If only we knew! I had a surprise success with Aftercare. It was a surprise because, while I liked Aftercare, I didn’t particularly like it better than any of my other books, and it was a strange conglomeration of potentially heavy topics. One guy’s husband had died. The other guy’s brother was on trial for killing his boyfriend. It’s BDSM, but not trope-laden BDSM. There was nothing about it that screamed success.
Recently, I learned about a fun tool called EngageForm where you can make personality quizzes like “what kind of cheese are you?” I made three quizzes: one to pick a book for new readers, one to match readers with a “book boyfriend,” and one to match kinks with stories. Each quiz steers you to one of six potential outcomes, mostly to my more popular books.
I thought the quizzes would be a fun way to interact with new readers at my GRL table, but GRL turned out to be too face-paced for that. But I did publish the quizzes in a few places online. The kink quiz got a lot of use from the MM Taboo group on FB. People like taking them. Maybe they even pick up a book as a result.
But I also got something less expected out of the results: I learned why people like Aftercare. At least, I got to see that Aftercare was the most common outcome for two of the three quizzes and I got to see which answers people were choosing that led them that way, and it wasn’t just Aayan’s being billionaire. Here’s an example from the kink quiz. The question was simply “Please, Sir …”
“Take care of me” was the Aftercare response—selected almost half the time. There was a similar question about the perfect Dom in which “cares primarily about my pleasure” was chosen by more than 40% of respondents. Here are the answers to the corresponding question, phrased as “The perfect sub is …”
Again, that’s Aftercare at over 40%. On the “book boyfriend” quiz, Aayan won with descriptions like “tough to the world but sweet to me” and “indulgent and caretaking.” Also “tall, dark and handsome” but not by as much of a landslide. So, now I know why Aftercare is so popular, and it’s definitely not the plot! Readers like a sweet top and a strong bottom.
The EngageForm base product is free to use. There are two nice advantages of the paid version, but I can’t justify the monthly charge for them. There was a good lifetime deal on AppSumo, which is how EngageForm came to my attention in the first place, but I didn’t discover the advanced features I’d use quickly enough to take advantage of it. Maybe if it’s offered on AppSumo again next year.
One pay-only feature is the ability to add exit links to the outcome screens, so that in addition to telling the quizee which book they matched with, I could link them to it on Amazon. The other is being able to collect and export email addresses. With the free version, I can ask for an email address, but I can only see and export ten a month. I didn’t want to collect an email address and then not be able to add that person to my newsletter if they were responder #11 that month, so I didn’t add a question for that.
My three quizzes can be accessed here if you want to see how it works. And here are the full results from all three quizzes. The kink quiz got the most responses, but they mostly came from the MM Taboo group on FB where they’re extra kinky. (Aftercare answers are starred.)
| I like my guys | |||
| Sweet and gooey like a cinnamon roll | 13 | ||
| Powerful and unforgiving | 4 | ||
| Confident but not an asshole | 13 | ||
| Tough to the world but sweet to me | 41 | * | |
| Full of snarky humor | 4 | ||
| Champion of the underdog | 23 | ||
| When it comes to tops, I prefer | |||
| Sadistic and hard | 13 | ||
| Indulgent and caretaking | 27 | * | |
| Just a little toppy | 13 | ||
| A woman | 9 | ||
| Bossy but versatile | 18 | ||
| Why do we need labels? | 18 | ||
| When it comes to bottoms, I prefer | |||
| A bit of an attitude | 13 | ||
| A masochist | 4 | ||
| A guy who’s desperate to please | 0 | ||
| Someone who wants it more than he can admit | 32 | ||
| Bottom in the bedroom only | 27 | * | |
| Why do we need labels? | 23 | ||
| Looks-wise give me | |||
| Tall, dark and handsome | 36 | * | |
| Ice price – blond and beautiful | 23 | ||
| He’s a wolf in his other skin | 0 | ||
| A polished businessman | 9 | ||
| Hotshot playboy and he knows it | 4 | ||
| Surfer boy | 27 | ||
| What should he do for a living? | |||
| Independently wealthy | 32 | * | |
| Cop | 0 | ||
| Royalty | 4 | ||
| CEO | 4 | ||
| Celebrity | 4 | ||
| Have a life outside of work please | 55 | ||
| What should he do for fun? | |||
| Rock climbing | 18 | ||
| Fun? What’s fun? | 5 | ||
| Family | 27 | * | |
| Kinky stuff | 27 | ||
| Run, hunt, be in nature | 0 | ||
| Life is one big party | 23 | ||
| My happy ending would involve | |||
| Lots of kinky sex | 13 | ||
| Being perfectly taken care of | 23 | * | |
| Adventures | 18 | ||
| Anything, as long as it’s us | 32 | ||
| Fighting together for justice | 9 | ||
| Marriage and children | 4 | ||
| Pick a plot | |||
| Fight for the oppressed | 25 | ||
| Survive a plane crash | 14 | ||
| Legal battle | 4 | * | |
| Espionage | 21 | ||
| Overcoming tragedy | 21 | ||
| Focus mainly on the relationship | 14 | ||
| What’s your favorite trope? | |||
| Coming of age | 0 | ||
| Stranded in a snowstorm | 21 | ||
| Billionnaire caretaker | 21 | * | |
| He has everything except love | 18 | ||
| Alpha on alpha | 11 | ||
| Shapeshifters | 28 | ||
| Pick another trope | |||
| First time gay | 11 | ||
| Secrets revealed | 21 | ||
| New Dom | 14 | * | |
| Cat | 3 | ||
| Enemies to lovers | 36 | ||
| Past abuse | 14 | ||
| How do you like your sex? | |||
| Tentative and sweet – exploratory | 14 | ||
| The more the merrier | 25 | ||
| Kink me up | 36 | * | |
| Vanilla but hot | 14 | ||
| Like wrestling but with your dick | 0 | ||
| Lots and lots of knotting | 11 | ||
| Where do you want to go? | |||
| High school | 0 | ||
| Mountain top | 32 | ||
| New York City | 25 | * | |
| Workplace | 14 | ||
| Deserted island | 14 | ||
| Wolf pack | 14 | ||
| Who do you want to meet? | |||
| Wolves | 14 | ||
| The powerful and urbane | 21 | * | |
| Broken souls | 21 | ||
| Young people still figuring things out | 7 | ||
| Opposites attract | 18 | ||
| Sarcastic brats | 18 | ||
| How should it end? | |||
| Marriage proposal | 7 | ||
| Partners in crime | 30 | ||
| I need a book two | 30 | * | |
| Happy for now, no insta-love | 11 | ||
| I love you, but I don’t own you | 15 | ||
| We have our whole lives in front of us | 7 | ||
| Choose a kink | |||
| Spankings | 19 | ||
| Chastity | 2 | ||
| Brocest | 26 | ||
| Dubcon | 16 | ||
| Safe, sane, consensual BDSM | 22 | * | |
| All the sadism | 15 | ||
| Choose your implement | |||
| Paddle | 11 | ||
| Cock cage | 22 | ||
| Crop | 11 | * | |
| Belt | 11 | ||
| Whip | 6 | ||
| Hand | 37 | ||
| Bonus kink | |||
| Spit roasting | 6 | ||
| Bondage | 27 | ||
| Gangbang | 20 | ||
| Sounding | 21 | ||
| Public paddling | 6 | ||
| Prostate milking | 18 | * | |
| My perfect Dom would be | |||
| Older brother | 24 | ||
| The copy from Terminator II | 5 | ||
| A gladiator | 18 | ||
| Interested only in his own pleasure | 9 | ||
| Interested only in my pleasure | 43 | * | |
| A frat boy | 0 | ||
| As your top, I will | |||
| Hold the key to your cock cage | 7 | ||
| Initiate you into the joys of sex | 17 | ||
| Mold you into my perfect sub | 13 | ||
| Hurt you as much as you need and no more | 23 | * | |
| Spank you the way we both want | 17 | ||
| Do whatever the hell I want | 23 | ||
| The perfect sub is | |||
| Hungry for my cock | 17 | ||
| A masochist | 7 | ||
| New but eager | 21 | ||
| Able to hold his own outside the bedroom | 45 | * | |
| Able to go long periods without an orgasm | 3 | ||
| A fighter | 6 | ||
| Please, Sir … | |||
| Train me | 10 | ||
| Take care of me | 41 | * | |
| Fuck me | 18 | ||
| Deny me | 4 | ||
| Spank me | 10 | ||
| Let me serve you | 16 | ||
| How much plot? (note: this was in the kink quiz) | |||
| Mostly plot | 11 | * | |
| Teach me a new kink | 11 | ||
| Characters explore the kink together | 24 | ||
| The kink is part of the plot | 45 | ||
| A little non-sex plot | 3 | ||
| What plot? Why is there a plot? | 5 | ||
| In a perfect relationship (again, relates to kink) | |||
| Compromise leads to healthy kink | 24 | ||
| The sub might never have another orgasm | 1 | ||
| Blood is thicker than water | 10 | ||
| He’s found his true master | 36 | ||
| Happy-ever-after means marriage | 16 | * | |
| Hurting you is how I love you | 13 | ||
*note: may not add up to 100% because I did quick rounding and please forgive any misspellings because I had to manually re-type these