I have honestly thought about trying to make money this way. Maybe I'm just good at talking myself out of trying, but I found one good reason to think it'd be harder than it seems.
People say the book can even be bad, and they're half right. It's genre fiction, and those have a very specific style and convention unique to each genre. It's not just allowed to be bad, it's supposed to be - and in a very specific way. You need to be familiar with that to write to the audience's expectations. Being too unique and creative is not a good thing.
In other words, if you want to have any success writing gay minotaur smut, you have to first read enough gay minotaur smut to understand it. I couldn't force myself to read it, not because I'm judging, but I'm just not into it. It bored me too much and felt like a huge slog. But if you can read it you can write it, and the process of familiarizing yourself with that market should also help you figure out how to get discovered for that genre.
Royalroad.com is how a lot of litrpgs make their start... Not sure if they do smut. Smut I feel like the best avenue would be phone apps because there are a whole apps dedicated to that like wattpad or webtoon.
A style of writing that features aspects taken from RPGs like leveling up, interfaces, skills, and other stuff. Usually fantasy with some kind of game element that the main character and/or other characters have access to.
I’m at the end of the third book now. Was a bit skeptical when I started on the series, but it does a good job mixing humour and very dark morbid fuckery in a way that doesn’t feel heavy handed yet is still engaging.
No minotaurs in the rest that I recall, but your list will grow to include incest, bug chasing, neck vore, not to mention to frequent foot stuff and smushing that you've clearly already gotten used to. And the orgies, explicit and implied. All the strippers. Multiple kinds of transformation. Exhibitionism, which reminds me of an additional kind of transformation.
And the saddest story about a little bird
If they switched that up for a timid young farm boy and a lady minotaur with huge . . . tracts of land that need caring for, I'd read it. Wouldn't even need to change the title.
The actual trick to making bank is the fact that cultivation,progression fantasy,monster harem have a weird over lap in the audiobook space. It's why ever monster smut book is also a lit RPG these days.
It's basically become the cheap seasonal isakai of the audiobook world.
Monster harem progression fantasy audiobooks make bank and there sizeable studios that buy up anything remotely half assed or better.
You need to do well enough to get into the audiobook market with like royal guard. You can make a lot of money.
Literary RPG; novel with RPG elements like classes, levels, stats, skills, etc. with a focus on progression. Can be considered a subgenre of gamelit, which is any story in a game-like world.
Not sure about why the author and artist went for that cover, aside from the obvious of the guy holding what is presumably the eponymous staff.
Alright so it's apparently just a trademark on the term "choose your own adventure", held by chooseco. So you can do those kinds of books as long as you don't call it that.
It's funny that there is a whole informal genre of CYOA stuff that uses the name, presumably in violation of that trademark, but actually has very little relation to those books and is more focused on spending points to build characters or settings.
Can't copyright game mechanics, because copyright involves a particular arrangement of words, visuals, or sounds. But can potentially patent them, not sure what the legal consensus in the Questionably United States is like about that.
As is tradition, copyright keeps getting confused with trademarks and patents time and again.
You can copyright the rulebook and the description of the rules.
You can't copyright the rules themselves.
Like, for a dumb example, if you invented the game of baseball, you could write a book explaining the rules of baseball and how to play, and you could copyright that book and if anybody made unauthorized copies of that book or even just portions of it, you could sue them for copyright infringement. But you could not sue people for copyright infringement just because they were playing baseball without your permission ... or writing books about playing baseball, etc.
They went for that cover so they could make a post about how ‘gay’ it was and now people post it other places but cause it’s funny and now they get free advertising for their book.
LitRPG is literature following what amounts to a power growth story. Main character starts book one as a starvling orphan, finishes the last book as a semi-deific end-game boss-strength monster slayer.
Amazon forbids ebooks that feature bestiality. But there's an audience out there who wants bestiality smut. How the supply meets the demand is thanks to a loophole in Amazon's rules -- Amazon forbids bestiality with existent, non-extinct animals. So bestiality with extinct animals or mythical animals is just fine and can be sold on Amazon.
So ... you want to sell stories about people having sex with horses? No-go. But stories about people having sex with unicorns? No problem. Having sex with wolves? Not at all. But having sex with werewolves? You can have that! Bulls? Nope! But you can have a minotaur...
It's also why 'dinosaur erotica' is a surprisingly thriving genre on Amazon. They're extinct, so they don't fall under the bestiality ban.
And grey areas are risky on that business. Amazon may or may not consider those banned, depending on which person and/or AI is examining your book, what day of the week it is, and whether or not Mercury is in retrograde. And if they decide it's banned, they take it down, you wasted all the effort of writing it, and your account gets a strike, maybe to get permabanned.
So it's generally a good idea to play it safe.
(Oh, you wanted an official ruling from Amazon about whether or not Sicilian Wolf bestiality is okay? Well fuck you! Because Amazon refuses to provide such clarity, and all of this is 90% based on trial and error -- what people have and haven't been banned for -- because Amazon's rules for NSFW content are opaque, mysterious, and constantly subject to change without notice. Have fun!)
The author is obviously missing out on a market that's ready to shove money in the author's hands.
I was expecting the final edit to be an explanation on how it's now changed into Minotaur smut due to the full throated fandom.
Indeed
Weird zoophilia smut makes BANK, and it doesn’t even have to be good
How would one get commissioned for this? Not even asking for a friend, I wouldn't mind writing some crap if it pays my house off a decade sooner.
You write a book, then you self publish it on Amazon or whatever. Then you hope enough people read it to make it worth the time you spent writing it.
I'm gonna guess there are popular communities for this, just like AO3 for fanfics. Where one should advertise their creation.
I have honestly thought about trying to make money this way. Maybe I'm just good at talking myself out of trying, but I found one good reason to think it'd be harder than it seems.
People say the book can even be bad, and they're half right. It's genre fiction, and those have a very specific style and convention unique to each genre. It's not just allowed to be bad, it's supposed to be - and in a very specific way. You need to be familiar with that to write to the audience's expectations. Being too unique and creative is not a good thing.
In other words, if you want to have any success writing gay minotaur smut, you have to first read enough gay minotaur smut to understand it. I couldn't force myself to read it, not because I'm judging, but I'm just not into it. It bored me too much and felt like a huge slog. But if you can read it you can write it, and the process of familiarizing yourself with that market should also help you figure out how to get discovered for that genre.
Royalroad.com is how a lot of litrpgs make their start... Not sure if they do smut. Smut I feel like the best avenue would be phone apps because there are a whole apps dedicated to that like wattpad or webtoon.
They have rules against smut so the authors writing there link their patreon and post the non-smut chapters.
I have to say, when I saw the picture I just assumed it was a Chuck Tingle book.
"Pounded in the butt by the hunky realisation that this is not a Chuck Tingle cover"
not punded in the butt by the lack of hot minotaur gay sex from a LITRPG with a misleading cover
wtf is LITRPG?
A style of writing that features aspects taken from RPGs like leveling up, interfaces, skills, and other stuff. Usually fantasy with some kind of game element that the main character and/or other characters have access to.
A popular example is Dungeon Crawler Carl.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is great, tore through it last year.
I’m at the end of the third book now. Was a bit skeptical when I started on the series, but it does a good job mixing humour and very dark morbid fuckery in a way that doesn’t feel heavy handed yet is still engaging.
I like it.
As in dark morbid minotaur fuckery?
So far no minotaur fuckery, but there's been baby murdering, using babies as fuel, mass genocide, filicide, slavery... It's a lot!
No minotaurs in the rest that I recall, but your list will grow to include incest, bug chasing, neck vore, not to mention to frequent foot stuff and smushing that you've clearly already gotten used to. And the orgies, explicit and implied. All the strippers. Multiple kinds of transformation. Exhibitionism, which reminds me of an additional kind of transformation.
And the saddest story about a little bird
A bit of an outlier in writing quality though
Also in being anti-fascist, a rarity of the genre
I mean, you can tell it's not Tingle's book because the title doesn't take half of the cover.
True
4 star rating and over 24K reviews on Amazon
If they switched that up for a timid young farm boy and a lady minotaur with huge . . . tracts of land that need caring for, I'd read it. Wouldn't even need to change the title.
write it then. what's stopping you? talent? when you get into this literally category talent is less important than creativity.
Motivation, mostly. I have half a dozen abandoned projects in writing, model building, miniature painting, electronics, programming.
I'm a man of many talents, and limited attention span.
get it. still believe in you.
Jack of all trades, master of none
but still better than master of one
The actual trick to making bank is the fact that cultivation,progression fantasy,monster harem have a weird over lap in the audiobook space. It's why ever monster smut book is also a lit RPG these days.
It's basically become the cheap seasonal isakai of the audiobook world.
Monster harem progression fantasy audiobooks make bank and there sizeable studios that buy up anything remotely half assed or better.
You need to do well enough to get into the audiobook market with like royal guard. You can make a lot of money.
To each their own.
Just to be clear, male minotaurs don’t produce milk.
Oh yes they do
That's why I specified lady minotaur. I know what I'm about.
Male minotaur need not apply.
Same but opposite. It’s nice how the world just kind of evens out. :)
Well, not with that attitude!
I've read the synopsis of this book and the ones in this book don't either
It's really good for no fucking reason. The audio book is also REALLY good for NO FUCKING REASON.
Came for the gay minotaur smut, stayed for the compelling drama
I don't think you could have drawn a sfw cover that more firmly suggested gay minotaur sex unless you without drawing them touching.
you had me in the first half
He should admit his mistake and add some gay minotaur sex.
Might want to rename it too "The Staff" is a very smutty name
What's a synonym for staff? How about "The Shaft?"
Mm, had they considered "Meat Pylon"?
"Wild Rabbit" as well.
If I wanted to get fucked by a giant minotaur, I'd play Heretic again.
Hmmm... I should play Heretic again. Fun game.
Wtf is a "LITRPG" and why is that on the cover for a novel?
Literary RPG; novel with RPG elements like classes, levels, stats, skills, etc. with a focus on progression. Can be considered a subgenre of gamelit, which is any story in a game-like world.
Not sure about why the author and artist went for that cover, aside from the obvious of the guy holding what is presumably the eponymous staff.
I am disappointed to learn that it isn’t some sort of upgrade to Choose Your Own Adventure books.
Same. 'Roll a d20 and add it to your perception skill stat. If it is higher than 16, turn to page 133; if lower, page 64."
There's a book series called Lone Wolf that is exactly that. There's a character sheet inside the back cover and your copy it over from book to book
It was remade into an Android app, too!
The above-mentioned 'Choose Your Own Adventure' series is all like that, though with different mechanics.
I think that concept is copyrighted.
Huh, let me google that
Alright so it's apparently just a trademark on the term "choose your own adventure", held by chooseco. So you can do those kinds of books as long as you don't call it that.
Aah. I see. Didn’t Netflix get in hot water with them over that one Black Mirror thing?
Yeah, they were involved in a lawsuit. I don't know who won though...
It's funny that there is a whole informal genre of CYOA stuff that uses the name, presumably in violation of that trademark, but actually has very little relation to those books and is more focused on spending points to build characters or settings.
Can't copyright game mechanics, because copyright involves a particular arrangement of words, visuals, or sounds. But can potentially patent them, not sure what the legal consensus in the Questionably United States is like about that.
As is tradition, copyright keeps getting confused with trademarks and patents time and again.
You can copyright the rulebook and the description of the rules.
You can't copyright the rules themselves.
Like, for a dumb example, if you invented the game of baseball, you could write a book explaining the rules of baseball and how to play, and you could copyright that book and if anybody made unauthorized copies of that book or even just portions of it, you could sue them for copyright infringement. But you could not sue people for copyright infringement just because they were playing baseball without your permission ... or writing books about playing baseball, etc.
They went for that cover so they could make a post about how ‘gay’ it was and now people post it other places but cause it’s funny and now they get free advertising for their book.
LitRPG is literature following what amounts to a power growth story. Main character starts book one as a starvling orphan, finishes the last book as a semi-deific end-game boss-strength monster slayer.
Now as for the cover...
He's about to s lay that monster
So western cultivation?
Yeah, that’s exactly it
So western cultivation?
If you type "minotaur" into Amazon, the 5th suggested search that pops up is "minotaur romance book." There's a definite market.
This is a quirk of Amazon's publishing rules:
Amazon forbids ebooks that feature bestiality. But there's an audience out there who wants bestiality smut. How the supply meets the demand is thanks to a loophole in Amazon's rules -- Amazon forbids bestiality with existent, non-extinct animals. So bestiality with extinct animals or mythical animals is just fine and can be sold on Amazon.
So ... you want to sell stories about people having sex with horses? No-go. But stories about people having sex with unicorns? No problem. Having sex with wolves? Not at all. But having sex with werewolves? You can have that! Bulls? Nope! But you can have a minotaur...
It's also why 'dinosaur erotica' is a surprisingly thriving genre on Amazon. They're extinct, so they don't fall under the bestiality ban.
So... if you explicitly say it's a dire wolf, a Florida black wolf, a Sicilian wolf, etc...
Kind of a grey area, I think.
And grey areas are risky on that business. Amazon may or may not consider those banned, depending on which person and/or AI is examining your book, what day of the week it is, and whether or not Mercury is in retrograde. And if they decide it's banned, they take it down, you wasted all the effort of writing it, and your account gets a strike, maybe to get permabanned.
So it's generally a good idea to play it safe.
(Oh, you wanted an official ruling from Amazon about whether or not Sicilian Wolf bestiality is okay? Well fuck you! Because Amazon refuses to provide such clarity, and all of this is 90% based on trial and error -- what people have and haven't been banned for -- because Amazon's rules for NSFW content are opaque, mysterious, and constantly subject to change without notice. Have fun!)
Needs to be anthro is basically the loophole.
Well "anthro" in everyway that doesn't matter. So it slips by the censors.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/cda06f38-9c67-42c3-89a1-b6d016fbc5aa
I was hoping somebody would link this book haha
That man is the perfect height, for.... for a lot of things
The perfect height for... Handling a staff
For waxing a surfboard
This is just an ad for a boring, no gay minotaur sex having book.
I am furious at these comments. Please add some steamy gay minotaur sex scenes to your boring book immediately.
Hey, buddy? That's not a new sentence for a lot of people.