Max’s Comments (group member since May 11, 2013)

Max’s comments from the Max Stories (Cherish Desire) hosts a Q&A. group.

Today I'm talking with a good friend and fellow author before she moves back to Serbia for the summer to spend time with her family. We've been chatting about her work on an epic supernatural zombie cannibal piece, and how H. P. Lovecraft ( http://bit.ly/1bEuhr0 ) strongly influenced her main characters as they fall from grace.

It's not that her characters weren't amoral to begin with. Her story is about a crappy world falling to pieces as every possible system, even science, fails people. Which makes me wonder how her main characters would be different if she was more of a Robert Heinlein ( http://bit.ly/198KDsP ) fan with his hard xenophobic stance. I'm tempted to send her a few links to his short stories...

And that's inspiration at work.

We're all exposed to a variety of different styles, voices, and subject matter. Seeking to tell a good story while also selecting the right tools for it can be a challenge. Plus there are plenty of times when you're left wondering, "Is there a better way to tell this?"

A lot of times we talk about researching a story. And it's totally true, you have to walk around, look things up, and assemble pieces in your mind. But sometimes the most important research happens when you stumble across something you weren't looking for.

For me, photography tends to be a big source of inspiration. I relate to images, pattern match backgrounds and situations, and form a narrative about the shot. Sometimes it's a bit difficult even - "The Lioness" has spawned over 50k words at this point in follow up stories. A single picture last week of a wolf surrounded by ravens spawned a potential book worth of material to pursue writing as well.

Likewise, settings can be a substantial inspiration. The Volkspark Friedrichshain ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkspar... ) is an amazing pastoral setting in Berlin where almost anything can come to life. The fairy tale creatures of the Märchenbrunnen are set in stone to quietly watch every person who comes to their fountain. They guarded over the fountain so despite the devastation of the entire park, it survived World War II. And from there...

Books, art, film, and music also can be sources of inspiration. How things move often catches my eye. I think other writers click more with fashion and style than I do. Sometimes I binge read a variety of different genres to understand how other writers are relating perception and sensory input. It helps take the blinders off and add to the scope of things I'm editing.

Inspiration is such a broad thing, sometimes it's necessary to filter it out. A parking lot of ideas, a pad of paper that never gets looked at, audio recordings on my phone I might playback someday... All of these are places to put inspiration that isn't ready to happen yet.

And now having said all this... I need to go back to writing. I just had an idea...

I believe all writers face this problem at one time or another, and erotica writers are at particular risk. Your characters represent your experiences and fantasies - and sometimes are very close to people you know quite well or only in passing. Filling in the details - even fictional ones - can make things interesting in your personal life.

The reaction for me has varied a lot. On one hand, I have several friends who are super excited to make a cameo or appear as a main character. Alice was highly amused, and gets a good laugh out of her "story sister." Helene loved her role in "The Lioness" - being in a book was something she really enjoyed.

On the other hand, Angel has always felt dubious about both her depiction and her presence in stories. It's a little too close to home and real. Natalya was originally the counterplay to that - Angel as she wished she were in real life. But Natalya was always a disguise and costume Angel could put on, and she knows that in order for Natalya to come to life I had to both fictionalize and aggregate other experiences into those stories.

But those are just the initial emotional reactions. Some stuff is really delicate. When the Jenny stories were originally written, exposing the fact that she was married with kids was a non-starter. While no one thinks a woman's sex drive ends once she is married, society as a whole tends to see open marriages and women pursuing extra marital pleasure as wrong. It's a dumb blanket judgment that fails to factor in the reality of marriage for most couples. But only in the last revisions and edits has it been safe to open the lid on this important element of Jenny's life. Along with that comes Holly's own flavor of extra-marital pursuits, and the fact that Tom fumbled along like all of us when he was first dealing with vivacious women like Jenny and Holly.

Emily is a similar situation. The original "Another Day" series was an exchange between Tom and Emily well after their "honeymoon" period. But to talk about how they started out was difficult. Emily's husband was her everything, and when he was deployed to Iraq she became a bit of an awkward ghost haunting familiar bars and restaurants. When he didn't come back, Emily was lost. They'd been high school sweethearts, and he loved her for all her quirks. She had never really learned how to date, how to pick up men, and yet she was so lonely. "Quiet Nights In NJ" was written long after "Another Day" and gave Emily a chance to open up about how she experienced first meeting and then adoring Tom. It was something we thought should be written because "Loving Helen" didn't make as much sense unless the reader knew about Emily's connection and how that fit with Helen's situation with her arranged marriage to Gurav, who is gay but was obliged to follow his family's wishes.

All of this is a bit high level though. I know the storylines and the characters. I know compromises that have been made. And I know where I've papered things up - because I run headlong into walls where I have to think, "Oh, can't say this because no one can know that."

Since I freestyle write a lot of content, it can be a very tricky editing process. Even moreso now that we're going back and improving all the early Very Dirty Stories volumes. Nothing like forgetting I avoided mentioning a very personal tattoo in several stories, and then realizing I added it in to another story elsewhere! *head desk*

How do you protect the innocent within your stories?

Alice http://bit.ly/Ladies_Alice
Helene in "The Lioness" http://bit.ly/cCDD_TL
Angel http://bit.ly/Ladies_Angel
Natalya http://bit.ly/Ladies_Natalya
Jenny http://bit.ly/Ladies_Jenny
Andrea http://bit.ly/Ladies_Andrea

While I slowly update the Ladies pages at http://bit.ly/CherishDesireLadies I'm adding the free stories that have been published to various places on the internet.

Here's four worth checking out!

"Object Confessions 4" http://bit.ly/11j2wyC
"Winter's Lioness" http://bit.ly/Wp82Eh
"Unintended Gifts (An Angel Story)" http://bit.ly/147dh93
"Pools of Wetness (An Angel Story)" http://bit.ly/18vYbhF

Right now we publish predominately on Amazon. With 102 titles currently available, and over 250 stories in them, we do ok sales ranging from 100-200 books sold every month mostly in the US, UK, and Germany.

We are experimenting with Kobo. I have to admit, the Amazon experience has spoiled us. Waiting 9 days for "Object Confessions, Collection 1" to get reviewed and approved on Kobo was a lifetime. Our entire second quarter marketing campaign for Canada had to be put on hold because of that delay. Amazon's 24-36 hour turn around on titles set our expectations, and Kobo just doesn't seem to be able to come even close.

B&N is basically a no sale zone for us. I'd like to be in the B&N store, and they certainly carry erotica, but their terms and policies seem to exclude our content. I'm not even sure we could post our descriptions. For the time being the work around has been going through CreateSpace and producing print editions. "Fade to Grey" is currently available in print from B&N, and our other print titles will be coming soon.

Which leads us to the inevitable question I get asked in several different ways. Why aren't we on SmashWords?

My short personal answer: The SmashWords customer experience.

My short publisher answer: SmashWords delays pushing titles to markets, delays receiving royalties, and non-existent statistics and information on sales as they happen.

Again, I'm spoiled by Amazon. Pull up http://www.amazon.com in your browser. Now pull up http://www.smashwords.com/ in second browser window. Now tell me where you feel an investment has been made in your customer experience.

I recognize that functionality often trumps form. SmashWords has a clear adult filter you can turn on and off whereas Amazon just randomly hides erotica titles. SmashWords provides numerous digital formats whereas Amazon locks buyers into their Kindle format. SmashWords distributes to many marketplaces where as Amazon is just one market.

But if I could pitch two simple things to SmashWords as a customer then I'd tell them to get mobile with a reader friendly viewer/app and to implement a clean modern looking UI. Arguably SmashWords should be the Steam of digital books. Instead it feels like a library in digital format.

As a publisher, I simply need much more intelligence than SmashWords can provide. I need to see my sales monthly to know what titles are not clicking and need a bit more promo or a review. I need to see my sales while my promo campaigns are running. And frankly, I like to get paid within 60 days of month end.

Cherish Desire will continue to explore other ways to get books to people. We're replanning Kobo right now as a first step, and moving forward with print editions that will make their way to major outlets. But ultimately the big question is: Where do you buy? Because that's where we want to be.

2011 and 2012 were important growth years. With a focus on short stories, and learning as we went into the Amazon Kindle market, Cherish Desire spent a lot of energy getting content out and building the tools to produce and delivery erotica with our own sexual desires unleashed across the world.

Cherish Desire sees 2013 is a chance to review, renew, and power forward.

First Quarter of 2013 tackled two major elements of our books. These were factors that stood out and which Moon and I were unhappy about.

Number one was about coming up with consistent covers that look nice in people's libraries. The new colourful look to Very Dirty Stories volumes is contrasted with a movie poster theme for Cherish Desire Singles and a subdued darker format for print editions.

Number two was bringing the level of quality of the early 2011 ebooks up. Both in terms of leveraging Kindle Fire formats and addressing weaknesses in the stories.

Along the way we incorporated better descriptions that now indicate the type of sexual content in each story, to inform potential readers what they might be getting in to.

Second Quarter saw the release of the revised covers, a major overhaul across all our web sites, and a lot of new content as well as updates to older volumes.

The thinking was clear in our minds: we want people tuned in, turned on, and enjoying the story and the sex. We introduced some new categories - the Niki storyline with a strong emphasis on willing cuckolding, and updates to the Jenny storyline to expose the fact that she's a married woman seeking pleasure elsewhere. And we've introduced some characters Moon may not be fond of, but whom we can relate to: Holly, Kris, and new ladies in the Object Confessions series.

But there's a new wave coming. Third Quarter 2013 is being kicked off with introduction of print editions of Cherish Desire Singles and Cherish Desire Divinations books. The "Object Confessions, Collection 1" is the first broader approach to bringing selected stories from Very Dirty Stories volumes into a single book. New Jenny, Alexi & Andrea, Azure, Angel, Ginny, and Abbey content is rounding out the story of Tom's life.

Because in Very Dirty Stories #100 (presuming Amazon doesn't mess our plan up), Tom's daughter Sable joins the Cherish Desire Ladies.

Shortly thereafter we hope to release "The Bear." The gap between the Cherish Desire Divinations storyline with Erik/Heather and Ronin/Tom storyline was always a much smaller hop than people may have imagined. After all, Angel calls Tom/Ronin a wulfing right out. And Tom's dual nature was always apparent.

From a content perspective, Third Quarter 2013 will start bridging the gap between Tom's world and Adler's world. At the same time we will continue to push forward on updates to existing 2011-2012 released formats to the latest and greatest. The introduction of "The Bear" and free release of "Autumn's Bear" to introduce the next Cherish Desire Divinations book will be a big milestone for storytelling, and we are really excited about sharing these with our readers.

And about Tom... there were always consequences for what happened to Anime Girl. Or didn't you know about what happened to her?

:)

Anyone interested in hearing about Sable, Tom's daughter, coming out in VDS #100?

Take a chance and ask about the ladies, stories, and scenes from Cherish Desire ebooks.