Amelia Bryant's Top 10 Tips For Aspiring Erotica Writers - part 1

The self-styled Queen of London Erotica, Amelia Bryant, provides aspiring erotica writers with some sage advice. Her war wounds are still healing in this first of three parts.

1. Be realistic

Reckon you’re going to strike it rich with your first uploaded smut story? Good for you. Your optimism is oozing out of each pore. Unfortunately your naivety is equally plentiful. The chances of you making your fortune writing erotica are slim to say the least. Everyone and their Granny has had the thought “Ooh, I can write a few books and be like that EL James woman and make a mint.”

Before you type your first sentence of your debut smut story, this means you’ve got a shed load of competition. Then, consider that your main distribution platforms such as Amazon KDP or Smashwords have varying degrees of transparency concerning what you can and can’t write, and also the level of visibility afforded to erotica titles in their vast inventories.

You also need to be aware that many people who love smut don’t want to pay for it. Why should they bother? There’s a plethora of free erotica websites out there. Many authors offer a free story or two along with their priced titles. On an individual basis, you can’t fault the authors, who are trying to earn a crust. When you have a lot of smut writers doing this however, cheapskate readers are kept happy for a long time. At your expense.

Anyone can write a few words of dubious quality, chuck in some tits n’ ass (and other bodily particles), slap on a truly awful cover then hit ‘Publish’. Voila: another independent self-published smut author is born. And it’s getting tougher by the day for the good stuff to be found amongst the cack.

Making money from erotica is not easy. Making enough money from erotica to quit the day job and write full time is very hard indeed (I should probably say 'nearly impossible' but I live in hope that some folks will achieve this, so don't want to be completely dismissive). Becoming filthy rich from writing smut is the stuff of dreams. By all means keep your mind in the gutter, so you can conceive wonderfully sexy stories that melt Kindles. But keep your feet well and truly on the ground.

2. Don’t give up the day job.

The previous point will have now primed you for this one. I could spend a fair few hundred words lamenting on the fact that giving up the day job to be a smut writer is a REALLY STUPID THING TO DO. Giving up your day job to be merely a NON-SMUT writer is pretty thick as well given the current state of affairs. 

How the hell do you think your mind is going to be chock-full of images of torrid rumpy-pumpy and saucy plots, when you’re instead worrying about how you’re going to pay the gas bill, and your credit card balance. That’s not conducive to successful smut scribbling. Need further convincing? I’ll digress, and instead let you read this

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/08/authors-incomes-collapse-alcs-survey

Feel free to cry into your peppermint tea, beer, red wine, or whatever your poison of choice is.

In short, you can quit the day job once you have made a shed load of cash and can see this being maintained for the foreseeable future. Don’t even consider this otherwise.

3. Don’t tweet: WRITE!

You’d think that with all that tweeting you’re doing, all the links you’re including, the hashtags you’re remembering to insert, and getting the ratio of chit-chat, promo, and engagement right, that you’d see a decent return for your investment.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but it doesn’t. Even when you’re doing all the right things, it still won’t make any real difference. Trust me on this – been there, done that, bought the damn chocolates to boot.

It sucks. Big time.

There was a time when I’d open up Tweetdeck and schedule my tweets for the following day. I’d have some excerpt tweets, some link tweets to Amazon, some to the blog, some to my followers, some general updates, some conversation starters. There’d be those tweets, and the ad-hoc ones through the day which were more conversational with followers and friends etc.

There was consistency, and the ratios were pretty good in terms of chit chat and fun versus blatant plugging. And the results? Not worth typing about. Really, I mean it.

Once upon a time there existed a sense of karma, equilibrium, call it what you want. A sense of mutual back-scratching. In Twitter this equates to plugging other worth people's offerings. or their latest blog post if it's something relevant that would benefit from other people contributing to it. For some people, who you have established a good and respectful connection with, you think nothing of it. You're keen to help them out. I know, I have a few of these and I wish them all the success they can get so I'm genuinely happy to retweet them. 

Then there are others you might retweet in the hope that one good turn deserves another. Experience to date however shows that this is rarely reciprocated. Many a Friday I'd spend half an hour tweeting #FF 's  ('Follow Friday', for the Twitter uninitiated) in the hope of the favour being returned somewhere down the line.

Save your time: the results are genuinely disappointing. 

Tweet every now and again. Tweet if you want to find yourself some sexy followers and engage in some flirty banter. Or if you want to find yourself some smutty photos that will give you ideas for your next scene or story you’re writing. Twitter is FAB for that if you know who to follow. I say knowingly… nudge nudge.

But for the love of God, do not fall into the trap of thinking that you have to incessantly be on Twitter in order to succeed as a smut writer. No! No! No! 

Blog regularly on your site to tell people what you’re up to. Wax lyrical on a multitude of things. At the very least it will help your SEO rankings provided you don’t be an idiot about it. Or hey, here’s a novel (groan…) idea: write more stories!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Learn from mine so you can avoid the same mistake. Enjoy Twitter for what it is, but do not see it as the marketing wonderkid that will catapult you to smut writing stardom. 

To conclude, consider these rather thought-provoking points:-

1. Nearly three quarters (71%) of Tweets are IGNORED.
http://infographicjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/wix_socialstereotypes1.png

2. Twitter itself has been around since 2006 yet its own financial position is far from rosy  http://time.com/money/3054324/twitter-jumps-on-strong-earnings-trouble-is-its-still-not-profitable/

Thinking rather ruefully regarding the last point...If Twitter itself can't perform admirably with its marketing clout then what chance does a smut writer with next to no budget have? 

Write more. Don’t tweet more.




That's enough for now.  Keep checking for the next installment. 

Oh, nearly forgot. A few days ago I started on my next story. Yay!  
See, there's no way I could have finished the blog post on such a downer.  

Until next time, smut lovers! 

Blog Hop: Tag! You're It!

A few weeks ago I was asked by the delightful Angel Gone Bad (watch out, she’s a handful!) if I’d be one of her victi…er I mean recipients of the baton so to speak of the ‘Blog Hop’ that’s been doing its rounds through the smut writing fraternity.

 

What’s a ‘blog hop’? 

A writer answers a few questions about their work, and in turn passes on the baton to not one, but three other smut writers to do the same for the following week. Their names are announced at the bottom of the blog post, thus priming the reader for what’s going to follow, and also plugging the writer along the way. Additional tweets help spread the word.

So without further ado, here are those questions and my responses; I hope you find them interesting.

What are you working on right now? 
It’s all systems go right now, with several things going on. After a hiatus of a few months (writing had to be put to one side whilst real life interfered with my plans for world smut domination), I finally got back to writing in the last week or two, and have just finished a story I’d originally started back in March. It’s another one of my saucy London Lovers’ Ground series that focuses on a particular locale / station in the city. This time it’s the one and only “Kings Cross St Pancras” – make of that what you will! More details will be coming out in the next few days so keep your eyes open for more details here.

There’s also some cover redesigns for the first three LLG stories coming up as well – to make them sexier and more alluring – you can’t go wrong with black, haha!

Finally, as there’s already three ‘green’ LLG stories available, I’m going to release them together in a juicy threesome offer, which will be priced more competitively than if buying them all singly.

So that’s what immediately is on my plate – needless to say, with the smut writing mojo back, there are a whole bunch of forthcoming LLG titles already conceived and will be getting fired out over the next few months. There’s also a few more Crash! Bang! Wallop! stories I want written at some point. Some are in response to reader feedback, such as Parts II and III of ‘Stuck At A Desk’  (you know who you are, haha!) and there’s a REALLY hardcore BDSM / humiliation tale coming up which may finish off the CBW series….who knows.

How does it differ from other work in its genre? 

Being a marketer as well as an erotica writer, this is where I have to put my money where my mouth is! Firstly in terms of the cover design, I wanted a very distinct and recognisable identity for both the LLG and CBW series. With the LLG, there are different coloured lines each dedicated to a particular naughty theme, so there are coloured sub-identities going on there as well. 

The same goes for font choice. Like any good brand building, there has to be consistency and the right fonts have to be chosen: different fonts have different ‘personalities’ and the wrong ones will do more damage than good. Unfortunately, from an overall category perspective, the majority of erotica writers appear to pay lip service to such things. I’m not saying my covers are fantastic – but they’re distinct and aren’t cringeworthy like the ‘cheap clip art and dodgy font’ covers that are commonplace. If the story is good, why let it down with a crap cover?!

In terms of the writing itself, I make sure there are no corny character names or dialogue spoken between them. I want the scenarios and the characters to be believable and realistic. The types of people you see on the tube or pass by on the streets of London are the same types you find in my books. I’m not knocking fantasy erotica writers – different strokes for different folks – but just like in porn, there’s a huge appeal for the realistic ‘boy/girl next door’ type of characters, rather than those from another world.

Finally, to date my books have all been set in London. I’m not sure (but open to correction) there are other writers who have focused on London - or any other city for that matter – in their writing.

Whilst each of these factors may not in themselves be unique, they combine to form a unique proposition. 

Why do you write what you do? 
This can be answered in different ways. Firstly, I write erotica to earn a living. Some people write erotica for the sheer pleasure of it. That’s wonderful, but I’m focused on both.

Regarding the types of story or themes included, this is a case of writing what interests / excites me. If you’re passionate about something, it makes it so much easier to work with. But I also don’t forget this is a revenue stream – and what I write has also got to excite others too. Understanding what readers want to read and are happy paying for is a key reason for me designing and launching the Erotica Reader Survey – I want to know what smut readers want in their stories. And as I’ve said before, the key findings will be posted on the blog for all and sundry to digest. From the responses so far I can breathe a sigh of relief: a lot of things that do it for me personally and in my writing, are shared by many others! 

How does your writing process work? 
I tend to have everything thought out before I start typing the first words. Locations, plot, characters, the sex acts, are all thought about and a clear direction identified. With that foundation set, I’m free to sprinkle some extra bits and bobs where appropriate as I write. In this respect I treat my erotica writing like I do my marketing reports or university essays from decades past. I know how the story is going to pan out, I know the ins and outs (stop sniggering!), I’ve got the character personas established, etc. I even have a spreadsheet containing a whole bunch of questions to help with character building. What do they like and dislike? What’s their profession? What kind of clothes would I expect them to be wearing? What kind of personality do they have? How do I think this person will react in a given situation? What turns them on?

To some it might sound a bit anal, but ‘knowing’ this much about my characters helps me enormously, particularly when it comes to dialogue and behaviour in the story. It also allows me to keep things fresh; I don’t want the main character in one story be identical to another – particularly when there are so many variables one can play with when creating good, believable, naughty characters.

Having these things already clear in my mind before I start writing the story is critical. In fact I can’t imagine writing any other way. Once I’ve got all that framework in place, the actual writing is easier: that’s the theory anyway! 

So, there you have it; a bit more of me revealed! If you enjoyed this and want a bit more of an insight into how I roll, then comment on it, and let’s see what happens. 

Now: who’s next on the Blog Hop, I hear you ask? My three naughty minded writers keeping the hop going are:-

Danielle Austen, author of “The Prophecy Girl Trilogy” stories http://www.danielle-austen.com 

Anita Bush, author of “The Erotic Musings of an Ordinary Girl” http://anitabushauthor.wordpress.com

And yes, I realise that's just TWO! I'm waiting on a response from my third target....

 

And of course thanks to Angel Gone Bad in the first place: catch more of her naughty antics at: http://angelgonebad.blogspot.co.uk

 

New Book, New Look, New Offer!

Yay! After several months of real life intruding with neighbours being wankers, and other trials and tribulations causing my smut mojo to disappear…… we’re back, Baby!

At about 0315 hrs on Wednesday morning, I finally finished the story I’d been working on back in March. It’s a bit of a belter if I say so myself. But then I would say that, wouldn’t I ?

With about four edits already completed, and with a final look-over or two just remaining, I’ll shortly be giving it the rubber stamp and getting started on the Amazon upload process. That’s assuming Amazon by now haven’t started throwing their toys out of the pram with EVERYTHING erotica-related. If so, then we’re all really screwed, lol.

It’s another in the London Lovers’ Ground series of spicy stories set among London’s many different locales. Coming in at around 10,500 words, I think it’s my second longest story (after Hi-Jinks In Hull, from the Crash! Bang! Wallop! series). As per previous stories, it’ll have its own blog post; probably an ‘Extra Sauce’ post to keep it company as well. So I won’t wax lyrical about it right now. But if you’re a fan of multiple miscreants as well as multiple orgasms, then there’s a treat in store for you!

With the new book, there’s also a new look revealed. The earlier LLG stories - Bayswater, Paddington, and Earl’s Court – will also be receiving respective cover re-designs. There’s nothing earth shattering about them, but they’re certainly more jazzed up and dare I say it, more enticing, than the previous ones: which in retrospect isn’t that hard to imagine!

Finally, for threesome fans, cough…ahem… - I mean books, you filthy muckers! - I’m going to be releasing the first three LLG stories – as a multi-pack book. Exact pricing still TBC, but I’m probably going to offer it for less than buying the three stories separately. Amn’t I nice?!

This is all going to be happening in the next week or two so if you want to stay in the loop, you can either keep checking my Tweets or to be on the safe side subscribe to my site here, and you’ll be automatically notified when there’s something said.

Thanks for reading – this and my smutty stories!  

AB

What’s new in the world of London smut writer Amelia Bryant?

June is almost upon us, not that you’d notice outside with some truly ungodly weather. I swear – it could be November or March outside. The rain’s chuffing down, the wind is howling. Not like the Mays I remember from decades past. The evenings would be sunny and mild and Yours Truly would be tormented by having to stay inside, revising – ha, CRAMMING more like – for school and university exams.

Anyway, smut has taken a back seat over the past couple of months as other things conspired to pull my thoughts away from the joys of filthy fucking and instead towards things that to be frank were much less interesting and much more tiresome.

That’s not to say I’ve not felt guilty about the lack of filth being created on my laptop. Far from it: I’d have loved to have had another bundle of exciting London erotica for your reading – and masturbatory – pleasure.

Maybe it was a mixture of already having written eight stories and subconsciously needing a break. Perhaps it was also a heap of other external baloney impacting my ability to get all jiggy in my head as well as on the keyboard. Possibly it was the culmination of over-doing it on Twitter and needing a break from the smut writing and promoting. I digress…

That said, there’s an important lesson to be learned for any aspiring smut authors out there. Only write when you’re in the right mood. If there’s shit going on in your life, or external factors affecting your mojo then don’t write. Don’t even begin to try. If you’re not in the mood, you’re not in the mood. Enjoy life’s other joys without thinking of self-imposed masochistic deadlines. Accept it, and wait for your mind and nether regions to tingle again and re-connect. It is as simple as that.  

So guess what? Mine have (about bloody time too!). Here’s what’s on the immediate agenda:-  

1. Complete the fourth London Lovers’ Ground (LLG) story which I’d got about one third of the way through. I’m not going to reveal too much now, but let’s just say that if you’re the sort of person who think’s “two’s company but three’s so much better”, then you’ll like this. Keep your eyes peeled on when everything’s ready (hopefully in the next ten days or so) as there will be some special promotions lined up.  

2. New sexier cover designs for all LLG titles.  

3. More LLG story writing. I’ve got some cracking story ideas featuring the capital’s favourite central locales already waiting to be unleashed. Needless to say the naughtiness will be there in absolute abundance!  

4. Fancy some ‘Crash! Bang! Wallop!’ ? It’s high time another CBW story or two is unleashed on the general smut-lovin’ public as well as the marketing research community, who seem rather bemused by it all. Of course, I’m far from complaining with increased Twitter followers, column inches, and sales! There are a few stories vying for my attention. There’s the second and third parts of the ‘Stuck At A Desk’ saga. There’s also a humdinger of a tale which I’m burning to get onto paper / your Kindle screen. It’s called ‘The Ten Commandments’ and it’s possibly going to make some people in the industry feel a tad uneasy. Alternatively, they might not give a shit – that wouldn’t surprise me either!  

5. More blogging! There’s a long overdue post – probably two – considering the pros and cons of social media (particularly Twitter), primarily based on my own personal observations and interactions. So watch out for those. Blogging also shouldn’t be one-way traffic: engaging with contributors is important. Furthermore, despite all the pressures of writing one’s own smut, it’s a good thing to visit the blogsites of fellow smut writers and responding to the ideas and opinions they’ve put out there.  


So there you have it: the battleplan for the next wee while. Do keep me company on the smut journey!

Free Erotica? Amelia Bryant Ponders The Problem With Price

Help or hindrance? Dangled carrot or sustained revenue killer? Is free erotica a problem or worth its weight in gold to the independent smut writer?

Whether dipping one’s proverbial tootsies into the erotica writing business, or being a seasoned pro, free online erotica is one issue bound to provoke reaction. Anyone seeking online smut to read on their PC or download to a phone or Kindle or similar e-book reader can either go to well known websites such as Literotica to access a plethora of free stories. Or they can go to Amazon and Smashwords and pay for the stories accessed (these sites also offer free stories).

But surely it must frustrate authors trying to earn a crust (never mind a fortune) from their writing, when facing so much competition from others offering their wares for nowt? Why do this?

Let’s consider the pertinent points. Firstly, cost. Once the book has been written, the formatting done and the cover designed and everything is uploaded, the costs of production (time, paper, print toner, fizzy pop and Chocolate Hob Nobs consumed while writing/typing) are incurred once and once only. There’s no marginal cost attached to subsequent sales made.  

A free book should help generate some buzz, shouldn’t it? ‘Buy my FREE steamy erotica tale on Amazon’ etc etc. Announce this on all the relevant social media channels and the express hope is that there’s a flurry of downloads which will a) keep the book in the top half of the Amazon sales lists, thereby achieving some visibility b) convince those readers to fork out for subsequent priced books.

But does it really work like this?

The problem is that such a simplistic viewpoint fails to take into account that thousands of other smut authors have exactly the same idea. The result: thousands of free stories. But the unavoidable fact is that there’s now an abundance of free erotica. And that spells trouble for the erotica writer seeking financial recompense for their efforts.  

I liken it to someone walking to work in the morning or heading out of the office for lunch. You’ll see coffee shop baristas offering samples of their latest blends. Perhaps you’ll see a deli shop offering passers-by a tiny bite of a new sandwich combo. You’ll be offered a tasty mouthful (stop sniggering at the back!) in the hope that you pop in to buy a full-sized sandwich the following day, or perhaps even there and then.  

There’s an implicit understanding operating: here’s a free sample to see if you like it, and if you do, you can have more. Much more. As much as you want in fact.  

But you’re going to have to pay for it.
  
However, there’s a segment of the smut-reading fraternity who say ‘Why should I pay for anything? There’s so much available already for free. What incentive is there to pay for it?’

Using my street food analogy once more, It’s the equivalent of the hungry office worker being able to walk along a street full of delis and coffee shops and receive enough small samples of coffee to equal a full cup, and enough small sandwich bites to make up a proper-sized sarnie. His or her thirst has been totally quenched and their appetite sated. And without having to pay for a damn thing! But to add insult to injury, they can return day in, day out and do exactly the same, because there’s an endless supply to enjoy. Now it’s a stretch to imagine this could happen in real life. But it IS happening online when it comes to reading erotica.

So, you’ve got a whole gamut of smut writers doing what they think is a sensible attempt at gaining some awareness and hopefully driving subsequent sales. Individually, not a bad idea. Collectively however, the overall effect is arguably detrimental.  

Now it’s important to recognise there are many erotica authors who write for the simple pleasure of writing and striking a chord with readers, who wish no reward for their efforts. They perhaps want to dip their toes in the bath or wish nothing more than to see their words stimulate, inspire and/or amuse others. And bless them for it.  

There will also be a large number of smut readers around the world who have no intention of paying as so much is already available. They want something which will get their juices going enough for some naughtiness and then, hey-ho, that was nice. Next!  

What is the split between those who will pay and those who won’t? For erotica writers wanting to earn a living doing this, the non-payers are of no concern. Well, I say that glibly: they ARE a concern if they constitute the majority. But professional erotica writers will focus their efforts on what they know paying customers will shell out for. That’s one of the reasons for the Erotica Reader Survey that’s currently live.  

Personally speaking, I value my time spent thinking about the story, planning it, doing a bit of research perhaps, developing some characters, before even getting down to writing it. And don’t forget about editing, re-writing if necessary, and formatting for Amazon, Smashwords etc. That’s a fair few hours. Most businesses would charge for their time and effort in producing the final product or service – why should erotica writers differ?  

I’d love to receive your comments on any of the points raised here and encourage some discussion on the topic. And keep your eyes peeled for a follow-up post in which I’ll talk about pricing approaches, strategies and tactics.

Is Bigger Better?

I’m talking about numbers. More specifically, regarding smutty books. At this point in the game, what should the objective be?

I’ve got eight titles out there available at Amazon and Smashwords. That pretty much covers the main e-book distribution channels. Now, having listened to what the best in the business have to say, coupled with my own instincts as a professional marketer, I’m in a bit of a quandary.

Several smut writers have affirmed that for every ten books released there is a noticeable increase in overall sales. So should I be frantically typing out new material like there’s no tomorrow, to reach ten then twenty titles available? Listening to the voices of experience is never a bad thing.

But wait a moment.

Think of the erotica reading fraternity in quantity terms. If Fifty Shades of Grey and the e-reading factors have had the impact that we’re led to believe they have, that equates to one hell of a large potential readership out there.

So even if only a relatively small proportion of the total smut-buying market downloaded my stories, I’d certainly notice. In fact I’d be cock-a-hoop with the soaring sales figures.

So, the main question is this. With eight titles already on the virtual bookshop shelves, surely the focus should be on raising awareness and driving sales of the products already available rather than developing new ones? If readers do want to go on a mini splurge and download my other books, there’s seven of them. That’s good potential revenue in anyone’s eyes, considering the size of the market.

Interim data from the Erotica Reader Survey (not taken part yet, and love reading erotica? Please do the survey!) strongly suggests that once readers find an author they like, they’ll buy more of their stories. That’s reassuring to all writers. But readers aren’t going crazy and downloading EVERYTHING immediately. There’s a recession happening, remember. I compare it with a bricks and mortar shop, with the stock visible in the window and ready to be bought. It’s just that not enough people are looking at the shop window and coming inside.

What’s the point in writing another twenty books, if there’s still not enough (to my liking, anyway) people sniffing around and buying the first eight?

That’s not a product problem: it’s an awareness and communications issue.

That however, is for another blog post.

Amelia Bryant corrupts the UK marketing research industry!

It had to happen. No seriously; it really did. 

Take one imaginative - and pretty horny, if truth be told – marketing researcher with a penchant for fruity words and filthy thoughts.

Take an industry which (undeservedly) has its fair share of detractors, and which could collectively could do with a bit of TLC. Or failing that a good hard shag.

Well, it seems that Yours Truly’s naughty words have come to the attention of the research industry’s main trade publication – the cunningly titled (wait for it…) ‘Research’.
[The industry isn’t that unimaginative, honest!] 

Gracing the back page ‘Diary’ section which tends to paint a lighter note on research happenings, they’ve exposed the industry to a brief synopsis of my first story ‘Mirror Mirror’ in the Crash! Bang! Wallop! series, centred around the sexiest (albeit fictitious) London marketing research agency. 

A quarter of a page no less! Can you imagine how much that space would have cost in advertising terms?! Exactly. 

I'm a rather happy bonking bunny now!

Erotica Readers: Your Opinions Count!

Are erotic writers delivering what readers want?
How diverse are readers’ erotic reading habits?


The simple fact is that to a large extent nobody knows! And that’s bad for readers and writers alike.

Hence the reason for the Erotica Reader Survey, aimed at getting to the bottom of what readers of erotic stories really want and how they go about getting it. If you’re a reader of erotica, you now have the perfect opportunity to give your honest opinion on a whole host of areas relating to the writing, content and purchasing of erotic stories.

As erotic story readers, you’ll already have your own feelings about the kinds of story that turn you on – and those that don’t. You’ll have also figured out the number of characters you like in your stories, the mischief they get up to. Your favourite writers – or new ones that are crying out to reach new audiences – may not have a clue about how best to make you aware of their new releases available to you.

You’re here because you love erotic stories. So why not take 10 minutes of your time to make yourself heard?! Grab yourself a glass of wine, get comfy and put your thinking cap on. Let’s talk about smut! 

The survey is COMPLETELY ANONYMOUS – deliberately so – in order that you can be completely candid in your responses. Nothing less than total honesty will do, otherwise it’s a pointless exercise for everyone.

The survey has been designed to the same standards as a professionally commissioned research project, and key findings will be shared on this blogsite (there might even be some nice fancy charts too!). 

CLICK HERE TO BEGIN THE SURVEY (it’s on Survey Monkey, a professional and highly regarded marketing research survey and hosting site).

UPDATE OCTOBER 2013:Please note that the survey will only accept one full survey response per device (ie, laptop, smartphone, etc.  There have been some problems encountered when trying to complete the survey on smartphones,  so if you want to do the survey, it's recommended you use a more stable platform such as a desktop/laptop personal computer. 

If you’ve got any questions about the survey, then be sure to send me a Tweet and I’ll respond ASAP.

Cheers, and have a great weekend!

AB