estimating is a skill, just like all other writing abilities.

As with all our writing advice - there’s no one way to tackle cutting stories for length, and also, which of these strategies is most appropriate will depend on what kind of story you’re writing, how much over-length it is, what your target market is, your characters, and your personal writing style. Try different ones, and see which work for you - the most important aspect is to learn to read your own writing critically enough that you are able to recognize what you can cut, and then from that standpoint, use your expertise to decide what you should cut, which is definitely not always the same thing. Lots of details can be cut - but a story with all of the flavor and individuality removed should never be your goal.

Contributions to this post were made by @unforth, @jhoomwrites, @alecjmarsh, @shealynn88, @foxymoley, @willablythe, and @owlishintergalactic, and their input has been used with their knowledge and explicit permission. Thanks, everyone, for helping us consider different ways to shorten stories!

[aelemercier]

The Submissive Alpha Prince - now on Kindle Unlimited!

I really loved exploring a role-reversal of the alpha/omega stereotypes with this new couple. <3

AN EROTIC GAY OMEGAVERSE FIRST LOVE STORY. Colin Eisenscheber is his brother's heir, and struggles with the expectations placed on him - as a Prince and an Alpha. When the mysterious Seb arrives and sweeps him off his feet, Colin realizes that Seb might just be the Mate he's always ached for: an Omega willing to take charge and dominate him. But his new lover is hiding something from him, and if Seb can't find the strength to tell Colin the truth about the cruel Alpha overlord he's running from, it could risk far more than just the love they've found... 

"The Submissive Alpha Prince" is a 37,000 word queer dom/sub romance with multiple erotic encounters, featuring first times, light BDSM, dominant Omegas and heat and learning that trust is the sexiest kink of all.

READ IT: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D9TTFKSZ :D

[aelemercier]

If the author does NOT have their own ebook storefront, Smashwords pays far higher royalties (~85%) than any other ebook retailer.

I love how transparent you are about what its like to be a self published author in this day and age, and i was just wondering if there was a difference on your side between amazon ebook/paperback and audible - and also if Scribd is any better, because i use it as an alternative to amazon whenever possible (and whenever the library doesnt own a copy of whatever im looking for) is it functionally all the same? What is best for you?

Thank you!

I actually did a huge long post a while back when I got the audiobooks produced and uploaded to various platforms. I included Scribd in the breakdown after people falsely claim that Scrib is better for authors than Amazon/Libraries.

A lot of people were not happy when I burst that particular bubble by showing that Scribd paid me 97 cents out of the 19.99 price tag. Which is less than what Audible paid me.

Now, obviously, Scribd is different because it's a subscription service, and you’re paying for access to multiple things with that subscription. But saying it is better than libraries is just false because I also showed the numbers for that, and my income from libraries was several times higher than both Scribd and Amazon combined (for audio), which is why authors are always begging people to request their work in libraries.

Libraries pay us better and are usually free. Not always. I know it depends heavily on the country, but for most of my English-speaking audience, that is the case.

Now, this is not to say people shouldn’t use services like Scribd. If Scribd is what you can afford and it gives you access to things your library can’t fantastic. Please continue to access our work through that legal option. I would much rather earn 97 cents than zero.

But uh, yeah, Amazon pays me more than Scrib for digital stuff and I really don’t like when people who aren’t on the author side spread misinformation and frame it as some more “gotcha.”

The sad truth is Most retailers pay us the same or within the same royalty range. The difference I earn between Kobo vs Kindle is literal pennies with Amazon coming out on top. I make my work available on multiple platforms to give people options, but unless you’re buying directly from my personal storefront, it's all roughly the same.

I do actually earn more from Amazon paperbacks than I do any other retailers (for self-pub, paperbacks are a flat rate regardless of how much a retailer is charging), but the difference is about ten cents, so I always tell people to buy from wherever is best for them.

I like bookshop.org because they give some of the profit on their end to indie bookstores. Same with libro.fm for audio.

Audiobooks are just a whole fucking nightmare. Audible sets your price point for you and takes 80% of your royalties. And because Audible does that, I have to then use that price tag on all other platforms or risk being fucked by the algorithm gods. Other audio retailers take about 60-70% in royalties, most of them veering toward 70%.

As we say in radical acceptance therapy, it is what it is—fucking end-stage monopoly driven capitalism.

Now, speaking personally, when it comes to digital media, I earn the most royalties from my Payhip store where I keep 90% of my income.

That's the best place for me.

It's also why it's worth looking up an author you like to see if they have their own storefront. It doesn't help our sales rankings or put us on any bestseller lists, but frankly after launch week, who cares. I’ll take being able to feed me and my dog.

I hope that helps!

[aelemercier]

There's always something super satisfying about hitting top 3 on a giveaway day. <3

(Now if people would just leave good amazon reviews...! ;__; )

[aelemercier]

Now on Kindle Unlimited!

If you're jonesing for some sweet hot BDSM romance, look no further!

READ: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZY8MFCX

Professional Dominatrix Darren Quinn knows he's in over his head when it comes to his new sub. It's been ages since he's taken on a new client, and Miles Bennet is a mess: hurt and vulnerable from some unknown trauma AND heterosexual to boot (or so he claims). But Darren has always had a soft spot for hard luck cases, and Miles is so goddamn hot that he can't resist. Darren's certain he can keep things professional between them... right?

His Master's Embrace is 18,000 words of dom/sub play including bondage and blindfolds, kinbaku rope play, wax and sensation play, with plenty of erotic longing and every kind of happy ending.

[aelemercier]

Gay Poly Omegaverse Sex Magic :D

The first trilogy in my Omegaverse sex magic series is finally released!! 🍆✨ Now with poly foursomes! :DDD

Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited

With some Extra Sexy promo material ;)

[aelemercier]

Cover Reveal: The King's Secret

(Psst: It's gay sex. The King likes Gay Sex.)

[aelemercier]

Time for Omegaverse with sex magic! 🍆✨

A new installment of my fantasy romance erotica series is now available!

GET IT on Amazon / Kindle Unlimited

Daniel, the youngest Omega son of the departed High King, has finally come of age to become a mage, and be sexually empowered by an Alpha for the first time. Then his life is thrown into a tailspin when his mother's political machinations threaten the budding new love he's found with his dear friend Carson "Ben" Bennet, the handsome Prince Radiance of Altair. As Ben fights to find a way for the two of them to be together, Daniel discovers a secret that might threaten their relationship... and everything he's ever known.  "The Forbidden Mate" is a 38,000 word queer friends-to-lovers romance with multiple erotic encounters, featuring sexual tension, first times, Heat, knotting and breeding kink, and discovering that making your own place in the world makes the best kind of sex magic. Read as a steamy stand-alone, or as Book 2 in the "Ben's Pack" trilogy of 'Omegaverse Sex Magic - a Fantasy series".   Heat level 3.5