From now until the end of July, all of my books available at Smashwords will have a discounted price.
That includes Hooky, On His Orders: Faithfully Unfaithful, and On His Orders: Entertaining Three
If these books don’t tickle your fancy (although I don’t know why they wouldn’t), there are plenty of other books on Smashwords currently discounted on its July Summer/Winter sale.
Happy Reading!
It’s been a while since my last post. Yeesh. I’m almost embarrassed to look back and see how long it’s been.
Sorry. Life happens and I just got busy. It didn’t mean I quit working on things.
On that note, I’m excited to announce that my latest book will be available shortly. Like Strictly Business: Tormenting Tom, it will only be available on Amazon and will be enrolled in KDP Select. I plan on expanding to other retailers after the first enrollment, but this is where you can find it for the first 90 days.
The pre-order is now live (releasing 7/3/21) and you can find my book on Amazon!
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August 14, 10:07 p.m.
It was dark, save for a sliver of light cutting sharply into the room through a crack in the bedroom door. Not enough to light the inside of the closet, though, leaving him to sit in darkness, unable to do more than steady his eyes on the strip of light running along the carpet on its way to the foot of the bed. All he could do was strain his ears against the silence and fixate on the light, hoping for any indication that she had returned.
He knew her schedule as well as anyone. Better, actually. Perhaps even better than her. He knew the sound of the garage door opening would rattle through the house soon. From there, he would have ninety seconds, give or take a few, before she made the short trek down the hall and into the bedroom. That’s when his real work would begin.
He had fantasized about doing this so many times before, but he had never been this nervous in his fantasy. Now that he was actually crouching, the silence and the shadows his only companions, it finally felt real. Real enough to make his thoughts race so quickly that everything felt like a blur.
Still, even through the blur, he knew that if he were going to be discovered, it would be right away. A wandering eye taking in the room, peering through a crack in the closet door before locking in on him. He had to stay still and silent, right up until it was time to make his presence known. If he were to be discovered prematurely, it would make things… uncomfortable, to say the least. And not at all how he wanted this night to unfold.
But as he sat back in the darkness, his nerves only made him more excited. His heart raced and his breathing was heavy and uneven, both seeming to echo loudly around inside of him as he listlessly ran his fingers along the silken material inside one of the plastic tubs stacked next to his body. He didn’t need to open the drawer to know it was where she kept her lingerie. He knew before he entered that night, but the texture of the most intimate clothing she owned left little doubt about what he was touching. The smooth fabric felt nice on his skin. As nice as her skin would feel on mine, he thought.
The mechanical sound of turning gears opening the garage door made him jump. Images of her body bending to his will were shoved from his mind, replaced by a picture of himself in her kitchen, clearly positioned to watch her walk in. When he closed his eyes, he could clearly envision what she looked like. Straight, shiny brown hair that she wore down, tan skin, lean, athletic body. She was wearing the skin-tight jeans and low-cut black top from earlier that day, still showing off just a hint of her stomach and an inviting amount of cleavage. By the time he heard the door open, he was already hard. Everything had been building up this for a long time. As he anxiously waited to hear her again, he realized that he needed this buildup. Touching her later wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying without it.
As he listened in anticipation, he finally heard what he had so desperately been waiting for. Her voice carried into the bedroom, buzzed, light, and flirty. As beautiful as ever, he thought to himself. But there was something else there, too. There was too much movement for it to be just her, and she wouldn’t be talking to herself. The blood had already drained from his face before he heard him speak.
His voice was deep and masculine. When he heard it respond to her just beyond the bedroom door, he sat back deeper in the closet, certainly not wanting to be discovered now. He knew it had been possible that she wouldn’t return alone. There had always been the chance of that. He just couldn’t believe tonight was the night she brought home company.
As more light from the hallway spilled into the bedroom, he could see her again, finally. She was a welcomed sight, even as she was leading a new man to her bed. A tall, muscular man that would certainly tower over the one hiding in the closet.
Trapped, and almost too nervous to breathe, he had nothing to do but wait.
I have been seeing a TON of posts on Twitter from everybody under the sun saying what a cuckold “is” and “isn’t”. I’m here to tell you that most of …
Cuckold Defined
I’ve never used the reblog function here… I hope I’m doing it right.
I appreciated this lengthy post on the term cuck and cuckolding. I frequently cringe when I use the terms, all due to the negative connotations people have added to the terms.
Please be sure to check out some of my works about hotwifing and cuckolding:
If you’re interested, please head over to BookSprout to pick up a free copy of Strictly Business: Tormenting Tom. The copy is free! All I ask is that if you enjoyed it, please leave a review at your favorite retailer (or multiple). Amazon is preferable, but you can choose another if you would like.
I’m still learning the ropes for a lot of the self-publishing game. One of my challenges has been figuring out how to get reviews on the books I’ve written and published. I tried BookSprout with On His Orders: Faithfully Unfaithful and at least got a few reviews.
The first 20 reviewers should be able to get a copy for free. Again, that link is: https://booksprout.co/arc/59249/strictly-business-tormenting-tom
A preview for Strictly Business is here: https://aliciastillsauthor.design.blog/2021/01/07/preview-for-strictly-business-tormenting-tom/
Specifically, if you have a threesome with two women and a man (FMF), are you now obligated to have a threesome with two men and a woman (MFM)?
To me, the answer is an obvious “no,” but I’ve seen quite a few people and sites say otherwise. In order to be “equal,” you have to do both kinds of threesomes “for” your partner. I can’t find it anymore, but I remember hearing Channing Tatum talk about it years ago, saying something along the lines of, “well, yeah, a threesome with two women is great, but remember, you have to give her a threesome with two guys afterwards, so be ready for that.”
I think that view is absolutely bonkers. No wonder so many people have failed threesome attempts. If this is how you understand the dynamics of group sex to be, you really aren’t cut out for it, in my opinion. There are just so many problems with viewing sex through that kind of prism that it can be difficult to even begin addressing how wrong it is. I’ll take a crack at it, though.
First, threesomes and any other kind of swinging as a couple has to be something that both partners want to do. If one partner really doesn’t want to add a third person – even if I think they should be open to trying it out to see how fun it can be – they shouldn’t. And their partner should respect that. It doesn’t mean they can’t explore it again in the future, but you can’t get involved if one person isn’t interested.
Second, and related, is that you aren’t having a threesome “for” your partner. Your having a threesome with your partner as part of a mutual desire to have one. If a couple has an FMF threesome, it should be because both the man and the woman wanted to add another woman to the mix. Neither one should be able to say sometime in the future that their partner owes them an MFM because they did FMF “for” the other. No, you did FMF because you both wanted to. Neither of them gets to say that they had a threesome for the other because they both wanted it. Even if one of them had a greater interest in FMF than the other. And, of course, the inverse is true – just interchange FMF for MFM.
Third, if the above isn’t the case and one person was only having a threesome in order to use that as leverage over the other, that’s really shitty. I mean, really, really shitty. That’s sexual coercion and isn’t fair to your partner. If my husband had only been having MFMs with me in order to make me feel obligated to give him an FMF, I would have felt entirely violated, even if I did want to have an FMF with him.
Fourth, viewing sexual relationships and bringing extra partners into bed with you as being so tit-for-tat is an extremely and overly simplistic way to view equality. If you have FMF you have to have MFM, or vice versa, is a child-like way to think about equality in the complex relationships that adults have. It just doesn’t compare to “Well, Jane had a turn with Toy A, so now John gets a turn with Toy A” like we tell our toddlers when they argue.
But, if you want to check out some of my works where the couples are happily having threesomes and foursomes, please check out the below:
I find myself considering the topic of race as it relates to interracial cuckolding a lot. Every time I think about it, I can’t get past the issue of what role, exactly, race plays in the situations. Far too often, the sentiment behind the image at the top of this post is too relevant for my liking.
I’ll start by saying that I have absolutely no issues with interracial relationships, attraction to certain races over others, or anything like that. Everyone is entitled to be attracted to whatever feature it is that they prefer. Many people are more attracted to certain races, and (since it’s not 1960), I fully support that.
But… I do have to question the motivation behind interracial cuckolding.
Perhaps some will disagree with me about the depictions made in porn, but I don’t think there’s much of a question that the pornography industry plays heavily on racist tropes. Innocent-looking woman being taken by a “thug,” particularly groups of thuggish black men. Latina women playing the role of subservient maid. Racist language throughout. Differences in race being fetishized and highlighted throughout the scene. There’s more on that here: Interracial Cuckold Porn, as well as many other sources. And others have noted that – specifically in relation to the cuckold genre – cuckold scenes very frequently feature a black man as the bull and a white man being cucked, whereas the inverse is very rarely true.
Why is that?
All I keep coming back to is that it’s a continuation of racist depictions that naturally play into the cuckolding desires. Many men enjoy being cuckolded due to the humiliation factor involved in the practice. There’s also an aspect of role reversal that can be a turn on.
Even though there are quite a few reasons why men want to be cuckolded by their partner, humiliation is the one that most people focus on, particularly in the porn industry. They do so in a very shallow and cartoonish sort of way, but it’s a primary focus.
So, as a white couple, having a black man sleep with your wife is presumed to make the entire situation more embarrassing. The roles have really been reversed as well. Now, not only is the man subservient to his wife, but he’s also subservient to a black man as well. Twice the role reversal, twice the humiliation, I guess.
I think this is why the interracial depictions in the industry have always made me uncomfortable. Race has been inserted into the discussion as an additional factor that is supposed to be so obvious as to be presumed to be more degrading.
Not that it’s always that way, but I struggle to see it any other way in most circumstances. I know there are more innocent explanations for a lot couples that put this into practice – obviously, the humiliation factor may be enhanced for some white men who simply view men of other races as superior in some manner. And a woman may simply be more sexually attracted to men of a different race, even if her partner isn’t of that race. So I’m not going to draw any absolutes here.
But I’m still strongly suspect of the fetishization of races, particularly in the context of cuckolding.
Anyway, it’s just some food for thought. Please be sure to check out some of my works about hotwifing and cuckolding:
Strictly Business: Tormenting Tom is on sale at a discounted price via Smashwords now through February 15, 2021. Rather than $2.99, you can pick up a copy for $1.79 using coupon code UQ25F (which is also on the checkout page).
While you’re there, feel free to check out the other featured deals currently running on the site to see if you find you’re next favorite read.
This is part 3 of 3 of my reviews of the self-publishing platforms I’ve used so far. Parts 1 & 2 on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, respectively, are already up.
Smashwords may be lesser known, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the site. It may not have the name recognition of Amazon and B&N, but it seems to hold its own fairly well.
You can find my works on Smashwords here.
PROS
1. More Retailers
Unlike Amazon and B&N, Smashwords has a service where they will distribute your e-book to other retailers. I think this option is great, and it eliminates the need to upload your book to each retailer individually and to make changes on each retailer’s site when updates are warranted. It’s a big time-saver in that sense. Plus, you achieve a wider distribution beyond just Smashwords.
2. Top Royalties
Smashwords pays 80% royalty. This isn’t completely straightforward, but sales directly on Smashwords pay an 80% royalty rate, regardless of the price of your book (minimum of 99 cents). You can set an optional affiliate payment, which is automatically set at first to 11% unless you opt out or change it. But essentially, anyone that refers a reader to Smashwords using an affiliate code can get 11% of the proceeds of a sale of your book (or different amount, depending on what you set it at).
In my experience, most sales don’t come via an affiliate. I don’t like losing out on 11% when it happens, but I also appreciate that without the affiliate, I wouldn’t have made the sale, So there’s that.
Additionally, if your book is priced at under $2.99, you still get this higher royalty rate, which differs from Amazon (but no longer B&N, as of 2/1/2021). And there is no reduction based on location of purchaser.
If your book is in the premium catalog – meaning it is getting distributed to other retailers like Kobo, Apple, Scribd, etc. – the other retailer takes 30% and Smashwords takes 10%. So you still end up with a 60% royalty if it isn’t an affiliate sale. This is great on its own due to the ease of getting your book out to more places, but there’s an additional benefit if your book is under $2.99. If you publish via B&N and have a book priced at 99 cents, you would get a 40% royalty rate. If you go through Smashwords, you still get this 60% rate. (**Update** B&N now has a 70% royalty, regardless of e-book price; however, the above analysis still applies for other retailers).
3. Strong Sales
Of course it could just be my experience up to this point, but I’ve found that the sales through Smashwords have been strong. Nearly as strong as using just Amazon, actually.
4. Affiliate System
I like the affiliate system, both in that affiliates have some motivation to link to my books, but also in that I can be an affiliate and potentially add revenue by directing others to Smashwords or particular books/authors.
5. Quick publication
At least to Smashwords, itself. My books are available on Smashwords in a matter of minutes. It takes a day or two to get to other retailers, but for Smashwords itself, it’s nearly immediate.
6. Coupons
You can add coupons and they are available immediately. Smashwords also has a section for books that are currently on sale at a discounted price or books that are listed for free.
But, unlike B&N, if you are looking at a book that has a coupon, they actually tell you the book is discounted and what the coupon code is.
CONS
1. Worse Ease-of-Use
I’ve found that the formatting needed to be acceptable on Smashwords for their premium catalog status to be far more difficult than Amazon and B&N. It’s no issue if you only want to publish on Smashwords, but if you want to go to other retailers, you have to format it in a very particular way using an older version of Word. I understand that part of this is due to needing to convert to multiple formats due to differences amongst retailers, but it also feels like it could be better-automated in 2021.
2. No Ability to Use Coupons at Retailers
While I love that I can put my books on sale at Smashwords (like Hooky On His Orders: Faithfully Unfaithful, and On His Orders: Entertaining Three currently are), this doesn’t carry over to retailers. It would be nice to be able to have a consistent price/promotion across all retailers. But, since I don’t have an account with other retailers and, because even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to add a coupon published through someone else, I can’t add a comparable coupon.
3. Smashwords is Relatively Unknown
I think this one speaks for itself. Most people haven’t heard of Smashwords and don’t go to it first. Again, my sales there have been fine, but I think it’s still lacking in some name recognition for a lot of consumers.
Bottom Line
The bottom line for me is that I think Smashwords is fantastic. It has great royalties and it distributes to other retailers. It makes wider distribution easier with no need to make multiple stops when changes are needed.
My workaround to the hassle to format correctly has been to have all of my formatting preset in a document that I can then past my books into, applying the relevant formatting to each section. I think it took me about 20 minutes to format Strictly Business: Tormenting Tom this way.
**Update** As of 2/1/2021, Barnes & Noble has changed its royalty rates so that it is a flat 70% for e-books with no delivery fees and without maintaining a tiered system based on book price. Which is fantastic. Naturally, I attribute the change to my post below.
This is part 2 of 3 of my reviews of the self-publishing platforms I’ve used so far. The first one dealt with Amazon and can be found here: Review of Amazon.
You can find my works currently with Barnes & Noble here.
PROS
1. Large Network
Like Amazon, Barnes & Noble has a very large platform of dedicated customers. Unlike Amazon, it’s still largely dedicated to books. This gets your book in front of potentially millions of new customers that prefer to shop for books through B&N.
2. Ease of Use
Again, B&N is easy to use, although I would have to give the edge to Amazon on this one. I think it’s still pretty straightforward and not too much work for someone with a little bit of computer literacy to figure out, though. In particular, B&N makes it much easier to add your books to the appropriate categories, whereas Amazon keeps that formula much more of a puzzle, at least for getting your books added to certain subcategories.
3. Straightforward Royalties
**Update** As referenced above, the royalty system changed as of 2/1/2021. I’m keeping the below just for historical purposes. But this royalty system is even better now – 70% for all e-books, regardless of price.
The royalty system on B&N doesn’t appear to have any tricks or gimmicks about it. You get 65% for any e-book priced at $2.99 or higher and 40% for any e-book priced between 99 cents and $2.98. They don’t charge you a delivery fee and they don’t reduce your higher royalty rate for something less on the basis of location of the purchaser.
There’s so much to figure out when trying to self-publish for the first time that I think this benefit is bigger than some would initially think. It’s nice to have this aspect laid out in a simplistic, unchanging way.
4. Better Royalties
In comparison to Amazon, that is. At least that’s been my experience. Amazon likes to tout that it has a 70% royalty rate, but, as discussed in my review of Amazon, that’s actually pretty misleading. When they charge a delivery fee and reduce your royalty for sales in many countries, I’m sure I get less than the 65% that B&N provides. Plus, of course, 40% on lower priced publications is 14% higher than what Amazon provides.
5. Sales & Coupons
B&N gives authors the ability to add coupons to your books without having to enroll them in a program that demands exclusivity to B&N. In face, On His Orders: Entertaining Three is currently on sale at Barnes & Noble (coupon code BNPORDERS50).
CONS
1. Coupons Not Automatically Provided
From what I can tell, even though B&N lets authors add coupons whenever they want, it doesn’t list them as being “on sale” or “discounted,” and it doesn’t automatically apply the coupon. They don’t even appear to tell customers what the code is, meaning you would have to get the code elsewhere. So, you know. If you don’t have a big network, the coupon doesn’t do much good.
2. Sales Lag Behind Others
Perhaps this has just been my experience, but the sales on B&N don’t match what I see elsewhere. B&N has a huge network, but if it doesn’t translate into sales, the network size didn’t provide a benefit.
3. Slow Publication Times
I know B&N’s systems had a hiccup a while ago that slowed publication, but I’ve found that they take much longer than most retailers to add a publication to their available inventory. I asked customer service about it once, and I received a response. Two weeks later and right after my book was finally made available for sale.
4. No Unlimited Reading Program
While Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program has some real drawbacks, it is a nice service that I would gladly use if it didn’t require exclusivity. It would be great if B&N offered something similar. I think it’s helpful for authors – particularly new authors – to get their books in front of more people.
Bottom Line
The bottom line for me is that if I were going to get rid of using one of the three retailers I currently use, it would be B&N. Their royalties are good, their ease-of-use is pretty good, and they have a large network. But, it hasn’t translated to sales, and they negate one of their biggest perks (the ability to add coupons whenever you want) for authors without a sizeable following with their deficiencies in the coupons feature.
But if you aren’t locked into exclusivity with another retailer, it’s easy enough to get published on B&N, so there’s really nothing to lose. It just seems like this would be a better option for an author that already has an established following.
Three of my books on Smashwords are currently on sale through the end of the month. When you go to purchase, you’ll be provided with a coupon code to enter for your discount. I give the code below, but Smashwords will provide it as well. at checkout. On His Orders: Entertaining Three is discounted on Barnes & Noble as well.
Please check them out and leave me a review if you enjoyed reading them! I love to hear feedback from readers.
Alicia Stills Author: Erotica and Fantasy 