The profit motive

If you write spanking novels or short stories and publish them as e-books, the question of profit is one that cannot be kept away from one's thoughts from time to time.

The first reason simply to know whether you could make a living just out of writing your favorite material.   And here's the rub:  the average self-published e-book makes its author(s) an average of $300 a year.

Your typical first time author, selling at the average Kindle store price of $2.99 may expect to see 12 volumes a month move from the bookstore into the customer's shopping cart.   (We shall look at the the word to price ratio in another post - for now, assume 30,000 to 40,000 words as an average).

So - to make a minimum-wage-sort of income of $15,000 a year, you need about 100 titles in print.

Wow.   It would take about 9 months to write a 40,000 word book - or 75 years to hit 100.   The prognosis is not good.

But wait - it might not be that bad.

We writers of spanking tales have a much smaller audience than the general reading population - but our audience routinely comes looking for us to fulfill their reading desires.

I am egotistical enough to think I am a competent writer - if not, I would never have published - and all 4 of my works are beating the 12 volumes a month average by a big margin.   One by over 10 times that amount.   And I do not think that I am that special.    (OK - I hope I am, but I have no evidence as yet to support it).

Maybe we spanko authors have an edge that other authors do not.

So - how about this?   If you are an author of spanking fiction, and are willing to share with me your publishing figures, I shall build a small summary (with assured anonymity when requested) so that our fellow newbies have an accurate guide to show them what to expect when they join us, and where they stand in the spanking author league.

If you are interested. drop me a line at davids.holly@yahoo.com and I'll let you know what detail makes sense.   If nothing else, you are guaranteed to get some links to your works embedded in future articles in this blog. 

Spreading the word

When you have penned your masterpiece, getting it sold in any quantity requires one of two things:  the money of a publishing house to carry out a marketing campaign to bring it to the attention of all those who can influence the public at large.   Getting reviewed by, say, the New York Times is going to result in a lot of sales, even if the review is less than a rave.

But if you are self publishing, there is no big vault of an advertising budget.   You rely, in the main, on the luck of the draw.

Whatever its literary faults, "Fifty Shades of Grey" started life as a modest self-published e-book.   And despite those faults, netted its author a small fortune,   All from the power of people chatting to each other - in hushed tones - about what a good read it was.

All we spanko authors dream of writing the next "50 shades", but our chances are very slender indeed.

If we turn up in "Goodreads" - the internet equivalent of the NYT LS - with a new work, containing half a dozen rave reviews, the response is more likely to be that of dealing in spam pop-ups than having a best seller in the making.   Too many first timers turn up with such books, and the reviews are so uncritical as to be almost certainly from friends and family - that the existence of such praise causes all sorts of alarm bells to ring.

So you need to go the slow and ordinary route - first get a name first as someone who gives fellow authors helpful advice.   And when the time comes is never pushy about how wonderful one's own work is.   If they like it, it will get read.   And the more who read the introduction, the more who will buy the full version.

Internet users tend to hate spam with a vengeance.   Being seen as a spam producer is absolutely guaranteed to kill off a promising career.

My Amazon Profile

Here is a link to my Amazon Profile.   It could become a portal for all sorts of question and answer threads that are a tad more difficult to conduct on a blog.

"Willing Victims" - a new e-book

I have put 15 of my edgier stories into an e-book called Willing Victims.   Since a couple of the tales already appear in the free stories section of this blog. when it becomes available in Smashwords I'll give a 50% discount for you on that site.   (There is no way that I can see of making a similar offer for Amazon readers -if you happen to know the secret, do drop me a line).

The punishment program

I have added The Punishment Program to the list of free stories.

A young lady has entered into a contract that has transformed her life into one that she really approves of.   But at times, she cannot help asking herself if the program is not a little too savage, despite its good results.

Why are we so shy?

We spankos are very shy people.   No - really, really shy.

According to the survey, 59% of us have told no one but our partner of our interest, and a staggering 15% have never told anyone at all.   The percentages are slightly higher for the over-50 age group:  19% have never once revealed their interest in spankings.   Only 3% of respondents state that it is not a secret at all.

Over 20% of spankos, of all ages groups, have never been in a spanking relationship ever.

That suggests to me that we have a deep seated need to keep our interest very personal.

The first clue as to why that should be so comes from the question "As a spanko, how do you think Vanillas view us?"    Among the choices, some significant ones were:

      Spankos are perverts                             42%
      Spankos need medical treatment     18%
      Spankos are a danger to children     14%

Well, that might explain why nearly 20% of us are petrified of the reaction we would get if we told anyone that we are a spanko.

Not many vanillas have taken our survey (not that surprising, really) but let us look at the 15 responses we got when they were asked the identical question"

     Spankos are perverts                           0%
     Spankos need medical attentions     0%
     Spankos are a danger to children    0%

Not enough responses to be statistically significant, but there does seem to be a trend emerging.    Particularly when one considers the ever widening acceptance of all things spanking in main stream media.   In general, vanillas look on us as pretty ordinary people who should not be censured for activity between consenting adults.   There will be exceptions, of course - just look at how much hostility homosexuals get at the hands of that declining group of bigots - the homophobic and the repressed.

Back to our spanking secret.   I have a hypothesis, but no hard data to back it up - as yet.    About 70% of us acquired our taste at a very early age:  under the age of 9 according to 45% of survey respondents.    And as young children, we really had to keep such an odd trait very secret indeed:  enjoying punishment seemed so bizarre that admitting it was going to mean an automatic trip to some sort of asylum or another.   By the time we reached puberty, keeping it a secret was totally ingrained.  It had become one of our defining characteristics.

Which is why for some of us, it will be a secret that will last an entire lifetime.

The Gleam in Her Eye

You may find this minor masterpiece at Amazon    It is in the process of being released at all major ebook retailers, but each has its own timetable to follow.   

I have added the short story Emily to the Free Spanking Stories page.   Sometimes the need for atonement might not be what it first seems.

The writer's journal

As an author of spanking fiction, I have found the most useful tool to assist me in writing is my writer's journal.

It is a devise used by writers of all genres, so I cannot claim it is my own unique idea - just one that is worthy of sharing.

My "journal" is simply a document folder on my word processor.   Usually that folder has one document per piece of work in progress.

The reason for having a journal is that our muses very rarely deliver complete manuscripts to our minds and we simply transcribe the thoughts into printed words.   Sometimes that happens:  it is rare, but two or three times I have sat down at my keyboard with virtually an entire tale ready and only needing to be transcribed.

But is far more likely that you get your pieces of inspiration in dribs and drabs.   A single sentence of dialogue for example, such as "If you move from that position, I shall really hurt you."   And that's it.   No context, no character, nothing.  A tempting morsel, so many possible different meanings, which needs to be chewed over slowly.

And that is where the journal comes into play,    If the drib belongs to a specific work in progress,  it can be jotted down in the appropriate document.   If the drab has no logical home, then it can go in some sort of "General" document, so that it can be retrieved when the home for it is finally identified.

Just reading a work in progress documents can result in a nudge to add some more bits and pieces.   Until you have enough to do the first write.   (We shall talk about rewrites some other time).

I find it useful - for me - to put new stuff in a journal in red text.   When perusing a document, those red ones stand out as being the newest (and most likely to trigger new avenues of thought).   Before adding any fresh items, I select the whole document and change the font to black.   Then make any new addition(s) in red.   And a periodic review of everything in the journal folder has been known to get one or two tales from outline to first draft in fairly short order/

The 40,000 word novel "The Gleam in Her Eye", about to hit the stands, started as single line of dialogue.   So the method sure works for me.    And if you do not have a writer's journal, you might like to try one for a while.   Nothing ventured, and all that.

The Dark Side

I suppose the biggest single difference between sado-masochists and spankos is that while the first have spankings as one of the ways pain may be inflicted, for spankos it is almost the only way that guarantees to give a buzz.

But it goes far deeper than that.

Sadism and Masochism are defined as mental disorders (the exact definition of which has changed over time and is still in a state of flux).   Spankos are seen to be members of that group who have algonalia - which is considered to be totally harmless.

Researchers find that sadists enjoy inflicting actual distress on non-consenting people and animals.  Masochists desires for self pain have led some of them dying of asphyxia or other causes.

It is the notion that there is non-consent that stops the spanko dead in his or her tracks.   It is not the legal aspect, it is the ethical and moral one.    Sadists enjoy their lust come what may - but spankos enjoy sharing a mutual idiosyncrasy with a like minded participant.   Take away the consent, and you take away all the pleasure.   When dealing with real participants in real life.

If we draw a scale with spanko at one end, and sadism/masochism at the other, it is impossible to draw a line which cleanly delineates those who lie in the middle as being on the harmless side or the potentially harmful one.  Some spankos, but not all, find bondage may add to the fun.   Some, but not all, find fetish wear is a big plus.   Others, but not all, find that pain in other parts of the body can be a turn on - whipping the back, strapping the palms of the hand and so on.   Such additions give no clear indication.

So let me digress for a moment.    There was an experiment last year in which researchers at the University of British Columbia  conducted on what they call "everyday sadists" - people who have sadistic tendencies but not to such a degree as to require medical intervention.    Initial tests identified some participants who displayed traits consistent with being "everyday sadists".   That group all selected "the unpleasant job experience" of putting bugs into grinders to destroy them.   Other groups selected chores like "cleaning toilets" etc.

Causing distress to bugs gives a sadist a slight buzz. I don't know about you, but that is not part of my make up.

And in an fMRI study, a female masochist was unable to avoid getting sexually aroused regardless of where a slightly painful shock was administered to her body:  be it forearm or calf.

When a sadist and a masochist agree to participate in a session of mutual arousal, there is invariably a safe-word chosen to end the session.   And a true sadist will whale away with full vigor until the safe-word is said.    About 40% of spankos also have safe-words:  but they consider it a disaster if it has to be used.

We spankos find much pleasure in the world of fiction and fantasy, where the non-sensual nature of a spanking adds spice to the rendition.   To such a degree, that many of us play out such scenes so that the pretended protests might add to our enjoyment.   But we do know it is all play.

For sadists and masochists none of it is play.   Power, distress and any sort of pain:  those are the essentials.

We may fear that our spanko urges could lead us into full blown sado-masochism.   If we should end up there, it was a destination we were always going to reach and our spanking interlude was just a way station.

All the research so far undertaken gives no hint at some slippery slope we may be heading down.   We just need do a reality check from time to time, and continue to enjoy our harmless pastime.

Painful Secret

Painful Secret is the title of a story that I have just added to the Free Tales section.

You may have come across reworks of Tom Brown's Schooldays in which a young lass, for one reason or another, is masquerading as a school boy.   This one is slightly tongue in cheek, but it does highlight the peril of being the heroine in a spanko's work of fiction.

The safe word enigma

According to a recent survey, 40% of spankees have a safe word to hand, in order to stop a session that is getting too painful.   And half of them have used it at least once in their spanking adventures.

Which, at first sight, seems rather odd.   The reason spankers get spank spankees is because the spankee has given permission for the spanking to take place.   Even in the most rigorous dom/sub relationship, the sub is a willing partner, or you probably have grounds for legal action in the face of such physical abuse.

Most spankers spend their entire time on giving their partner the spanking that they really want to get.   A sort of "baby-bear" approach of not too soft, not too hard, just right.   There is a learning curve, possibly for both participants, where the earlier spankings are far milder in strength and length than the later ones that scratch the spanko itch to just the right degree.

So it should be no problem for the spanker to spot that the spankee is not enjoying them-self and to adjust accordingly.

And that is the case in the majority of cases.

The first exception is that not all spankos are spankos.   Some of them are sadists who are willing, with this partner, for now, to restrict their pain giving to the general area of the backside.   (Spankos are not sadists - we'll discuss that in a later post).    If you are getting your bottom reamed by a sadist, you better have a safe word to hand - for every sign of not enjoying the experience increases the sadist's pleasure.   To such an extent that there is a large amount of anecdotal evidence that ignoring safe words is all part of a sadist's joy.

The second is that not all spankees get their kicks from the same triggers.   75% of spankees got their fascination way before puberty, and for them, the tingle in the bottom is directly linked to the libido.   Being the majority, they are the ones we are most familiar with, and we can tune the spanking to make it as pleasurable as possible for them.   The minority got hooked late in life:  and the most plausible explanation is that the endorphins released when pain is experienced triggers the pleasure - "sub-space" as it is often called.   For these, the initial whacks are quite unpleasant, and then the buzz starts.   Only some times it does not.   The safe word is the equivalent of an ejector seat to get out of a situation that is not going well.

And then some times we play roles to that are supposed to make the whole game even more fun.   The archetypal is School Teacher/Naughty Student in which an indignant cane wielder whacks away because of an F grade or whatever.  There are others, hundreds of others, role playing scenarios - that can go all the way to whips and chains.   A pretense of being unwilling is allowed to be preeminent.   So now if the recipient starts squirming and yelling,  it could be part of the act, or it could be time to ease up.   Hence the safe word comes into play to say "goddamit - this is really hurting" or whatever, when it is the later.

Safe words come into use when one cannot rely on trust alone to stop a spanking that has gone too far.

And if you don't have a safe word, all spankos will always respect and respond instantly to "Enough."  

The English Vice

For reasons I do not really understand, the makers of English spanking videos seem to be in love with scolding.

All productions out of England seem to come with participants who are instructed to give extremely verbose reasons to the other participants why the spanking is taking place, and why it has to be extended for another set.

Some, but not all, European productions may have lengthy dialogue to explain the set up,  But when the time for action has arrived, the music, and each voice (except vocal yells of one intensity or another), is turned off until the last swish of the cane or crack of the paddle.

The basic problem every producer faces is that, on average, it takes only a couple of minutes to reduce the average bottom to its reasonable completion - and the aim is to produce a video of 30 to 60 minutes duration.

So one way is to have lengthy discourses between slaps on why the next slap is justified - for the fiction of just about every spanking video is that the recipient is an unwilling victim.    (That might be sort of true for some mid-European videos, for it is rumored that the participants are vanillas undergoing the ordeal for large sums of cash).   But in the UK, the young lady protests loudly, between yells, and the spanker fills time by wandering off, rubbing an afflicted buttock with tender fingers, and reminding all and sundry, at length of what crimes have been committed, what attitude has to be adjusted, and how disappointed they are that this is all necessary.

Having made the mistake of deciding that scolding is an ideal time filler, the next error is letting the participants wing it.   They ad-lib gaily along, inventing stuff up on the fly.   But the average actor is not particularly adept at being inventive, and tend to rely on the old stand-byes of breaking curfew, over spending and not doing chores.

Writing spanking fiction is not easy.   Giving the task to the actors does not improve the situation.

So, if our English colleagues don't wish to invest in scripts, perhaps they could use the standard European model of chat before and chat after.   If nothing else, it will make the task of producing cut down versions for our own viewing pleasure a lot easier to do.

Suffer not the children

I shall try to make this post as squirm free as possible, for we spankos - in the main - hate talking about children and spanking at the same time.   Partly, I think, because one of the reasons we keep quiet about our somewhat private trait is because we have a suspicion that we might be seen, by others, as being a danger to youngsters.   A false belief, perhaps, but one that makes us err on the side of caution. 

As a group, spankos are generally opposed to children getting spanked at home or at school  In recent surveys 91% stated that they are against unrestricted school corporal punishment, and 65% think parents should rarely or never wallop their kids.   Other polls indicate that, in general, that only 33% of the  U.S. population is opposed to kids getting spanked.

Is there some sort of defensive self-preservation at play here?   A sort of "I hate the idea of anyone hitting kids - even by adults who have legal justification - so you don't have to worry about me" tactic.   Possibly, but I think we spankos have an inside scoop.

When we were kids ourselves, we hated getting spanked.   Really, really hated it.   But for 75% of us, thinking about spankings caused us a total baffling tingle of pleasure.   Spanking with no pain for us was a secret delight - a spanking that involved personal pain was to be avoided at all costs.  Except possibly the very mild swats that came when playing games like "school" or "mommies and daddies" - games that vanillas played as well, with equal childish glee.

We get our kick, as adults, from consensual spanking activity.   In fiction, it is OK for adults to get whacked against their will, but not in real life.   It is part of our make up, that real-life spankings of an unwilling victim is most unsatisfactory: even though sometimes pretending that it she - or he - is getting whaled without giving consent can add an edge to the frolic.

So, we know from personal experience that kids - even spanko kids - seldom, if ever, wish to experience a good hiding.    Therefore, we have no personal wish to spank kids.   Therefore, we have no wish for anyone else to spank children either.

  

Coming of Age

I have added Coming of Age to the short stories in the Free tales section.   It is historical in nature, and accepts the mores of times past as they were back then.