Where does erotica sell better?

Fair warning: this is going to be a navel-gazing post about the vagaries of e-publishing on different sites. Folks who are just here for the erotica will not find this terribly gripping.
 

I’ve noticed something weird about my sales on the two sites I’ve been using: I’m selling about twice as many copies on the Nook than the Kindle. Of course, “twice as many” is only a matter of a few extra sales. This month, I’ve had fifteen sales on Barnes & Noble compared to seven on Amazon.

I’ve been puzzling over this discrepancy because I thought Amazon was the more commonly used service. Since authors guards their Amazon rankings jealously, I’d like to figure out why I’m falling behind there. Here are a few reasons why I might be selling better on the Nook:

More Competition

Amazon’s direct publishing system is so easy to use that many self-published authors ONLY put their work up there. The Nook’s system isn’t exactly difficult, but it’s probably not anyone’s first publishing choice. There may just be more titles floating around in Amazon’s erotica section for my little stories to compete with.

I’ve also notice that the Nook PubIt! content policy is more conservative when it comes to erotica, forbidding “hard-core material that depicts graphic or explicit sexual acts.” Amazon’s comparatively liberal policy forbids “offensive depictions of graphic sexual acts.” That extra word, offensive, gives writers and editors a fair amount of leeway in deciding what’s acceptable. While Barnes & Noble does have an erotica section on its website, it may be scaring other erotica writers away with its ban on “explicit” sex.

That’s not to say Amazon never censors the erotica section. Its content policy just makes it look a bit more inviting to erotica writers.

Better Apps

The Barnes & Noble site has a very visible drop-down menu right at the top of the page to let shoppers know that they can read an ebook without owning a Nook. Amazon has almost exactly the same apps for PC, Macintosh, Android, Apple and so forth, but the link is further down the page on the right hand side. Since plenty of my potential readers don’t have e-readers, the ones who go straight to Amazon might be missing the link. For anyone who’s interested in the various apps, I wrote a post about what’s available a little while ago.

Different Devices

It’s a long shot, but there could be something about Barnes & Noble’s device lineup that’s attracting a disproportionate number of erotica readers. The tablet-like Nook Color certainly would be more attractive for people who planned to view a lot of porn on their ereaders. If that’s the case, the Amazon Fire should level the smutty playing field soon.

Different Audiences

The Amazon crowd has a large author forum to sift through, so they might be more discerning readers. Barnes & Noble has a forum as well, but it’s not as well known. Amazon readers may be relying on word of mouth (or keyboard) to decide on new purchases, and they have more sources of information to choose from. I haven’t spent much time at all on the Amazon forums, so my next step as an author will definitely involve some self promotion over there.