Your Success Stories: Tiny Sparks

About:

Tiny Sparks is the nom the plume of an author of erotic and romantic short stories.

She was raised and born in England but moved to Germany where she met her other half. Her husband and their special relationship are the inspiration for her erotic short stories.

The first two short stories have been raved about as ‘Fast and hot action. Can’t wait to read more’ and ‘Steamy read!’.

The stories offer sexy fantasies with a personal knowledge of the BDSM world. She is active on Twitter and is happy to share her knowledge on there and her website.

She has an arsenal of other like-minded stories ready for release in the near future.

Contact:

You can contact me via Twitter: www.twitter.com/tinysparksx

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/tiny_sparksx

Instagram: www.instagram.com/sparksxtiny

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/tinysparksx

Email: tinysparksx@yahoo.com

Your writing journey:

My first book was a Young Adult novel written under a different name, for obvious reasons. It took me a year and a half to finish it. I looked for an editor and cover artist on a Fiverr and got kind of ‘screwed’. The book wasn’t edited properly and the cover was only so, so, after changing it for 5 times. To get the cover you want you need to do research. One thing you need to understand is that the artist is not in your head (which I forgot). Look at other covers and pick a few that make it easy for you to describe the cover you want. Get as much information as you can get on what you expect: the feeling of the story (erotic vs romance vs fantasy vs…) the background, maybe even look at fonts, if there are people in there: the hair color, facing forward or sideways or away. The more detailed the easier it will be to reach a result that you are happy with.

Second book is still in the works and is a ghost romance but I put it aside to work on my erotic short stories as they flow from my pen and keyboard with ease, which wasn’t the case with the novels.

I’m a pantser writer which basically means I write without a plan. And for these short stories that worked out great. For the Novels it was a giant disaster. I would write 20k words and would need to restructure the whole thing before being able to move on to the next 50k.

Self-publishing is according to me the way to go. You need an editor whether you self-publish, look for an agent or inquire traditional publishers. They won’t promote your book for you. The only thing you can get out of it is an advance check in case the publisher you’re with works like that, a free cover and a second or third edit.

I got four reviews for the first short story in a series where there are three already published. It’s hard to promote and find reviewers. Most still want to get paid to review your book, not just get the book for free. It’s first of all illegal and could get you banned from Amazon, and second of all, I want the reviews on there to be by people that actually chose to read my book/short stories because it intrigues them. There was only one review by an unknown person and others’ were by fellow writers of which two got an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) before the story was published.

A description and keywords are very important and incredibly difficult. A finished book is important, it needs to be edited. Beta readers are important to a certain level. You still want to stay true to your own writing style after all. And then the most difficult part of all is…Promoting your book. Building a following while writing might be something you don’t think about as, obviously, your book isn’t finished yet. However, it’s crucial because otherwise you won’t have an audience/readers. I’m still struggling with that as I started out only weeks before the first short story came out. Social media is a powerful tool and you need to use it. Personally, Twitter is fun and actually generates readers and writers that want to talk. Facebook is slow and way more difficult. Looking for blogs and reviewers outside of Social Media can help too but you always need to be aware that these people get loads upon loads of requests. So patience is a virtue and always make sure with any request to anyone that you read all the information before contacting them. You don’t want to waste your own nor their time by asking for them to review an erotic short story, while their wish list is everything but erotica…

Anything else you feel like sharing:

– I write erotic fantasy based on experience. The BDSM world is known to me so I do keep true to the concept and add some fantasy scenes. If people ask for advice I’m always happy to provide it and if people want to chat about my book or leave reviews… I’ll love you forever!!!

My opinion on authors writing in the BDSM genre without the experience:

I have to confess to never have read the Fifty Shades books as in our community they say it’s a load of bull. So I can’t comment on that.
Writing erotic fantasy doesn’t have to be accurate, however, BDSM is a fun niche to write about when you have the experience. I don’t make up scenes without taking what would actually happen, into consideration. I want to always keep in mind that everyone can read my books. Young and old. And there will always be those that want to experience something they have read. If you’re inexperienced it can get dangerous. There is a reason for a safe-word. BDSM is kind of a world on it’s own and has many different kinks in and of itself, but safety is an issue. Inexperienced Dom/mes or subs/slaves can get hurt. Not only physically but also mentally. This is why I added a little Author’s note to the third book in regards to after care. During the heat of writing my books, I still keep in mind that before, during and especially after care is important. You might get hot under the collar when reading the story, but I thought it good to have this tidbit of information there.
Books two, three and soon four, all have these little facts intertwined in the story as the main character is in actual fact entering this world as a newbie.
I would not recommend any author writing anything other than what they have experience with in this field. I, for example, know nothing about Dominating a man and will therefore only write a story like that if I’ve done some extensive research and talked to or watched people with experience.