After publishing 20 non-fiction books with mainstream publishers, Sharazade (her pen name) decided to try her hand at erotica, and over the past year has published two sex- and fantasy-themed ebooks, both of which are available on Amazon, Barnes Noble and Smashwords (Warning: Linked pages may contain explicit content.) Her stories often
involve travel–a passion of hers–and are set in exotic locales. Recently she
began publishing other authors through 1001 Nights Press, a small house she founded, and last month she learned that Amazon was
letting indie publishers and self-published authors into its Kindle Select
program.
Sharazade, who requested anonymity because she also works as a
freelance writer, editor, and teacher and doesn’t want clients or students
to know about her erotica exploits, recognized several benefits to working with
Amazon. She could offer a title free for up to five days, and that’s great
publicity since her book would inevitably shoot up in the rankings. If
any Kindle Select members borrowed her book–they are entitled to one
title per month–she would receive a proportional sliver of the $500,000
Amazon set aside in December to pay publishers and authors. Then, once her book wasn’t free anymore, it would be tied to things like “Customers
who bought X also bought Y,” plus readers might post glowing reviews
and buy backlist books.
She decided to test drive the service with
Erotic Stories of Domination and Submission: Taking Jennifer, a book by one
of her
