The self publishing phenomenon has gone full circle with 50 Shades Of Grey being such a huge success. Erotic fiction aka “Mummy Porn” as it’s known in the writers circles has taken the world by total surprise.

How much money has it made Erika Mitchell? So far its made her way in excess of USD $100 million. She has sold well over 100 million books worldwide. Erika is making over USD $1.3 million per week from her books. Even Erika was shocked herself at how her book trilogy took off. She only started writing in January 2009 published the trilogy in 2011 and in 2015 a motion picture is now screening based on the books. The movie is already one of this year’s blockbuster screenings with over USD $500 million at the box office so far.

What’s more its spawned a whole new (highly profitable) sub culture of books avidly read by men and women mostly on their Kindle’s everywhere in the world.

The Top 100 Erotic Romance Authors on Amazon Kindle

Go to Amazon and look up the Top 100 in erotic romance authors it’s a stunning list. Yes EL James heads at number 1, but take your eyes off her a moment … and look at all the other authors. The other 99 on this list (which is updated hourly by Amazon) are also making huge personal incomes too from their books. Chances are, you’ve never even heard of these names, my guess is all of the other 99 are totally new to you unless you’re already an erotic fiction buyer.

But each one of them in the “Top 100” is earning 6 to 7 figures per year from their books. Make no mistake, they are all earning very handsomely from their books you’ve least heard about.

Is there room for an author like you?

Short answer: YES

But don’t even think of going through a regular publisher. The new author game is all about SELF PUBLISHING.

• The typical self-published author on Kindle these days runs their own outsourced production team.

• They write on average 1 Kindle eBook per week, typically 3,000 to 10,000 words. But many will do 2 books per week which seems to be an industry standard.

• Book series and box sets have now replaced the big fat 500 page books. Also these are a more profitable way to sell bigger books too. Readers get hooked on the first book and want the series. Thinking of writing a door stopper? Don’t … chop it up and sell it in bits, you’ll make more money!

• They outsource the graphics such as e-covers to people online who are really great at doing those tasks.

• They will also outsource editing and formatting, to an online team. Usually at a fraction of the costs you’d hire those people in Australia.

• Their books are written to highly specific niches – e.g. BDSM, Taboo Erotica, BBW, Swingers, you get the idea now don’t you?

• The average professional erotic author will have anywhere from 50+ to 400+ titles sold under their name or in several pen names. Amazon lets you have up to 3 pen names per KDP account. Yes some people have several Amazon accounts for the serious authors who are selling tons of books.

Why do people buy these books surely the books are just vanilla?

Readers buy erotic books as a type of “vice”. They HAVE to buy the next one and the next one, compulsion drives them. Reading books can be more addictive than any drug.

Yes, mostly its because they want to read the sex scenes. Some want a story line with their sex scenes and others don’t mind either way. But the facts are these stories are graphic and are skilfully designed to evoke the reader into being “turned on” – yep all by mind power!

It’s amazing, the power of a few words on a page can get a reader stimulated and feeling sexy and with a “dream” they can replay in their minds eye again and again. That’s the power of words.

And like I said before once they’ve read one book, they are ready to devour the next one.

Look at it this way, you no longer need to buy an actual Kindle device to read Kindle eBooks, you can simply download the free Kindle App for everything from your laptop to your mobile phone.

Hundreds of millions of people read eBooks on their smart phones and tablets each day. You probably sit next to those people on the bus or train you take to your work each day. The great part about Kindle is you can secretly read a naughty book while in public. This is something you can’t do with a regular book. You can also carry hundreds or thousands of books with you on your device without lugging around heavy books with you all day.

Erotic romance isn’t the only niche that has a runaway success. Crime fiction, supernatural and fantasy books are also high on the list too.

From my own experience

Over 20 years ago I was a writer for 3 different singles magazines. At the time, space was also devoted by the editors to fiction articles alongside the helpful non-fiction articles already a part of the magazines. I was asked to contribute by writing under a pen name some hot and steamy articles, which at first I didn’t know how they would be received. As it turns out the articles did well and I was paid for more articles. These days I now write approximately 1 book per week and upload my books to Amazon Kindle my fiction books are on www.ClimaxTales.com if you want to learn more.

David Newton runs social and business events in both Sydney and Melbourne see his sites: http://www.meetup.com/BabyBoomersRights/ and http://www.meetup.com/Baby-Boomers-Melbourne/ plus www.MelbourneWalking.com plus www.SydneyWalking.com attend his regular events and meet new people.