When your new story doesn’t catch fire like your previous one.

[Emilymcplugger]

We’ve all been there (hopefully) when a story catches fire. You feel on top of the world, you’ve found your audience and they LOVE you.

So you publish your new story…and it’s like tumbleweed city with a population of 2, you and your biggest fan.

Who else has been through that and which two stories created this dichotomy?

 

[StillStunned]

Lily in the Springtime was my most-viewed story when I published it. Thousands of views and dozens of ratings within the first twelve hours. The red H made its appearance within the first hour.

I immediately set about writing a sequel. Lily in the Stream was published three days later and... nothing.

 

[Becky_Sapphire]

I've got a story published a few months ago that still hasn't reached 10 votes. It is about a nose fetish so guess that may not have the widest audience, who knew!

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Her First Foot Boy : A mindless stroker I tossed off to break my writer's block. So I thought. 15 favorites 6.9k views 4.84 / 45 stars
Snowed In with a Predator : A story I sweated over, with some depth and plot and character! So I thought. 6 favorites 3.1k views 4.58 / 19 stars

Womp womp.

 

[StillStunned]

It is about a nose fetish

A good nose fetish is nothing to be sneezed at.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

After one year:

1990
812 views
515 votes
19 comments
4.84 rating

Comparing that to my latest submission after one week:
1157 views
48 votes
10 comments
4.58 rating

 

[Bazzle]

I think it really depends on where your story appears in the new list, plus how many followers you have?

 

[HordHolm]

A good nose fetish is nothing to be sneezed at.

Maybe people got sniffy about it...

 

[Becky_Sapphire]

A good nose fetish is nothing to be sneezed at.

Though it didn't seem to 'blow' the readers away...

 

[SimonDoom]

Goodness, yes, I know what this is like.

I wrote my all-time most popular story (popular in the sense of most views and most favorites) way back in 2017 when I'd only been writing here for under six months. The idea for the story popped into my head, I wrote and finished and submitted it in a week, and BAM! it rose to the top of the 30-day Literotica list. It was on top of the 12-month most-viewed list for 2 months. It's now in the top 70 of most favorited stories all time. I thought to myself that I had this all figured out.

I've never come close to duplicating that success since, although I can't complain about the reception my stories have had. It was like lightning in a bottle, and I haven't recaptured it since.

 

[mirafrida]

I wrote a story in the style of epic verse last year (at least that's the style I intended, sort of Sir Walter Scott like maybe).
But past experience told me zero people want to read that. So then I rewrote the exact same story as prose, and simul-published them.

The prose has 33000k views, 33 favorites, 21 comments and 90 votes
The poem (which I was personally much more excited to write, and took way more work) has 600 views, 1 fav, 0 comments and 3 votes

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

at least I was expecting it this time around

 

[MillieDynamite]

That's sort of every story ever for me.

 

[StillStunned]

I wrote a story in the style of epic verse last year (at least that's the style I intended, sort of Sir Walter Scott like maybe).
But past experience told me zero people want to read that. So then I rewrote the exact same story as prose, and simul-published them.

The prose has 33000k views, 33 favorites, 21 comments and 90 votes
The poem (which I was personally much more excited to write, and took way more work) has 600 views, 1 fav, 0 comments and 3 votes

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

at least I was expecting it this time around

The "literary" stuff doesn't do well here, in my experience. The Countesses of Tannensdal has 1.8k views after three months. Life and Death of the She-Wolf has 700 views after a month. The few people who read them liked them, but they just don't get bums on seats, so to speak.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

I've got a story published a few months ago that still hasn't reached 10 votes. It is about a nose fetish so guess that may not have the widest audience, who knew!

Or…who nose?



I’ll get me coat

 

[MillieDynamite]

Where did you post the stories?

 

[Emilymcplugger]

Where did you post the stories?

Both in GROUP. Funny part is that CARRY ON CRUISING was written as a bit of fun and smashed expectations with views and likes, whereas THERE’S A LOT OF ME ABOUT didnt.

There are no big whines about it but TALOMA was a slightly more personal story as it was loosely auto-biographical.

I’m aiming for something in between that with my next story HORNMANJI.

 

[MillieDynamite]

When you post the names of your stories, @Emilymcplugger, you know that those should be links.

Both in GROUP. Funny part is that CARRY ON CRUISING was written as a bit of fun and smashed expectations with views and likes, whereas THERE’S A LOT OF ME ABOUT didnt.

There are no big whines about it but TALOMA was a slightly more personal story as it was loosely auto-biographical.

I’m aiming for something in between that with my next story HORNMANJI.

 

[Trionyx]

Happens all the time. A story I feel is great does so-so and one I think is so-so skyrockets. Just be happy for those well received.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

Happens all the time. A story I feel is great does so-so and one I think is so-so skyrockets. Just be happy for those well received.

Not a complaint, merely an observation so we can have a chat.

 

[KeithD]

I'm already well into my next story when the previous one posts here. I'm often surprised that the previous one isn't getting as good a reception as I thought it would. But that's a "so what?" I'm already working on the next one.

 

[samhasstories]

I've had varying levels of engagement in my stories, and I wish I knew how to repeat the high points. But honestly, even the low-ish numbers are higher than I ever would have guessed I'd get posting this stuff. The high ones are just absurd (though I'm sure they don't compare to some of the pros on here). I try to keep that perspective in mind when I get one that doesn't quite hit those levels.

 

[u1u1u1]

I've had varying levels of engagement in my stories, and I wish I knew how to repeat the high points. But honestly, even the low-ish numbers are higher than I ever would have guessed I'd get posting this stuff. The high ones are just absurd (though I'm sure they don't compare to some of the pros on here). I try to keep that perspective in mind when I get one that doesn't quite hit those levels.

My lowest-viewed story on here has three times as many views as my most popular story on ao3 - and I was writing for one of the more popular fandoms.

My most popular stories have ten times as many views again.

In my most recent trilogy, parts 1 and 3 are Hot. Part 2 doesn't have as many views and is rated a little over 4/5 - can't complain but I'm not sure why it did worse.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Both in GROUP.

There's your problem, right there. I've written into eighteen different categories, and Group was the least responsive by a very wide margin. Very low Votes per View, and forget about comments, they're even more rare. I'll never post there again. It's a tumbleweeds category, for me.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I think everything I've written by reception is mid at best. Falling In Love With Mom seemed to take off and get a few red Hs, but they're all bare minimum voted red Hs at 4.50-55. I had gotten to finishing and posting one or two new chapters of an already [old old] existing story afterwards, and those chapters reception were no better than the ones before them.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I think everything I've written by reception is mid at best. Falling In Love With Mom seemed to take off and get a few red Hs, but they're all bare minimum voted red Hs at 4.50-55. I had gotten to finishing and posting one or two new chapters of an already [old old] existing story afterwards, and those chapters reception were no better than the ones before them.

My names M. K. Babalon, and the M stands for Mediocre.