I joined an online club run by a group of successful writers, and its intention is to help other writers to become successful. My intention was to investigate whether I could become a professional writer, since I learned last year that after writing 500,000 words of content in my first year of writing in my spare time, I might like doing this a little. I was encouraged by the positive feedback and constructive criticism I got on the site from several participants.
Last night, the two example chapters I'd posted up there to elicit criticism got taken down for being too explicit, with a very nice note from a moderator saying that it had happened and suggesting that I connect with other members and and make arrangements to DM them some example content if they were willing to look at it. But how likely is that? I looked at their site rules very carefully before posting, as I always do before posting, and there was nothing posted to warn people away from posting content that was sexually explicit or even violent.
My intention is to mainstream-ify roughly half my output and start selling steamy romance novels with some other genre twists and also a dose of comedy thrown in, but how am I supposed to get there from where I am now? I've asked the moderator for some more specific guidance. We'll see if she responds.
I'm feeling pretty demolished at the moment.