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This is entirely unhelpful, but I was reminded of my college days when I was waiting tables in a bistro. We had a cat (in utter violation of the regs, but the rats were a bigger violation, and the cat kept those away) and she had a habit of wandering into the walk-in refrigerators. The headwaiter posted signs for us: “Don’t lock the cat in the walk-in. Cold pussy doesn’t do anyone any good.”

That Outline: So KYBCLM are out in the snow. All semi naked and shit. There were more of them originally, but giggles cause avalanches. They toss a few snowballs and talk about the innate sexiness of frostbitten labia. Or whatever the point of the specific fetish is. Is that right? A solid six or seven minutes in which their skin begins to take on lovely blue tones. Wind chill’s minus 30 or so. Numbness begins to spread. They stumble inside and get hit with pins and needles as nerve endings start getting blood supply in surrounding tissue. Groans, moans, squeals. The odd detaching extremity. Then, play time. Out comes the Trivial Persuit. Kim wins because she’s like the best. [/Scene]

I can only speak to my own experience, which was being published via a small press with a targeted readership (LGBTQ). The original owners of the press are tremendous people, authors themselves, and I absolutely adore them. They sold the press, though, and the new owners were not as dedicated to readers or authors. The press is gone now, and I’m the process of having my stories republished with another press. I have never self-published, so I’ll let those with more experience speak to that, but I can tell you why I went the small press route. First, identify the publishers in your genre. Don’t pitch a slash romance to a het-oriented publisher. Keep in mind most publishers won’t touch pedophilia, incest, rape for titillation, necrophilia, bestiality, or stories that discriminate against a particular group. Some won’t want graphic sex. Most want happy-ever-after or happy-for-now endings. One of the keys to being successfully published is a polished, edited, proofread manuscript. One of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking they can self-edit, or that their dear friend who beta-reads their fan fiction is going to make a terrific editor. What you need is a professional editor, especially when you’re new to publishing, and it can get expensive out of pocket. A good editor makes sure you don’t leave loose ends, that your chronology makes sense, and characters don’t change names mid-scene. Same thing with the proofreader, who looks for the technical stuff like punctuation, verb tense agreement, and all that good grammar stuff. They aren’t as expensive as editors only because they don’t spend as much time with your manuscript. There’s cover art, and the ISBN numbers, which aren’t very expensive if you buy them in bulk, but most of us aren’t going to purchase them that way. Ten ISBNs can cost $125, and you need a separate ISBN for ebook and paperback editions. Many publishers will send books out for review, and maintain relationships with review sites and blogs for their genre, and some even take out banner ads. But most small presses expect you to help market your book actively. Publishers provide those services for you, and in return, they keep a portion of the royalties from each sale. Given that the publisher’s just spent good money on the gamble my book will sell and return their investment, I’m very happy to share royalties, and tweet my ass off, blog, and even buy a banner ad myself. Just read your contract carefully, and don’t be afraid to ask about anything that isn’t clear to you. Are you contracting for ebook rights only, or print rights? For how long with the contract run? Most are two to three years. Make sure you understand how to have your rights revert to you, if necessary. Investigate how royalties are paid, and how often. Third party sellers pay the publisher, who pays you, and that means those monies lag compared to a direct publisher website sale. How often do you get royalty reports? How are you paid: by check or Paypal or other means? Get in touch with other authors who publish with that small press, and ask how they like the publisher.

And… I’m back home! Two CT scans later, after a panic by the doctors where they thought I didn’t have appendicitis, but instead a much more serious inflammation ofthe main artery that supplies blood to my legs (scary), they’ve finally settled on a painful disease that isn’t life threatening (or at least, not yet). I’ve been knocked out with morphine and codeine and shoved full of antibiotics. What a performance. While I was there, I discovered why I never write longhand. I love my computer. Thank you for all your well wishes, everyone. Most appreciated, even if I did have a load of trouble getting online whilst I was there. Normal service shall now be resumed. After a good night’s kip. And a decent cup of coffee. And a couple of days rest, probably. And a shower to get this horrible hospital smell off of me.

Yes. Truly a test of skill to see which Bob is capable of Bobbing for apples the best. Usually around Boboween. Or All Bob’s eve.Many casualties can result as many Bobs try to out bob one another. Same for Bobmas. Santa Bob typically unleashes Krampus Bob on foolish Bobs bobsledding around this time. Survivors get gifts. -Other Bob

Ha! You know as well as I do their answer to everything is codeine. That’s not happening. I’ll concede to paracetamol... when absolutely necessary. I don’t want people breaking into my house for the street value of my medicine cabinet. Sod that. At least they sent me away with some more heavy duty antibiotics after all the IV ones. So that should finish the attack off for now, and for a while with any luck.

Just my humble opinion, but having the characters put on hats, gloves and scarves to begin leads the reader to expect play that’s a little rougher than your scene needs if the erotic content is going to work… that’s where you’re going to run into trouble. Ditch the accessories. By using them, you create a peculiar mental image, and call attention to the parts of the characters that aren’t covered up, and that makes the reader feel the cold. You want the play to be very light. You want the snow to be extremely light. You want the the Oh, but that’s cold! to be a perfect counterpoint to Oh, but you’re warm! That’s how this scene would work. I’ve written it before, more than once. And I’ll write it again, because… Ahhh… they’re going to end up in the snow. Poor buggers. Even the wildling is going to hate it by the end. I am so evil. *shakes head at self*

Bobbing for apples is a favourite autumn pastime in the realm of Bob. During winter, it's more commonly the bob sled.

Never change :3

Hopefully they’ve come up with a decent and non-addictive pain management program as well! At least non-life threatening.

Eh, I suppose not. But as a female, the notion of naked play in snow doesn’t strike me as all that arousing. I guess that’s why my headwaiter’s little joke came to mind, and why I did say it was entirely unhelpful.

I tend not be as prolific with longhand on paper. Heck, might not even write like I do if I had to suffer. Paper, though, is okay at work when I need to quickly jot an idea down (and don’t, for obvious reasons, want to use my work computer). Well, welcome back from that doctor induced panic disorder

“Stop scrolling! Are you ready to read the best story you’ve ever read? Great! You can read this piece of shit until you find it. Rape, snuff, MAGA”.

I do want to publish someday and I don’t want to go into this half-cocked. Any thoughts? Tips? Advice? Any site or resource I should avoid? Hints on where to start?

This is my Achille's heel. I’m not alone <3

Large house/traditional publishing can be harder if you don’t have an agent as well. They tend to not accept unsolicited manuscripts, although certain houses in the SF/Fantasy genre will accept manuscripts from authors without an agent. Generally, ebook sales are more profitable all around. Most small publishers will pay anywhere from 30-45% of the royalties to the author for ebook sales, depending on whether or not the ebook was purchased from their website or from a third-party seller like Amazon. Third-party sellers charge a small fee to the publisher, and that’s passed along to the author in the form of a slight dip in the royalty, but many people prefer buying via those third party sellers. Physical books generally pay a percentage of the net royalties, after the cost of printing the book, and that number is much smaller.The press I’m working with now pays 12% of the cover price, less returns. My prior publisher paid 25% of net royalties. It will vary by publisher, but ebooks tend to bring in more money for the author. That’s been my experience, anyway.

Word choice as in are you disguising things. Are events transpiring openly or is there more going on that what’s readily being presented on the surface. Context can paint a very different picture of whats going on. A single well placed clue can do more than a ton of less subtle hints. How are you disgusing things if things are not as they appear. Ex: It seemed as though a trick of light but the ruby seemed to have an inner fire all its own for an instant. (A set up that the ruby isn't normal) Ex: Is it really the ticking of a clock or is it a timer steadily ticking down? What kind of tick is it? Is it a tick tock. or is it a steady tick tick tick… BOOM Ex: Molly felt uneasy being locked in this room. The grand father clock’s ominous ticking didn’t seem quite right it was as if the ticking wasn’t perfectly synched. The obviousness of the sudden lack of sound brought attention to its sudden absence. “Oh shi-” Molly didn’t have time to finish as the room upended in a sudden conflagration. Bringing attention to certain details or lack of details. Etc..

That’s what I was shooting for! Do you think I got the tone a little off?

Maybe an outdoor hot tub on the deck? I can’t see anyone actually wanting to have sex in the snow at all let alone after having been out in it for an extended time. How would you feel anything. I mean, you know how your fingers get numb after a bit? Now think nipples in the same situation. Can’t say that’s sexy at all. Frostbite on your titties would suck massively.

I can tell you are delightfully twisted in all the right places. But I think they’re going for more that innocentish teenage exploration of themselves and others.

Thank you Jay Dee but i already got my outline.

Writer Beware sounds ominous. Is there a difference between e-book publishing and regular?

Clearly the headwaiter was not a necro fetish fan.

I found a legit link to the story. It’s in the Hex files archive on AO3. The story is listed as restricted so you need an AO3 account to read it. So if you click on the link and you are not logged in to AO3, it will not work. There is a queue list, so when you register, you won’t get your account right away, it will take a few days. In my case, I waited about 10 days. Here is the link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8214892/chapters/18826900

Second this, especially with the alphabet soup some of us make with the story tags, this would be useful to know for those of us looking to publish or self-publish.

I bow before the Bobness…

Do you make a lot of references within your texts? Do you enjoy reading texts with a lot of references? By that, I mean like, quotes from television or books or films, or references to certain events, or historical elements or classics. I really love reading stuff that’s heavy or thick with references, and I enjoy incorporating them, whether it’s very obvious or a direct quote, or if it’s something very veiled and mild, like.

Some references, yes, as my stories occur in the future, I do toss in an odd reference or two, but I don’t make it a driving element, because that helps bind it to the present day. (ie, In one story, I mention a certain sitting president.)

Meanwhile, in vault 108, Gary seeks to upset this order.

references I feel should be sparingly used. As popular culture changes so fast as things pop in and out of popular consciousness at a rapid pace. You can inadvertently date your writing.

I appreciate a well-placed reference when I catch it, but I prefer them to be well spaced out, you know? Like if it’s obvious there are tons of references and I don’t get them (which isn’t uncommon since I’m not up on a lot of pop culture stuffs), I might feel a little alienated or detached from the story, but if it's like the rare reference I don’t get, then it’s more like something I can look up or pass over and still feel connected to the writing. That’s as a reader. As a writer, my references are pretty rare. And I usually try to make them pretty veiled, with the odd exception. But that might just be because there’s not a whole lot that I’m into that would make sense to a lot of people lol.

Yeah, summaries are tricky things. Ideally, you’d know the audience well where you’re posting or publishing. Or at least have an idea of the general demographic you want reading your story so you can play to them. Like, posting on an erotica site, you probably want to stress the erotica side of your story. But in general, as @Tcr (and @BronxWench?) said, make sure the summary describes something you want to read. Don’t focus on telling the passersby everything you think is important about the plot or the characters. They don’t need to know everything. They just need to know whether they wanna bother clicking on it. Pick out the most interesting points to draw them in. Touch on the romance (If there is any) and the main character’s conflict. I say the main character’s conflict rather than the main conflict of the plot because I tend to be attracted to summaries that are more personal. More character focused. What the elven warrior is struggling with will draw me in quicker than a world in peril, if that makes any sense. That’s how I try to think about it, but it’s by no means a one-size-fits-all thing.

Well, I have the same problem with regards to my own, so I do understand. Not going to lie, even with the advice from the thread I started a while back, it’s still a hard thing for me to do. But, some of the advice has helped. I’ve been working on trying to pick out important parts from the actual story and develop them into a workable summary. For example, if your story is about intergalactic space pirates who raid the wrong colony and are consequently hunted because of it, it could, for example, read something like: One wrong decision. A raid on the wrong colony leads to the crew of the Fortune in possession of a weapon of mass destruction. Capable of destroying any planet in the known universe, Captain Shey Charlton must resist the urge to play God while the Fortune has to outrun the entire might of a galaxy united, hunting them to the ends of the universe and back to reclaim it. But each side of the allied forces have their own dark plans. And the only ones in their paths are the unscrupulous raiders. (...Damn, now I have another plot in my head that won’t go away… lol) I believe it was BW who said that the summary should interest you and make you want to read it as you, yourself, are the one you need to sell it first (paraphrasing of course... And if I messed up the paraphrasing, that’s on me).