The Erotic Writing community faces many challenges. Profits and readership have grown tremendously with the advent of sites such as Amazon and Smashwords, but the genre still lacks a consistent, unified voice. In many circles, erotica is still "lumped in" as a subgenre of romance, a categorization which does justice to neither genre.
Businesses profit off of erotica, but often fail to give the genre its due recognition and respect. Without a united voice for the Erotic Writing community, we could continue to be marginalized while big businesses make money off of our work. This Indiegogo fundraising event is specifically to set up the Erotic Authors Guild, a non-profit to represent the best interest of the Erotic writing community.
Already, several hundred hours have been donated to getting this project off the ground, but we need a little help from those who write, read and support Erotica. This will be a non-profit group.
This Fundraising event is to raise funds for four specific goals of the Erotic Authors Guild:
- Cover the costs of setting up the non-profit entity which includes a $850 application fee to the IRS, state fee to Incorporate, Federal Tax ID fee and costs for legal review of incorporation documents.
- Design and hosting of a robust website offering a wide variety of
resources to members of the Erotic Authors Guild including e-learning
tools, author blog pages that allow monetization, reference resources
such as Acronym Guides and an Erotica Specific Dictionary, Directory of
Service Providers and many more tools and resources designed to assist
members of the Erotic Authors Guild.
- Pay for the cost of an attorney to write disclaimers for use at the beginning of books that will reduce liability to authors which will be for use of guild members at no cost. Additionally, crafting of cease and desist letters for copyright infringement, plagiarism and piracy for use by guild members.
- Start or acquire a not-for-profit Book Review web site exclusively for the erotica genre. As a
guild non-profit site there will be no advertising on the site though
the Guild will receive some funds through affiliate agreements for books
purchased through the site. This site will be unique in how it
suggests books to readers and allows readers to filter out content that
they are not interested in. Additionally since users will have handles
and we will not be automatically feeding any information to social
networking sites, readers will have some anonymity that will encourage
them to review books and share reading suggestions with other users on
the site.
The goal we have set meets the bare minimum costs. Exceeding the funding goal will mean that we are able to complete the project more quickly and offer more resources to guild members now instead of having to ramp up some of the services we plan to offer.
Our long term vision for the guild includes offering Medical, Dental and Life insurance plans to members at a reasonable cost using the size of the group to get group discounts. Yearly awards event recognizing the many outstanding authors in the Erotic community and conventions.
The formation of the guild is currently being driven by Lillian Christansen (pen name) who started publishing in 2003 in magazines and on-line. Though Lillian continued to write Erotica she became disillusioned with the publishing industry and focused on a career in business where she became familiar with accounting, business and employment law in both the non-profit and for profit world. In 2012 she left the corporate world (where she worked for one of the biggest e-publishing companies) to write full time. Her mix of creative erotic writing, fund raising and business savvy will be helpful in the startup of the Erotic Authors Guild.
Dylan Cross (pen name) has started several widely popular groups on Facebook to assist authors with the technical challenges of publishing and to give a marketing outlet to erotic authors. Dylan also brings in experience with website creation and maintenance, activism as well as many published works on several different publishing platforms.
Several others have stepped up to participate in vetting mission statements, vision, ideology, business plans and other key elements of developing the guild.
Our goal is to complete the legal process to be a non-profit and have a guild website ready to launch by November 1, 2013. The book review site is more complex and has a planned launch date of January 1, 2014.
Larger companies employ restrictions which adversely affect erotica. Facebook limits the ability of Erotic Authors to advertise their author pages and books. Blogger.com limits advertising on Adult Content blogs. Although these companies have no problem using erotica to draw traffic, they nevertheless distance themselves from the genre and force us to use other more expensive marketing options (which these companies also happen to profit from.)
By creating a unified entity, we will have the power of numbers to have a voice which can influence company policies, and create more opportunities for Erotic Authors.
The Guild will be accountable to our membership. As a non-profit, per the state and IRS rules, there will be a board of directors, meeting minutes will be provided to the membership and reports will be provided on income and expenses. We currently plan on incorporating the non-profit in Nevada.
The current planned cost for full membership in the Erotic Authors Guild is $49 per year. We know that in the first few months as we gain membership and the resources to provide more benefits and resources, those who join early are stating that they believe in the Guild and we want them to know that we believe in them so for the first three months we will offer the first years dues at $30.
To be a full member of the guild you need to be a published author of erotica. We will have additional membership options for aspiring authors and for those who provide services to the erotica community.
You don’t have to be an erotic author to donate. If you love erotica and want to support erotic authors so you can keep reading the stories you love, we would love your support! If you want a credible site that reviews books and stories dedicated to erotica, please donate.
Below is the working draft of our mission statement and guiding principles. We hope this gives a good idea of our goals and plans, unfortunately it would take novel to give all of the details for everything we are working on and planning. We do appreciate your support and our ultimate goal is to create and support Erotic Authors as a cohesive community.
Our Mission is to promote the advancement of the Erotic genre by
supporting authors in various ways including: writing, networking, and
marketing resources. Our Goals are not only to establish ourselves in the
writing community but also to maintain relationships within the publishing
industry. In doing so we strive to bring about the changes necessary to make
Erotic Authors equal to that of any other genre.
Being an Erotic Author requires not only skills…
It’s an Art Form!
Take a moment to read through our Guiding Principles. The Erotic
Authors Guild will use these guiding principles in deciding where to allocate
resources and also to maintain the long term goals and direction necessary to
fully benefit not only itself but ALL members of the Guild as well. As the
industry changes and the needs of the Authors in our community change it will
become necessary to periodically review and adjust these guiding principles as
we see fit.
1. Promote the advancement of our genre elevating it above the stigma
and generalization
2. Encourage collaboration amongst our community
3. Provide encouragement, support, and resources to writers who are new
to the genre and assist established writers in further development of their
craft
4. Establish a benchmark of acceptable standards for our work, including
but not limited to: writing, formatting, pricing and marketing
5. Define and maintain categorization of subgenres; propagate those
subgenres into the various promoters, marketers and sellers of erotic writing
6. Create and maintain working relationships with other organizations
including but not limited to review sites, marketers, and book publishing
entities
7. Establish a network and directory of service providers that work with
and are familiar with Erotic Writing
8. We will work to either change penalizing policies or find alternative
companies that want to both have the profits and support the genre
9. We will provide resources and support to fight censorship, laws and
legislation that effect our genre including creating easier ways to fight and
take legal action against plagiarism and piracy
10. We will work to provide Erotic Authors with legal protections for
their work
With a clear knowledge and understanding take a moment to become a Member of
the Erotic Authors Guild where your
membership contribution along with your participation will not only benefit
you, but will also benefit the Erotic Author Industry as well.
If you wish to help support the startup of the guild please share a link to this campaign with your readers, other authors and those who support the erotic community. We can also use help with designing Word Press templates for Guild Author blogs as well as designing logo’s, badges and other guild images.
