Behind the Scenes: A Product Approach for Island Affairs

The funny thing about being a web designer for the past 10+ years is that the process before releasing a product is so engrained in my brain that it just feels natural to follow the same process for releasing a book.

I have *no* idea if there is an entirely different process that author’s use. If there is, I never got the memo. So I went with what I know best. And these 3 principles completely shaped what Island Affairs is today!

1). Pivot! Don’t be afraid to change the direction of the product.

2). Research! Get feedback from users to evolve the product.

3). Don’t marry the product! Prepare to trash months worth of work if necessary.

PIVOT

The original idea for Island Affairs was actually an iPhone app! It seemed like a perfect platform for a Choose Your Own, with quick links that jump to the right scenes. Not only that, but mobile devices lend well to privacy which is sometimes preferred when reading erotica (though I can’t imagine why… erotica rocks!). As I was learning iOS development to build this iPhone app, someone showed me their Apple iBooks app on their iPad. I had never used it before and was surprised to see that it had all the features I wanted to build into my app: bookmarks, text size flexibility, links. And it hit me. OMG – I’m reinventing the wheel! So I pivoted. No longer an iPhone app. Now an eBook on Amazon self-publishing. And heck – a physical book too… why not?

RESEARCH

Personas, user research, interviews, the whole sha-bang! I wanted to make sure I was focused on writing a book with the appropriate content and in a style that resonated with my target audience. I’d like to introduce you to Jeannie and Melissa, two fictitious women who I think about daily. And I have them on a pedestal because they are my connection to you! If I write something I’m unsure about, I ask myself “Would Jeannie want to read about this?” “Would this offend Melissa?” and usually, the answer is quite clear and my book is back on track.

When the draft manuscript for Island Affairs was complete, I screened a bunch of volunteers and identified which ones are Jeannies and which ones are Melissas. I had 6 female readers, and 2 male readers to confirm the male parts (apparently, men can’t easily get hard in cold water, so the Walker waterfall scene went from cold refreshing water to warm water). They read the manuscript in Google docs and commented the living hell out of it. Love it! Then I met with them personally and interviewed them to understand what they liked, what they didn’t, and asked them follow-up questions. It was eye-opening! I cannot even imagine how the book would be without their feedback.

DON’T MARRY THE PRODUCT

After research, I consolidated all the notes and pulled out all the opportunities for improvement. Wow did the book change! Some characters were completely rewritten (more diversity in personality, physical description, language, etc.) Some sex scenes were completely scrapped and replaced with raunchier scenes (yum!). Some endings were completely changed to ensure a cleaner resolution (meatier than a “happily ever after”). I cannot tell you the amount of writing that was just deleted. It’s sometimes a bit hard to swallow knowing how much heart and time was put into these scenes, but it’s so important to be prepared to detach yourself from the work and be prepared to scrap it all.

Island Affairs is so different from what I originally planned. But I’ve loved this evolutionary journey. There’s no better way to learn than to just throw yourself into the process and let yourself get kicked around a bit.

Ok – this wasn’t a very sexy post. But I just had to share the process and wanted to give you a glimpse of things behind-the-scenes. Erotica isn’t just glitz, glamour, and cock. It’s a dirty little process and I can’t wait to get even dirtier…

p.s. I currently have 5 volunteers reading Snow Affairs in my 2nd round of research. If you’re interested in being a reader, please subscribe to the newsletter!

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