A virtual currency of any kind might create additional legal snarls. Remember that it should also be segregated from CHYOA, so benefits can only apply to Fiction Community. The variety of perks that can be offered on a forum/social platform is very small, and I doubt there are many that would be improved with the addition of a virtual currency system.
I'm not a fan of the prepaid points they use on writing.com it's just never seemed like good value to me
Here are a couple more ideas for monetising the Fiction Community! Most of these are designed to be compatible with Chyoa stories that ‘cross the line’ with the credit card companies. Exclusive author interactions: Community members could pay to see exclusive interviews with authors, or masterclasses that an author’s created (like “How to write BDSM”), or other kinds of content. Members could pay extra to directly ask authors questions. Members could also pay to give an author a ‘suggestion’ for projects that they’re working on. This could even be structured like $5 for a chapter suggestion, $25 or a branch suggestion, $100 for a story suggestion, or however an author wanted to structure the payments. I assume if this worked like a DM system where the suggestions aren’t public, then a reader of an incest story can still donate with a message asking authors to add X character or feature and it will be ok… but maybe not. Red, blue, and green tip jars : An author’s profile page can have multiple tip jars and a reader can choose which to donate to. Readers and authors alike can see how much has been tipped (alternatively, only authors can see. Or maybe authors choose visibility). On Chyoa, or other websites where the author is active, they can list on their profile “Red donation = character X and Y in incest story Z get together, Blue donation = character A and B in story Z get together, Green donation = bonus chapter at $20” etc. The Fiction Community can’t really be blamed if somebody decides to use these different tip jars as a weighted polling mechanism, can it? Extra member features : I liked Artisan’s ideas about cosmetic improvements, since it could work well within the Fiction Community itself even if they can’t be transferred to Chyoa. Small perks that improve quality of life from a ‘premium’ subscription could also include custom theme changes (like dark mode browsing), comment saving features, potentially premium-only user groups. The way Discord Nitro does monetisation seems like a natural way to monetise groups: a premium group can get special emojis/reactions usable only within the group, or can host bigger files (or directly link images/gifs in group vs. text-only), etc. Quality role-playing (with people running the RP maybe paid?) could be another type of group. You could also imagine a system like Reddit Gold, where users can gift each other points or highlight posts & groups they like (in effect, also doing marketing for authors). Pay for art: I think lots of people would like to see art commissioned for their favourite stories (or just to see hot girls/guys etc.). This art could then be used directly in stories if authors wanted to, too. There are two approaches that this could take. One is to hire artists directly and a second is to make a platform where users can pay to have AI art generated (in practice, something like host Stable Diffusion/DreamBooth trained to produce NSFW art in different niche genres and users get credits to produce stuff). The second option seems cool to me and more of a value-add (why should Fiction Community take a cut as a middleman if it's just fans hiring artists?). If NLP gets much better, we could even get AI generated stories and cut all of us authors out entirely… but that’s probably a discussion for another day. Options 3. and 4. are direct payment for service, but the Fiction Community website can still take a small cut for things like ideas 1. and 2. to fund operations. You could combine most of these ideas together or just select whichever ones are most promising. I personally think 3. and 4. will create the most financial sustainability, although it would be nice to have some version of tip jar/donation suggestions so that readers can subsidize the content they want to see. Curious as to what other ideas people have!
Thank you for the numerous suggestions! You've helped me a lot with this. We'll start with a minimum viable product and then expand further. The next step will then be monetization for authors with subscriptions and more. Here's one last batch of wireframes. But I'm already working on the design. I'll post that here soon too.
The Fiction Community is taking shape! More about the design and the look on SubscribeStar: https://subscribestar.adult/posts/918813
This is a really great idea, Friedman! Looking forward to being a part of this on the Authors’ side when it becomes available.
Here's an addition that would see me signing up for a membership. I drive a lot, like 4-5 hours a day. While I drive, I like to listen to stories. I prefer to use .epub readers, as it's an open format. I would love the ability to download stories from CHYOA, even if the ability to download was part of a paid membership. That way, authors still get paid, and I get to have the book in a format I can better utilize. Maxtaf
I would also like this feature simply for story preservation. I know Friedman is committed to not deleting anything, but I assume if it comes to a threat of legal action it would have to be done. It's not easy to to work a CYOA story into a traditional format though, I know because I tried to roll my own archiver before. A more end-user format-friendly option is to just download backward from the end of a branch to have a cohesive, linear story. Maybe a public/private API so the community can get at it with different approaches.
Is this Fiction Community idea something you're still working on? The idea of an adult book marketplace piqued my interest. I'm about two weeks away from finishing the second draft of a nearly 100,000-word erotica novel. After that I want to send it to a non-judgemental copyeditor. I've been looking at options for self-publishing and will probably end up on Smashwords. However, I would love to tie my novel work to my CHYOA profile through a marketplace run tangentially related to CHYOA. If you want to help CHYOA writers make money on the side, consider creating erotica-specific editing services on the platform. I'm looking at Fiverr.com to find a freelance editor who meets my non-judgemental qualification (as you all know, I walk along the line of dubious consent). I prefer to give my money to a vetted editing pervert on Chyoa because y'all have supported my nonsense for a decade. I say vetted because while everyone on CHYOA writes, not everyone on CHYOA knows how to edit. I wouldn't give my words (and real name) to just anyone.
Congratulations on your novel! Yes, I'm in the process of programming the platform. I have already posted an update on SubscribeStar. I'd be very happy if you published your book on the platform.
