I Didn’t Plan This, but It Wasn’t An Accident

Musings about publishing erotica for 4 years.

photo from depositphotos

If you’d rather listen to this, you can listen to it with my voice clone. I didn’t edit this or double check how it sounds, but hey, it’s MY clone…

https://soundgasm.net/u/babygirl2828/I-didnt-Plan-this-by-Lacey-Cross

(Note: This isn’t an erotica story, so if you’re looking for a sex story, you’re going to be disappointed!)

At the end I give advice for erotica writers reading this. Feel free to scroll past my musings about my writing history if you just want to see the advice.

It’s been over 4 years…

Time is a tricky thing, and I wasn’t tracking how long I’ve been publishing erotica. I suppose I didn’t need to because Facebook kept giving me “memories” from things I posted. It kept track for me, and it was a reminder of how long it had been since I’d published specific books.

A few weeks ago, Facebook showed me a memory of my book Servicing the Senior Partner when I had it set free for it’s two-year book birthday from release. The memory was from two years ago, which really hit home that the book was four years old.

The timing was funny because I was working on publishing the 21st book with the same hotwife Miranda. When I wrote the last book, Freeuse Office Party, the book made the series feel complete. I’ve tried to retire Miranda multiple times in the past and it never stuck, but something tells me this time it will. I like series that tie up in a pretty bow, and the way I wrote Freeuse Office Party gave me that bow.

2025 started my third year as a full-time author. I started publishing Jan of 2021, and I left my day job December of 2022 when my income got to the point where it could replace my day job. I’ve never looked back.

So much has changed in the four years since I started, and it definitely seems more difficult to get attention as a new erotica writer now. If I was starting today from zero, I don’t know if I’d ever make it full time… and it’s not because I couldn’t, it’s because I never intended to be a full time writer.

The Beginning

I won’t go into all the details of why I started writing erotica. I’ve talked about it before in various spots, but writing erotica was always just a snap decision for me. I was blogging here on Medium under a different pen name about my real life stuff, and I was spending way too much time for very little money. My husband told me if I was going to spend this much time writing, I should make it pay.

Then the universe put several other things in front of me that all pointed to writing erotica and I was like… eh, let’s DO IT.

Lacey was my second pen name and Servicing the Senior Partner released on March 12, 2021. My day job had “something” to do with lawyers at the time and I was afraid my work would find out my pen name. They eventually did after I quit and from what a few people told me, they found it hilarious.

That first year I just wrote whatever I felt like. I was having fun, no real plans. I was getting good feedback and for the first time in my life I felt good at something. It was a high I’d never experienced before. I have ADHD and I’ve always been the person who never lived up to her potential. The one people would say “she’s so smart, she could have done anything she wanted, but she’s lazy.”

Yeah… come to find out, I’m actually not lazy and being diagnosed with ADHD unlocked the stories in my head.

During my second year publishing, a few things happened that changed my life. In the middle of 2022, I got some feedback that my covers sucked and they were holding me back. I spent a month updating them. At the same time I released a book in a poly collab. I started hitting Kindle Unlimited page reads I’d never seen before as people were chewing through my back catalog of slutty sharing stories.

Suddenly, things got serious. I remember a conversation with my husband when he found out how much I was making on writing. Previously, anything I brought in was “fun money” for myself, but the day he realized I was making more than our mortgage payment changed things. We talked about how if I continued to increase my income, in a couple of years, I’d be making enough to quit my job and be a writer full time.

Having his support changed my mindset. For the first time in years, I had a goal — a concrete goal. I just had to make enough to replace my income from my day job. I wanted to maintain it for six months, and then I’d feel okay to quit.

I worked hard — damn hard, and I still do. Writing my slutty wife-sharing stories felt like a calling to me.

This “job” spoke to my soul. That might sound corny, but it’s totally true. All these stories that I’d been daydreaming about my entire life finally had an outlet and people wanted to read them.

At the time, I was publishing my first novel, Mating Lexi, on Kindle Vella. In September/October the story became popular on Vella. I was getting bonuses that were bigger than anything I’d ever made on Amazon for my ebooks. One month, my take-home from Amazon with the Vella bonus was twice what my day job income was.

The next day my husband told me to put my two weeks notice in at my job. That was the end of November 2022.

The First Year Full-Time Writing

I struggled hardcore that first year, I’m not going to lie. Having no external forces to make me do anything was a major adjustment. The year flew by. My Vella bonuses decreased, but my ebook sales increased enough that I was making the minimum required for me to be a full-time writer. It was incredibly stressful. Knowing what I know now, I would have done things differently. I would have stayed at the day job longer to build up a bigger cushion.

That first year, tons of things broke in our house, I had major dental work that needed done, and just everything was happening at once. I was dealing with major writer’s block on Illicit Desires — possibly the hardest series I’ve ever written. It’s a nine-book BDSM series that goes from the wife cheating, to a cuckold situation, to an MMF situation, to an eventual HEA with all 3 of them. But it was emotionally difficult for me to write. It’s not all happy, and it was my first experience writing MM scenes.

Illicit Desires is also one of the things I’m most proud of. It’s a filthy and hot series — plus the audiobook narrator I found to do the books made it a very nice listening experience. 😊

The Second Year Full-Time Writing

I found my groove in 2024. I had some books hit well, and there was much less income instability in 2024. I played around on other pen names (I have way too many pen names), and I flirted with the idea of writing romance books.

News Flash… writing romance didn’t work out well.

Every time I started a BDSM romance, it just turned into a slutty fuckfest. See My Freeuse Party Temptation by April Cross… it’s a fuckfest.

But what 2024 gave me was confidence in myself, in my vision, and what I want to write. I’ve tried many kinks over the last four years and wife sharing is the one that I don’t seem to get sick of. I have so many dang hotwife story ideas, it’s crazy. I told this to my hubby and he said “that’s because you’re a slut who wants multiple cocks,” and I’m fairly certain I fell more in love with him right then.

So now it’s 2025…

2025 is a weird time as an erotica writer, but I don’t feel like this is exclusive to being an erotica writer. It’s just not a great time for a lot of people. I’m not going to get into political topics here, but the uncertainty of whether people are going to have access to erotica definitely is something writers talk about.

And beyond just being afraid of people having access to our books, erotica is a luxury item for many people. Almost every erotica writer I know is struggling right now. I won’t even pretend I’m special.

I’ve toyed, again, with the idea of writing romance — hell, even closed door romance. I’ve been working on getting better at writing sexual tension, and I think I could write the shit out of a fade to black romance now… but I don’t want to. I love the spicy parts in books.

On top of the market instability, I also fell in my kitchen last December and it’s messed me up for months. 2025 has not been kind so far.

But, even with everything going on, I’m always so thankful that the people who can afford to buy erotica, still do. I have a loyal Kindle Unlimited following as well, and those page reads are mostly the reason I’m able to keep writing full time.

In Reflection…

And for the people who have actually read down this far, I’m going to post some milestones that I’ve accomplished.

• I’ve written WAY more anal sex than I ever thought I would. I consider this an accomplishment!
• I hit more than 500k page reads in a month on short erotica (counting all my pen names). That’s a lot of people reading my slutty books.
• I got accepted for a bookbub (this isn’t easy to do, and especially not for erotica)
• I hit a sales rank of #834 in the Kindle Store for ALL books, not just erotica and not a freebie, for Hotwife of the Month Volume 1. I honestly didn’t think that would even ever happen to me.

• I’ve co-written and released books with other writers (some of them are my closest writer friends): Alec (Matt) Lake, Kristin Lance, Rose Richards, and soon Drake Storm (Hank Dolworth).
• On top of the books I co-wrote, I’ve been in numerous collabs and anthologies with some amazing writers.
• Just in general, I’ve met some wonderful, supportive writers who give a lot of their time to help other people. The erotica writer community really is great.

Now for what people don’t see…

I’ve decided to include this section for the other writers out there. This is behind the curtain in my life.

None of this is to make people feel sorry for me, but it’s just the reality of being a short erotica writer.

• The Lacey pen name doesn’t make enough for me to work full time as a writer. I have 3–4 pen names that I have to maintain to keep my income up.
• I work 70+ hours a week.
• I haven’t been on vacation in over 5 years.
• Everyone tells me to write longer stories but I don’t have time to write longer stories. I have to keep publishing the short ones to keep my income up.
• I’m continually fighting the Amazon censors for my stories, and I swear to jeebus, I can’t get away with anything. It seems even a hint of lace does me in, while other people are practically publishing full nudity.
• My blurbs have to be tame to the point of boring, my women have to be mostly clothed. It’s basically a running joke that I made Daddy Amazon angry and now I just get in trouble for anything.
• The advice to “go wide” doesn’t apply to me. I can’t do direct sales (I’ve tried and gotten banned from platforms) and my KU people are way too big of a portion of my income to even consider it. Plus I’m a KU reader myself, I love KU. 😊

But even with the struggles, I’m happier and more fulfilled than I’ve ever been in my entire life.

Recommendations for new people, or people struggling with short erotica. (This is for shorts that I would define as 15k or less and not romantic with a HEA).

I’m often asked for advice, and I definitely don’t do things the “easy” way, but with how much erotica publishing has changed in the last few years, this is what I basically tell people. This might be a list of “don’t do as I do, do as I say.”

• First off, if someone isn’t currently publishing erotica and giving advice based on how much money they made selling erotica in 2018, be skeptical. Publishing erotica is a lot different now. Not saying their advice is bad since a lot of it is still true, but some of it is not. Don’t blindly trust what they say is correct.
• Focus on 1–2 pen names. Running more than 2 is taxing.
• Being a good writer isn’t necessarily enough. I’ve seen tons of good erotica writers not find an audience because they think people should want to read everything they write. People read erotica by kinks. Keep a pen name the same kink or compatible kinks based on audience. Is the audience who reads underwater sex monsters going to want to read your femdom cuckold brain child you wrote at 3 am the other night? Maybe, but probably less people than you’d like.
• In short erotica, you aren’t making your money on new releases, you’re making the majority of your money on the back catalogue. You need people to want to read all the stories on a pen name.
• Publish on Amazon. If you want to make the most money, figure out Amazon. Read erotica advice on reddit. Join discords. There’s a few author Facebook groups that are helpful. This is not me saying publish in KU (be wide if you want) just Amazon is where the money is at, and if you aren’t making money on Amazon, figure out why. The different platforms don’t all respond to the same passive marketing.
• And for God’s sake don’t write psuedo incest, taboo, dubcon or noncon on Amazon. It’s not worth getting your account banned. Take your slutty dubcon stories to Smashwords.
• And hate me if you want, but figure out a newsletter. The erotica reading community for short erotica is very receptive to newsletters, and I’ve met some very wonderful readers through my newsletter. Plus with the shitshow on social media lately, people are avoiding social media more. Be a safe space in their inbox.
• And last piece of advice… what works for one person rarely works for another. Find your people who want what you want to write in the way that you write it, not what you think you should write to make money (IE, don’t copy other authors or steal their work to get ahead. The community is a lot smaller than you think and people notice, including readers).

Oh and….

• There’s exceptions to everything. All of this advice might not be good for you. You have to decide if it is or not. 😊

So yeah… I should probably get back to this freeuse hotwife story, yes? Sometimes you have to get something out of your head to be able to write the thing you should be writing.

And please, don’t ask me for advice beyond what I’ve said here. I don’t have time to mentor anyone, and there are resources out there if you look. Start on reddit.

Love,

Lacey

P.S. If anyone actually read all of this, I’m going to be amazed. 💋