Tidbits about Red Phoenix

Yes, I wear a mask and I wear it for a reason. As a writer of erotica, I might shock my friends and family if they knew the naughty things that go on in my head.

I am a woman, which is why I write women's erotica. However, I like to write stories from both points of view. I've known men all my life (wink) and always wondered what it would be like to be one. How would it feel to slam your rod into a moist pussy instead of having that rod slam into you? Truthfully, I think it might be quite delicious.

My stories come from past experiences and fantasies I hold dear. Have I done everything I've written about? No. However, what I haven't tried I have researched to find out why women like the particular act and what it feels like to them.  

I am married and have children. Luckily, I partnered up with my soulmate. I am as in love with him now as I was when we first met. He makes me melt when he looks at me a certain way and he never forgets to tell me he loves me. I think all women deserve that.

I have had an... interesting past. People who know me now would not suspect where I have come from. Good or bad, all my experiences have helped me to grow and I am who I am because of the successes and failures. Life is truly a journey and a gift.

Which leads me to my last little tidbit: I have experienced significant loss. It is the reason for the sadness in some of my stories. I know pain, but I also know you can survive it. Mourn yes, but keep moving forward. Don't waste the amazing gift that is you.

~Red Phoenix

Indie Authors - Don't Let the Amazon Returns Scare You

Keep in mind that there are an overwhelming amount of readers who wholeheartedly support authors. They far outweigh the few misguided souls.

When I first started publishing on Amazon, I totally freaked out when someone returned one of my books. It was shocking, it was embarrassing, and it... hurt. I felt sad that someone hated my work so much the person felt the need to return it - even when it was free. 

Now that I have been doing this for five months, I've come to realize a few things and don't allow returns to mess with my head or my writing. The fact is people have different reasons for returning an eBook.

There are legitimate reasons:

• They didn't mean to buy it.
• The formatting of the book was bad and made it unreadable.
• There were so many errors in the writing that it detracted from the story.

I also know (having read some of Amazon discussion boards) there are a few misguided Kindle users out there. Some readers do not understand if they read the book, they are expected to pay for it.

Unreasonable returns:

• A few readers think it's a library. (I've had people buy an entire series and then returned each and every one.) They enjoyed my work, but they had no qualms about returning it.
• Some think they can return a book if they don't like the ending or one of the characters.
• Others don't take the time to read the description or check out the sample and end up buying a book they don't really care for.

Reasonable or not, I believe authors should watch the returns to see if a book has real problems. Normally, I experience between 1-5% returns on all of my books. However, there have been months where some of my books saw 10-20% returns and it upset me wondering what was wrong (especially when no one left a negative review). Funny thing is the following month those same books had only a few returns. So, there may not be any rhyme or reason to the returns but it is worth going back over your story to make sure there aren't any serious issues.

What time has taught me:

Amazon allows for eBook returns, so there will be people who abuse it. As a writer, there is nothing you can do. Amazon currently has the greatest number of readers so even taking into account the loss of sales, you will still see more success there than on any other site.

My Love/Hate Relationship With Smashwords

As an Indie Author, Smashwords has been a great place to start. The set up is very friendly for newbies and you have explicit instructions on how to get your work published. I recommend it to anyone thinking of jumping into eBooks.

• Based on the instructions there, I was able to figure out Amazon and publish on there are well. Awesome!
• It also affords me the ability to price my books and change the pricing whenever I want. I can even put books up for free permanently. It gets people to check out my work and those that like it buy my other books. Nice!
• Another thing I like about Smashwords is that they distribute my books to B&N and Apple as well as other eBook sites. They even collect the money and give detailed payment information (though they only pay out quarterly). Still, it's great!
• Smashwords stands up for and believes in the little guy. I feel supported there as an author, especially as an author of erotica. Bravo!
• Best of all - it's FREE! Well, at least the publishing is. Naturally, they take a small cut of everything you sell. Yay!

But....

I don't know if they struggle due to a large influx of authors flocking to the site or they have bad software or they are simply understaffed because Smashwords definitely has issues:

• Books do not show up on certain sites or take months to show up. While my books were having success on Amazon, I didn't make money on Apple and B&N because the books just simply weren't there. (And I am still waiting on some...) Growl!
• Changes you make in price, book cover, or edits are not necessary going to show up on the other sites. Really???
• Your books must wait to be "okayed" for distribution and sometimes this can take up three weeks to happen. And then you wait another 2, 4, 8 weeks to show up on the other sites. Crickets...
• The support team will answer your email, but it usually takes between one to two weeks for them to respond. Sometimes when they respond, you are told to send another email with specific information and then you may have to wait an additional week or two to get a follow up response. Worse, I get a different person each time. So, even though it is the same issue I've been dealing time and time again, I have to go through the whole situation from scratch. It sucks.
• The payments can be really delayed when the big companies like B&N and Apple are behind in paying Smashwords. The money you made in March may not be paid out until the end of August.

Despite all that, I continue to use Smashwords because it is the best option open to me at this point. I apologize to all my readers on Apple, B&N, Sony, and Kobo. You are either getting old versions or you are still waiting for books to show up. I am sorry. I wish I had some control over it.

In the end, I figure if I was using a traditional publisher, I would experience even more delays, have less of a say concerning my books and be expected to pay a ton of money for the favor.

So I still love you, Smashwords, but there are times I just want to slap you.