Other story sites

[Cruel2BKind]

I've been looking into other story sites. But I've run into a problem


I'm just so fucking spoiled by literotica.

Every site I find either seems counterintuitive, badly run, not a proper feedback system, or some other problem. All of the interfaces seem tacky and unintuitive. I NEED a good feedback system, because otherwise, what is the point? Registration is too hard, or they don't have a GM category. Or the site is just for fanfic. I keep running into PROBLEMS.

So today's question, are there any other story sites that even come close to being as good as lit?

[Boxlicker101]

Originally Posted by Cruel2BKind

I've been looking into other story sites. But I've run into a problem


I'm just so fucking spoiled by literotica.

Every site I find either seems counterintuitive, badly run, not a proper feedback system, or some other problem. All of the interfaces seem tacky and unintuitive. I NEED a good feedback system, because otherwise, what is the point? Registration is too hard, or they don't have a GM category. Or the site is just for fanfic. I keep running into PROBLEMS.

So today's question, are there any other story sites that even come close to being as good as lit?

I've never seen one as good. I send stories now and then to a ponygirl site and to a bestiality site, although I haven't sent one to the latter for a long time. These are both quite specialized. The latter accepts anything and has no quality control at all, but the former does reject some stories. They turned down one of mine because it was all about sex and almost no ponygirl.

I've seen some others - Kirsten's for one, and ;robably some others. I like the Authors' Hangout here and the feedback that I get and the contests and prefer pretty much everything about Lit. over the others.

[sr71plt]

Might note that there's an explict forum rule (#6) against promoting other story sites on this forum. Think about it. Why would they want their business to be used to drum up business for competing businesses?

[Darkniciad]

Every site has its issues.

One I post on has no public feedback, but a far better search and faster posting. Another has public feedback and faster posting, but it concentrates a lot on being a sort of adult social network. One has very few content rules, and one has stricter ones than Lit.

And if you think you're going to find one that even remotely has the readership numbers of Lit, it ain't happening.

Everything's a trade-off. The only way you're going to find a site that perfectly suits your needs is to create it yourself.

[sr71plt]

Originally Posted by Darkniciad

Everything's a trade-off. The only way you're going to find a site that perfectly suits your needs is to create it yourself.

And then you aren't likely to get many readers to either find it or stick with it if they do.

[johneb87]

I've gotten a few comments from readers suggesting that I post my my stories on some other erotic story sites. I check them out and they have the same issues listed above; bad design, no feedback system, low readership, and no content rules. Not to mention that according to the FAQ, Lit will help enforce the copyright if needed. I don't know if anyone has had luck with that, but it's something no other site offers. In the end, I don't think any site has the library and community like Lit.

"I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite erotic story site on the internet."

[Handley_Page]

Originally Posted by Cruel2BKind

I've been looking into other story sites. But I've run into a problem


I'm just so fucking spoiled by literotica.

Every site I find either seems counterintuitive, badly run, not a proper feedback system, or some other problem. All of the interfaces seem tacky and unintuitive.

So today's question is: Are there any other story sites that even come close to being as good as lit?

Frankly - No.
Other site I have seen have childish writing, bad layout and about as erotic as a dead slug.

[Cruel2BKind]

Thanks everybody. I was just wondering.

I'm just worried about the day when this site doesn't work anymore.

[mikey2much]

Literotica is the best and second place is so far back that you can't see them.
SOL comes the closest but they are still so far below Lit that you can't compare them.

The forum alone makes Literotica the best, but when you add the numbers of readers and the feedback system, lit really shines.

I have been known to bitch about some of the rules that I think should be changed, but overall I feel that this is the best site.

[Darkniciad]

Originally Posted by Cruel2BKind

Thanks everybody. I was just wondering.

I'm just worried about the day when this site doesn't work anymore.

If you're worried about that, diversify now with the sites you consider to be your best alternatives. You'll pick up new feedback now ( even if it's not much ) and you'll already be established if Lit does go down for some reason in the future.

If you spread your existing stories out a little as you post to a new site, you can also establish yourself quickly through putting your name out there on a regular basis.

Google "Erotic Story Site" or something, look at the top results, then put them in an Alexa comparison. The ones that are worth bothering with are all on about an even keel right now.

As for Lit...



Those are the top google results ( that even registered a blip on the traffic radar ) with Lit at 3-6x the traffic.

As an aside, this flies in the face of the oft-espoused opinion that the views on our stories here are about twice as high as reality. In most cases ( other than incest or loving wives ) I've found that my views fall reasonably in line with that 3-6x traffic ratio -- high end and up, of course.

Certainly nothing resembling the "50% of your views are just bots" opinion many seem to have. If I had to put a number on it when comparing across three sites I'd put it closer to 25% of the views as bot hits -- and that's a direct comparison ignoring that the other sites require membership at least to vote, and in some cases, even read complete stories.

Lit ranks in about the same place as an above average live nude chat site, for a comparison to other pr0n. And if you put them up against one of the free video sites... Yeah, live chat and erotic stories aren't even a blip on the radar compared to that.

[topace]

Have you checked out my adult hangout yet? It's got a story archive.

Link's in the sig.

[sr71plt]

Originally Posted by Cruel2BKind

Thanks everybody. I was just wondering.

I'm just worried about the day when this site doesn't work anymore.

I have stories on other sites too for that reason. The main site I first posted to went down for several weeks and my main reason for posting the stories was to have them archived someplace else other than in my computer. So I started double posting to sites (which is how I started here) for the reason you cite. Now I am only posting here, though, because I don't post anything for free anymore (other than a few contest entries) that I don't already have in published form in the marketplace.

[Darkniciad]

Just brought up an Alexa comparison again, and that chart is from a low point. Earlier in 2011 and again recently, Lit's share of the erotic story market is actually closer to 4-8x any other site.

[lovecraft68]

SOL (and no I don't mean shit out of luck) is the big name I hear aside from Lit. Pennlady sent me a link to her page one time and I couldn't make heads or tails out of the stats and neither could she.

They have 24 hour turn around time and some other benefits, but not as much readership.

I really have no desire to post anywhere else. Lately most of my work is going up for sale and if something happened here, I don't think I would bother pursuing another venue.

But as I said, SOL seems to have a pretty decent rep.

[Stella_Omega]

It's perfectly okay to give a link; http://storiesonline.net/

[Cruel2BKind]

Originally Posted by lovecraft68

SOL (and no I don't mean shit out of luck) is the big name I hear aside from Lit. Pennlady sent me a link to her page one time and I couldn't make heads or tails out of the stats and neither could she.

They have 24 hour turn around time and some other benefits, but not as much readership.

I really have no desire to post anywhere else. Lately most of my work is going up for sale and if something happened here, I don't think I would bother pursuing another venue.

But as I said, SOL seems to have a pretty decent rep.

Originally Posted by Stella_Omega

It's perfectly okay to give a link; http://storiesonline.net/

I checked out stories online after mikey mentioned it in another thread. No GM category. Is there a way to get around that? Does SOL have a very good tagging system, and could I get around it by liberal usage of spoilers? How is the feedback?

[Stella_Omega]

What they call categories seem to function more like tags. You can combine cats to whittle down your search.
http://storiesonline.net/library/categories.php

There's a whole list of gender/orientation possibilities.

Not a bad way to do it!

I know nothing about anything else on that site, myself.

[Darkniciad]

There are no categories at all there. Everyone goes by tags, and you're expected to tag your stories appropriately. A lot of people shy away from stories left untagged to avoid "spoilers" for readers.

The feedback isn't bad, especially when you first start out. They like to encourage new authors with lots of feedback. Much of it tends to be on the constructive and useful side as well. Very few nasty comments at all, unless you don't tag something you should.

The readership seems to be dropping in the last couple of years, and thus the feedback.

Stand warned that the site is even more heavily biased toward long, serialized stories than here. One shots struggle to make their version of the toplists, which generate a great deal more readership than the toplists do here. A story that has almost dropped off and gets the 50th vote/score bump/download count to make the toplist can suddenly surge quite remarkably.

It's still a drop in the bucket compared to Lit's readership, though.

The displayed score is calculated through a formula, and pretty much baffles everyone. You can see your real score on your author page, but nobody else can. Downloads on multi-chapter stories are also calculated with a baffling formula, which contributes to the bias for those stories by increasing the download count for them in comparision to an indentical story submitted as a one-shot. Again, you can see real numbers per chapter, but the public sees the mathmatical ju-jitsu, and that number is used for the toplists.

All in all, it's not a bad site. Quick posting. Excellent author tools. Almost zero content restrictions ( which may actually scare you ) It's a good second site, especially for stories that Lit won't accept like teen romance.

[scouries]

SOL vs LITEROTICA

darkboy has highlighted some of the differences and strengths of both sites.

Quick publishing (under a day on SOL) is great.

I like the SOL “no category” approach because it allows you to surprise the reader from time to time. Of course a technique that it is probably advisable to use sparingly.

And SOL allows you to to give your characters a believable sexual history without being rejected. LITEROTICA’S no under 18 sex rule may protect LAUREL from prosecution but it also produces a huge number of stories with implausible plot lines.

VIEWS as reported by the two sites are dramatically different – LITEROTICA’S are significantly higher. Mind you it has never defined what a view is and apparently never will. Most people believe LITEROTICA’S numbers are artificially inflated to attract authors. Nevertheless I think its fair to say more people will open your story on LIT than on SOL.

Strangely, vote and comment number percentages on the two sites are vastly different. Viewers on SOL are ten times more likely to vote and comment than LITEROTICA viewers are (which reinforces the belief that LIT’S numbers are inflated by the site).

You also don’t seem to get the nut case comments and the hate on SOL that you do here. Not sure why.

You do have to log-in on SOL to read a story which is a pain in the butt.

The top lists on SOL are hopeless - even worse than the chapter dominated LIT ones.

One thing no one has mentioned is that it’s much easier to read stories on SOL (at least for me – others may disagree) simply because of the presentation format. I’ve suggested in the past that MANUU work on this but never got a satisfactory response. Here’s the ssame story compared on the two sites:

LITEROTICA StangStar

SOL Stang Star

They are both excellent sites and I’d suggest that other authors use both of them.

[Darkniciad]

Long term, the toplists are hopeless. They're utterly dominated by multi-chapter stories or near-flash-fiction from way-back-when.

Short term, a good title, synopsis, and proper tagging on top of a good story once you've roped a reader in can land you on either the score or download toplists for the last 30 days. I hit them about 75% of the time, and depending upon how quickly you make it, it can boost your downloads and votes by 50-100%. The effect typically lasts for as long as you stay on the list, though slowly diminishing.

The higher you make it on either list can boost you even more. For the download list, that's a self-feeding cycle. It draws attention, people open the story, and you rise higher. On the score list, it's more difficult, because the range is tight and it doesn't take may 8 votes ( out of 10 ) to knock you down.

It's a max of 30 days on that list, though. After that, you're back into obscurity behind the epics.

[NaokoSmith]

Originally Posted by Cruel2BKind

today's question, are there any other story sites that even come close to being as good as lit?

I wrote a blogpost comparing my own experience on some other e publishing sites which I've just transferred to a new blog I'm trying out about writing erotica. It's aimed at (other!) virginal writers so may make you yawn but any feedback left in comments on it or to me direct gratefully received.

http://feministeroticawriters.blogsp...hot-stuff.html

[topace]

No comments on my site?

Got more than a story archive there to boot.

[TE999]

I post non-Erotic stories on SOL. Lit's Da Bomb for posting erotic stories, though.

I've checked out some of the 'erotica' on SOL and it's not as polished plus they allow under 18 y/o sex stories and that stuff weirds me out.

[sr71plt]

I read that she's looking for one with a GM. I know of a couple of sites, but the feedback is indifferent. I really think that's a given with GM.