As a long-time writer of erotic stories, I’ve had a SmashWords account for over ten years. I’ve always liked SmashWords as they were less likely to throw you under the bus for breaking the rules. Amazon will put you into the dungeon over minor issues.

I quickly learned my lesson and tailored my stories to be acceptable to Amazon. After getting my knuckles rapped a couple of times, I’ve learned how to appease the censors for the most part.

Another great thing about SmashWords is that they automatically push your stories out to other publishers, such as Apple, B&N, Kobo, and Scribd. My stories always seem to sell on Apple, and it’s nice not to have to do anything except go to the bank.

Then, a while back, SmashWords merged with Draft2Digital and promised that nothing would change. The one good thing out of the merger was Books2Read.com, which provides links to my stories from all the publishers as well as all of the formats, such as electronic, paperback, or audiobook.

Up until now, I’ve stuck with SmashWords as they’ve worked for me. My latest story, The Shrink, an 80,000-word erotic romance story, was my first to be published at Draft2Digital.

But, the results have been disappointing. Draft2Digital uses Books2Read to sell my smut, unlike SmashWords, which pushes popular stories on their website. Not trying to brag, but if you log onto SmashWords and search for Erotica | Action/Adventure Trending Now or Bestselling Books, you’ll typically find four to six of my stories within the top ten pages of search results.

The Shrink has been out for several weeks now and is nowhere to be found on SmashWords bestseller lists that I can see. The story is listed on their site but is not a top seller.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to pat myself on the back as it usually makes my shoulder hurt, but I’ve enjoyed some success in erotic romance stories about swingers, Hotwives, and unicorns. I think one of the reasons is that my wife and I are swingers in real life. I write from experience and not my fantasy about wife-swapping and banging some other guy’s wife.

The Lifestyle has been fun for us and created situations that easily become fodder for my erotic stories. My porn includes a lot of sex, as that’s common for those in the swinging lifestyle. I hear people say, “That really can’t happen in real life.” But you’d be surprised at what goes on at a house party. The amazing thing is that divorce among swingers is almost unheard of, at least in the couples we know and play with.

The biggest problem my wife and I have is who gets the girl. We typically end up sharing, which is my favorite situation. It’s also fun to tag team my wife or some other girl, but from one on one to a full-blown orgy, it’s always satisfying.

As a test, I published The Shrink at SmashWords to see if sales would be any different from Draft2Digital. So far, neither SmashWords nor Draft2Digital has pushed back on publishing my story to both sites. If I get a complaint, I’ll unpublish the story at D2D and keep it on SmashWords.

If any of my fellow authors have any thoughts on which site to publish to, I’d love to hear from them.

Update: Within several hours of publishing to SmashWords, I’m already getting sales on The Shrink. I know it’s not the D2D version as the code numbers are different. Plus, the story is already listed in the Featured New Releases section:

Update 2 – In less than 12 hours, The Shrink is now on the first page of Erotica |Action/Adventure|Trending Now – Plus two more of my stories have joined it. It appears that publishing to SmashWords is better than Draft2Digital, at least for me.

Update 3 – Within 24 hours, I now have six of my stories in the best seller lists. This proves to me that publishing to SmashWords works out better than to Draft2Digital.

I’m Larry Archer, and I write erotic stories for the huddled and yearning masses. Foxy and I are swingers in real life. I write about the things we do and see, especially swingers, unicorns, Hotwives, and cuckolds. While the Lifestyle is not for everyone, it’s been fun for us. My smut is explicit and hardcore but with a somewhat plot. Larry Archer’s porn stories are generally positive and fun, as this reflects how enjoyable swinging has been to us. If you’re interested in checking out my stories, I publish at all the typical outlets.

Larry Archer’s erotic romance stories are available in electronic, paperback, and audiobook formats. Click this link for more on Larry Archer’s erotica.

Kinky Literature
Amazon Kindle
SmashWords
Apple iBooks
Google Play Books
Kobo
Barnes and Noble
Scribd
Gardner Extended Retail

Larry Archer on Medium: https://medium.com/@larryarcher69
Larry Archer on MeWe (Explicit Content): https://mewe.com/i/larryarcherauthor